Teens selling sibilings for sex in South Africa

South Africa's government is preparing a first of it's kind human trafficking bill. The bill would create laws specifically designed to prosecute human trafficking. Before now, human trafficking offenses were termed as other offenses, which made it harder to prosecute criminals who practice in this trade.

Testimony before the government on the bills has brought different aspects of the crime to light. An NGO that works with South Africa found a very disturbing one.

From the Independent On-Line, Amandeep Parmar was present at the testimony.

Western Cape teens are selling their younger brothers and sisters to their friends for group sex sessions, according to a local NGO.
Teens selling sibilings for sex in South Africa
Tanyan Gradwell, of Metamorphic Adventures, which does youth development work in schools across the Western Cape, found children between 14 and 18 would invite friends around for group sex sessions with their siblings or cousins who are as young as 11 years old.

The older kids tend to use the money either to contribute to the household income or, more often, to fuel a drug or alcohol dependency.

"It most commonly happens during the school holidays while parents are at work and the children are bored, with nothing constructive to do," said Gradwell.

She found the problem in affluent as well as disadvantaged and government schools, mainly in the Metropole area and southern suburbs such as Rondebosch and Bergvliet.

The revelations came amid a workshop on the new Trafficking In Persons Bill last week.

The bill would be the first of its kind in South Africa, despite this being one of the hubs of the trade, with an estimated 750 000 people trafficked yearly here.