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PROMINENT businessmen and advocates are involved in the human trafficking trade, with at least 60 cases reported in one year.

According to two senior Hawks officials, human trafficking is "extremely rife". "There are very strange things happening and high-profile professionals from South Africa and abroad are involved in human trafficking in this country. It is a lot bigger than people think."

In one case being investigated, Svetlana (not her real name), who is from Eastern Europe, worked in several brothels in Europe and Cape Town, often forced to perform sexual acts against |her will.

Officials have established that there are three types of trafficking in South Africa: from an international destination; to and from local destinations; and trafficking for cheap labour. Human trafficking is now third on the list of priority organised crimes.

A local case involved a prominent 70-year-old Cape Town businessman who used young girls for sex in return for paying their school fees - a form of debt bondage. His youngest victim was 12.

"Debt bondage" is one of the payment terms used in the trafficking trade. The work arrangements for trafficking victims usually involve low payment or being paid on highly exploitative terms.

International victims' passports are confiscated as soon as they arrive, and they are held against their will. Victims are also commonly forced to take drugs until they are hooked, and pay for their drugs through prostitution.

"Most girls come under the impression that they are going to work in businesses like massage parlours, clothing shops and restaurants. They are promised good salaries, but we must understand that for a girl from rural China, earning R2 000 in South Africa is like heaven," a source said.

Between June 2010 and June this year, 60 cases were reported to the Hawks. A total of 30 are still being investigated with 15 cases currently in the courts. The remaining cases were not pursued as the women were too afraid to press charges or just wanted to get back home. "The girls are intimidated. The bosses entertain top officials in their homes or their clubs, people with positions in society, so the girls are under the impression that if they complain nothing will happen."

Assisting the Hawks is the city's Vice Squad which has rescued 15 women from trafficking rings since December, while a further nine sex workers approached the squad for help in leaving the trade.

Vice Squad assistant chief Nathan Ladegourdie said they also reunited five children under the age of 16 with their families. The trafficking hot spots are the city centre, Milnerton, Goodwood, Claremont, Brooklyn, Macassar and Bellville. "The Vice Squad has uncovered numerous sexual offences since its inception, especially contraventions within brothels and residential areas," Ladegourdie said.

The women working in strip clubs and brothels were from countries like Cambodia, China, Ukraine and Taiwan as well as Swaziland and Lesotho. In one case the Hawks said an advocate working at the Western Cape High Court was in possession of one victim's passport. Some of the men who run trafficking rings in South Africa are from China, Bulgaria, Russia and Italy. One of the people involved is also a |former local policeman.

According to a victim and the Hawks, the women are brought into the country on tourist visas, which are then replaced by asylum papers.

Another key aid in the success of human trafficking is corporate permits, which can be easily acquired from Home Affairs. Corporate permits are meant to be used for professionals working in specialised fields who are needed in South Africa. The system was scrapped last year, but the permits are valid for five years.

One local strip club had 70 corporate permits, and the source said: "Those permits had to be one of the biggest contributors to the sex industry's growth, it was the backbone of human trafficking."

While the Hawks believe they are making strides in combating the crime, they say the fact that there is no |specific law against human trafficking makes it difficult to define offences and prosecute effectively.

zara.nicholson@inl.co.za