Her scream is stifled as she is snatched outside school, disappearing for days until her body is found dumped in the veld.
The threat is real – but,
says child safety organisation Child Safety, many parents are ignorant or in denial of the full scope of the danger.
“This is one of the biggest hurdles we face. Parents simply do not believe that it will happen to them or their children,” says Child Trace spokeswoman, Zwanga Mulovhedzi.
Child Trace,
which runs awareness campaigns on human trafficking at schools across the country, has now embarked on a groundbreaking child identification initiative.
Not only is Child Trace trying to ensure the safety of the country’s children, the organisation is trying to increase SA’s success rate in ensuring the safe return of abducted youngsters.
The initiative involves the most accurate form of biometrics identification – iris identification.
It is through this form of identification – which involves using a specialised camera to take a picture of a child’s iris – says Child Trace that trafficking will be dealt its biggest blow yet.
Mulovhedzi says the technology “is even more accurate than fingerprinting”.
“This type of technology is vital especially in South Africa as there is no form of ‘positive’ identification for children under the age of 16, who only have a birth certificate to identify them until that age.
“This makes children exceptionally vulnerable to abduction and trafficking.
“Our aim is to roll this technology out to all of the country’s schools.
“Already we have a buy-in from the Gauteng provincial government where we are capturing images of children’s irises across the province.
“The images are stored on a highly secure database which, when a child is found, can be accessed to check if the child is a missing child.
“With the setting up of special iris identification cameras at hospitals, police stations, border posts and points of entry to the country, the aim is that if an official is suspicious about a child’s identity, they will be able to scan their eyes.
“This is vital because at the moment you can leave the country with virtually any child without being stopped.
“Having started this data capturing in August last year we are planning on rolling out the technology across the country from April.
“Our database is alerted to a missing child the moment the child is reported missing to police,” she said.
Explaining why iris capturing was the world’s most reliable form of biometric identification, Mulovhedzi said that from the age of 18 months, one’s iris remained unchanged.
“While a fingerprint can be altered, an iris cannot.
“This technology can check whether a person is wearing a contact lens, glasses or even if the iris being captured is from a dead person.”
She said the lack of laws around human trafficking in SA was something criminal syndicates regularly took advantage of.
“There are no statistics on trafficking, therefore we have no idea how severe the situation is and whether it is a growing problem.
“South Africa needs to be worried about trafficking and the problems that come with this crime. We are facing a potentially grave situation,” she said.
Mulovhedzi said the first step in addressing the problem was that parents needed to stop being ignorant.
“Trafficking has nothing to do with race or with socio-economic standing.
“People need to know that it happens and that it can happen to their child and that not only are children trafficked across borders but also inside a country,” she said.
Lieutenant-Colonel Fanie van Deventer – the head of the South African Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (Sacmec) and the SAPS Missing Persons Bureau – said it was difficult to to determine who might have abducted a child, or where they may be taking them.
“This is why it is so important that people, once they realise that their child is really missing, to report the disappearance to a police station immediately.
“It is a myth that there is a waiting period to report a child and if someone is told by a police official that there is such a thing they must immediately report that official to a senior officer.
“Statistics show that of the 80 percent of children we find, 5 percent of the disappearances were the result of criminal activity, with the vast majority being runaways. This, however, does not mean that runaways, who are extremely vulnerable, are not exposed to criminal activities following their disappearance.
“The majority of reasons behind disappearances is peer group pressure, followed by neglect, with socio- economic circumstances also driving children to run away,” he said.
Van Deventer said Sacmec welcomed the initiatives of organisations such as Child Trace.
“With this type of identification system powerful tools can be developed to help with locating and identifying missing children speeding up the distribution of information children.
“Iris identification, the world’s best form of identification, is a workable project with immense benefits,” he said.
Anyone wishing to find out more about Child Trace’s iris identification system can contact Zwanga Mulovhedzi on 071 895 6784. - Pretoria News
Annual disappearance rate in South Africa:
* Children: 1 500 to 1 700
* Adults: 3 500
* Internationally 1.2 million children trafficked annually