Human Trafficking Awareness Radio PSAs

The programme involved production of 5 sets of radio PSAs in Portuguese to encourage Mozambicans considering travel for work purposes to exercise caution and get the facts before leaving. Distributed via community radio stations and children's programmes, the spots were designed to encourage people to think about where they are going, learn about potential risks of working abroad, and contact the IOM for more information.

Specifically, each PSA consists of a short mini-drama, accompanied by the tag line "Get the facts before you go!" - with an announcer explaining human trafficking and encouraging people to contact the IOM in Maputo. "In the PSAs promises of a waitress job, a modeling opportunity and a chance to go to school all turn out to be false promises when the reality is sexual exploitation. A domestic worker is required to have sex with her boss, and a young farm worker returns to Mozambique without his promised pay."

The PSAs were developed in a participatory process with Mozambican youth living in Johannesburg. Representatives from the IOM held an information session for the group about human trafficking, explaining how it happens as well as its complicated causes and effects. The group explored the issue of trafficking through discussions and role play. The scripts were written, voiced by the group, and produced as PSAs. The participants were also encouraged to raise awareness about human trafficking with their peers and communities.

Women, Youth, Children.

Human trafficking has been referred to as modern day slavery. Those who find themselves at the mercy of traffickers end up in bonded work, domestic servitude, and forced prostitution. Although the global scale of human trafficking is difficult to quantify, IOM estimates that as many as 800,000 people may be trafficked across international borders annually, with many more trafficked within the borders of their own country. In its 2003 report "Seduction, Sale and Slavery: Trafficking in Women and Children for Sexual Exploitation in Southern Africa", IOM identified Mozambique as one of the key source countries for women and children trafficked to South Africa.

SACTAP works in Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It undertakes in-depth research and data collection, capacity building, awareness and information raising, and provision of direct assistance to victims of trafficking. For example, through capacity building, SACTAP forges partnerships with key stakeholders such as the government and civil society organisations (CSOs) in a bid to equip them with information and skills that enable appropriate responses to human trafficking. SACTAP's research report titled "No Experience Necessary" makes a case for developing preventative initiatives which will minimize the level of vulnerability, especially in women. One such initiative is SACTAP's Economic Stabilization project, which reaches out to young women between the ages of 16-30. In partnership with government and CSOs, the project offers assistance to beneficiaries to establish sustainable income-generating activities. The women take part in training to equip them with skills such as business management and bookkeeping, all of which prepare them to manage their small businesses. Beneficiaries are then assisted to set up their small business to ensure that they have a sustainable alternative to support themselves and their families. This pilot project is reaching out to 3 of the economically poorest provinces in South Africa: Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga, and Limpopo.

IOM has been working to counter the trafficking in persons since 1994. In this time (through to May 2009), IOM has implemented almost 500 projects in 85 countries, and has provided assistance to approximately 15,000 trafficked persons. IOM's primary aims are to prevent trafficking in persons and to protect victims of the trade while offering them options of safe and sustainable reintegration and/or return to their home countries.