|
|
|
|
CIAO DATE: 04/05/07
Ancient Evil, Modern Face: The Fight Against Human Trafficking
by Terry Coonan and Robin Thompson
Among the evils that will compel the attention of the international community in the twenty-first century, human trafficking will rank as one of the most ubiquitous. Human trafficking, a new term for the ancient scourge of slavery, poses one of the most formidable challenges to global hopes for equality and human rights in the new millennium. Efforts have been under way for almost two decades to turn the tide against modern enslavers. Such efforts, however, have been uneven and have revealed startling gaps in the ranks of those who oppose this illicit trade. In order to curtail human trafficking, both the United States and the international community must redouble their current efforts, and in so doing, should take further advantage of the established infrastructure of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) worldwide. Even more fundamentally, the law enforcement paradigm that to date has characterized international efforts to counter trafficking must evolve into a model better grounded in human rights considerations.
A Growing Problem. Porous borders and the free-market demand for cheap labor sustain a shadow slave industry that annually yields an estimated $9 billion in profits. The global human trafficking industry operates on a simple Crime Goes Global premise: as poverty has increased worldwide, desperate immigrants seek economic opportunities beyond their national borders. As legal immigration has likewise been restricted in recent decades, the world’s poor—with an increasingly feminine face—are left with no recourse but to depend on smugglers and human traffickers to negotiate borders and locate work far from home. Such dependence leads to the virtual enslavement of an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 immigrants annually, who are trafficked worldwide across international borders.1
Trafficking is a clandestine industry, and the illegal status of many of its victims forces them into silence. While many trafficking schemes are “mom-and-pop” operations, trafficking is rapidly becoming the preferred business for international criminal syndicates. Mafias thrive in countries where law enforcement is weak or in regions where transnational law enforcement cooperation is lacking. Human trafficking is now second only to drug trafficking in the portfolio of international organized crime. Moreover, the exploitation of trafficking victims in brothels, sweatshops, and fields around the world knows no geographic limitations. This problem is not confined to the developing world, and it is, in fact, the labor intensive needs of developed nations that fuel the trafficking industry. The United States is no exception; an estimated 15,000 to 18,000 persons are trafficked into the United States every year for forced labor.2
NGOs Sound the Alarm. Following the demise of communism in 1989, international borders that once separated the East and the West became much easier to cross. Prime beneficiaries of this geopolitical change were human smugglers, who exploited the newfound mobility of the world’s poor who were desperate to leave countries where economic opportunities were increasingly scarce. The allure of jobs in the developed world—and the necessity of crossing borders to secure such work— led to a proliferation of human trafficking in the 1990s. NGOs around the world, particularly human rights and immigrant advocacy groups, rallied to oppose this growing exploitation. Groups such as the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, the International Human Rights Law Group, the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women and ECPAT International (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography, and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes) played a prominent role. Of prime concern to them was the com mercial sexual exploitation of women and children that the international trafficking industry both engendered and perpetuated. However, this loose alliance of NGOs had meager resources in comparison to the deep-pocketed multinational criminal syndicates they sought to combat.
Terry Coonan is Executive Director of the Center for the Advancement of Human Rights at Flori da State University.
Robin Thompson is an attorney and consul tant based in Tallahassee, Florida.