IOM: Global Eye on Human Trafficking, Issue 13, September 2013

Source: IOM

IOM on this issue of Global Eye on Human Trafficking

In this 13th issue of The Global Eye on Human Trafficking, we explore prevention:  how best can we prevent human trafficking before it occurs, and thereby save the individuals and communities from its damaging impact? Certainly the most common approach to preventing human trafficking over the years has been to focus on raising awareness – of the public at large, or of people who might be particularly vulnerable to exploitation. But does this approach really work? In the 13 years that we've had the Palermo Protocol, and with a significant investment of resources, what have our information campaigns achieved? Phil Marshall and Tara Dermott debate the issue in ‘Perspectives'. 

We profile the work of Mr. Tristan Forster who, with his private company FSI, is trying to protect migrant workers through the recruitment process. From the Polaris Project, Sarah Jakyel talks about the importance of empowering migrant workers to know and assert their human and labour rights, and also about the need for a communication point, such as a telephone hotline, to which they can report abuses. 

Finally, we are all aware of the ways in which technology is being abused to facilitate human exploitation, but it can also be used positively.  IOM's own Jenny Agis reports on some of the innovative ways in which technology is being used as a prevention tool.

Read the issue here:

http://publications.iom.int/bookstore/free/Global_Eye_issue13_7Oct2013.pdf

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TODAYonline | Singapore | HOME comments on Govt response to US human trafficking report

http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC120717-0000001/HOME-comments-on-Govt-response-to-US-human-trafficking-report

Source: TODAYonline

Saturday, July 21, 2012


SINGAPORE - The Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics (HOME) has issued a statement on the United States' latest Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report, as well as the Singapore Government's response to the report. 

It said it considered Singapore's Tier 2 ranking - given to countries that do not comply with minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, but is making significant efforts to do so - to be an "appropriate assessment". 

The ranking recognised the efforts of the Government and the Inter-agency Taskforce on Trafficking in Persons (the Taskforce) in the past year - such as the launch of the National Plan of Action against Trafficking in Persons - but also reflected the lack of adequate legislation in Singapore to address trafficking, HOME said. 

HOME also addressed the rebuttals by the Singapore Government to the TIP report. Responding to the TIP report stating that employers' ability to repatriate workers any time during during their contracts has fuelled workers' fears of being deported, the Taskforce had said that employers are required to give notice of termination in line with the provisions in the employment contract, or in line with the notice requirements under the Employment Act. 

HOME pointed out that the notice periods in the Employment Act are "grossly insufficient" - one day's notice or one day's salary in lieu of notice for workers employed for less than 26 weeks - and employers can also cancel work permits without informing the worker in advance.

On the Government saying that only the Manpower Ministry can impose employment bars - the TIP report had stated that employers can submit complaints to have such bars imposed - HOME noted that employers may have considerable influence on MOM. 

"Employers may lodge police reports and submit negative feedback about workers and MOM may blacklist them based on such feedback," HOME said. "Many employers also use the threat of 'blacklisting' to discourage workers from lodging complaints."

While the Taskforce has said that there are stringent penalties imposed on convicted traffickers, HOME noted that there are key aspects of the international definition trafficking set out in the United Nations' Palermo Protocol not found in Singapore's laws, and this means that many cases - especially labour trafficking cases - remain undetected and unprosecuted.

"Worse still, there are cases in which trafficked persons themselves have been criminalised, especially when they are undocumented and are treated as immigration offenders whilst their traffickers remain at large," HOME said. 

The Taskforce should identify gaps in current laws and put in place a comprehensive legislative response to combat trafficking in Singapore, it added.

HOME noted that repatriation companies have still not been outlawed in Singapore, even though their activities, which involve the confinement of migrant workers, are illegal. 

"Conducting just one operation to inspect what is an undesirable and illegal operation is insufficient as a response. Further, almost all of the 2,000 workers that HOME sees every year have had their work permit cards and passports held by their employers," HOME said. "This common practice of employers confiscating passports and work permit cards must be urgently addressed by MOM." 

Elsewhere, the organisation suggested that a comprehensive victim assistance programme be made available to suspected trafficking victims to pursue cases against their traffickers, and the availability of such programmes should not be conditional upon the participation of a trafficked individual in a prosecution case.

As for assistance for victims, HOME said it is concerned that the Government has insufficient space to house female migrant workers who have been subjected to exploitation and trafficking.

"HOME strongly believes that a far more comprehensive response is required of the Taskforce. Specialised victim assistance services are required, including shelters specifically intended for victims of trafficking," the organisation said.

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The Trafficking in Persons Report 2011: Truth, Trends, and Tier Rankings

Source: http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/rm/2011/176343.htm


Testimony

Luis CdeBaca
Ambassador-at-Large, Office To Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons

Statement Before the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights of the House Foreign Affairs Committee

Washington, DC

October 27, 2011

Thank you Mr. Chairman, Congressman Payne, and all the members of this committee for the opportunity to testify today. As Congress continues to deliberate this year’s reauthorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, hearings such as this one are helpful opportunities to discuss the global fight against human trafficking, and in particular one of our government’s most important tools in moving that fight forward, the annual Trafficking in Persons Report.

The TIP Report assesses government action around the world against trafficking in persons—that is, all of the activities involved in reducing someone to, or holding them in, a condition of compelled service. The core of this Report is the set of Congressionally-established minimum standards set forth in the TVPA. These standards reflect the definitions and framework to combat trafficking in persons outlined in the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, known also as the Palermo Protocol.

Following Congress’s mandate, the Department of State ranks governments around the world according to these standards and determines a tier ranking based on a government’s progress in meeting those standards. The Report comprises those rankings as well as individual country narratives that further explain both the TIP situation on the ground and governmental efforts according to the criteria laid out by Congress. The methodology is sound and transparent—the facts are applied to the law. Any country, whether in Asia or elsewhere, that wants to test this methodology need only assess their efforts against these minimum standards.

Thorough and honest assessments are the benchmark of the TIP Report. Our narratives take into account information from civil society groups, foreign governments, and our own State Department reporting officers who conduct on-the-ground research throughout the year. The review process involves numerous DOS offices so that the final product represents a Department-wide consensus on how well various governments are handling this problem. Beginning last year, a United States country ranking was also included in the Report, because, as Secretary Clinton has said, we should hold ourselves to the same standards as we hold everyone else. Accurate reporting is essential to the effectiveness of the TIP Report as a diplomatic tool, and indeed governments repeatedly cite it as a factor prompting stronger action in response to modern slavery. Sometimes that happens in public—more often in private. And sometimes a government that criticizes the Report and even perhaps mobilizes others against it quietly takes steps to work with us to begin meeting these standards.

What the Report tells us is that no country is immune to this scourge, and that no government is doing a perfect job combating it. The two regions we are addressing today—East Asia and the Pacific, and South and Central Asia—are hit particularly hard by this crime. I’m pleased to be joined today by Assistant Secretary Robert Blake, who leads the Department’s South and Central Asian Affairs Bureau, and Joseph Yun, Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. We always say the fight against modern slavery takes political will, and Bob Blake and EAP Assistant Secretary Kurt Campbell are showing that both individually and within their chains of command. My colleagues will discuss in greater detail the progress in these areas and what governments are doing about it, but I’d like to highlight a few of the problems in trends that were discussed in the 2011 TIP Report and continue to be areas of concern.

• Sex trafficking of women and children has not abated and may in fact be increasing in places such as India. Additionally, our findings continue to show that it is local populations, more than Western “sex tourists,” that fuel the demand for sex trafficking, and law enforcement needs to address both sectors for prevention to be truly successful. Widening gender gaps in China and India are fueling the demand for young girls as forced brides or for commercial sexual exploitation.
• We know that around the world, forced labor is highly prevalent among migrant populations, and that Asia has the world’s largest share of labor migration. Migrants from both the East Asia and Pacific and South and Central Asia regions are subjected to forced labor in recognized destination countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, and the Persian Gulf. More troubling still, much of this abuse takes place under the guise of legal, contractual and temporary work.
• In recent months, concerns over forced labor on fishing fleets have garnered increased attention. Our own research suggests that this is a problem with massive geographic scope, spanning fisheries from Indonesia to New Zealand. And Asian boats are ranging from the Cape of Good Hope to Central America.
• The enslavement of domestic workers from South and East Asia is a significant problem, whether Sri Lankans abused in the Gulf or Indonesians exploited in Malaysia. The International Labor Organization’s (ILO) new Convention on Domestic Workers aims at addressing the unique vulnerabilities of this group; we hope that the increased attention on this challenge will lead to governments addressing the needs for justice and services for these victims.
• Definitional confusion among governments in the EAP and SCA regions continues to lead to the conflation of people smuggling and human trafficking. This lack of clarity hinders efforts to find and help victims. When it comes to trafficking, we continue to urge destination governments to shift their focus away from the legality of a migrant. As we know, modern slavery need not involve movement or cross borders.
• Additionally, we continue to push governments to acknowledge that human trafficking is a crime that can involve sex and labor. For instance, the definition of trafficking in the 2005 South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Convention is not consistent with how the term is defined and addressed in many other prominent international instruments on trafficking in persons from groups such as the Council of Europe and the Organization of American States, and with the primary international treaty on trafficking, the Palermo Protocol. The Convention continues to focus on the concept of trafficking as the movement of women and children for prostitution and fails to address the trafficking of adults or forced labor. We hope that as the region’s leaders gather for the SAARC Summit in Male in November, they will work toward bringing the region’s conceptual notion of trafficking into conformity with the UN and other regional frameworks.
• We continue to advocate for comprehensive victim care, rather than the “Detain and Deport” model that we too often see in these regions. Protection should not mean inappropriate confinement for victims preparatory to deportation. Indeed, they need to be empowered through the opportunity for economic self-sustainability as well as aftercare and alternatives to deportation.
• We encourage governments of sending and receiving states to explicitly address modern slavery in labor-related memoranda of understanding (MOUs) and to enforce those provisions in an open and transparent manner.

My staff and I, collaborating closely with regional bureaus, will continue to engage governments in these regions in order to bring these issues to their attention, and we will urge them to take positive action in advance of next year’s TIP Report.

In addition to the country narratives, the TIP Report includes an introduction that provides a conceptual framework to the struggle against modern slavery. In this year’s Report, we show that the first 10 years of the modern anti-trafficking movement have been a decade of development: in countries all over the world, legal structures have been enacted and protection mechanisms have been put in place. However, the number of successful prosecutions seems to have leveled off, services for survivors continue to be inadequate, and victim identification remains a challenge. That’s why the 2011 TIP Report described the need for a “decade of delivery,” in which governments must be held accountable for delivering on the promises made in recent years. Because structures and results are not the same thing.

The difference between the passage of a law and the effective implementation of a law is political will. We have seen political will succeed. We have seen it in the Philippines, where the Aquino Administration is prioritizing trafficking cases in the court system and pushing through the backlog, delivering on a set of processes and promises that had been moribund at best. We have seen it in other regions; the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) this summer invited Nigerian prosecutors to come to Singapore and share the secrets of their success, providing a unique opportunity for ASEAN members to learn from an African country.

But the reality is that there are places where that political will is weak or nonexistent, and there, victims are most at risk. As the Report shows, some governments merely go through the motions when it comes to fighting modern slavery, and some governments don’t do anything at all. A key source of hope for victims and survivors is the work of civil society—non-governmental organizations, international organizations, the faith community, and advocacy groups.

These organizations are made up of people working every day to make the decade of delivery a reality despite the fact that many governments are doing little or nothing at all. These groups are running shelters on dollars a day. They are freeing victims from the most horrific abuse imaginable. They are the women and men on the front line of this fight. But as is often the case in places where poverty and corruption hinder the good intentions of committed people, a lack of resources and capacity are insurmountable roadblocks to those seeking to save victims from exploitation and bring their traffickers to justice.

In addition to our robust diplomatic efforts, this is another area where the Trafficking in Persons Office is making a difference, though our International Programs foreign assistance funds. In the last two years, my office received 998 applications for assistance from 546 organizations requesting a total of $547 million. We know that it will never be possible to give every organization the help they want. And we know that we have a responsibility to be responsible custodians of taxpayer dollars. That’s why our office has implemented a rigorous and transparent review process to ensure that every cent of our foreign assistance appropriation is spent responsibly and is put to the use where it will do the most good.

To answer the requests for $547 million which we received through funding applications—the vast majority of which described projects of tremendous merit— our office administered a foreign assistance budget for the last two years of $39.1 million. Based on an estimate that there are up to 27 million victims of trafficking worldwide, that funding total provides a little more than 72 cents per victim per year. This year’s solicitation is out, and we hope to receive innovative and impactful proposals.

The country-specific tier rankings and diagnostic assessments included in the TIP Report help us determine where we should be allocating these funds. To maximize the impact of our efforts, we identify priority countries for programming. We generally target our foreign assistance to Tier 3, Tier 2 Watch List, and, in some cases, Tier 2 countries. This linkage demonstrates that the Report isn’t just an exercise in finger-pointing at countries that aren’t doing a good job, but is an important tool for determining where our foreign assistance dollars can be used most effectively.

These are not places where a wealth of resources is available to fight human trafficking. If we were to suddenly pull the plug on the projects we support, there wouldn’t be another organization waiting in the wings to take over the provision of victim services. There wouldn’t be another source of funding to keep training prosecutors and police officers. In many countries, if the little funding we are able to give were to disappear, those programs would simply cease to exist. In those places, there would be no place for victims and survivors to go.

It was four months ago today that we released the 2011 TIP Report and that Secretary Clinton called for a decade of delivery. If the Trafficking in Persons Office is no longer able to stand with those organizations making a difference on the ground, the decade of delivery is already in danger of failing. If the antitrafficking movement loses the fight in Washington, in the halls of Congress, we could lose that fight everywhere else as well.

We cannot balance the budget on the backs of trafficking victims. If we try to do so, from some misplaced sense of proportion with across-the-board cuts to an already tiny budget, we put at risk all the progress made over the last decade. This crime continues to present a monumental challenge. But there’s still much reason for hope. We want the 2012 Trafficking in Persons Report to be a report about more and more success stories. We want it to tell about governments living up to their responsibilities. We want it to describe effective partnerships with robust civil society. We want this Report to show the struggle against modern slavery moving in the right direction. Because this Report is not merely a reflection of what foreign governments are doing to combat this heinous crime. It is a reflection of American leadership around the world.

Human trafficking is a threat to our security and an offense to our most important values. But more importantly, as Secretary Clinton has said, “fighting slavery is part of who we are as a nation.” We have a responsibility to act against this crime. We must not—will not—shrink from that responsibility.

Thank you, and I look forward to answering any questions you have.

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Christians welcome India ratifying UN conventions against organised crime

Source: Christian Today India

By: John Malhotra

Friday, 20 May 2011, 15:41 (IST)

The All India Christian Council today welcomed India's decision to ratify the United Nations Convention against Organised Crime also known as Palermo Protocol.

The Palermo Protocol aims at combating trafficking, migrant smuggling and illicit trafficking in firearms. There are three protocols that are referred to jointly as the Palermo Protocol.

"The Christian Council welcomes India’s practical step towards stopping modern-day slavery. India did not ratify the Palermo Protocols for eleven years. Many campaigners were concerned that India lacked a clear and full definition of human trafficking for Indian states and territories to use in legislation and enforcement," aicc said in a statement.

On May 13, India’s Ministry of External Affairs announced that it had ratified all three Palermo Protocols that target specific areas of organized crime - trafficking in persons; migrant smuggling; and illicit trafficking in firearms.

The Protocol was adopted by the UN at Palermo, Italy, in 2000, and it supported the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. The Protocol was signed by India in December 2002, but was not ratified until last week.

Joseph D'souza, aicc President, commented, “We welcome this move by the Indian government. Now we are looking for a significant improvement in enforcement and victim care as words are translated into action. Our concern is for millions of Dalits who are being exploited. They make up to 90% of all those trafficked or in bonded labour in India.”

“We value the role of the international community not only in supporting our on-the-ground efforts to address trafficking in India, but also in encouraging the authorities to move toward more comprehensive measures and more effective action,” said D’souza who is also the President of Dalit Freedom Network.

Year-on-year, the annual Trafficking in Persons Report has highlighted that India had failed to ratify the Protocol, as had a recent UN report. The concern has been that India lacked a comprehensive definition of human trafficking to provide a common platform for the different Indian states to use in legislation and enforcement.

"This convention is the main international instrument in the fight against transnational organized crime," a statement by the Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), a child rights organisation, said.

RS Chaurasia of BBA said: "This ratification is a shot in the arm for all the anti-human trafficking activists like us as the lack of a comprehensive legislation and policy in India has often been the reason for the lack of law enforcement and knowledge on the issue."

India has emerged as one of the biggest source, route and destination country for victims of trafficking. According to government figures, 60, 000 children go missing annually in India and majority of them fall prey to trafficking.

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Slavery in the Modern Age - NYTimes.com

Published: July 1, 2011

Anyone who thinks slavery ended with the 13th Amendment is not paying attention. According to the latest State Department statistics, as many as 100,000 people in the United States are in bondage and perhaps 27 million people worldwide. The numbers are staggering.

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These victims of human trafficking are vulnerable men, women or children coerced into servitude for sex or labor. They might be transported from Russia to Europe, from the Philippines to Dubai, or held in their hometown.

The stories are heartbreaking. The Cambodian girl sold to a brothel who was stabbed in the eye by the brothel’s owner when she fought back. The Middle Eastern woman hired as a domestic in London whose employers seized her passport and locked her away in the house. The teenager in Dallas forced into prostitution.

In 2000, the United States enacted an antitrafficking law and the United Nations adopted the Palermo Protocol. Both call for countries to criminalize trafficking, punish offenders and provide shelter to victims.

In its 2011 trafficking report, the State Department concluded that last year only 32 of 184 countries fully complied with the standards set by the American law. The number on the list of the worst violators rose to 23 from 13. Two close United States allies, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, joined that list of shame.

There has been progress. In the last decade, 146 countries signed the protocol and 128 of those passed laws banning human trafficking. That reflects a growing and encouraging acceptance of a problem once denied.

There is still much to do. All nations should sign the protocol, pass tough national laws and work vigorously to ensure their implementation. Abusers, including firms that hire trafficked employees, must be prosecuted and victims protected. No human being should be enslaved.

A version of this editorial appeared in print on July 2, 2011, on page A18 of the New York edition with the headline: Slavery in the Modern Age.

Source: NYTimes.com

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More Resources Needed to Stop Human Trafficking | Opinion | Epoch Times

By Jonathon Emord Created: Jan 20, 2011 Last Updated: Jan 20, 2011

Children are silhouetted in front of posters displayed during the International Day Against Human Trafficking, in suburban Manila on Dec. 12, 2010. (Jay Directo/AFP/Getty Images)

The United States Department of State estimates that there were approximately 12.3 million adults and children in slavery worldwide in 2010. The children were compelled to engage in labor, prostitution, involuntary domestic service, and soldiering against their will.

But because of the clandestine nature of the trade in humans, estimates of the numbers of adults and children in captivity vary widely. Despite the millions enslaved, there were only 4,166 successful prosecutions of traffickers in 2009.

Human trafficking occurs in almost every country, yet governments worldwide are failing to do what is required to combat the practice, and some are complicit in it. There is a dire need for greater resources to combat the evil, including far greater reliance on police decoys who pose as victims and as customers to ferret out the traffickers and bring them to justice.

Life Terms for Traffickers

In addition, penalties for trafficking need to be raised substantially, so that life terms become common for those who enslave others and for those who physically abuse adults. Severe punishment should be meted out for those who rape adults and children and for those who physically abuse children.

The United States is one of the principal destinations for traffickers.

In 2000, the United Nations adopted its Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially women and children (the so-called Palermo Protocol). In that same year, the United States enacted the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. While those actions have increased awareness of human trafficking, they have not caused arrests, prosecutions, and convictions to reduce significantly the incidence of human trafficking.

Sophisticated organized crime operators move large numbers of people into human trafficking weekly. Many respond to false employment ads for maids, waitresses, and other low-salary positions, only to be kidnapped and compelled into labor or prostitution.

Others voluntarily become involved in prostitution only to find that they cannot escape the illicit practice because pimps or gang members threaten them or their relatives with injury or death if they do. Still others, children, are kidnapped or sold by their parents to traffickers and then end up as forced domestic servants or sex slaves.

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Trafficking destinations include the United States, Europe, South Korea, Canada, Australia, the Persian Gulf states, and many other countries worldwide. Women and children are often obtained from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Russia, the Baltic States, and Mexico, among other poorer nations, and are then sent to service wealthier clients around the world. Children as young as three have been kidnapped and sold by parents in Pakistan and Bangladesh to be used as camel jockeys in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

The United States is one of the principal destinations for traffickers. Cases document human trafficking in women and children from Honduras to Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas; Latvia to Chicago; Mexico to Florida; Korea to Michigan; Japan to Hawaii; Cameroon to Maryland; Taiwan to Seattle; India to California; and Vietnam to Atlanta.

Greater Efforts Needed

Toronto International Airport has become a hub for moving international trafficking victims into U.S. and Canadian cities. Near the Canadian border, Toledo, Ohio, ranks fourth in the United States in arrests, investigations, and rescues of child sex victims (behind Miami, Florida; Portland, Oregon; and Las Vegas, Nevada).

There is perhaps no greater offense to human dignity and worth than slavery, and there is no more vile and destructive practice than the sexual abuse of children.

Consequently, each nation should invest substantially in means to ferret out, capture, and punish those engaged in this trade. Prosecutions should be high profile events and, upon convictions, should lead to stiff sentencing.

Without the investment of substantially greater efforts, particularly through the use of decoys to identify traffickers and through their prompt arrest, prosecution, and conviction, this scourge is likely to grow. Additional resources, public and private, need to be devoted to the care and nurturing of victims, helping to restore them to good health and security.

Jonathan Emord writes the column 'Inside Washington' for Troy Media Corporation. Copyright Troy Media Corporation.

 Source: The Epoch Times

More Resources Needed to Stop Human Trafficking | Opinion | Epoch Times

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Human rights activists shed light on trafficking practices - The Pan American

Image via Wikipedia

By Alejandra Martinez/The Pan American

Published: Sunday, October 31, 2010

Updated: Sunday, October 31, 2010 15:10

The University of Texas-Pan American received a visit from human rights activists from Nigeria, Zambia and Kuwait Monday afternoon. The panel, which took place in the University Ballroom, was part of a tour the speakers have embarked on throughout the United States to learn what the country is doing to battle human trafficking. The speakers also discussed how their counties are combating this crime.

The speakers were Eugenia Temba, consultant from Zambia for the Red Light 2010 Anti-human Trafficking campaign, and the Women and Law in Southern Africa Education and Research Trust (WLSA); Adesina Adefolahan, from the Ogun State's Women's Consortium of Nigeria (WOCON); and Jamal M.M.A. Alotaibi, secretary general of the Kuwait Center for Expatriate's Rights.

The visit was sponsored by the U.S. Department of State's International Visitor Leadership Program and facilitated by the World Affairs Council of South Texas, of which UTPA President Robert S. Nelsen is a Board of Trustees member.

"President Nelsen invited the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences to coordinate a day of activities for our guests to explore the awareness and education efforts and international cooperation in combating trafficking in persons," said Nick Weimer, event coordinator and director of the Center for Academic Excellence at UTPA.

Adefolahan and Temba spoke about the different types of trafficking that exist in their respective countries and what is being done to fight them.

"In Nigeria we have what is called internal trafficking and transnational trafficking," Adefolahan explained. "Internal trafficking is when people are trafficked from rural communities to major cities."

He went on to say that victims are deceived with promises of a better education and a job once they arrive to the cities. However, once they reach their destination they are often sold as house servants and prostitutes.

Adefolahan has been an anti-human trafficking advocate for about nine years. He is a member of WOCON, a non-governmental, non-religious, and non-profit organization providing care for women and children who fall victim to violence and human trafficking.

Like Adefolahan, Temba, an activist from Zambia, spoke about what her country is doing to battle human trafficking.  She mentioned that the act of trafficking is highly feminized in Zambia, meaning that women and young girls are the main targets. Ironically, women are also the primary recruiters.

She added that the main types of trafficking women fall victim to include forced marriages, domestic work, and child laundering. This last one is when women, especially young girls, are impregnated repeatedly and forced to give up their children for adoption.

"We're also seeing cases of trafficking in families… fathers and uncles selling children," she said. "A father attempted to sell his 10-year-old son for $200. Also an uncle attempted to sell his nephew for $6,000."

According to Temba, Zambia is one of the first countries in the Southern African region to have passed a specific and comprehensive anti-trafficking law. In 2005 Zambia signed something called the Palermo Protocol.

"The Palermo Protocol is the anti-human trafficking international instrument," Temba said. "It will allow the country to change its laws."

In 2008 the country passed a law that mandates a minimum of 20 years in prison for the trafficking of an adult and a minimum of 25 years for child trafficking.

According to Temba, the most common kind of human sales in Africa is labor trafficking.  Temba who served seven years in the United Nation's Children's Fund, said that about 12 million people worldwide are subjected to forced labor. And out of that number, 2.45 million are victims of trafficking.

The U.N. International Labor Organization quotes a figure of 800,000 to 1 million people trafficked across international borders every year. One in five is an African, four in five are female, and half are children.

Both Temba and Adefolahan said they plan to take what they learned from their visit back to their home countries, with the hope that it will help lead a more effective fight against human trafficking.

During their visit to the Rio Grande Valley, the panelists met with law enforcement agents, representatives of the Mexican government, tour shelters, and colonias of the Valley.

"This event helped to educate and raise awareness about issues on human trafficking in the Valley," Weimer added. "Which will hopefully lead to increased initiatives to address this problem that affects us all."

Human rights activists shed light on trafficking practices - The Pan American


Source: The Pan American Online 

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