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| Loren Landau, Dir of FMSP, Wits Univ, South Africa |
The article titled SA Report: World Cup Human Trafficking Warnings Exaggerated speaks for itself. But if the estimated 40,000 is too high, just how many people are being trafficked?
Loren Landau (Prof.) is the Director of the Forced Migration Studies Programme (FMSP) at Wits University in Johannesburg, South Africa. Mr. Landau seems to think exaggerating the issue leads to criminalizing people who should be protected. I always thought it was the other way around, but to get a clearer perspective on the topic at hand I've emailed Mr. Landau about one of his comments in the article.
The comment had to do with conclusions about human trafficking during the 2006 World Cup in Germany - a country whose human trafficking laws are more established and concrete than South Africa's, but where prostitution is legal.
On the Prostitution in Germany Wikipedia page, its clear that the German Federal Police Office BKA reported in 2006 a total of 357 completed investigations of human trafficking, with 775 victims. 35% German citizens born in Germany and 8% were German citizens born outside of Germany. These number dropped the next year in 2007 to a total of 689 known victims of human trafficking.
With that information alone, I believe 5 is virtually impossible to conclude, but you'll have to wait to find out what Mr. Landau thinks in his response.
As far as the inflated 40,000 victims, I'm glad it got someone's attention!
Landau says if migration to South Africa was made easier and sex-work decriminalized it would greatly reduce the opportunities to exploit foreigners and ensure that in time they are able to contribute more to the economy. - VAO News
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