In the early hours of Thursday, police rescued 44 Ethiopian nationals, 17 of them minors, being held against their will at a house in the affluent suburb of Parkmore in Sandton.
Officers on patrol were alerted to the discovery by screams coming from the house. Upon investigation, they found undocumented migrants locked in several rooms at the house, said spokesperson Lt-Col Mavela Masondo.
It was not immediately clear how long they had been kept there.
This is the third such incident involving Ethiopians this year. In March, 32 Ethiopians were rescued from a house in another Johannesburg suburb. And again, in January, 26 were found naked and undocumented. Last year, over 80 were rescued from similar conditions.
It is not clear if these cases are related, but it is clear that these are not isolated events. They expose a disturbing pattern: SA is becoming a key hub for human trafficking, particularly of undocumented migrants from the Horn of Africa. These are children, teenagers, and adults fleeing poverty or conflict – only to be imprisoned and exploited.
SA’s porous borders and weak enforcement allow trafficking networks to thrive. Yet, progress is possible. The Border Management Authority’s (BMA) Easter campaign at Beitbridge border post showed what can be done with proper coordination, visibility, resources and political will.
But success at the border is only one piece of the puzzle. Victims are often found by chance or after desperate escapes, exposing serious gaps in detecting and gathering intelligence on illicit human movements.
Trafficking syndicates operate in plain sight, in suburbs like Sandton, because they can.
A lot more needs to be done, including making sure the police are equipped to recognise and investigate cases.
Human trafficking is not random – it is a business.
To stop it, police must go beyond rescue operations. They need to be properly trained to identify victims early, and equipped to follow the money, dismantle recruitment chains, and prosecute both traffickers and those who create demand.
Harsh sentencing for traffickers must also become routine. Employers who exploit undocumented migrants must face the harshest legal consequences.
Human trafficking is not just an SA problem. Our position in the SADC region makes us vulnerable to cross-border criminal activity.
SA must take the lead collaborating with its neighbours to prevent human trafficking, including establishing a shared SADC-wide database for trafficking and migration cases and real-time cross border intelligence, among others.
Diplomatic missions, especially from Ethiopia and other high-risk nations, must be roped in to disrupt networks at the source and provide victim support.
We must act with urgency – and consistently – to shut down trafficking networks and protect the vulnerable.
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