Gen. Majak Akec, South Sudan Inspector General of Police and Jean-Philippe Chauzy, IOM South Sudan’s Chief of Mission at the launch of the report in Juba on Wednesday, July 29, 2020. PHOTO/IOM South Sudan

The International Organization for Migration in partnership with the Government of South Sudan has launched the Trafficking in Persons Action Research report.

It is titled; Trafficking in Persons in South Sudan: Prevalence, Challenges and Responses – An Action Research report.

The maiden report highlights Prevalence, Challenges and Responses associated with trafficking in South Sudan.

With limited government response to trafficking due to restricted capacity, governance challenges and ill-equipped institutions, human traffickers reportedly took advantage of the circumstances and saw an opportunity to target and exploit vulnerable groups.

The report reveals that the most prevalent forms of trafficking in South Sudan today are; forced recruitment in armed forces and armed groups, forced marriage, domestic servitude and sexual exploitation particularly among women and children, as well as labor exploitation.

“Today’s launch of the TIP report marks an important milestone in efforts to combat human trafficking in South Sudan,” said IOM South Sudan’s Chief of Mission, Jean-Philippe Chauzy.

According to IOM, trafficking happens within and across the borders. It affects South Sudanese and vulnerable migrants.

It says South Sudan is a destination country to trafficked migrants who fall prey to traffickers.

“Human trafficking transcends borders and therefore, shared global commitments and efforts should be the cornerstone towards successfully tackling these heinous activities,” added Chauzy.

The report accentuates international migrant’s vulnerability to exploitation by employers or extortion by public authorities.

However, South Sudan is said to have taken strides to end of human trafficking within its borders.

In 2019, a Technical Task Force on Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants was set up through the Ministry of Interior, centered around the need to take strong action to prevent and deter TIP by setting up whole-of-government response, raise awareness and train front line actors on victim identification and participate in regional policy dialogues and evidence collection on TIP data.

“Combatting human trafficking is a priority for South Sudan and we are committed to work with our partners, including IOM, to prevent crimes associated to Trafficking in Persons, prosecute offenders and protect victims,” said General Majak Akec Malok, Inspector General of Police.

“At least it shows that the government is finally accepting or acknowledging that human trafficking is a problem in South Sudan,” said Mading Nhial, IOM Senior Project Assistant for Border Management and Migration.

The UN Sustainable Development Goals 5, 8 and 16 recognize the need to bring an end to human trafficking as a concerted global priority and one if not achieved, will stifle development across the globe.

“It is an organized crime [but] it starts small like this and later in the future…it could be linked to money launderings and expands on and on,” Mading concluded.