Taking on trafficking

How modern slavery plagues the world

THE numbers are terrifying. According to the International Labour Organisation, in 2016, there were 40.3 million people in modern slavery — 24.9 million in forced labour and 15.4 million in forced marriage. What this means is this: for every 1,000 people in the world, there are 5.4 victims. And one in four victims is a child. If you think the data are old, think again. Less than 40 days ago, 39 bodies of Vietnamese nationals were discovered in a refrigerated trailer in Essex, England. Two of the victims were 15-year-old boys. A BBC report says a 23-year-old British lorry driver has since been charged with human trafficking offences. There have been other arrests and deaths elsewhere.

But human trafficking isn’t just an European problem. Southeast Asia is similarly plagued. And so is Malaysia. The Trafficking In Persons Report 2019 (TIP), released by the United States Department of State in June, has put Malaysia in the Tier 2 “watchlist”. Again, it must be said. This is no good branding for a country that is on the cusp of becoming a developed nation. Whatever we are doing isn’t enough, says TIP. We can and must do more. Firstly, a more robust enforcement is needed. Police and Immigration raids do uncover foreigners being held as sex slaves. They are few and far between. Regular raids in terms of frequency, geography and other worksites will set more such victims free. Secondly, enforcement should not stop at raids. They must be followed by speedy prosecutions. Thirdly, better victim protection and rehabilitation will help too.

There is yet an additional way to fight modern slavery. Countries in Asia and the Pacific must get their act together. There is a reason for this. According to the 2016 Global Slavery Index, the AsiaPacific region accounted for 62 per cent of the human trafficking victims. If this is too big a bite to swallow, there is the recent suggestion by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen: the 10-member Asean and China rope in the vast regional resources to fight the scourge. After all, most victims are from the region.

Countries that find the fight against human trafficking an uphill task may want to take the advice of executive director Yuri Fedotov of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes: “If we want to succeed in confronting human trafficking in all its manifestations, we must better understand its scope and structure.” Fedotov has a point. Human traffickers can be anyone: family members, recruiters, employers or strangers. What’s more, in the words of TIP, traffickers exploit vulnerability and circumstance to coerce victims to engage in commercial sex or deceive them into forced labour. Or forced marriage.

Also, TIP researchers are beginning to see a trend that they may have missed before: human trafficking isn’t just transnational. It can even happen within the borders of a country. Consider Cambodia. Here, women and girls leave their rural homes to the cities to earn a living. Taking advantage of their vulnerabilities, traffickers lure them into the sex trade, including massage parlors, karaoke bars and beer gardens. What this amounts to is this: transnational efforts aren’t enough. National enforcement is also critical in taking on trafficking.

...the AsiaPacific region accounted for 62 per cent of the human trafficking victims.