trafficking1

“Human trafficking” has moved to the forefront of public attention as a result of
some high profile cases that attracted much media coverage. These include the
tragic story of Victoria, Adjo “Anna” Climbié, the little African girl who died in
London in February 2000 as a result of neglect and horrendous physical abuse by
her great aunt. Victoria’s family had sent their daughter to England in the hope of
a better life for her, but her aunt viewed her niece as little more than a useful tool
for claiming benefits.
Human trafficking should not be confused with the smuggling of people, as
happens when e.g. immigrants and asylum seekers enter receiving countries
illegally in order to seek work or claim asylum. Smuggling and trafficking are
related but different activities. The smuggling of human beings takes place with
the consent of the travellers. Many asylum seekers and illegal immigrants pay
heavily for the services of people who help them evade border controls.
Trafficking on the other hand implies something much worse, that the travellers
are unwilling or unknowing victims. This is evident in the most widely accepted
definition of trafficking, which is included within a new protocol to the United
Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.
A definition...
“Trafficking in persons” shall mean 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 the minimum, the
exploitation or 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.
Springing the trap
Children are trapped into trafficking most directly by abduction or kidnapping. But
the vast majority of trafficking victims are trapped in more subversive ways.
Typically the traffickers promise their victims, usually girls and young women, that
they will have respectable work as waitresses, perhaps, or domestic servants in
another country. Traffickers may also persuade parents that their children will
have a better life elsewhere: a secure job and the chance of a better education.
In fact, they are often selling them to brothels. Some of these parents or girls may
even know, or suspect, that they will be sex workers. What they do not know,
however, is the extent of the abuse and degradation they will suffer, and the
likelihood that they will be ensnared in debt bondage.
Even when the children understand what has happened, they may still appear to
submit willingly. Sometimes a brothel-owner will simply tempt a girl with around
£160 (UK $250) or more for her virginity – probably more than her parents earn in
a whole year. Confused, frightened and far from home, a dutiful daughter may feel
she is being disloyal to her parents if she refuses. Moreover, trafficking need not
necessarily involve moving children across international borders. In many African
countries much of the trafficking is internal. In the extended family system,
parents have traditionally sent their children to work in other households –
sometimes entrusting them to better-off relatives in the cities. Increasingly,
however, many people are abusing this tradition to get cheap labour.
The scale of trafficking
Since this is a clandestine activity, there is little hard statistical information. Most
countries have no specific legislation against trafficking, and victims are
reluctant to report their experiences for fear of being prosecuted and deported
as illegal immigrants.
The most commonly cited global statistic comes from the US State Department
which conservatively estimates, based on 2003 data, that 800,00 to 900,000
persons, mainly women and children, are trafficked annually across borders
worldwide. However, this is almost certainly an underestimate and the UN now
believes that the number of children trafficked annually, internally and externally,
is around 1.2 million.
The victims of trafficking and their work
The most likely victims of trafficking are the same as those vulnerable to
exploitative child labour generally – children from the poorest families that have
had little education. In the case of girls who are being sought for the sex trade,
another factor may be tensions within the family. In Cambodia, for example, it has
been reported that recruiters look for girls who have quarrelled with their
parents, or even those who have just broken up with their boyfriends.
While sex work is the most likely purpose of trafficking, it is certainly not the only
one. In West Africa, many girls are trafficked for domestic service. Boys and girls
can also be put to work in small shops or factories. Boys from Bangladesh, for
example, are often sent to work in manufacturing industries and sweatshops in
India and Pakistan.
Some girls are taken for forced marriage. In 2002, the UK Government reported
that in the previous 18 months it had dealt with more than 240 cases of forced
marriage and helped with the repatriation of 60 young people. Not all victims were
female; in about 15% of cases, the unwilling partner was the husband.
The perpetrators
Trafficking can involve many different people. The recruiters, men and women,
may be people who specialize in identifying likely victims in their own village. Or
they may be a relative or friend. Others work in a more formal way, as placement
agencies. But many different people may also be implicated in trafficking – train
guards, ships’ captains, and taxi, bus and truck drivers.
Long distance international trafficking is usually highly organized. Trafficking from
Nigeria to Europe, for example, is increasingly controlled by sophisticated
criminal gangs who recruit children, forge passports for them and bring them to
Europe.

Legislation and enforcement
Trafficking is a complex issue involving many different events and processes and
legislation has been slow to keep pace. Most countries do have laws against
exploitative child labour, but it is important that they also have legislation
specifically against trafficking, otherwise the victims will be punished along with
the criminals; victims are unlikely to give evidence if they know they will
immediately be deported. Although Asian countries do have appropriate
legislation, many African countries do not.
If the UK Government is serious about tackling trafficking, it must sign up to the
European Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings, formally
opened for signature at the Council of Europe’s Summit of Heads of State and
Government in May 2005.
Even in countries where there is appropriate legislation, enforcement is usually
hampered by general ignorance of the law. Nigeria has laws against child
trafficking but of a sample of 34 policy makers interviewed in one study, two-
thirds claimed the legislation did not exist. Corruption in the police, border patrol,
and labour inspection services also hamper enforcement of anti-trafficking laws
in many countries. Then there is the difficulty of pursuing cases through the
courts. In Mali, for example, the penal code allows for prosecuting people who
are trafficking or exploiting child labour, but completing these cases takes an
average of five years.