On Sunday April 5, the discovery of a missing 15-year-old en route to join the Islamic State (IS) religious extremist group made headlines in local newspapers.
As a result, attention has turned towards Islamic fundamentalism and how it has affected South Africans.
But the main issue here is not IS’s influence over Muslims in a South African context, or even religious groups, but concern over children’s rights and the abuse of their vulnerability for political motives.
On April 14 last year more than 100 girls were abducted from Chibok, in Nigeria, by the Boko Haram Islamist militia.
Most of these girls have still not been returned to their families, but are suspected to have been forced into marriage.
Unlike the girls in Chibok, the 15-year-old in Cape Town was recruited and lured into leaving her home to fulfil a “romanticised” idea of joining IS.
While IS is often aligned with fundamentalist attacks and human rights abuses, reports of this incident often failed to mention that children such as this 15-year-old have become targets for recruitment and indoctrination, leading to some form of exploitation to advance religious and political motives.
What is most alarming is that children have become pawns or commodities and are very often used in bargaining where socio-economic, political and religious conflicts exist.
The abduction and recruitment of children under false pretences shows how easily their vulnerability can be abused.
The result is invariably exploitation of some sort, whether it involves joining a militia as a child soldier in conflict situations, being forced into an early marriage, being engaged in forced labour, or being sexually exploited for commercial gain.
Although the 15-year-old Capetonian girl was rescued, this could have ended up as a potential child trafficking case.
Many reports have highlighted how disillusioned teenagers are often lured via social networking sites to join IS’s “perfect” Islamic state where religious ideals can be fulfilled.
But the reality is that, on arrival, most are forced into marriages and military training.
One could argue that this young girl gave her consent.
However, child trafficking, by legal definition, is the movement of children for the purpose of exploitation.
In this regard, consent is not a prerequisite for a minor (Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons Act, 2013).
With this in mind, the reality in South Africa is that unfortunately many instances of child trafficking go unreported and undetected.
According to Lexis Nexus, 76 cases of suspected trafficking, of which only 17 involved children, have been reported since December last year.
If we are not aware of the crime, then we will not define and report it as such.
Although the details of the case of the teenager are yet to be interrogated fully, what does emerge is that, despite the fact that the 15-year-old consented to travelling abroad to join IS, she was vulnerable as an unaccompanied minor who was recruited and lured – most probably under false pretences – leading to exploitative practices.
Both the amended Children’s Act (2005) and the Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons Act (which is yet to be implemented) make provision for measures to be put in place to protect children and prosecute crimes of exploitation committed against them.
The recent amendment to the Immigration Act, which will only be fully implemented in July, requires all minors travelling across borders, to have proof of permission from parents or guardians.
In the case of the Capetonian teenager, this possibly helped the relevant officials in detecting that the unaccompanied minor lacked such permission and documentation – thus saving her.
The unfortunate reality is that despite their vulnerability many children are moved across borders and internally within South Africa with little or no detection.
The amended legislation should help to minimise the risks of moving minors across borders.
However, children will remain vulnerable to being moved within the country and thus exploited.
Civil society and government stakeholders will need to be trained to identify, report and refer trafficking-related cases properly.
Most importantly, beyond training, this incident and many unreported ones highlight that the onus must be on parents, guardians and families to ensure that children are protected and to minimise their vulnerability.
Responsibility for this starts in the home.
We have become a relationship-deprived society and often use technology as a means of communication within the family unit.
In this regard, children often turn to social networking sites and other such forms of technology to build and establish relationships, leaving them vulnerable to a host of predators.
Legislation alone cannot, unfortunately, be a panacea for preventing the exploitation of children.
Guardians and caregivers have a duty to ensure that we are monitoring our children’s involvement in social networks and informing them of the dangers of falling prey to child trafficking.
* Mwamuka is a counter-trafficking co-ordinator at Anex (Activists Networking Against the Exploitation of Children)