Approximately 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year
Briefing on the Eighth Annual Trafficking in Persons, Ambassador Mark P. Lagon, Director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons said that “According to the U.S. intelligence community, approximately 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year. About 80 percent of them are female. Up to half are minors. These figures do not include millions who are trafficked for purposes of labor and sexual exploitation within national borders as well.”
He also pointed out to China, where several slave labor scandals have recently been uncovered. Some of the cases reportedly involve the complicity of Chinese law enforcement officials themselves. All governments must act to ensure that cheap and efficient production of export goods does not come at the expense of the very dignity and fundamental rights of citizens.
A break up of global and regional law enforcement data was used to examine progress in sex trafficking or labor trafficking prosecutions. These statistics indicate that only a very small percentage of human trafficking prosecutions are convictions. Roughly 10 percent of them relate to labor trafficking offenses as compared to prosecutions and convictions related to sex trafficking offenses.
The report focuses on a number of vulnerable groups. They include North Koreans in China, Burmese in Thailand, stateless people, low-skilled migrant workers in general, and foreign domestic workers. One of the most common and desperate faces of modern day slavery is the domestic servant, locked and abused in a private home or apartment, cut off from the rest of the world. One of the highest profile cases in the U.S. this year involved two Indonesian maids who were trapped in a nightmare in a mansion in Long Island, New York. Victims of involuntary domestic servitude are often exploited sexually as well as exploited for their labor.
The Annual Trafficking In Persons Report covers 170 countries. 153 are assessed and ranked into Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 2 Watch List, and Tier 3; another 17 countries are considered special cases, often because of lack sufficient information to assess whether a significant number of trafficking victims exist in those countries.
In Brazil, some charcoal is produced by forced labor and some of that charcoal may be used to produce pig iron. Over half of the 5,800 slaves rescued by Brazilian authorities were found on sugarcane plantations.
There has been good news too. Glimmers of recognition among governments that this is an extraordinarily vulnerable population. For instance, the Philippines is a major source of female domestic workers. It recently decided to impose a ban on new maids going to one particular destination country because of the extremely high number of Filipino maids who were regularly escaping from the confines of abusive employers and seeking shelter in the Philippines Embassy. This development signifies a growing resolve on the part of the government to confront exploitation. Governments must start treating this form of slavery as a serious crime. Labor recruiters and brokers who facilitate trafficking through deceitful work offers, contract fraud, and outright force and coercion, they need to be prosecuted and punished with jail sentences.
India has made efforts on the child labor front, rescuing victims. But India still doesn’t recognize bonded labor as human trafficking. It has weak anticorruption efforts and prosecutions are too few.
For the last four years, the weak performance of several nations in the Persian Gulf has been a matter of great concern and disappointment. Saudi Arabia, for example, is ranked Tier 3 for the fourth time. As an update, I’m happy to report that the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain continue to make significant improvements; notably the United Arab Emirates as a model in the region.
You must be logged in to post a comment.