Facebook (South African National Human Trafficking Hotline)
International human traffickers target young South Africans, especially men, who are desperate to improve their situations but cannot find jobs at home.
According to the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (qlfs), South Africa’s official unemployment rate stood at 31.9% in the fourth quarter of 2024.
The expanded unemployment rate, which includes discouraged workers no longer actively looking for work, was 41.9%.
Emma van der Walt, CEO of Brave to Love, an NGO that fights human trafficking and who was working with South African authorities to rescue 23 young South Africans from forced labour in Myanmar, says the recruiters target mostly young men under the age of 35 from all over South Africa.
According to the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco), the 23 South Africans were among 7,000 other individuals from various countries.
Van der Walt was speaking at an event hosted by the National Press Club. She said the criminal syndicates are highly organised.
In online advertisements, they promise a monthly salary of R15 000, food and accommodation, and generous travel benefits.
The only requirements are that recruits can speak English and are computer-literate.
“They have a very efficient ‘human resource’ department that will contact the recruit and do an online interview. If the person has a passport, he can be on a flight out of the country within three days, thinking he is going to a legitimate job in Thailand,” says Van der Walt.
Sometimes, the “HR department” even provides the recruit with R500 cash for stopovers.
In Bangkok, the recruit is typically met by someone with his name on a signboard and accompanied by two immigration officials.
He is then taken to another level, where he gets into transport and travels 8-9 hours before being put up in a shabby hotel.
The recruit has no idea where he is and cannot understand what the people around him are saying.
After a few hours, he is picked up and transported to a boat to cross a river. This is an illegal crossing into neighbouring Myanmar. During the rest of the journey, cars are changed a few times before their arrival at a military compound, where thousands of people from all over the world are forced to engage in online scamming, luring scam victims from sites like Facebook and dating sites.
They are kept under armed guard.
Far from R15 000 per month, they get paid R2 500 per month, which is not enough to send money home or to arrange their own transport home.
According to Dirco, they were forced to work up to 16 hours per day “and were frequently beaten or tortured if they refused, and they survived on spoiled food and contaminated water without access to medical treatment”.
Again, Van der Walt says the syndicate is highly organised. The recruits sleep in dormitories where they have to share beds and get three meals a day. They get “employment contracts” to sign and can resign, but then they must pay between R30 000 and R50 000 to get out.
It is a matter of debt bondage, Van der Walt says, and the recruits are even more vulnerable if their visas have expired.
She says the South Africans she had contact with are scared. “They have heard of other South Africans who have escaped but landed up in Thai prisons.”
Some South African females’ families paid for their freedom, but they subsequently found themselves in Thailand as illegal immigrants and were eventually deported without any social support.
The 23 South Africans came home after the authorities in Myanmar raided the compound.
She explains that it is a complex situation where some victims don’t even realise that they are victims of psychological entrapment, intimidation and control.
“Some have been there for so long, they become recruiters.” She says that after some time, victims adapt to survive. “It is trauma bonding to reduce the abuse.”
After the recent raid, the authorities asked every potential victim whether they wanted to leave and separated the two groups. She is aware of some Zimbabwean victims who preferred to stay “because they can at least send R2 500 to their child in Zimbabwe.” Four Namibians who went there via South Africa asked for help.
What makes it difficult to repatriate a group of victims is that all their transport costs must be paid at the same time, and they have only one or two days to get out of Thailand.
The release of the 23 victims came after Van der Walt registered a human trafficking case, and the Hawks, South African Police Service’s Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences unit, Dirco and the Department of Social Development became involved.
She says she is in contact with another South African who is still in the compound and that there are definitely more, although it is unclear how many.
Van der Walt warns young people to verify any overseas job offers. Such scams are not limited to countries like Thailand and China.
If unsure, they can call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 0800 222 777.
Dirco also advises South Africans travelling abroad to register on its Travel Smart Application. This digital platform provides support and information to South African citizens travelling or residing in foreign countries.
This story first appeared in Moneyweb
