A few dialogue triggers on Human Trafficking:
Q: What is human trafficking?
Q: How do we prevent human trafficking?
Q: Why is the concept of “Safe Migration”
significant?
Q: What is the USA and Global Community doing to
prevent human trafficking?
Sept 11, 2012 Article
Human trafficking: a misunderstood global scourge
Sex trafficking has become an American
cause célèbre. But does it divert attention from the broader human trafficking
issue of modern-day slavery?
April 04, 2012
U.N.: 2.4 Million Human Trafficking Victims
The UN crime-fighting office announced that 2.4 million people across the globe are victims of human trafficking at any one time, and 80 percent of them are being exploited as sexual slaves.
Yuri Fedotov, the head of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, told a daylong General Assembly meeting on trafficking that 17 percent are trafficked to perform forced labor, including in homes and sweat shops.
He said $32 billion is being earned every year by unscrupulous criminals running human trafficking networks, and two out of every three victims are women.
Fighting these criminals "is a challenge of extraordinary proportions," Fedotov said."At any one time, 2.4 million people suffer the misery of this humiliating and degrading crime," he said. According to Fedotov's Vienna-based office, only one out of 100 victims of trafficking is ever rescued.
Definitions of human trafficking:
A 2011 publication in Human
Rights Review, “Sex Trafficking: Trends, Challenges and Limitations of
International Law,” notes that, since 2000, the number of sex-trafficking
victims has risen while costs associated with trafficking have declined:
“Coupled with the fact that trafficked sex
slaves are the single most profitable type of slave, costing on average $1,895
each but generating $29,210 annually, leads to stark predictions about the
likely growth in commercial sex slavery in the future.”
In 2008, 12.3 million individuals were classified as “forced laborers, bonded laborers or sex-trafficking victims,” the study states. Approximately 1.39 million of these individuals worked as commercial sex slaves, with women and girls comprising 98%, or 1.36 million, of this population. Human trafficking is a “renewable resource more valuable than oil.”
While smuggling requires travel, trafficking does not. Much of the confusion of “human trafficking” rests with the term itself. The word "trafficking" includes the word "traffic," which means transportation or travel. However, while the words look and sound alike, they do not hold the same meaning.
Victims of human trafficking are not permitted to leave upon arrival at their destination. They are held against their will through acts of coercion and forced to work or provide services to the trafficker or others. The work or services may include anything from bonded or forced labor to commercialized sexual exploitation.[10][11] The arrangement may be structured as a work contract, but with no or low payment or on terms which are highly exploitative. Sometimes the arrangement is structured as debt bondage, with the victim not being permitted or able to pay off the debt.
Background on human trafficking is a lucrative industry. It has been
identified as the fastest growing criminal industry in the world.[4] It
is second only to drug trafficking as the most profitable illegal industry in
the world.[5] In
2004, the total annual revenue for trafficking in persons was estimated to be
between USD$5
billion and $9 billion.[6]
In 2005, Patrick Belser of ILO estimated a global annual profit of $31.6 billion.[7] In 2008, the United Nations estimated nearly 2.5 million people from 127 different countries are being trafficked into 137 countries around the world.[8]
However, it is argued that many of these statistics are grossly inflated to aid advocacy of anti-trafficking NGOs and the anti-trafficking policies of governments. Due to the definition of trafficking being a process (not a singly defined act) and the fact that it is a dynamic phenomenon with constantly shifting patterns relating to economic circumstances, much of the statistical evaluation is flawed.[9]
Criticism of Human Trafficking: According
to some scholars, the very concept of human trafficking is murky and
misleading.[59] It
has been argued that while human trafficking is commonly seen as a monolithic
crime, in reality it is an act of illegal migration that involves various
different actions: some of them may be criminal or abusive, but others often
involve consent and are legal.[59] Laura Agustin argues that not everything that might
seem abusive or coercive is considered as such by the migrant. For instance,
she states that: ‘would-be travellers commonly seek help from intermediaries
who sell information, services and documents. When travellers cannot afford to
buy these outright, they go into debt’.[65] One
scholar says that while these debts might indeed be on very harsh conditions,
they are usually incurred on a voluntary basis.[59]
The critics of the current approaches to trafficking say that a lot of the violence and exploitation faced by illegal migrants derives precisely from the fact that their migration and their work are illegal and not primarily because of some evil trafficking networks.[67] Tara McCormack believes that the whole trafficking discourse can be actually detrimental to the interests of migrants as it denies th6em agency and as it depoliticizes debates on migration.[68]
Prevention of Trafficking
Human trafficking is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation orforced labor.
The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children (also referred to as the Trafficking Protocol) was adopted by the United Nations in Palermo, Italy in 2000, and is an international legal agreement attached to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. The Trafficking Protocol is one of three Protocols adopted to supplement the Convention.[1] The Protocol is the first global, legally binding instrument on trafficking in over half a century and the only one that sets out an agreed definition of trafficking in persons. The purpose of the Protocol is to facilitate convergence in national cooperation in investigating and prosecuting trafficking in persons. An additional objective of the Protocol is to protect and assist the victims of trafficking in persons with full respect for their human rights. The Trafficking Protocol defines human trafficking as:
(a) [...] the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms ofsexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or theremoval of organs;(b) The consent of a victim of trafficking in persons to the intended exploitation set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article shall be irrelevant where any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a) have been used;(d) “Child” shall mean any person under eighteen years of age.[2]
(c) The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation shall be considered “trafficking in persons” even if this does not involve any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article;
The Trafficking Protocol entered into force on 25 December 2003. By June 2010, the Trafficking Protocol had been ratified by 117 countries and 137 parties.[3]
Clarification of Terms
Bonded labor, or debt bondage, is probably the least known form of labor trafficking today, and yet it is the most widely used method of enslaving people. Victims become bonded laborers when their labor is demanded as a means of repayment for a loan or service in which its terms and conditions have not been defined or in which the value of the victims’ services as reasonably assessed is not applied toward the liquidation of the debt. The value of their work is greater than the original sum of money "borrowed."[12]
Forced labor is a situation in which victims are forced to work against their own will, under the threat of violence or some other form of punishment, their freedom is restricted and a degree of ownership is exerted. Men are at risk of being trafficked for unskilled work, which globally generates $31bn according to the International Labor Organization.[13] Forms of forced labor can include domestic servitude; agricultural labor; sweatshop factory labor; janitorial, food service and other service industry labor; and begging.[12]
Sex trafficking victims are generally found in dire circumstances and easily targeted by traffickers. Individuals, circumstances, and situations vulnerable to traffickers include homeless individuals, runaway teens, displaced homemakers, refugees, job seekers, tourists, kidnap victims and drug addicts. While it may seem like trafficked people are the most vulnerable and powerless minorities in a region, victims are consistently exploited from any ethnic and social background.[14]
Fake job offers are a common way to obtain women in Asia, the
Former Soviet Block Nations and Latin America.
Traffickers, also known as pimps or madams, exploit vulnerabilities and lack of opportunities, while
offering promises of marriage, employment, education, and/or an overall better
life. However, in the end, traffickers force the victims to become prostitutes
or work in the sex industry[14] Various
work in the sex industry includes prostitution, dancing in strip clubs, performing in pornographic films and pornography, and other forms of involuntary servitude.
Human trafficking does not require travel or transport from one location to another, but one form of sex trafficking involves international agents and brokers who arrange travel and job placements for women from one country. Women are lured to accompany traffickers based on promises of lucrative opportunities unachievable in their native country. However, once they reach their destination, the women discover that they have been deceived and learn the true nature of the work that they will be expected to do. Most have been told false information regarding the financial arrangements and conditions of their employment and find themselves in coercive or abusive situations from which escape is both difficult and dangerous.[15] According to a 2009 U.S. Department of Justice report, there were 1,229 suspected human trafficking incidents in the United States from January 2007- September 2008. Of these, 83 percent were sex trafficking cases, though only 9% of all cases could be confirmed as examples of human trafficking.[16]
Child labour is a form of work that is likely to be hazardous to the physical, mental, spiritual, moral, or social development of children and can interfere with their education. The International Labor Organization estimates worldwide that there are 246 million exploited children aged between 5 and 17 involved in debt bondage, forced recruitment for armed conflict, prostitution, pornography, the illegal drug trade, the illegal arms trade, and other illicit activities around the world.
Prevention of Human Trafficking
Human trafficking is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation orforced labor.
The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children (also referred to as the Trafficking Protocol) was adopted by the United Nations in Palermo, Italy in 2000, and is an international legal agreement attached to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. The Trafficking Protocol is one of three Protocols adopted to supplement the Convention.[1] The Protocol is the first global, legally binding instrument on trafficking in over half a century and the only one that sets out an agreed definition of trafficking in persons. The purpose of the Protocol is to facilitate convergence in national cooperation in investigating and prosecuting trafficking in persons. An additional objective of the Protocol is to protect and assist the victims of trafficking in persons with full respect for their human rights. The Trafficking Protocol defines human trafficking as:
(a) [...] the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms ofsexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or theremoval of organs;(b) The consent of a victim of trafficking in persons to the intended exploitation set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article shall be irrelevant where any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a) have been used;(d) “Child” shall mean any person under eighteen years of age.[2]
(c) The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation shall be considered “trafficking in persons” even if this does not involve any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article;
The Trafficking Protocol entered into force on 25 December 2003. By June 2010, the Trafficking Protocol had been ratified by 117 countries and 137 parties.[3]
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