News
EWG 2026 Report on MSHT in South Africa
Publication Date: 21/10/2026
Modern slavery and human trafficking (MSHT) remains a complex, adaptive and under-reported crime that is sustained by systems capable of moving people and money with speed, secrecy and impunity. South Africa is exposed to these dynamics as a source, transit and destination country, and as a relevant node in trafficking-linked financial flows.
This report, Follow the money: Two years on – the progress in using financial intelligence to disrupt modern slavery and human trafficking in South Africa, assesses how MSHT operates in and through South Africa, how typologies are evolving, and how financial intelligence can support detection, investigation and disruption.
The report draws on global and South African research, open-source intelligence, survivor and stakeholder insights, prosecution outcomes, LSEG World-Check data analysis and FIC analysis of suspicious and unusual transaction and activity reports. It confirms that trafficking in South Africa is both domestic and transnational, involving organised networks, smaller groups and individual facilitators. Vulnerability is driven by unemployment, poverty, inequality, irregular migration status, weak labour protections, online recruitment, family or community-based deception and limited victim identification.
Global trends show that trafficking has intensified and diversified since COVID-19. UNODC data indicates that detected victims in 2022 exceeded pre-pandemic levels, with forced labour and sexual exploitation remaining dominant typologies and children representing a significant share of detected victims. Digital recruitment, artificial intelligence-enabled deception, online grooming, forced criminality and scam compounds have expanded the trafficking risk landscape. These developments are reflected in South African cases involving false employment, sexual exploitation, forced labour, large-group trafficking, child exploitation, forced criminality and cyber-enabled fraud.
- South Africa’s trafficking risk is hybrid and transnational. The country functions as a source, transit and destination jurisdiction, with major urban centres, transport corridors, border routes and informal labour markets creating points of exposure.
- Typologies are evolving. Sexual exploitation and forced labour remain prominent, while child trafficking, forced marriage, forced criminality, large-group trafficking and scam-compound trafficking show how traffickers are adapting to social, economic and digital vulnerabilities.
- Perpetrator profiles are varied. South Africa-linked data shows both domestic and foreign-national perpetrators, material female facilitator participation, concentration in economically active age groups, and convergence with organised crime, kidnapping, illegal restraint, extortion, fraud and money laundering.
- Prosecution outcomes show progress but also challenges. NPA data shows an increase in charge-based TIP convictions from 44 in 2023-2024 to 146 in 2024-2025, with severe sentences in some matters. However, prosecutions remain low relative to estimated prevalence due to under-reporting, victim identification challenges, evidentiary complexity, corruption risk and co-ordination gaps.
- Financial intelligence is central to disruption. The FIC’s analysis identified 85 MSHT-related financial intelligence reports linked to 225 STRs for 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2024, a 305% increase from Phase I. STR mining highlights recurring use of electronic funds transfers, cash deposits and withdrawals, remittances, unknown source parties, high-risk geographic touchpoints and emerging virtual-asset typologies.
The central conclusion is that effective anti-trafficking action must move beyond incident-based detection toward strategic disruption. Trafficking networks are sustained by profit, facilitators, payment channels and laundering pathways. By integrating financial intelligence earlier and more consistently into investigations, strengthening typology-led monitoring, improving information sharing and supporting parallel financial investigations, accountable institutions, the FIC, law enforcement, prosecutors and international partners can better identify networks, target proceeds, dismantle facilitators and protect victims.