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Question 1. What
is trafficking?
Human trafficking is the criminal
and illegal trading of human beings for the purpose of exploiting their
labour. It is defined by a movement (or migration) into a non-consensual
situation of exploitation (or harm) that results in the loss of control by
an individual over his or her situation. Trafficking can occur within a
country or across national borders.
The UN Trafficking Protocol of the Transnational Convention on
Organized Crime (known colloquially as the “Palermo Protocol”) defines
trafficking as:
- "The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of
persons" (the movement).
- "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" (the means).
- "For the purpose of exploitation" (the purpose).
The Protocol notes that "exploitation shall include, at a
minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of
sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices
similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs."
Question 2. What is the purpose of trafficking?
The purpose of trafficking is exploitation, and
this can take many forms such as (but not limited to) the following:
- Forced begging and soliciting;
- Forced and exploited labour (work in mines, on construction sites,
in markets, in small shops, in factories);
- Forced prostitution;
- Forced or exploitative domestic service;
- Forced work on plantations; and
- Forced work in fisheries.
Question 3. Who are the victims of
trafficking?
Trafficking affects men and women as well as
boys and girls.
Question 4. How does child trafficking differ
from adult trafficking?
Trafficking in adults and
trafficking in children (defined as human beings under the age of 18)
differ in three major ways:
- Children are often more vulnerable to trafficking than adults;
- While adult trafficking (and trafficking of young people in the
15-17 age group) often starts with voluntary migration, younger children
do not usually migrate on their own.
- While informed adults can give their consent to a situation
considered "exploitative", this is impossible in the case of children.
The recruitment and transportation of a child for the purpose of
exploitation shall always be considered “trafficking in persons”.
Question 5. What is the magnitude of the
problem?
Several factors make it extremely difficult to
provide reliable figures:
- The clandestine nature of trafficking;
- Ongoing disagreement regarding the legal classification (based on
national laws, many of which are not in line with the Palermo Protocol)
and subsequently, identification of trafficked victims; and
- Lack of coordinated reporting
No UN agency, government, or
NGO has so far managed to provide any accurate or universally acceptable
estimate of the number of trafficked persons in a country, in the region,
or the world.
Estimates of the number of victims trafficked worldwide on an annual
basis range from 700,000 to two million (and in one occasion even four
million), but with little clear basis in any case. Extrapolations of local
surveys in the Mekong sub-region estimate a range of a few thousands a
year to 200,000 – again supported by limited concrete data.
Question 6. Is the problem getting bigger?
Lack of reliable figures also make it difficult to answer
this question. Many people believe that trafficking has grown
significantly over the last few years, but this may reflect the increased
attention given to trafficking, rather than a increase in the phenomenon
itself. Others focus on improvements in global communication and
transportation networks and come to the conclusion that these will
naturally lead to greater levels of human trafficking.
There are, in fact, clear indications from the field that there has
been a decrease in trafficking in some areas. This is the case for example
for domestic trafficking of Thai children. In other areas the problem
seems to be growing – as in the case of Lao, Cambodia and Myanmar
nationals trafficked into workplaces in Thailand.. At this time, it is
clear that many of the assertions that the problem is growing in the
Mekong sub-region are based, at least in part, on anecdotes or analysis of
particular situations and then extrapolation of that analysis to larger
contexts in ways that may not be factually sound.
Question 7. What are the root causes of
trafficking?
While virtually no country is totally sheltered
from trafficking (either as a receiving or a sending party), trafficking
seems to be thriving when four conditions are met. Trafficking occurs
when, in a flawed system unable to prevent it from happening, there is
demand for trafficked victims, opportunities for traffickers, and a
vulnerable pool of potential victims.
A flawed
system is a system in which adequate laws to prevent trafficking
and protect victims are not in place or not enforced; where corrupt
authorities (including law enforcement agencies) allow trafficking to
happen and may even benefit from it. It is also a system where migration
policies are not consistent with labour market realities, that is where
the opening of borders and the improvement of infrastructure and
transportation have not led to a concomitant relaxation of restrictions on
movement and migration for labour – thus exacerbating labour market
imbalances and increasing the extent of irregular
migration.
Demand for trafficking can be defined
by:
- Demand for low status, low paid workers;
- Demand for commercial sexual exploitation, particularly of children;
- Demand for labour in sectors in which nationals of the country are
no willing to work for a variety of reasons, such as dangerous
conditions of work
Demand is often found in work which can be
characterized as "the three Ds": dirty, dangerous, or
degrading.
Opportunities for traffickers exist
when the act of trafficking is rewarded, when traffickers can act with
impunity, or when it results in a low risk of consequences for
traffickers. Increased border controls, and crackdowns on the smallest,
poorest links in the migration chain, push people into more and more
organised and dangerous forms of migration, thus adding to opportunities
for traffickers. Lack of access to justice for victims and potential
victims allows traffickers to operate with impunity.
Vulnerability factors play a role in pushing
people into the hands of traffickers. Some of these factors are listed
below:
- Poverty and economic disparities between countries and regions
encourage migration in search of survival or better opportunities;
- Limited job prospects for adults force them to leave, and
unemployment of primary caregivers forces children to earn money;
- Abusive family environments (sometimes influenced by alcohol and
drug addiction) encourage children to leave home, thus putting them at
risk of being trafficked;
- Lack of education and lack of access to information regarding the
realities of migration do not allow people to make informed choices;
- Lack of birth registration, legal status, and citizenship, which
affects many people in the region, particularly ethnic minorities,
affects the rights to own land, access to education, health and legal
services, and the ability to move legally and to obtain legal
employment;
- Armed conflict or war situations push refugees on the roads in
situations of extreme vulnerability;
- Consumerism and the hunger for consumer goods, fuelled by
television, create a desire or need for more money;
Question 8. Why be concerned about child
trafficking?
Child trafficking violates a child's most fundamental rights as
outlined in the Convention of the Rights of the Child. We should be
concerned about trafficking for the same reason we are concerned about
slavery. For all the complexities of trafficking, trafficked children are
child slaves. Children who are exploited in this way are often:
- Forcibly removed from their home area;
- Raped, abused physically and emotionally;
- Treated cruelly;
- Exposed to severe health risks;
- Threatened and terrorised;
- Deprived of their right to education;
- Discriminated against;
- Exploited economically;
- Exposed to hazardous work and materials;
- Forced to work long hours with no rest or recreation;
- Receive low or no wages.
Question 9.
What is the link between trafficking and the commercial sexual
exploitation of children?The commercial sexual
exploitation of children is defined as follows:
Any person under eighteen, male or female, engaging in sexual
activities for money, profit, or any other consideration due to coercion
or influence by any adult, syndicate or group.
While most forms of trafficking do not involve commercial sexual
exploitation, there are two major links between them:
- Commercial sexual exploitation is one of the possible purposes or
possible outcomes of trafficking. In other words, trafficking will
sometimes be the chain of criminal acts culminating in a child being
brought into commercial sexual exploitation;
- Trafficking of children – moving them away from their normal context
to other parts of a country or across borders – increases their
vulnerability to commercial sexual exploitation – the so-called
"incidental exposure". Isolated from family, community and normal
protection mechanisms, often unable to speak the language and deprived
of legal status, children trafficked for any purpose are at high risk of
sexual exploitation.
Question 10. What is the link
between trafficking, smuggling and migration? The
UN Smuggling Protocol of the Transnational Convention on Organised Crime
defines smuggling as
the procurement of illegal entry of a person into a
State Party of which the person is not a national or permanent resident,
against a financial or other material benefit.
While the definition of trafficking contains the element of coercion,
that of smuggling does not. Further, smugglers have a vested interest in
not harming the person they are helping to migrate; in a cash-on-delivery
manner, often payment for smugglers comes only after the successful border
breach. A smuggler's crime is against the State of destination, and any
States in-between, not against the migrant herself. The crime of a
trafficker, on the other hand, is against the migrant, putting him or her
into coercive or exploitative situations. The main profit in trafficking
does not come from a one-off payment, but from the ongoing proceeds of
keeping a person in slave-like conditions, and appropriating the money
that is thus earned.
It is therefore important to distinguish between those who get
trafficked (they are victims of a trafficker) and those who get smuggled
(clients of a smuggler).
Question 11. Can there be trafficking if the
movement is voluntary?
Many trafficking cases within the
Mekong sub-region start with a decision to migrate or, in other words, a
voluntary movement (even if this ‘voluntary’ choice is often made within
an extremely limited range of options). When a voluntary migrant asks for
a smuggler's help to cross borders, he or she is delivering herself into a
position of vulnerability for exploitation and abuse. It should be noted
that this vulnerability increases in accordance with the degree of border
control. A person requiring assistance to sneak through a forest or across
a river, for example, is less exposed than one who requires smugglers
organised and powerful enough to produce false travel documents. Through a
variety of means, a migration process that started voluntarily can turn
into a trafficking situation.
In these cases it is the end outcome (the exploitation) rather than the
victim's original intention (the migration) that defines whether the
situation is or is not trafficking.
The definition in the Trafficking Protocol also requires intent on the
part of the trafficker. If a person is smuggled, and the smuggler had some
intention to exploit the person, then trafficking is indicated. If the
smuggler has only the intention to help the person defeat a country’s
migration controls, trafficking is not indicated. Much depends therefore
on the trafficker’s intention – more than depends on the victim’s
intention as their intention can be influenced by ‘the improper means’
deployed by the trafficker.
Question 12.
What is the link between child trafficking and
HIV/AIDS?
There is a direct link. Women and children who are
trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation are usually forced to have
frequent, unprotected sex with multiple partners. Even if they are aware
of how to protect themselves, and have access to condoms, they have
virtually no negotiating power to convince customers to use a condom. In
some cases, it has been seen that customers seek out young children
believing them less likely to have HIV. Children, because of their fragile
tissue, are physiologically more vulnerable to contracting HIV.
Children trafficked into other forms of exploitation (e.g. forced
labour, domestic work) are also quite vulnerable to sexual abuse by
employers and/or family members of employers, hence increasing their
chances of contracting HIV.
Question 13.
Who are the traffickers and the clients of
trafficking?
Traffickers range from organised
networks able to produce or buy fake documents, clear immigration
requirements for their victims, and conduct trafficking operations
spanning thousands of kilometres, to individuals seizing an opportunity to
cheat, sweet-talk or coerce their victim into a situation of exploitation.
There are extensive linkages between the traffickers in all parts of
this spectrum of sophistication; for example many less sophisticated
traffickers engage in their work not knowing the ultimate recipient to be
organised criminals.
Individual or non-organised traffickers often operate across land
borders, while more sophisticated and organised traffickers tend to
operate more complex schemes and will often go to more trouble to seek a
higher return for the trafficking victim by selling him/her in more
distant markets.
Traffickers are also those who exploit adults and children in brothels,
in illegal factories, or by employing them as slaves in domestic work, on
fishing boats or in plantations. In commercial sexual exploitation the
clients of traffickers come closest to being direct users of trafficked
people: men who use the services of forced and under-age prostitutes are
direct clients of traffickers, not always knowingly. Finally, people who
buy or consume goods produced by trafficked victims in slavery also
contribute, though indirectly, to the perpetuation of trafficking.
Question 14. What are the major routes of trafficking
in and from the Mekong Sub-Region?
There are a
number of quite distinct forms of trafficking within the sub-region,
including:
- Trafficking from Cambodia, China, Laos and Myanmar to Thailand for
forced labour and other forms of labour exploitation, including the sex
trade, within the context of widespread irregular migration;
- Trafficking of children from Cambodia to Thailand and Vietnam for
begging, and lately from Vietnam to Cambodia, Laos and Thailand for the
same purpose;
- Trafficking of women and girls from Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar to
China for forced marriage;
- Domestic trafficking of kidnapped children in China, for adoption
and of women and girls for forced marriage;
- Trafficking of women and girls from Vietnam to Cambodia for the sex
trade.
Trafficking also takes place from these countries to Malaysia (often
travelling through Thailand) and to other parts of Asia (e.g. Japan,
Taiwan and Hong Kong) and the world (mostly Europe, the United States,
Australia, and the Middle East). Thai women have historically been the
ones most frequently trafficked outside the region, but as their
vulnerabilities decrease, traffickers have also been targeting people from
China, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other countries in the region. The
willingness of well-meaning Western couples to pay up to $20,000 to
fast-track the adoption process in Cambodia led to a new trafficking
market for stolen babies which subsequently prompted a suspension of visas
for adopted babies from Cambodia going to North America and
Europe.
Question 15. Are
families selling their children for profit? Contrary to a
die-hard stereotype, this is extremely uncommon.. This myth seems to take
root in anecdotes that arise from the following situations on the
ground:
- Poverty forces some families in the Mekong sub-region to send their
children to work away from home. Children, thus made more vulnerable,
may then fall into the hands of traffickers and exploiters. It is
important to note, though, that in most cases this does not occur.
- Lack of education and lack of knowledge of the realities of
migration may make parents naïve and gullible to traffickers' tricks,
truly believing their promises of a better future for the child and the
family;
- Parents may know that the job prospect awaiting their child is not
great, but still ignore its actual inhumane and slave-like conditions;
- Parents may in some cases ‘rent’ their children to someone who
promises good returns and work elsewhere;
Question 16. Does trafficking happen
because of lack of awareness?Although awareness of
trafficking and of the dangers linked to migration is fundamental,
awareness is not the end of the story. Awareness raising efforts tend to
start with the assumption that if fully informed, children, adults and
families will be able to act differently. This is not always the case. It
is important, while focusing on awareness raising efforts, to also develop
projects that give children, adults and families other choices and
opportunities.
Question 17. Are governments facilitating
trafficking and slavery?
Governments may be facilitating
trafficking in a number of ways, by act and by omission:
- By denying the existence of the problem in their own country and
concomitant lack of real political will to combat the traffic;
- By lack of effective legislation and criminal justice processes
which contribute to traffickers operating with impunity;
- By lack of effective law enforcement mechanisms or targeting the
wrong people such as trafficked victims, small-scale people movers and
even parents; and
- By corruption among police and other authorities. Authorities in the
sub-region have been known to warn brothel or factory owners of planned
raids; to collaborate with exploiters and traffickers; and in some
cases, to own the exploitative businesses themselves;
- By poor migration management policies, which fail to allow legal,
regulated mechanisms to match labour demand and labour supply across
borders;
- Through trade and economic policies which continue to extend the gap
between the richest and the poorest within countries, and between
countries in the sub-region.
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Question 18. What should be done
to combat human
trafficking?
Law and law
enforcement
- Ratify relevant international conventions and protocols;
- Define national strategy, and develop a national plan,
for opposing human trafficking,
- Draft and implement relevant laws against trafficking
that criminalize human trafficking against women, men, and
children for all end purposes;
- Enhance international law enforcement cooperation and
mutual legal assistance mechanisms;
- Reduce official corruption;
- Ensure effective investigation and prosecution of
traffickers;
- Recognise that all human beings have inherent basic
rights, regardless of legal status;
- Increase effective channels through which victims and
witnesses can report trafficking crimes, and ensure
protection for such witnesses and victims;
- Increasing the traffickers’ perception of risk by
simultaneously implementing penalties that accurately
reflect the severity of the crime, and increasing the
capacity of law enforcement agencies to advance trafficking
cases.
Promoting safe migration
- Promote safe migration, and provide awareness raising
and education that ensures intending migrants know the
dangers of human trafficking;
- Create and support mechanisms for safe and efficient
legal migration;
- Develop safeguards for the protection of migrants,
particularly in destination countries
- Promote creation of empowered networks of migrants in
destination countries to provide information about how
trafficking occurs, and assist victims;
- Bring migration laws in line with current labour market
realities in the region.
Trafficking
prevention
- Recognition of education as a key preventive measure
against child trafficking;
- Improved awareness among vulnerable children;
- Improved protection networks at community level.
Protection of trafficking
victims
- Adoption of measures for the protection of and
assistance to victims of trafficking;
- Improved mechanisms for return and reintegration;
- Reduction of the discrimination and social stigma for
returned trafficked children;
- Protection of returnees from retribution by trafficking
gangs, corrupt authorities, or employers;
- Creation of assistance programmes and employment
opportunities for returnees
- Availability of avenues for recourse for victims of
trafficking
Question 19. What type of punishment
should perpetrators of trafficking
face?
National legislation must include
appropriate punishment for perpetrators, as decided by each
country's government. Punishments must more accurately reflect
the high degree of violence inherent in trafficking activity
and the serious human rights violations that
occur.
More importantly, though, judges need pronounce
these punishments when evidence shows guilt beyond reasonable
doubt. Police corruption, judge corruption and a weak
enforcement of laws have prevented sentences from being
pronounced (and carried out) against traffickers in most cases
in the region. Most important is consistency in the
application of penalties across the range of trafficking
cases.
Question 20. Should
trafficked victims be punished for their illegal
status?
No. Children and adults who are
trafficked should not be victimised twice. Unfortunately, they
are often treated as criminals even when rescued and placed in
detention.
Victims of trafficking should be given access to shelters
where their human rights are protected. They should receive
such treatments as temporary residence permit, assistance on
food, rehabilitation, and employment. They should be granted
the right to stay permanently or be assisted with
repatriation.
Question 21. Why do increased
concern and efforts to combat trafficking seem to have no
impact?
International attention has only
recently started focusing on this issue and only recently have
initial ‘quick-fix’ solutions started being replaced by an
understanding that trafficking is complex, and that strategies
to combat it need to take several factors into account.
Efforts to reduce trafficking must concentrate on the demand
side (reducing avenues for exploitation), the institutional
side (creating channels for safe migration), and the supply
side (helping communities protect themselves against
trafficking).
So far progress on the two first options has been slow, and
efforts have tended to concentrate on the third option
(helping communities protect themselves against
trafficking).
In the Mekong sub-region, though, traffickers have an
immense pool of vulnerable people to choose from; supply is
virtually unlimited. When a community is able to protect
itself from traffic, traffickers just move over to another
community. This displacement (or "push-down pop-up" effect)
explains to a large extent why impact will not follow a
strategy solely based on supply reduction. Future
interventions will build on this understanding and follow a
more comprehensive approach, which should lead to greater
inroads being made on the problem over the next few
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