UPDATE April 1 2014 The Hawks special police unit have investigated a case of human trafficking after a foreign woman, Mrs Anna Kreller, 26, was arrested in Springs under murky circumstances. PAGE GRAB OF ORIGINAL STORY ATTCHED. The Hawks were asked to investigate after Mrs Kreller was rescued by a good samaritan family while being threatened by a man on the street. She was terrified and told them she had escaped from human-traffickers and had been lured to South Africa under false pretenses. She showed her rescuers scars indicative of physical maltreatment for long periods of time, including burn marks and knifing scars. The case was widely reported over the weekend, including in the Lowvelder newspaper by Tereasa Ferrari and by the Saturday Star. Her rescuers said the situation in which she was rescued in the street indicated to them that she was in serious trouble and needed immediately help. The Hawks spokesman SAPS captain Paul Ramaloka said on Tuesday April 1 2014 that their investigative unit was drawn into the investigation after the claims of human trafficking. He said they have determined from interviewing the woman that she had been married to a South African man in the UK and had gone to SA with him, stayed in Cape Town, and 'was divorced'. She then went to Boksburg with another man, had a row with him and then went to Springs, where she 'decided to call her mother and tell this story so that she could be deported'. The Springs police arrested her as 'she had no passport'. Captain Ramaloka said the woman has done nothing illegal and is no longer in a police cell as she is not a criminal. He emphasized that as a woman who had clearly been abused, she has now been taken to a place of safety and was being treated with every care.
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UPDATE - Angela Kreller, the mother of abducted foreign woman Anna Kreller, 26, who was rescued in Springs South Africa and has told the man that she was forced into sexual slavery after she was lured by a conman to South Africa, has told the Saturday Star in Johannesburg that her daughter is not an illegal immigrant, as is being alleged by the SA Police. The mother did not discuss her daughter's personal details and said that she loves her daughter very much and that her daughter needs to come home. The mother was speaking by telephone from the UK. It's not clear what Mrs Kreller's nationality is but the mother will be able to shed more light on the matter. The SAPS are keeping her in a cell in Springs because they insist she's an illegal immigrant. PAGE GRAB OF SATURDAY STAR ATTACHED .
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NELSPRUIT – The ordeal of Ms Anna Kreller (26) is not over as police have now detained her. There is still debate on if she is an American or a British citizen, but police have confirmed she is not a South African.
Springs police have now detained Kreller on the grounds that she entered the country illegally due to her not having a visa with an unknown man seven years ago at the age of 19. Police are unable to verify if this case is human trafficking. Capt Mothutsane said “she has no documents and so she’s an illegal immigrant.”
Yet her rescuer stated on Wednesday when he was driving in Springs, saw the woman being manhandled by an aggressive man.
The man who requested to only be identified as Leon, told Lowvelder: “I saw from his body language that he was threatening her so I drove around the block. When I came around again and stopped, he ran away and I asked her if everything was alright.” He said the woman was extremely attractive, with long dark wavy hair and blue eyes. “She was crying and I said to myself this girl doesn’t look South African.” The woman then just emotionally poured out to him saying, “Please, phone my mother, tell her I’m not dead, I am still alive”.
She told Leon that she was American and her name was Ms Anna Kreller (26). She told him she had been lured to South Africa under false pretences and didn’t know where she was, as it was the first time she had managed to escape her circumstances.
Leon added that Kreller explained to him that seven years ago she had met a man from Cape Town over the Internet who tricked her into believing he wanted to marry her. The man travelled to America to fetch her and took her back with him to the Mother City.
The young woman also told Leon that when she got to Cape Town, the man immediately took her passport and assaulted her severely, breaking her nose in the process. She showed him the scars of old stab wounds on her body .She said he had then forced her into a life of prostitution and she was given to other people who had held her captive in a house in Geduld in Springs. Keller added they had tried to force her to take drugs over the years. Although she didn’t take drugs, she got addicted to alcohol.”
Leon asked her why she had never had gone for help before and she told him she had once gone to a police station to ask for help, but they had refused to help her as she had no passport or identity document.
“She cried about her two sons, whom I assume she had with the man who brought her to South Africa. However, she was so emotional, I couldn’t get the full story of what had happened from her.”
Leon then phoned his sister, Ms Daniella Visser in Nelspruit and asked her to phone Keller’s mother on the number she supplied. Visser got hold of Ms Angela Kreller in London. “She broke down crying over the phone as she didn’t know her daughter was still alive”. She also told Visser: “I didn’t like him when he came to the States. I felt uneasy about him, but my daughter refused to listen.”
A Sgt Benade came to the scene. “When the police arrived, an older woman who looked very unkempt told the police Kreller was her daughter. Anna turned round and screamed and the police put her in the car and drove off.”
He said Benade then phoned him later to say they had taken Anna to a place of safety.
Gauteng provincial police spokesman, Brig Neville Malila, said they were aware of the woman being taken to the Springs’ police station, but still had to decided whether or not to open a case.
According to the International Organisation for Migration, out of a reported four million people who are trafficked annually both within and outside their country, 80 per cent are women and girls and 50 per cent children. Over 90 per cent of trafficked persons are sexually exploited. Freedom Climb, a project that works with trafficked people around the globe, estimates that at least 30 000 children are prostituted through human trafficking annually in South Africa and 50 per cent of them are under the age of 14.
Human trafficking, described as “modern-day slavery”, is the recruitment and transportation of people from one place to another or one country to another, through the use of deception or force for the sole purpose of exploitation. Factors that make one vulnerable to human trafficking include poverty, lack of economic opportunities, unemployment, domestic violence, civil unrest, lack of access to education and low levels of human trafficking awareness. These factors provide human traffickers with a pool of susceptible people who easily fall for empty promises of a better life, according to the International Organisation for Migration.
Last year the national government committed itself to fighting human trafficking after the president Mr Jacob Zuma signed the new Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons Bill. The Bill provides a single statute to tackle human trafficking holistically and comprehensively. This new legislation creates an offence of trafficking in persons as well as specific offences such as debt bondage, possessing and destroying or tempering with travel documents. It also provides a maximum penalty of R100 million or life imprisonment or both in the case of a conviction.
Furthermore, the legislation also caters for the victims, making it law to provide them with protection and assistance to overcome their traumatic experiences.
http://lowvelder.co.za/61596/woman-arrested-allegedly-held-captive/
Read other related stories here:
http://lowvelder.co.za/61383/local-family-rescues-abducted-american/ http://pic.twitter.com/7b3s9F7IB0
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Abducted American woman rescued from 7-yr sexual slavery hell by Nelspruit, SA family (who called her mother in London, UK)
http://lowvelder.co.za/61383/local-family-rescues-abducted-american/
http://pic.twitter.com/7b3s9F7IB0
- Her mother in London broke down crying over the phone as she didn’t know her daughter was still alive -- Journalist: Tereasa Ferrari Lowvelder - 28 March 2014 06:03
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NELSPRUIT – A Lowveld, South Africa family helped Anna Kreller, 26 - an American woman who had allegedly been held captive for seven years after being trafficked into the country, escape her ordeal.
This drama unfolded on Wednesday when a man was driving in Springs and saw a woman being manhandled by an aggressive man.
The man -- who requested to only be identified as Leon -- told Lowvelder: “I saw from his body language that he was threatening her so I drove around the block. When I came around again and stopped, he ran away and I asked her if everything was alright.” He said the woman was extremely attractive, with long dark wavy hair and blue eyes. “She was crying and I said to myself this girl doesn’t look South African.” The woman then just emotionally poured out to him saying, “Please, phone my mother, tell her I’m not dead, I am still alive”.
She then told Leon that she was American and her name was Ms Anna Kreller (26).
She told him she had been lured to South Africa under false pretences and didn’t know where she was, as it was the first time she had managed to escape her circumstances.
Leon added that Kreller explained to him that seve years ago she had met a man from Cape Town over the Internet who tricked her into believing he wanted to marry her.
The man travelled to America to fetch her and took her back with him to the Mother City.
The young woman also told Leon that when she got to Cape Town, the man immediately took her passport and assaulted her severely, breaking her nose in the process.
She showed him the scars of old stab wounds on her body.
She said he had then forced her into a life of prostitution and she was given to other people who had held her captive in a house in Geduld in Springs.
Keller added they had tried to force her to take drugs over the years. Although she didn’t take drugs, she got addicted to alcohol.”
Leon asked her why she had never had gone for help before and she told him she had once gone to a police station to ask for help, but they had refused to help her as she had no passport or identity document.
“She cried about her two sons, whom I assume she had with the man who brought her to South Africa. However, she was so emotional, I couldn’t get the full story of what had happened from her.”
Leon then phoned his sister, Ms Daniella Visser in Nelspruit and asked her to phone Keller’s mother on the number she supplied.
Visser got hold of Ms Angela Kreller in London. “She broke down crying over the phone as she didn’t know her daughter was still alive”.
She also told Visser: “I didn’t like him (the man who abducted her) when he came to the Sates. I felt uneasy about him, but my daughter refused to listen.”
A Sgt Benade came to the scene. “When the police arrived, an older woman who looked very unkempt told the police Kreller was her daughter. (she obviously was not: her mother was contacted by phone in London).
"Anna turned round and screamed and the police put her in the car and drove off.”
He said Benade then phoned him later to say they had taken Anna to a place of safety.
Gauteng provincial police spokesman, Brig Neville Malila, said they were aware of the woman being taken to the Springs’ police station, but "still had to decided whether or not to open a case."
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According to the International Organisation for Migration, out of a reported four million people who are trafficked annually both within and outside their country, 80 per cent are women and girls and 50 per cent children. Over 90 per cent of trafficked persons are sexually exploited. Freedom Climb, a project that works with trafficked people around the globe, estimates that at least 30 000 children are prostituted through human trafficking annually in South Africa and 50 per cent of them are under the age of 14.
Human trafficking, described as “modern-day slavery”, is the recruitment and transportation of people from one place to another or one country to another, through the use of deception or force for the sole purpose of exploitation. Factors that make one vulnerable to human trafficking include poverty, lack of economic opportunities, unemployment, domestic violence, civil unrest, lack of access to education and low levels of human trafficking awareness. These factors provide human traffickers with a pool of susceptible people who easily fall for empty promises of a better life, according to the International Organisation for Migration.
Last year the SA national government committed itself to fighting human trafficking after the president Mr Jacob Zuma signed the new Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons Bill. The Bill provides a single statute to tackle human trafficking holistically and comprehensively. This new legislation creates an offence of trafficking in persons as well as specific offences such as debt bondage, possessing and destroying or tempering with travel documents. It also provides a maximum penalty of R100 million or life imprisonment or both in the case of a conviction.
Furthermore, the legislation also caters for the victims, making it law to provide them with protection and assistance to overcome their traumatic experiences.![]()
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