http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-9-187400-Of-human-bondage
By Jamil Nasir
The US State Department released the ‘Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, 2013 on June 19. The report has been regularly issued every year since 2001. It grades different countries of the world according to the scale and severity of human trafficking and other forms of slavery. This year’s report has analysed modern-day human slavery in 188 countries of the world. Broadly, the report divides the countries into three tiers depending on the level of compliance with the minimum standards for elimination of human trafficking.
Tier 1 is the highest ranking but that does not mean that the problem does not exist at all in that country. It only means that these countries have better mechanisms in place for the protection of human trafficking victims, prosecution of the offenders, and prevention of human trafficking while Tier 3 countries are the worst. Tier 2 falls in between.
The TIP report is not a perfect document and invites a lot of criticism every year. First, it is alleged that the report is coloured by US’ foreign and strategic interests and the ranking it gives depends on how cordial relations are between the US and a specific country. For example, the current report has downgraded China, Russia and Uzbekistan to Tier 3 and has evoked a lot of criticism and reaction – especially from China.
Second, it is not considered a well-researched document as the results are not necessarily based on empirical analysis. Rather its country narratives are based on local information and perceptions. It is, however, also an undeniable fact that the TIP report is perhaps the most comprehensive document on human trafficking and modern-day bondage.
Pakistan has been bracketed with the Tier 2 countries. The report broadly mentions the human trafficking and bondage problem in Pakistan under two main categories. First is bonded labour within the territorial boundaries of Pakistan. Bonded labour is the largest human trafficking problem in Pakistan according to the report. Human traffickers or recruiters use the debt assumed by a labourer as a mechanism for perpetuating bonded labour.
A landlord or a brick-kiln owner usually employs a person at very low wages (much below the minimum wage limit). The labourer is not able to make both ends meet in such a meagre income and assumes debt to meet his exigencies like feeding his children or marrying his daughters off or for health care. The debt so acquired multiplies and he finds himself unable to settle it due to his meagre income.
In the struggle for survival, the person dies but his debt lives on – inherited by his heirs. This cycle continues for generations. According to the report, “In some cases when bonded labourers attempt to escape or seek legal redress, police return them to the landowners and brick-kiln owners who then hold labourers and their families including children in chains in private jails. Boys and girls as young as five years old are bought, sold, rented, or kidnapped and placed in organised begging rings, domestic servitude, small shops and factories and prostitution”.
The second category of bonded labour discussed in the report is where the crime transcends national boundaries. Due to limited opportunities at home, people migrate to the Gulf States, South Africa and European countries. These are generally low-skilled workers and are sometimes illiterate. The corrupt human trafficking mafia, in the form of recruiters and agents at home, charge an exorbitant fee for getting their documents processed. These agents retain passports and other documents to then blackmail these poor workers, who are thus perpetually condemned to a life of insecurity and misery.
The agencies supposed to bring human traffickers to book are not that severe with them – for obvious reasons. According to the report, complicity of government officials in human trafficking is a big problem in Pakistan. “Some reports asserted that low-level officials in the FIA anti-trafficking unit, including police, did not register cases against trafficking offenders in exchange for bribes. Other reports noted that some FIA officials solicited bribes from deported Pakistani citizens who arrived in Pakistani airports to avoid having charges filed against them; some of these citizens may have been trafficking victims”.
The report also finds that Pakistan lacks any systematic method for the identification of trafficking victims and provision of protective services to them. Rather than being provided protection, such victims are generally fined, detained and in some cases jailed. There have been reports of local police returning bonded labourers who attempted to escape from the private jails of so-called waderas or brick-kiln owners – kept there since they owed money to their captives. Similarly, we have done very little for the prevention of human trafficking, according to the TIP report.
Human trafficking and slavery are highly complex phenomena. The report talks only about the obvious, not going into the fundamental causes of modern-day slavery. Certainly, we need to plug the loopholes as regards the prosecution of human traffickers. We need to improve our protection and prevention mechanisms.
We need to purge agencies responsible for prosecuting human traffickers of corrupt and inefficient officials. We also need to sensitise people in general and government functionaries in particular about how victims of human trafficking need to be dealt with. But at the same time we need to address the underlying causes of modern-day slavery.
The first is deep-rooted poverty. If a dispassionate analysis of the victims of human trafficking and bondage is conducted, it would become obvious that a majority, if not all, of the victims belong to the poor and vulnerable segments of society. Low-skilled labourers who fail to get employment at home, go abroad and become victims of human trafficking.
Bonded labour continues and families are condemned to it forever because the victims of such labour are poor, powerless, and voiceless. Street children are exposed to sexual harassment because they are compelled to beg on the streets due to poverty and state neglect. This means that reducing poverty should be at the centre stage of any policy devised for eliminating modern-day slavery.
The second main factor relates to the centuries-old power structures and class-based systems prevalent in our country. For example, feudalism in rural areas is a major factor responsible for bonded labour. Unless land redistribution does not take place, economic, social and political power will also remain concentrated in a small minority. Fundamental reforms are needed for dispersion of power in society and implementation of rule of law if we really wish to abolish modern-day slavery. The point is that a comprehensive strategy encompassing both short- and long-term measures is required.
Short-term measures include improving the mechanisms in place for prosecution of human traffickers, protection of victims, and prevention of human trafficking through awareness campaigns etc. The long-term components of the strategy should essentially aim at poverty alleviation and disruption of current dysfunctional power structures in the society through revolutionary policy changes.
The writer is a graduate of Columbia University. Email: jamilnasir1969@gmail.com
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