Business law
Topic: Human Trafficking
Project by:
INDEX:
1) What Is Human Trafficking? 2) The Scale of Human Trafficking 3) The Causes Of Human Trafficking 4) Human Trafficking & Sexual Exploitation 5) Human Trafficking In India 6) Government Actions
About Human Trafficking
Human trafficking is the commerce and trade of people, legal and illegal, including both legitimate labour activities as well as forced labour. The term is used in a more narrow sense by advocacy groups to mean the recruitment, transportation, harbouring, or receipt of people for the purposes of slavery, prostitution, forced labour (including bonded labour or debt bondage), and servitude. The UNODC, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, defines human trafficking according to Annex II, General Provisions, Article 3, Paragraph 4 of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons defines trafficking in persons as 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." The UNODC offers practical help to states, not only helping to draft laws and create comprehensive national anti-trafficking strategies but also assisting with resources to implement them. The Council of Europe states, "People trafficking have reached epidemic proportions over the past decade, with a
global annual market of about $42.5 billion."Trafficking victims typically are recruited using coercion, deception, fraud, the abuse of power, or outright abduction.
Exploitation includes forcing people into prostitution or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery, or practices similar to slavery and servitude. For children, exploitation may also include forced prostitution, illicit international adoption, trafficking for early marriage, or recruitment as child soldiers, beggars, for sports (such as child camel jockeys or football players), or within certain religious groups. Human trafficking is by its very nature an international crime that requires a high level of co-operation and collaboration between states if it is to be tackled effectively. The OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe), an ad hoc intergovernmental organization under the United Nations Charter, is one of the leading agencies fighting the problem of human trafficking, with an area of operation that includes North America, Europe, Russia, and Central Asia. Human trafficking is also defined as the practice of recruiting, harbouring, transporting and receipt of people traded with exploitation in mind. It is a multi-billion dollar industry controlled by the biggest criminal masterminds in the world. Victims of human trafficking fall prey through deceptive methods and promises. Recruiters may also use fraud or coercion. Some even go to the extent of abduction. Some victims willingly go because of promises involving high salaries and great working conditions. These promises rarely come true.
The scale of human trafficking worldwide
Men, women and children are trafficked within their own countries and across international borders. Trafficking affects every continent and most countries. Every country is affected by human trafficking, whether they are an origin country where people are trafficked from; a transit country where people are trafficked through; or a destination country where people are trafficked to. Often a country will be all three. Men, women and children are trafficked. Due to the hidden and illegal nature of human trafficking, gathering statistics on the scale of the problem is difficult. The following statistics may represent an underestimation of trafficking, but are the most credible and frequently quoted:•
People trafficking is the fastest growing means by which people are enslaved, the fastest growing international crime, and one of the largest sources of income for organised crime The UN Office on Drugs and Crime 1.2 million children are trafficked every year Estimate by UNICEF At least 12.3 million people are victims of forced labour worldwide. Of these 2.4 million are as a result of human trafficking. A global alliance against forced labor, International Labour Organisation, 2005 600,000-800,000 men, women and children trafficked across international borders each year. Approximately 80 per cent are women and girls. Up to 50% are minors. US Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2005 The majority of trafficked victims arguably come from the poorest countries and poorest strata of the national population.
•
•
•
•
A global alliance against forced labor, International Labour Organisation, 2005
•
Human trafficking in the second largest source of illegal income worldwide exceeded only by drugs trafficking. (Belser 2005) There are even reports that some trafficking groups are switching their cargo from drugs to human beings, in a search of high profits at lower risk. Un office on drugs and crime People are trafficked into prostitution, begging, forced labour, military service, domestic service, forced illegal adoption, forced marriage etc.
•
•
The causes for Human Trafficking
There is no one cause of human trafficking in world. Trafficking is caused by an entire range of different conditions and issues. These include:
?
Lack of Awareness: Many people who migrate for work within
their country or abroad are unaware of the dangers of trafficking and the ways in which migrant workers are deceived or pushed into abusive or slave-like labour.
?
Poverty: Poverty has forced many households to create survival
strategies that have included migrating for work and bonded labour, i.e., renting out a person’s labour to pay off a debt or a loan.
?
Material Expectations: The desire for consumer products and
higher standards of living fuel migration and render migrants vulnerable to trafficking.
?
Cultural Factors: The following cultural factors contribute to
trafficking:
•
Women’s Role in the Family: Although cultural norms stress that a
woman’s place is at home as wife and mother, it is acknowledged that women may have to become supplementary wage earners in times of family need. A sense of duty and obligation drives many women to migrate for work in order to support their families.
•
Children’s Role in the Family: Obedience to parents and an
obligation to support the family makes children vulnerable to trafficking. Child labour, child migration for work, and child bonded labour are deemed acceptable family financial strategies to survive.
•
Early Marriage: Early marriage has serious implications for girls,
including health hazards, the end of schooling, limited economic opportunities, disruption of personal development, and, often, early divorce. Divorced girls are legally seen as adults and are vulnerable to trafficking as a result of their economic vulnerability.
•
History of Bonded Labour: The practice of renting out one’s
labour or that of a family member to pay off a loan is an accepted family survival strategy. People placed into bonded labour are especially vulnerable to abusive and slave-like work conditions.
?
Lack of Birth Registry: People without proper identification fall
prey to trafficking more easily, since their age and nationality cannot be documented. Children, who are trafficked, for example, are more easily passed off as adults to anyone who asks.
?
Lack of Education: People with limited education have fewer
viable job skills and opportunities and are thus more prone to trafficking as they look to migrate for unskilled work.
?
Corruption and Weak Enforcement of Laws: Traffickers can
often bribe corrupt law enforcement and immigration officials to overlook criminal activities. Public administrators can also be bribed to falsify information on ID cards, birth certificates, and passports, making migrant workers more vulnerable to trafficking due to illegal migration. In addition, lack of state funds budgeted for counter trafficking efforts hampers law enforcers’ ability to effectively deter and prosecute traffickers.
Human trafficking and Sexual Exploitation
There is no universally accepted definition of trafficking for sexual exploitation. The term encompasses the organized movement of people, usually women, between countries and within countries for sex work with the use of physical coercion, deception and bondage through forced debt. However, the issue becomes contentious when the element of coercion is removed from the definition to incorporate facilitating the willing involvement in prostitution. For example, In the United Kingdom, The Sexual Offenses Act, 2003 incorporated trafficking for sexual exploitation but did not require those committing the offense to use coercion, deception or force, so that it also includes any person who enters the UK to carry out sex work with consent as having been trafficked.
Save the Children stated "The issue gets mired in controversy and confusion when prostitution itself is considered as a violation of the basic human rights of both adult women and minors, and equal to sexual exploitation per se..... trafficking and prostitution become conflated with each other.... On account of the historical conflation of trafficking and prostitution both legally and in popular understanding, an overwhelming degree of effort and
interventions of anti-trafficking groups are concentrated on trafficking into prostitution"
Sexual trafficking includes coercing a migrant into a sexual act as a condition of allowing or arranging the migration. Sexual trafficking uses physical coercion, deception and bondage incurred through forced debt. Trafficked women and children, for instance, are often promised work in the domestic or service industry, but instead are usually taken to brothels where their passports and other identification papers are confiscated. They may be beaten or locked up and promised their freedom only after earning – through prostitution – their purchase price, as well as their travel and visa costs. The main motive of a woman (in some cases an underage girl) to accept an offer from a trafficker is better financial opportunities for herself or her family. In many cases traffickers initially offer ‘legitimate’ work or the promise of an opportunity to study. The main types of work offered are in the catering and hotel industry, in bars and clubs, modelling contracts, or au pair work. Traffickers sometimes use offers of marriage, threats, intimidation and kidnapping as means of obtaining victims. In the majority of cases, the women end up in prostitution. Also some (migrating) prostitutes become victims of human trafficking. Some women know they will be working as prostitutes, but they have an inaccurate view of the circumstances and the conditions of the work in their country of destination. In Japan the prosperous entertainment market had created huge demand for commercial sexual workers, and such demand is being met by trafficking women and children from the Philippines, Colombia and Thailand. Women are forced into street prostitution, based stripping and live sex acts. However, detainees or
deportees from Japan said that about 80 percent of the women went there with the intention of working as prostitutes Trafficking victims are also exposed to different psychological problems. They suffer social alienation in the host and home countries. Stigmatization, social exclusion and intolerance make reintegration into local communities difficult. The governments offer little assistance and social services to trafficked victims upon their return. As the victims are also pushed into drug trafficking, many of them face criminal sanctions.
Human trafficking In India!
India is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labour and commercial sexual exploitation. Internal forced labour may constitute India's largest trafficking problem; men, women, and children in debt bondage are forced to work in industries such as brick kilns, rice mills, agriculture, and embroidery factories. Although no comprehensive study of forced and bonded labour has been carried out, some NGOs estimate this problem affects tens of millions
of Indians. Those from India’s most disadvantaged social economic strata are particularly vulnerable to forced or bonded labour and sex trafficking. Women and girls are trafficked within the country for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced marriage. Children are also subjected to forced labour as factory workers, domestic servants, beggars, and agricultural workers.
India is also a destination for women and girls from Nepal and Bangladesh trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation. There are also victims of labour trafficking among the thousands of Indians who migrate willingly every year to the Middle East, Europe, and the United States for work as domestic servants and low-skilled labourers. In some cases, such workers are the victims of fraudulent recruitment practices committed in India that lead them directly into situations of forced labour, including debt bondage; in other cases, high debts incurred to pay recruitment fees leave them vulnerable to exploitation by unscrupulous employers in the destination countries, where some are subjected to conditions of involuntary servitude, including non-payment of wages, restrictions on movement, unlawful withholding of passports, and physical or sexual abuse. Men and women from Bangladesh and Nepal are trafficked through India for forced labour and commercial sexual exploitation in the Middle East. Over 500 Nepalese girls were jailed in the state of Bihar on charges of using false documents to transit India in the pursuit of employment in Gulf countries. Indian nationals travel to Nepal and within the country for child sex tourism. The Government of India does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. Despite these significant efforts, India has not demonstrated sufficient progress in its law enforcement efforts to address human
trafficking, particularly bonded labour; therefore, India is placed on Tier 2 Watch List. India’s central government faces several challenges in demonstrating a more robust anti-trafficking effort: states under the Indian Constitution have the primary responsibility for law enforcement and state-level authorities are limited in their abilities to effectively confront interstate and transnational trafficking crimes; complicity in trafficking by many Indian law enforcement officials and overburdened courts impede effective prosecutions; widespread poverty continues to provide a huge source of vulnerable people; and the Indian government faces other equally pressing priorities such as basic healthcare, education, and counterterrorism. During the reporting period, the central government continued to improve coordination among a multitude of bureaucratic agencies that play a role in anti-trafficking and labour issues. Government authorities continued to rescue victims of trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation and forced child labour. Several state governments (Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Goa, and West Bengal) demonstrated significant efforts in prosecution, protection, and prevention, although largely in the area of trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation
Recommendations for India:
Continue to expand central and state government law enforcement capacity to conduct intrastate and interstate law enforcement activities against trafficking and bonded labour; consider expanding the Central Ministry of Home Affairs “nodal cell” on trafficking to coordinate law enforcement efforts to investigate and arrest traffickers who cross state and national lines; significantly increase law enforcement efforts to decrease official complicity in trafficking, including prosecuting, convicting, and punishing complicit officials with imprisonment; continue to increase law enforcement efforts against
sex traffickers, including prosecuting, convicting, and punishing traffickers with imprisonment; improve central and state government implementation of protection programs and compensation schemes to ensure that certified trafficking victims actually receive benefits, including compensation for victims of forced child labour and bonded labour, to which they are entitled under national and state law; and increase the quantity and breadth of public awareness and related programs to prevent both trafficking for labour and commercial sex.
Actions taken by the government
Some governments introduced legislation specifically aimed at making human trafficking illegal. Governments can also develop systems of co-operation between different nation’s law enforcement agencies and with nongovernment organizations (NGOs). Many countries though have come under criticism for inaction, or ineffective action. Criticisms include failure of governments in not properly identifying and protecting trafficking victims,
that immigration policies might re-victimize trafficking victims, or insufficient action in helping prevent vulnerable people becoming trafficking victims. A particular criticism has been the reluctance of some countries to tackle trafficking for purposes other than sex.
Other actions governments could take is raise awareness. This can take on three forms. Firstly in raising awareness amongst potential victims, in particular in countries where human traffickers are active. Secondly, raising awareness amongst police, social welfare workers and immigration officers. And in countries where prostitution is legal or semi-legal, raising awareness amongst the clients of prostitution, to look out for signs of a human trafficking victim.
Raising awareness can take on different forms. One method is through the use of awareness films or through posters.
Few FAQ’s about Human Trafficking
Q1: Is Human Trafficking another word for smuggling?
Answer: No. There are many fundamental differences between the crimes of human trafficking and human smuggling. Both are entirely separate Federal crimes in the U.S. Most notably, smuggling is a crime against a country’s borders, whereas human trafficking is a crime against a person. Also, while smuggling requires illegal border crossing, human trafficking involves commercial sex acts or labour or services that are induced through force, fraud, or coercion.
Q2: Is trafficking a crime that must involve some form of travel, transportation, or movement across state or national borders? Answer: No. Although the word ‘trafficking’ sounds like movement, the federal definition of trafficking does not require transportation. In other words, transportation may or may not be involved in the crime of human trafficking.
Q3: Does physical violence have to be involved in human trafficking cases? Answer: No. Under the federal law, an individual who uses physical or psychological violence to force someone into a labor or sex industry is considered a human trafficker. Therefore, while some victims experience beatings, rape, and other forms of physical violence, many victims are controlled by traffickers through psychological means, such as threats of violence, manipulation, and lies. In many cases, traffickers use a combination of direct violence and mental abuse. It is important to note that for minors force, fraud, or coercion are not required elements of the crime, meaning that anyone under the age of 18 in the commercial sex industry is a sex trafficking victim.
Q4: Under the Federal definition, are trafficking victims only foreign nationals or immigrants?
Answer: No. The Federal definition of human trafficking includes both U.S. citizens and foreign nationals – both are equally protected under the Federal trafficking law and have been since the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. Human trafficking encompasses both transnational trafficking that crosses borders and domestic or internal trafficking that occurs within a country. Statistics about trafficking, estimates of the scope of trafficking, and descriptions of trafficking should be mindful to include both transnational and internal trafficking to be most accurate.
Q5: Do victims always come from a low-income or poor background? Answer: No. Trafficking victims can come from a range of backgrounds and many may come from middle and upper class families. Poverty is one of many factors that make individuals vulnerable to exploitation and trafficking.
Q6: Who is at risk of becoming a victim of human trafficking? Answer: Since trafficking victims can be rich or poor, men or women, adults or children, and foreign nationals or U.S. citizens, everyone is at risk for being trafficked. However, traffickers typically prey on individuals who are vulnerable in some way because they are easier to recruit and control. Some examples of high risk populations include undocumented migrants, runaways and at-risk youth, and oppressed or marginalized groups.
Q7: Do victims of trafficking self-identify as a victim of a crime and ask for help immediately? Answer: Often no. Victims of trafficking often do not see themselves as victims and seek help immediately, due to lack of trust, self-blame, or training by traffickers.
Q8: Does human trafficking only occur in illegal underground industries? Answer: While human trafficking occurs in illegal and underground markets, it can also occur in legal and legitimate settings. For example, common locations of trafficking include private homes, large fancy hotels, nail salons, restaurants, bars, and strip clubs.
Q9: How is pimping a form of sex trafficking? In the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000, a severe form of sex trafficking is a crime in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion. Pimps, who are motivated by the opportunity to make money, sell women and girls in the commercial sex industry by using numerous methods to gain control over their bodies and minds, including: Force • Beating and slapping • Beating with objects (bat, tools, chains, belts, hangers, canes, cords) • Burning • Sexual assault • Rape and gang rape • Confinement and physical restraint Fraud • False promises • Deceitful enticing and affectionate behaviour • Lying about working conditions
• Lying about the promise of a better life
Coercion • Threats of serious harm or restraint • Intimidation and humiliation • Creating a climate of fear • Intense manipulation • Emotional abuse • Creating dependency and fear of independence
doc_752047435.doc
Topic: Human Trafficking
Project by:
INDEX:
1) What Is Human Trafficking? 2) The Scale of Human Trafficking 3) The Causes Of Human Trafficking 4) Human Trafficking & Sexual Exploitation 5) Human Trafficking In India 6) Government Actions
About Human Trafficking
Human trafficking is the commerce and trade of people, legal and illegal, including both legitimate labour activities as well as forced labour. The term is used in a more narrow sense by advocacy groups to mean the recruitment, transportation, harbouring, or receipt of people for the purposes of slavery, prostitution, forced labour (including bonded labour or debt bondage), and servitude. The UNODC, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, defines human trafficking according to Annex II, General Provisions, Article 3, Paragraph 4 of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons defines trafficking in persons as 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." The UNODC offers practical help to states, not only helping to draft laws and create comprehensive national anti-trafficking strategies but also assisting with resources to implement them. The Council of Europe states, "People trafficking have reached epidemic proportions over the past decade, with a
global annual market of about $42.5 billion."Trafficking victims typically are recruited using coercion, deception, fraud, the abuse of power, or outright abduction.
Exploitation includes forcing people into prostitution or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery, or practices similar to slavery and servitude. For children, exploitation may also include forced prostitution, illicit international adoption, trafficking for early marriage, or recruitment as child soldiers, beggars, for sports (such as child camel jockeys or football players), or within certain religious groups. Human trafficking is by its very nature an international crime that requires a high level of co-operation and collaboration between states if it is to be tackled effectively. The OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe), an ad hoc intergovernmental organization under the United Nations Charter, is one of the leading agencies fighting the problem of human trafficking, with an area of operation that includes North America, Europe, Russia, and Central Asia. Human trafficking is also defined as the practice of recruiting, harbouring, transporting and receipt of people traded with exploitation in mind. It is a multi-billion dollar industry controlled by the biggest criminal masterminds in the world. Victims of human trafficking fall prey through deceptive methods and promises. Recruiters may also use fraud or coercion. Some even go to the extent of abduction. Some victims willingly go because of promises involving high salaries and great working conditions. These promises rarely come true.
The scale of human trafficking worldwide
Men, women and children are trafficked within their own countries and across international borders. Trafficking affects every continent and most countries. Every country is affected by human trafficking, whether they are an origin country where people are trafficked from; a transit country where people are trafficked through; or a destination country where people are trafficked to. Often a country will be all three. Men, women and children are trafficked. Due to the hidden and illegal nature of human trafficking, gathering statistics on the scale of the problem is difficult. The following statistics may represent an underestimation of trafficking, but are the most credible and frequently quoted:•
People trafficking is the fastest growing means by which people are enslaved, the fastest growing international crime, and one of the largest sources of income for organised crime The UN Office on Drugs and Crime 1.2 million children are trafficked every year Estimate by UNICEF At least 12.3 million people are victims of forced labour worldwide. Of these 2.4 million are as a result of human trafficking. A global alliance against forced labor, International Labour Organisation, 2005 600,000-800,000 men, women and children trafficked across international borders each year. Approximately 80 per cent are women and girls. Up to 50% are minors. US Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2005 The majority of trafficked victims arguably come from the poorest countries and poorest strata of the national population.
•
•
•
•
A global alliance against forced labor, International Labour Organisation, 2005
•
Human trafficking in the second largest source of illegal income worldwide exceeded only by drugs trafficking. (Belser 2005) There are even reports that some trafficking groups are switching their cargo from drugs to human beings, in a search of high profits at lower risk. Un office on drugs and crime People are trafficked into prostitution, begging, forced labour, military service, domestic service, forced illegal adoption, forced marriage etc.
•
•
The causes for Human Trafficking
There is no one cause of human trafficking in world. Trafficking is caused by an entire range of different conditions and issues. These include:
?
Lack of Awareness: Many people who migrate for work within
their country or abroad are unaware of the dangers of trafficking and the ways in which migrant workers are deceived or pushed into abusive or slave-like labour.
?
Poverty: Poverty has forced many households to create survival
strategies that have included migrating for work and bonded labour, i.e., renting out a person’s labour to pay off a debt or a loan.
?
Material Expectations: The desire for consumer products and
higher standards of living fuel migration and render migrants vulnerable to trafficking.
?
Cultural Factors: The following cultural factors contribute to
trafficking:
•
Women’s Role in the Family: Although cultural norms stress that a
woman’s place is at home as wife and mother, it is acknowledged that women may have to become supplementary wage earners in times of family need. A sense of duty and obligation drives many women to migrate for work in order to support their families.
•
Children’s Role in the Family: Obedience to parents and an
obligation to support the family makes children vulnerable to trafficking. Child labour, child migration for work, and child bonded labour are deemed acceptable family financial strategies to survive.
•
Early Marriage: Early marriage has serious implications for girls,
including health hazards, the end of schooling, limited economic opportunities, disruption of personal development, and, often, early divorce. Divorced girls are legally seen as adults and are vulnerable to trafficking as a result of their economic vulnerability.
•
History of Bonded Labour: The practice of renting out one’s
labour or that of a family member to pay off a loan is an accepted family survival strategy. People placed into bonded labour are especially vulnerable to abusive and slave-like work conditions.
?
Lack of Birth Registry: People without proper identification fall
prey to trafficking more easily, since their age and nationality cannot be documented. Children, who are trafficked, for example, are more easily passed off as adults to anyone who asks.
?
Lack of Education: People with limited education have fewer
viable job skills and opportunities and are thus more prone to trafficking as they look to migrate for unskilled work.
?
Corruption and Weak Enforcement of Laws: Traffickers can
often bribe corrupt law enforcement and immigration officials to overlook criminal activities. Public administrators can also be bribed to falsify information on ID cards, birth certificates, and passports, making migrant workers more vulnerable to trafficking due to illegal migration. In addition, lack of state funds budgeted for counter trafficking efforts hampers law enforcers’ ability to effectively deter and prosecute traffickers.
Human trafficking and Sexual Exploitation
There is no universally accepted definition of trafficking for sexual exploitation. The term encompasses the organized movement of people, usually women, between countries and within countries for sex work with the use of physical coercion, deception and bondage through forced debt. However, the issue becomes contentious when the element of coercion is removed from the definition to incorporate facilitating the willing involvement in prostitution. For example, In the United Kingdom, The Sexual Offenses Act, 2003 incorporated trafficking for sexual exploitation but did not require those committing the offense to use coercion, deception or force, so that it also includes any person who enters the UK to carry out sex work with consent as having been trafficked.
Save the Children stated "The issue gets mired in controversy and confusion when prostitution itself is considered as a violation of the basic human rights of both adult women and minors, and equal to sexual exploitation per se..... trafficking and prostitution become conflated with each other.... On account of the historical conflation of trafficking and prostitution both legally and in popular understanding, an overwhelming degree of effort and
interventions of anti-trafficking groups are concentrated on trafficking into prostitution"
Sexual trafficking includes coercing a migrant into a sexual act as a condition of allowing or arranging the migration. Sexual trafficking uses physical coercion, deception and bondage incurred through forced debt. Trafficked women and children, for instance, are often promised work in the domestic or service industry, but instead are usually taken to brothels where their passports and other identification papers are confiscated. They may be beaten or locked up and promised their freedom only after earning – through prostitution – their purchase price, as well as their travel and visa costs. The main motive of a woman (in some cases an underage girl) to accept an offer from a trafficker is better financial opportunities for herself or her family. In many cases traffickers initially offer ‘legitimate’ work or the promise of an opportunity to study. The main types of work offered are in the catering and hotel industry, in bars and clubs, modelling contracts, or au pair work. Traffickers sometimes use offers of marriage, threats, intimidation and kidnapping as means of obtaining victims. In the majority of cases, the women end up in prostitution. Also some (migrating) prostitutes become victims of human trafficking. Some women know they will be working as prostitutes, but they have an inaccurate view of the circumstances and the conditions of the work in their country of destination. In Japan the prosperous entertainment market had created huge demand for commercial sexual workers, and such demand is being met by trafficking women and children from the Philippines, Colombia and Thailand. Women are forced into street prostitution, based stripping and live sex acts. However, detainees or
deportees from Japan said that about 80 percent of the women went there with the intention of working as prostitutes Trafficking victims are also exposed to different psychological problems. They suffer social alienation in the host and home countries. Stigmatization, social exclusion and intolerance make reintegration into local communities difficult. The governments offer little assistance and social services to trafficked victims upon their return. As the victims are also pushed into drug trafficking, many of them face criminal sanctions.
Human trafficking In India!
India is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labour and commercial sexual exploitation. Internal forced labour may constitute India's largest trafficking problem; men, women, and children in debt bondage are forced to work in industries such as brick kilns, rice mills, agriculture, and embroidery factories. Although no comprehensive study of forced and bonded labour has been carried out, some NGOs estimate this problem affects tens of millions
of Indians. Those from India’s most disadvantaged social economic strata are particularly vulnerable to forced or bonded labour and sex trafficking. Women and girls are trafficked within the country for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced marriage. Children are also subjected to forced labour as factory workers, domestic servants, beggars, and agricultural workers.
India is also a destination for women and girls from Nepal and Bangladesh trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation. There are also victims of labour trafficking among the thousands of Indians who migrate willingly every year to the Middle East, Europe, and the United States for work as domestic servants and low-skilled labourers. In some cases, such workers are the victims of fraudulent recruitment practices committed in India that lead them directly into situations of forced labour, including debt bondage; in other cases, high debts incurred to pay recruitment fees leave them vulnerable to exploitation by unscrupulous employers in the destination countries, where some are subjected to conditions of involuntary servitude, including non-payment of wages, restrictions on movement, unlawful withholding of passports, and physical or sexual abuse. Men and women from Bangladesh and Nepal are trafficked through India for forced labour and commercial sexual exploitation in the Middle East. Over 500 Nepalese girls were jailed in the state of Bihar on charges of using false documents to transit India in the pursuit of employment in Gulf countries. Indian nationals travel to Nepal and within the country for child sex tourism. The Government of India does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. Despite these significant efforts, India has not demonstrated sufficient progress in its law enforcement efforts to address human
trafficking, particularly bonded labour; therefore, India is placed on Tier 2 Watch List. India’s central government faces several challenges in demonstrating a more robust anti-trafficking effort: states under the Indian Constitution have the primary responsibility for law enforcement and state-level authorities are limited in their abilities to effectively confront interstate and transnational trafficking crimes; complicity in trafficking by many Indian law enforcement officials and overburdened courts impede effective prosecutions; widespread poverty continues to provide a huge source of vulnerable people; and the Indian government faces other equally pressing priorities such as basic healthcare, education, and counterterrorism. During the reporting period, the central government continued to improve coordination among a multitude of bureaucratic agencies that play a role in anti-trafficking and labour issues. Government authorities continued to rescue victims of trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation and forced child labour. Several state governments (Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Goa, and West Bengal) demonstrated significant efforts in prosecution, protection, and prevention, although largely in the area of trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation
Recommendations for India:
Continue to expand central and state government law enforcement capacity to conduct intrastate and interstate law enforcement activities against trafficking and bonded labour; consider expanding the Central Ministry of Home Affairs “nodal cell” on trafficking to coordinate law enforcement efforts to investigate and arrest traffickers who cross state and national lines; significantly increase law enforcement efforts to decrease official complicity in trafficking, including prosecuting, convicting, and punishing complicit officials with imprisonment; continue to increase law enforcement efforts against
sex traffickers, including prosecuting, convicting, and punishing traffickers with imprisonment; improve central and state government implementation of protection programs and compensation schemes to ensure that certified trafficking victims actually receive benefits, including compensation for victims of forced child labour and bonded labour, to which they are entitled under national and state law; and increase the quantity and breadth of public awareness and related programs to prevent both trafficking for labour and commercial sex.
Actions taken by the government
Some governments introduced legislation specifically aimed at making human trafficking illegal. Governments can also develop systems of co-operation between different nation’s law enforcement agencies and with nongovernment organizations (NGOs). Many countries though have come under criticism for inaction, or ineffective action. Criticisms include failure of governments in not properly identifying and protecting trafficking victims,
that immigration policies might re-victimize trafficking victims, or insufficient action in helping prevent vulnerable people becoming trafficking victims. A particular criticism has been the reluctance of some countries to tackle trafficking for purposes other than sex.
Other actions governments could take is raise awareness. This can take on three forms. Firstly in raising awareness amongst potential victims, in particular in countries where human traffickers are active. Secondly, raising awareness amongst police, social welfare workers and immigration officers. And in countries where prostitution is legal or semi-legal, raising awareness amongst the clients of prostitution, to look out for signs of a human trafficking victim.
Raising awareness can take on different forms. One method is through the use of awareness films or through posters.
Few FAQ’s about Human Trafficking
Q1: Is Human Trafficking another word for smuggling?
Answer: No. There are many fundamental differences between the crimes of human trafficking and human smuggling. Both are entirely separate Federal crimes in the U.S. Most notably, smuggling is a crime against a country’s borders, whereas human trafficking is a crime against a person. Also, while smuggling requires illegal border crossing, human trafficking involves commercial sex acts or labour or services that are induced through force, fraud, or coercion.
Q2: Is trafficking a crime that must involve some form of travel, transportation, or movement across state or national borders? Answer: No. Although the word ‘trafficking’ sounds like movement, the federal definition of trafficking does not require transportation. In other words, transportation may or may not be involved in the crime of human trafficking.
Q3: Does physical violence have to be involved in human trafficking cases? Answer: No. Under the federal law, an individual who uses physical or psychological violence to force someone into a labor or sex industry is considered a human trafficker. Therefore, while some victims experience beatings, rape, and other forms of physical violence, many victims are controlled by traffickers through psychological means, such as threats of violence, manipulation, and lies. In many cases, traffickers use a combination of direct violence and mental abuse. It is important to note that for minors force, fraud, or coercion are not required elements of the crime, meaning that anyone under the age of 18 in the commercial sex industry is a sex trafficking victim.
Q4: Under the Federal definition, are trafficking victims only foreign nationals or immigrants?
Answer: No. The Federal definition of human trafficking includes both U.S. citizens and foreign nationals – both are equally protected under the Federal trafficking law and have been since the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. Human trafficking encompasses both transnational trafficking that crosses borders and domestic or internal trafficking that occurs within a country. Statistics about trafficking, estimates of the scope of trafficking, and descriptions of trafficking should be mindful to include both transnational and internal trafficking to be most accurate.
Q5: Do victims always come from a low-income or poor background? Answer: No. Trafficking victims can come from a range of backgrounds and many may come from middle and upper class families. Poverty is one of many factors that make individuals vulnerable to exploitation and trafficking.
Q6: Who is at risk of becoming a victim of human trafficking? Answer: Since trafficking victims can be rich or poor, men or women, adults or children, and foreign nationals or U.S. citizens, everyone is at risk for being trafficked. However, traffickers typically prey on individuals who are vulnerable in some way because they are easier to recruit and control. Some examples of high risk populations include undocumented migrants, runaways and at-risk youth, and oppressed or marginalized groups.
Q7: Do victims of trafficking self-identify as a victim of a crime and ask for help immediately? Answer: Often no. Victims of trafficking often do not see themselves as victims and seek help immediately, due to lack of trust, self-blame, or training by traffickers.
Q8: Does human trafficking only occur in illegal underground industries? Answer: While human trafficking occurs in illegal and underground markets, it can also occur in legal and legitimate settings. For example, common locations of trafficking include private homes, large fancy hotels, nail salons, restaurants, bars, and strip clubs.
Q9: How is pimping a form of sex trafficking? In the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000, a severe form of sex trafficking is a crime in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion. Pimps, who are motivated by the opportunity to make money, sell women and girls in the commercial sex industry by using numerous methods to gain control over their bodies and minds, including: Force • Beating and slapping • Beating with objects (bat, tools, chains, belts, hangers, canes, cords) • Burning • Sexual assault • Rape and gang rape • Confinement and physical restraint Fraud • False promises • Deceitful enticing and affectionate behaviour • Lying about working conditions
• Lying about the promise of a better life
Coercion • Threats of serious harm or restraint • Intimidation and humiliation • Creating a climate of fear • Intense manipulation • Emotional abuse • Creating dependency and fear of independence
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