Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons Act, 2013 (Act No. 7 of 2013)Chapter 4 : Identification and Protection of Victims of Trafficking18. Reporting of and dealing with child victim of trafficking |
(1)
| (a) | Despite any law, policy or code of conduct prohibiting the disclosure of personal information, any person who knows or ought reasonably to have known or suspected that a child is a victim of trafficking must immediately report that knowledge or suspicion to a police official for investigation. |
| (b) | A designated child protection organisation which comes into contact with a child who is suspected of being a victim of trafficking and who has not been reported as provided for in paragraph (a), must immediately report that child to a police official for investigation, whereafter the provisions of subsections (5) and (6) apply. |
| (2) | Subsection (1) does not apply to the right to legal professional privilege as between a legal practitioner and his or her client in respect of communications made in confidence between that legal practitioner and— |
| (a) | his or her client for the purposes of legal advice or litigation which is pending or contemplated or which has commenced; or |
| (b) | a third party for the purposes of litigation which is pending or contemplated or which has commenced. |
| (3) | A person referred to in subsection (1)— |
| (a) | must provide reasons for that knowledge or suspicion to a police official; |
| (b) | who makes the report in good faith, is not liable to civil or disciplinary action on the basis of the report, despite any law, policy or code of conduct prohibiting the disclosure of personal information; and |
| (c) | is entitled to have his or her identity kept confidential if his or her safety is at risk as a result of the report, unless the interests of justice require otherwise. |
| (4) | A police official to whom a report has been made in terms of subsection (1) or section 8(1)(b) or (2)(b)(i) or 9(2) in respect of a child or a police official who knows or ought reasonably to have known or suspected that a child is a victim of trafficking— |
| (a) | may where necessary, and despite the proviso contained in section 26 of the Criminal Procedure Act, without a warrant, enter any premises if he or she, on reasonable grounds, believes that the safety of that child is at risk or that the child may be moved from those premises and may use such force as may be reasonably necessary to overcome any resistance against entry to the premises, including the breaking of any door or window of those premises, on condition that the police official must first audibly demand admission to the premises and notify the purpose for which he or she seeks to enter those premises; |
| (b) | must deal with that child in terms of section 110(4) of the Children’s Act, pending a police investigation into the matter; and |
| (c) | may place that child in temporary safe care in terms of section 152 of the Children’s Act, pending the transfer of the child to a designated child protection organisation or provincial department of social development. |
| (5) | The procedure provided for in section 110(5) to (8) of the Children’s Act applies in respect of a child who has been dealt with in terms of subsection (4)(b) or who has been referred in terms of section 22(2)(b) or section 33(b)(iv). |
| (6) | The provincial department of social development must without delay, in the prescribed manner, assess whether the child referred to in subsection (5) is a victim of trafficking, after taking into account the prescribed information obtained from the South African Police Service. |
| (7) | A child who has been found to be a victim of trafficking in terms of subsection (6)— |
| (a) | must be referred to a designated social worker for investigation in terms of section 155(2) of the Children’s Act; and |
| (b) | may, pending such investigation, be placed in temporary safe care in terms of section 151 of the Children’s Act. |
| (8) | A finding in terms of section 156 of the Children’s Act that an illegal foreign child who is a victim of trafficking is a child in need of care and protection, serves as authorisation for allowing the child to remain in the Republic for the duration of the children’s court order. |
| (9) | A person who fails to comply with the provisions of subsection (1) is guilty of an offence. |