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2021 - Volume 5 - Number 2

Forced Labor Exploitation: Illegal Trading in Protected Goods in the Southern African Countries

Godfrey Thenga * tshabg@unisa.ac.za * ORCID: 0000-0003-4557-8271 * ResearcherID: AAG-5403-2020
University of South Africa, College of Law, Pretoria, SOUTH AFRICA

Open Journal for Sociological Studies, 2021, 5(2), 81-94 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.32591/coas.ojss.0502.04081t
Received: 5 August 2021 ▪ Accepted: 10 November 2021 ▪ Published Online: 28 December 2021

LICENCE: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

ARTICLE (Full Text - PDF)

ABSTRACT:
Human exploitation refers to the curtailment of fundamental human rights. The crime plays out notwithstanding the laws that criminalizes human abuses. This study explored the policing of human trafficking and forced labor in the Southern African countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and assesses the capabilities and abilities of law enforcement agencies in the region to curb the scourge. In this study a qualitative perspective was adopted with use of literature study and interviews. The prevalence of organized criminal groupings exacerbates the problem of human trafficking and forced labor in the region. Law enforcement corruption is rife as the police are often accused of acts of receiving bribes. There are capacity constraints in the policing agencies across the region which impacts negatively on proactive enforcement of protected goods. The study reveals that respective law enforcement agencies work in seclusion and do not systematize their databases to share information with other agencies owing to a prevailing cynicism amongst countries. It is proposed that there should be harmonization of law enforcement agencies’ databases to share information for intelligence purposes and to develop defensive and responsive response mechanisms to thwart the crime.

KEY WORDS: human trafficking, smuggling, forced labor, corruption, human rights, organized crime, protected goods.

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR:
Godfrey Thenga, University of South Africa, College of Law, Pretoria, SOUTH AFRICA. E-mail: tshabg@unisa.ac.za.

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