Trafficking in human beings

From Freepedia

(Redirected from Trafficking of children)

Trafficking in human beings includes recruiting, harbouring, obtaining, and transporting persons by use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjecting them to involuntary acts, such as commercial sexual exploitation (including prostitution) or involuntary labour, i.e., enslaving them. Human trafficking is the trade of human beings and their use by criminals to make money. This often means forcing or tricking people into prostitution, begging, or labor in sweatshops, domestic servitude and manual labour. On a related issue, children are forced to be child soldiers.

Contents

Introduction

In many parts of the world, including East and South East Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa, girls and young women are particularly at risk from criminals who promise good jobs or opportunities for study and then force the victims to be prostitutes. The criminals profit while the girls and women suffer rape and other physical and mental violence. Men are also at risk of being trafficked for unskilled work predominantly involving hard labor. Other forms of trafficking include bonded and sweatshop labor, forced marriage, and domestic servitude. Trafficked persons are often from the most vulnerable in society (especially in post-conflict situations, such as Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina), they may also be university educated and from all backgrounds, races, and classes. Some see human trafficking as the modern form of slavery. Human trafficking is not the same as people smuggling. A smuggler will facilitate illegal entry into a country for a fee, but on arrival at their destination, the smuggled person is free; the trafficking victim is enslaved. The trafficker takes away the basic human rights of the victim. Victims do not agree to be trafficked - they are tricked - lured by false promises - or forced. Traffickers use coercive tactics including deception, fraud, intimidation, isolation, threat and use of physical force, debt bondage or even force-feeding with drugs of abuse to control their victims. Women are typically recruited with promises of good jobs in other countries or provinces, and, lacking better options at home, agree to migrate. Through agents and brokers who arrange the travel and job placements, women are escorted to their destinations and delivered to the employers. Upon reaching their destinations, some women learn that they have been deceived about the nature of the work they will do; most have been lied to about the financial arrangements and conditions of their employment; and all find themselves in coercive and abusive situations from which escape is both difficult and dangerous.

Extent

Due to the illegal nature of trafficking, the exact extent is unknown. A US Government report published in 2003, estimates that 800,000-900,000 people worldwide are trafficked across borders each year, the majority in South East Asia, Japan and Europe. This figure does not include those who are trafficked internally. [1] Up to 20,000 people are trafficked into the United States each year. Trafficking in people is also increasing in Africa, South Asia and South America. Between 80% and 90% of victims trafficked across international borders are female and the majority of those are women and girls are trafficked for sexual exploitation, forced into prostitution.

In Ukraine, a survey conducted by the non-governmental organization (NGO) “La Strada-Ukraine” in 2001-2003, based on a sample of 106 women being 'trafficked' out of Ukraine found that 3% were under 18, and the US State Department reported in 2004 that incidents of minors being trafficked was increasing. In Thailand, NGOs have estimated that up to a third of prostitutes are children under 18, many trafficked from outside Thailand. [2]

The 1996 report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography estimates that about one million children in Asia alone are victims of the sex trade. According to the International Labour Organization, the problem is especially alarming in Korea, Thailand, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Cambodia and Nepal. [3]

In Africa and South Asia, many countries are faced with a rising child prostitution problem and the linkage with tourism is evident. Child prostitution and the trafficking of children for sexual exploitation is also increasing in Europe, North America, Japan and Australia.

Human trafficking is so common now that it is the third most profitable criminal activity in the world after illegal drugs and arms trafficking. Globally, forced labour - which includes sexual exploitation - generates $31bn, half of it in the industrialised world, a tenth in transition countries, the International Labour Organization says in a report on forced labour ("A global alliance against forced labour", ILO, 11 May 2005).

Trafficking in people has been facilitated by porous borders and advanced communication technologies, it has become increasingly transnational in scope and highly lucrative. Unlike drugs or arms, women and children can be "sold" several times. The trafficking in human beings is not new. But it is a rapidly growing problem. A number of factors have led to its expansion, such as the easy profits made from exploitation; growing deprivation and marginalization of the poor; discrimination against women; restrictive migration laws; a lack of information about the realities and dangers of trafficking and insufficient penalties against traffickers. The opening up of Asian markets, porous borders, the end of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the former Yugoslavia have contributed to this dark side to globalization.

It has been reported that some government officials in countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia and El Salvador facilitate human trafficking by accepting bribes from traffickers. Also, many governments treat victims as illegal aliens, jailing and deporting them while not punishing the trafficker.

International law

In 2000 the United Nations adopted the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, also called the Palermo Convention and two protocols thereto:

All three these instruments contain elements of the current international law on trafficking in human beings.

Council of Europe

The Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings [4] [5] was adopted by the Council of Europe on the 16 May 2005. The aim of the convention is to prevent and combat the trafficking in human beings. Of the 46 members of the Council of Europe, only 16 have signed the convention and none have ratified it. [6]

United States Law

The United States has taken a firm stance against human trafficking both within its borders and beyond. Domestically, human trafficking is prosecuted through the Civil Rights Division, Criminal Section of the United States Department of Justice. Older statutes used to protect 13th Amendment Rights within United States Borders are Title 18 U.S.C., Sections 1581 and 1584. Section 1584 makes it a crime to force a person to work against his will. This compulsion can be effected by use of force, threat of force, threat of legal coercion or by "a climate of fear", that is, an environment wherein an individual believes they may be harmed by leaving or refusing to work. Section 1581 similarly makes it illegal to force a person to work through "debt servitude".

New laws were passed under the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000. The new laws responded to a changing face of trafficking in the United States. It allowed for greater statutory maximum sentences for traffickers, provided resources for protection of and assistance for victims of trafficking and created avenues for interagency cooperation in the field of human trafficking. This law also attempted to encourage efforts to prevent human trafficking internationally, by creating annual country reports on trafficking, as well as by tying financial non-humanitarian assistance to foreign countries to real efforts in addressing human trafficking.

Respected international agencies, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have called on the United States to improve its measures aimed at reducing trafficking. They recommend that the United States more fully implement the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children and the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and for immigration officers to improve their awareness of trafficking and support the victims of trafficking. [7][8]

See also

External links

Organisations and campaigns

Information Clearinghouses and Databases on Human Trafficking

Factbooks on Human Trafficking

Articles and papers

Government and international organisations

Modern peacekeeping and forced prostitution

Survivors' testimonies

Retrieved from "http://en.freepedia.org/Trafficking_in_human_beings.html"


Views
Personal tools
In other languages
Similar Links