‘Rise in forced labour expected amid the Covid-19 economic crisis’ 20 June 2020

Against the backdrop of South Africa’s poor economic prognosis, the practice of forced labour is set to rise in the coming months and years. The Covid-19 pandemic has only made matters worse.  Forced labour is a type of human trafficking, defined under the Prevention and Combatting of Trafficking in Persons Act. Other types of human trafficking under this Act include sex trafficking, forced marriages and domestic servitude. Under the Act, forced labour, which exclusively affects the most poor and vulnerable, is defined as: “Labour or services of a person obtained or maintained (a) without the consent of that person; and (b) through threats or perceived threats of harm, the use of force, intimidation or other forms of coercion, or physical restraint to that person or another person.”

The United States Trafficking In Persons Report (2019) has listed South Africa as a source, transit and destination country. This means that victims are sourced from South Africa, moved around and through South Africa and also exploited right here. The covert and ever-changing nature of the crime makes it hard to quantify and extremely tricky to detect. Even though credible statistics are in short supply,  the recruitment practices of traffickers seem to follow a fairly similar pattern.  Recruiters prey on vulnerability, and in South Africa this often presents as economic desperation, low levels of education and poor implementation of migrant rights. 

Within the context of Covid-19, rising employer distress and new economic vulnerability has exposed people to a greater risk of being fraudulently recruited and coerced into labour and traffickers may be in a position to expand their operations.  It is imperative, now more than ever, that policymakers respond to the growing crisis of forced labour. In the long run, prevention is the best cure. Prevention for a crime of this nature is best addressed through diminishing the structural drivers or root causes that make people vulnerable to being coerced by traffickers. These include poverty, barriers to education, slow economic growth and structural unemployment.