also supports large
numbers of refugees and asylum seekers from the Democratic Republic
of the Congo (33,000), Somalia (20,000), Burundi (6,500), and other
states in Africa (26,000); managed dispute with Namibia over the
location of the boundary in the Orange River; in 2006, Swazi king
advocates resort to ICJ to claim parts of Mpumalanga and
KwaZulu-Natal from South Africa

Refugees and internally displaced persons:

refugees (country of origin): 10,772 (Democratic Republic of Congo);
7,818 (Somalia); 5,759 (Angola) (2007)

Trafficking in persons:

current situation: South Africa is a source, transit, and
destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for
forced labor and sexual exploitation; women and girls are trafficked
internally - and occasionally to European and Asian countries - for
sexual exploitation; women from other African countries are
trafficked to South Africa and, less frequently, onward to Europe
for sexual exploitation; men and boys are trafficked from
neighboring countries for forced agricultural labor; Asian and
Eastern European women are trafficked to South Africa for
debt-bonded sexual exploitation
tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - South Africa is on the Tier 2 Watch
List for a fourth consecutive year for its failure to show
increasing efforts to address trafficking; the government provided
inadequate data in 2007 on trafficking crimes investigated or
prosecuted, or on resulting convictions or sentences; it also did
not provide information on its efforts to protect victims of
trafficking; the country continues to deport and/or prosecute
suspected foreign victims without providing appropriate protective
services (2008)

Illicit drugs:

transshipment center for heroin, hashish, and cocaine, as well as a
major cultivator of marijuana in its own right; cocaine and heroin
consumption on the rise; world's largest market for illicit
methaqualone, usually imported illegally from India through various
east African countries, but increasingly producing its own synthetic
drugs for domestic consumption; attractive venue for money
launderers given the increasing level of organized criminal and
narcotics activity in the region and the size of the South African
economy

This page was last updated on 18 December, 2008

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@Southern Ocean

Introduction
Southern Ocean

Background:

A larg