Human Trafficking What is human trafficking? The United Nations definition of human trafficking is “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 Asia Pacific region is seen as the most vulnerable region for trafficking because of its huge population pyramid, growing urbanization, and extensive poverty. Trafficking is a violation of human rights. Victims of trafficking suffer from physical and mental abuse and social stigmatization. They become isolated, losing ties with their former lives and families. At the societal level, trafficking undermines development efforts and raises social and health costs. The ongoing abuses of human rights and the growing social and economic inequality within and between countries has led to an environment in which many women have few choices and resources, and are thus vulnerable to being lured, mislead or forced into being trafficked. Women who are most vulnerable to being trafficked are those aged 10-35 and who are impoverished, uneducated or from indigenous, ethnic minority, rural or refugee groups. Such women often lack access to education and meaningful employment opportunities. Harmful cultural and customary practices also perpetuate discriminatory and violent practices that further diminish women's opportunities and lead to further marginalization and commodification. Promoting gender equality through the elimination of gender discrimination and gender-based violence will enhance the dignity and human rights of women and girls and prevent their being trafficked. UNESCAP supports regional cooperation to combat trafficking, reduce undocumented migration and forced labour; support capacity building and economic empowerment of women; and, promote adoption and implementation of international legal instruments. Who is trafficked? Trafficking is a human rights abuse that affects people of both genders, as well as people of all sexual orientations, ages, races, ethnicities, and religions. While there is no one type of person who falls victim to trafficking, there are a number of situations that can make a person more vulnerable to trafficking. Poverty, political instability, family financial obligations, lack of access to education, chronic unemployment, gender discrimination, racism, homelessness, and a basic lack of economic opportunity are some of the main contributing factors that may place men, women, and children in vulnerable positions to be trafficked. Economic and/or political instability, in addition to the desire for a better life, also tend to produce a desire to migrate for work, which often coincides with incidences of trafficking. The Center for Women’s Global Leadership identifies some of the main countries that tend to be “source” countries of victims of trafficking (specifically for the sex industry) as Russia, Ukraine, Poland, the Czech Republic, Thailand, Burma, Nepal, Bangladesh, Brazil, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Nigeria, and Benin. It is from these countries that women tend to be trafficked into Western Europe and the United States. There has been a large increase in women trafficked from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe who often are trafficked to Western Europe- specifically Italy, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Greece, and Austria. Western Europe is also a major receiving area of women trafficked from Africa and Latin America. South East Asia, including China, Burma, Philippines, Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam, also serves as a sending source, with women being trafficked into the U.S., Australia, Western Europe, the Middle East, and Japan. How and who does it harm? Harms to Society (from the 2004 Trafficking in Persons Report produced by the U.S. Department of State) Victims of human trafficking pay a horrible price. Physical and psychological harm, including disease and stunted growth, often has permanent effects, ostracizing trafficking victims from their families and communities. Trafficking victims often miss critical opportunities for social, moral, and spiritual development. In many cases the exploitation of trafficking victims is progressive: a child trafficked into one form of labor may be further abused in another. In Nepal, girls recruited to work in carpet factories, hotels, and restaurants have been forced later into the sex industry in India. In the Philippines, and in many other countries, children who initially migrate or are recruited for the hotel and tourism industry, often end up trapped in brothels. A brutal reality of the modern-day slave trade is that its victims are all too often bought and sold many times over. Victims forced into sex slavery are often subdued with drugs and suffer extreme violence. Victims trafficked for sexual exploitation suffer physical and emotional damage from premature sexual activity, forced substance abuse, and exposure to sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS. Some victims suffer permanent damage to their reproductive organs. Moreover, the victim is typically trafficked to a location where he or she cannot speak or understand the language, compounding the psychological damage from isolation and domination. Ironically, the human capacity to endure unspeakable hardship and deprivation leads many trapped victims to continue to work, hoping for eventual freedom. Trafficking in Persons Is a Human Rights Violation. Fundamentally, trafficking in persons violates the universal human right to life, liberty, and freedom from slavery in all its forms. Trafficking of children undermines the basic need of a child to grow up in a protective environment and the right to be free from sexual abuse and exploitation. Trafficking Promotes Social Breakdown. The loss of family and community support networks renders the trafficking victim vulnerable to the traffickers? demands and threats, and contributes in several ways to the breakdown of social structures. Trafficking weakens parental authority, undermines extended family ties, and prevents the nurturing and moral development of children. Trafficking interrupts the passage of knowledge and cultural values from parent to child and from generation to generation, weakening a core pillar of society. The profits from trafficking often allow the practice to take root in a particular community, which is then repeatedly exploited as a ready source of victims. The fear of becoming a trafficking victim can lead vulnerable groups such as children and young women to go into hiding, with adverse effects on their schooling or family structure. The loss of education reduces victims? future economic opportunities and increases their vulnerability to being trafficked in the future. Victims who are able to return to their communities often find themselves stigmatized and ostracized, and require continuing social services. They are more likely to become involved in substance abuse and criminal activity. Trafficking Fuels Organized Crime. The profits from human trafficking fuel other criminal activities. According to the UN, human trafficking is the third largest criminal enterprise worldwide, generating an estimated 9.5 billion USD in annual revenue according to the U.S. intelligence community. It is also one of the most lucrative criminal enterprises, and is closely connected with money laundering, drug trafficking, document forgery, and human smuggling. There have also been documented ties to terrorism. Where organized crime flourishes, governments and the rule of law are weakened. Trafficking Deprives Countries of Human Capital. Trafficking has a negative impact on labor markets, contributing to an irretrievable loss of human resources. Some effects of trafficking include depressed wages, fewer individuals left to care for an increasing number of elderly persons, and an undereducated generation. These effects further lead to the loss of future productivity and earning power. Forcing children to work 10 to 18 hours per day at an early age denies them access to education and reinforces the cycle of poverty and illiteracy that stunts national development. Trafficking Undermines Public Health. Victims of trafficking often endure brutal conditions that result in physical, sexual and psychological trauma. Sexually transmitted infections, pelvic inflammatory disease, and HIV/AIDS are often the result of forced prostitution. Anxiety, insomnia, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder are common psychological manifestations among trafficked victims. Unsanitary and crowded living conditions, coupled with poor nutrition, foster a host of adverse health conditions such as scabies, tuberculosis, and other communicable diseases. Children suffer growth and development problems and develop complex psychological and neurological consequences from deprivation and trauma. The most egregious abuses are often borne by children, who are more easily controlled and forced into domestic service, armed conflict, and other hazardous forms of work. Children may be subjected to progressive exploitation, i.e., resold several times and subjected to an array of physical, sexual and mental abuse. This abuse complicates their psychological and physical rehabilitation and jeopardizes their reintegration. Trafficking Subverts Government Authority. Many governments struggle to exercise full control over their national territory, particularly where corruption is prevalent. Armed conflicts, natural disasters, and political or ethnic struggles often create large populations of internally displaced persons. Human trafficking operations further undermine government efforts to exert its authority, threatening the security of vulnerable populations. Many governments are unable to protect women and children who are kidnapped from their homes and schools or from refugee camps. Moreover, the bribes paid by traffickers impede a government? ability to battle corruption among law enforcement, immigration, and judicial officials. Trafficking Imposes Enormous Economic Costs. There are tremendous economic benefits to be gained from eliminating trafficking. The International Labor Organization (ILO) recently completed a study on the costs and benefits of eliminating the worst forms of child labor? which by definition include child trafficking. The ILO concluded the economic gains from eliminating the worst forms of child labor are substantial (tens of billions of dollars annually) because of the added productive capacity a future generation of workers would gain from increased education and improved public health. The human and social consequences of trafficking often mirror those of the worst forms of child labor. 31 What’s being done? The U.S. Government condemns trafficking in persons and remains firmly committed to fighting this scourge and protecting victims who fall prey to traffickers. Our commitment to eradicate trafficking includes: • Vigorously enforcing U.S. laws against all those who traffic in persons; • Raising awareness at home and abroad about human trafficking and how it can be eradicated; • Identifying, protecting, and assisting those victims exploited by traffickers; • Reducing the vulnerability of individuals to trafficking through increased education, economic opportunity, and protection and promotion of human rights; and • Employing diplomatic and foreign policy tools to encourage other nations, the UN and other multilateral institutions to work with us to combat this crime, draft and enforce laws against trafficking, and hold accountable those engaged in it. Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2003 In December 2003 Congress passed and President Bush signed the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, which enhanced the State Department's reporting of government efforts to combat modern-day slavery by: • Providing new tools for addressing destination countries that may be turning a blind eye to trafficking; • Making convictions and sentencing of traffickers as important as investigations and prosecutions in evaluating country efforts to eliminate trafficking; • Requiring better statistical monitoring, providing greater access to critical law enforcement data related to trafficking; and • Creating a Special Watch List. PROTECT Act Another law was enacted in 2003 to give U.S. authorities better tools to combat international sex tourism and the commercial sexual exploitation of children, as well as domestic federal offenses of child abuse, child kidnapping, and child torture. In April 2003, the PROTECT Act (Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to end the Exploitation of Children Today Act of 2003) was passed by the Congress and signed into law by President Bush. The Act serves as a historic milestone for protecting children while severely punishing those who victimize young people. Of particular note, the PROTECT Act allows law enforcement officers to prosecute Americans who travel abroad and sexually abuse minors, without having to prove prior intent to commit illicit crimes. The law also strengthens the punishment of child sex tourists. If convicted, child sex tourists now face up to 30 years imprisonment, an increase from the previous maximum of 15 years. The PROTECT Act made several other changes to the law with a focus on protecting children from sexual predators, including: extending the statute of limitations for federal crimes involving the abduction or physical or sexual abuse of a child for the lifetime of the child; expanding the potential reach of federal sex trafficking prosecutions by extending federal jurisdiction to crimes committed in foreign commerce; establishing parallel penalty enhancements for the production of child pornography overseas; and, criminalizing actions to arrange or facilitate the travel of child sex tourists. Other U.S. Government efforts and mechanisms to combat trafficking in persons include the annual Trafficking in Persons report; the President's Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons; and, the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons in the U.S. Department of State. The Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons ("TIP Office") The State Department's "TIP Office" is mandated to: combat and eradicate human trafficking by focusing worldwide attention on the international slave trade; assisting countries to eliminate trafficking; promoting regional and bilateral cooperation; supporting service providers and NGOs active in trafficking prevention and victim protection efforts. The TIP office also assists foreign governments in drafting or strengthening anti-trafficking lawsand funds law enforcement and victim assistance training to foreign governments to ensure traffickers are fully investigated and prosecuted to final conviction. The TIP Office supported more than 240 anti-trafficking programs in over 75 countries in fiscal year 2003. The types of assistance include the following: economic alternative programs for vulnerable groups; education programs; training for government officials and medical personnel; development or improvement of anti-trafficking laws; provision of equipment for law enforcement; establishment or renovation of shelters, crisis centers, or safe houses for victims; support for voluntary and humane return and reintegration assistance for victims; and support for psychological, legal, medical and counseling services for victims provided by NGOs, international organizations and governments. Other U.S. Agency Activities The TVPA also mandates that federally-funded or administered benefits and services, such as cash assistance, medical care, food stamps, and housing, be made available for certain non-citizen trafficking victims. During 2003, trafficking victims in the U.S. received information from federal authorities about the rights and protections available to them. The Departments of State, Justice, and Homeland Security have been implementing this mandate. What is human trafficking? http://www.unescap.org/esid/Gad/Issues/Trafficking/index.asp Who is trafficked? http://www.aifirefly.org/trafficking/about_human_trafficking.htm How and who does it harm? http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/usn/www_usn.nsf/vw-sublinks/8203847F6BA996E585256F25005D5274?openDocument What’s being done? http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2004/33202.htm