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2024.07.30
Seoul
World Day Against Trafficking in Persons
Jinhee Ha
Along with globalization, global crises, conflicts and other emergency issues escalate the risk of human trafficking. Displacement and socio-economic inequalities impact millions of people, and they leave them vulnerable to exploitation by human traffickers. Human traffickers tend to prey on the vulnerable people. The people who are poor, isolated, weak, the ones with not much power. Disempowerment, social exclusion and economic vulnerabilities can be possible result of marginalized groups and it makes them particularly venerable of being trafficked. Globally, illustration of worldwide criminal justice responses to human trafficking. 1
In 2008 the United Nations has clarified the three consequences, social economic and political impact of human trafficking through their report entitled as, An Introduction to Human Trafficking vulnerability, impact and action. The social consequences are drastic as trafficking can range from physical abuses, sexual abuses to torture of victims, and psychological and emotional trauma. Forced use of substances, manipulation and economic exploitation and the harsh living conditions can prolong and repeat trauma. Political implications can include the complex intertwined relationship between policies and actions.
Illegal migration and non-identification, victimization of trafficked persons can be traced back to county of origin and destination for direct impact and systematic challenges can be addressed as an indirect one. Finally, the economic impact can be apparent when it comes to attempting the quantification of economic costs. 2 Trafficking can be a loss of human resources, and the redirect of financial benefit of migration from the families, community, state can indicate that the crime is even more organized and significant globally. Human trafficking generates a consequent impact in all kinds of form. The impact that individuals who were trafficked faces the adverse health effects, social stigmatizations and the risks of revictimization. Trafficking in persons is doubly a serious crime that led men, women and children to fall in the hands of traffickers both domestically and internationally. Almost all countries are affected by human trafficking, rather it was taken place in country of the victims’ origin, transit or destination. Small impact has been made as a global phenomenon to protect and assist trafficked people, and bringing criminals in front of justice but it is never enough.
Illegal migration and non-identification, victimization of trafficked persons can be traced back to county of origin and destination for direct impact and systematic challenges can be addressed as an indirect one. Finally, the economic impact can be apparent when it comes to attempting the quantification of economic costs.2 Trafficking can be a loss of human resources, and the redirect of financial benefit of migration from the families, community, state can indicate that the crime is even more organized and significant globally. Human trafficking generates a consequent impact in all kinds of form. The impact that individuals who were trafficked faces the adverse health effects, social stigmatizations and the risks of revictimization. Trafficking in persons is doubly a serious crime that led men, women and children to fall in the hands of traffickers both domestically and internationally. Almost all countries are affected by human trafficking, rather it was taken place in country of the victims’ origin, transit or destination. Small impact has been made as a global phenomenon to protect and assist trafficked people, and bringing criminals in front of justice but it is never enough.
Human Trafficking is a serious crime, that cannot be allowed to meet with increasing indifference and impunity. The global community has the responsibility to strengthen resilience against exploitation and underlies socio economic and cultural issues that are conducive to trafficking. Pushing attention to the surface and addressing issues to people who care can make a difference by changing policies, strengthening precautious matters and finally improving identification of victims and support the survivors. The United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UN.GIFT) was born to renew commitments by the world leaders who are in battle against human trafficking and they unified for the commitment to end this crime, as it is one of the most atrocious violations in human rights context. UN Gift aims the following to advance any issue of human trafficking into the front and its objects includes the following: 3
1. To raise awareness—to tell the world that human trafficking exists and mobilize people to stop it.
2. To strengthen prevention—to inform vulnerable groups and alleviate the factors that make people vulnerable to trafficking.
3. To reduce demand—to attack the problem at its source by lowering incentives to trade and lowering demand for the products and services of exploited people.
4. To support and protect the victims—to ensure housing, counselling, medical, psycho- logical and material assistance, keeping in mind the special needs of women and children and people at risk, such as those in refugee camps and conflict zones.
5. To improve law enforcement effectiveness—to improve information exchange on trafficking routes, trafficker profiles and victim identification in order to dismantle criminal groups and convict more traffickers. For those convicted, to ensure that the punishment fits the crime.
6. To implement international commitments—to ensure that international commitments are turned into national laws and practice by targeting technical and legal assistance to countries in greatest need and improving monitoring of implementation.
7. To enrich the database—to deepen global understanding of the scope and nature of trafficking in persons by more data collection and analysis, better data-sharing, joint research initiatives and creating an evidence-based report on global trafficking trends.
8. To strengthen partnership—to build up regional and thematic networks involving civil society, intergovernmental organizations and the private sector.
9. To ensure resources—to attract and leverage resources for the sustainable funding of projects around the world committed to ending human trafficking.
10. To strengthen Member States’ participation—to give Member States a strong sense of ownership in the process and create long-term momentum.
To combat Human Trafficking, The Trafficking Protocol provides an intensive and comprehensive strategical approach. The implementations can be measured by the protocol. National political concerns should be implied to fix any uncertainty between borders and practices are executed to prevent trafficking. “Prevention” alone is a conceptualized, yet a normative framework and it should be narrowly applied. It is therefore important to link vulnerability with an individuals’ social context and formulate develop policies and practices from there. Reduction of vulnerability can be considered as the most valid approach to combat this huge issue, and the call for dynamics in policy and program making should be based on the focus on vulnerability and enhance human rights component of human trafficking policies.
COVID Pandemic and Human Trafficking:
Post COVID 19 pandemic changed the characteristics of the human trafficking, and it pushed even more further underground, and it potentially increased more risk for victims, and their attention to authorities increased. The pandemic put the whole world under strains, that affected the lives of everyone around every corner of the globe. The measures were adopted to flatten the infection curve and it enforced quarantine, curfews and severe lockdowns along with travel restrictions.
The limitation of economic activates and public life was restricted. At the same time, COVID 19 impacted the state authorities and the non-governmental organizations to provide any kind of fundamental service to help out victims, and the pandemic itself exacerbated the forefront of the systematic and deeply entrenched inequalities that compromise the root causes of human trafficking.
The fear of the pandemic is that it makes the tasks of identifying victims of human trafficking even more tricker and difficult and the exposure and contracting the virus is much easier since it is easier to contact with less equipment. Access to the appropriate healthcare, dramatic decrease in employment and reduction of income all causes the vulnerability within people. Every sector of the industry was affected from the garment, agriculture, farming, manufacturing, domestic work – all the living conditions were subsequently cut short.
Covid related measures disproportionately affect risks of people in terms of exploitation, undocumented part time workers, seasonable workers are faced with more difficult living conditions, and it results them to fall in the prey of human traffickers. The restriction, control of movement within victims is a common feature and the lockdowns reinforced the isolation of victims, and it reduced the drastic opportunity of being them identified and removed from horrible conditions. Many countries were able to unsee the peace, and during the pandemic, we global citizens should not overlook any kind of measures and risks that can present any more vulnerable circumstances. The disadvantaged, the underprivileged must not be excluded and the economic, political, and social opportunities must be granted to free from marginalization, gender-based violence and exploitation. Human trafficking is the result of failure in our society that we weren’t able to guarantee individuals equal under the name of justice.
Human trafficking is not just a crime, but it constitutes a grave violation of human rights, and to guarantee any actions taken to combat human trafficking, it should consider all disciplinaries including migration, and publication order. Globally, and as responsible citizens we should acknowledge the human rights violations during human rights trafficking and solidify destinations for victims to combat diverse points of problems. The crime itself generates billions of negative effects. To guarantee the rights, the state must rely on organizations to recover and reflet for the better future of human rights trafficking. All humans deserve to be respected, protected and satisfied by the state and exercise a certain effective remedy to be under secure conditions.
Human trafficking is a heinous crime that tears at the fabric of our society. While the path to its complete eradication may seem daunting, a multi- pronged approach offers a beacon of hope. By strengthening international cooperation, bolstering law enforcement efforts, prioritizing victim support and addressing the root causes of vulnerability can dismantle harmful networks that enables the exploitation. The fight does not just require policy changes and law enforcement and andciotions but a fundamnetal shift in societal attitudes is necessary to raise awareness, empower individuals and foster empathy that can hopefully disrupt the demand that fuels this industry. Through combined efforts of many, the world can be changed where every single person is valued.
References:
Shamsudeen, Sheeba. "Human trafficking: Vulnerability, impact, and action"; In Victimology: A Comprehensive Approach to Forensic, Psychosocial and Legal Perspectives, pp. 225-251. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2022.
Kangaspunta, Kristiina. An introduction to human trafficking: Vulnerability, impact and action. New York: United Nations, 2008.
Marcos.santos. “United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.” UN.GiFT - United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking. Accessed June 20, 2024. https://www.unodc.org/lpo-brazil/en/trafico-de-pessoas/ungift.html.
Written by Jinhee Ha for Yonsei GSIS Human Rights Hub
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