Speaking in Cameroon, Pope Benedict XVI acknowledged that “today human trafficking, especially of defenceless women and children, has become a new form of slavery”. This abominable crime has led the African bishops to express their concerns: “How can anybody be proud of ‘presiding’ over such chaos? What has happened to our traditional African sense of shame?” At present, enthusiastic throngs of people are glued to their television screens following the World Cup football competition. Unfortunately, they hardly realise that behind the scenes the event is marked by a shocking increase in human trafficking. In fact, Cardinal Wilfred Napier, a South African archbishop, had said that the World Cup event would be marred by an increase in child prostitution. At the same time, just after the start of the World Cup, the US Department of State issued its 10th Trafficking in Persons Report. The anti-human trafficking response is still in its early days. Several countries are familiarising themselves with the problem and searching for feasible ways to combat it. Although the media seems to concentrate on trafficking for sexual purposes, the reality is that people tend to be trafficked more for forced labour than commercial sex. Normally, human traffickers resort to sexual violence to shamefully coerce women into working in the fields or factories. The findings that emerge from this year’s report are really shocking, to say the least. Over 12 million adults and children are in forced labour, bonded labour and forced prostitution, around the world. Fifty-six per cent of these victims are women and girls. The value for traffickers of this trade is estimated at $32 billion each year. The occurrence of trafficking victims in the world is calculated to be 1.8 per 1,000 inhabitants. This fluctuates by region and reaches three per 1,000 in Asia and the Pacific. More than 4000 successful trafficking prosecutions took place in 2009, a 40 per cent increase over 2008.There are still 62 countries that have yet to convict a trafficker according to the laws of the Palermo Protocol (a document adopted by the United Nations on human trafficking). There are no less than 104 countries that do not have laws, policies, or regulations to prevent victims’ deportation. The Palermo Protocol was the first international attempt to raise global awareness on this human plague. This Protocol insisted on a “3P” model of action: prevention, prosecution and victim protection. The latter surely has priority over prosecuting traffickers. Trafficking occurs in diverse ways such as the deceiving and kidnapping of innocent victims, forcing and exploiting people who, at first, freely took up a specific form of service, or migrated voluntarily. In actual fact, the bulk of global human trafficking is in forced labour. According to the International Labour Organisation, for every trafficking victim forced into prostitution, nine people are compelled to work. Frequently, this custom is eased by circumstances of excessive rates of unemployment, poverty and discrimination, as well as corruption. A frequent tactic is that of calling in a debt. Traffickers, or recruiters they hire, manipulate an initial debt the working person has taken on as part of the working conditions. Additionally, this can be inter-generational. For instance, in South Asia, it is believed that there are millions of trafficking victims working to pay off their ancestor’s debts. The report made it clear that involuntary domestic servitude, forced child labour, child soldiers, and child sex trafficking feature as some of the most common types of human trafficking. Even if trafficking in people is a worldwide catastrophe, the annual prosecutions, which numbered 4,000 last year, are miserably low. Trafficking victims are marginalised by society. When law enforcement does take place, perpetrators are punished but the victims are neglected. If victims have illegal status in the country in which they were exploited, they are usually interned and forcibly repatriated. In so doing, governments free themselves from future burdens and ignore the victims’ traumas. Unplanned repatriations without informing the trafficking victims of other available options would expose them to the trauma of being a trafficking victim and also putting them in the very conditions that initiated their plight. To counter this tragic situation, the report suggested greater cooperation between authorities, such as that between governments and NGOs. Furthermore, specialised task forces should be established, and protocols set up with business associations to make sure that the supply commerce chains are cleared from the abhorrent employment of slave labour. Finally, the report recommended powerful means, such as consumer spending and corporate investment, to act as deterrents on human traffickers. If consumers and investors require complete transparency and accountability, current slave traders will be more deterred from making a fortune out of innocent desperate human beings. When addressing the participants at the Vienna Forum to Fight Human Trafficking, archbishop Agostino Marchetto, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travellers, clearly stated that “trafficking in human beings is a dreadful offence against human dignity”. To oppose this “immoral and criminal phenomenon”, “a coherent and integral approach” is required. Such an approach incorporates “the best interests of the victim, … the just punishment of those who take advantage of it, and the introduction of preventive measures” like “awareness and consciousness raising and … addressing the root causes of the phenomenon”. Archbishop Marchetto advocated the promotion of the victims’ integration in the hosting society, “which includes medical care and psycho-social counselling, accommodation, residence permits and access to employment. It also means the return to the homeland, which may be accompanied by micro projects and/or loans, thus ensuring that victims do not return to the same harmful environment. In addition, measures could be introduced for the creation of compensation schemes. These could be financed by the confiscation of the profits and the assets gained by the traffickers through their criminal activities”. States, churches, producers, consumers and NGOs all have their indispensable role to play for human trafficking to be eradicated. http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=108445 |
