U.S envoy in global war against human trafficking visits Madagascar and South Africa to address the crime
The United States’ Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Cindy Dyer, is embarking on a ten-day tour of two African Countries, the Madagascar Island and South Africa.
The Envoy Dyer mission starts in Madagascar where she travels from November 13 to 16.
Afterwards, Cindy Dyer will be flying to South Africa from the 17th all the way to 21st of November 2024.
Ambassador Dyer will be meeting with government officials in both countries to discuss efforts to combat human trafficking and strengthen the United States’ cooperation and partnership on the important issue.
The envoy will also encourage progress on victim identification and referral efforts, screening of vulnerable populations for human trafficking indicators, and increasing efforts to hold traffickers accountable.
During her itinerary in Africa, Ambassador Dyer will meet with civil society and international organizations to discuss anti-trafficking efforts and ongoing challenges in these countries and share information from our own efforts and research.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) describes Human Trafficking as the act of recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them for profit.
According to UNODC, Men, women and children of all ages and from all backgrounds can become victims of Human Trafficking crime, which occurs in every region of the world.
The traffickers often use violence or fraudulent employment agencies and fake promises of education and job opportunities to trick and coerce their victims.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s Report reveals that 79 percent of human trafficking is usually for sexual exploitation. The victims of sexual exploitation are predominantly women and girls.
Surprisingly, in 30 percent of the countries which provided information on the gender of traffickers, women make up the largest proportion of traffickers. In some parts of the world, women trafficking women is the norm.
The second most common form of human trafficking is forced labour at 18 percent, although this may be a misrepresentation because forced labour is less frequently detected and reported than trafficking for sexual exploitation.
Worldwide, almost 20 percent of all trafficking victims are children.
However, in some parts of Africa and the Mekong region, children are the majority, for instance in West Africa the minors make up to 100 percent of the victims.
Tanzania has meanwhile been awarded the tier 2 ranking in the 2024 U.S Global Status Report on Human Trafficking, recognizing the country’s ongoing strategies to combat the crime.