Missing persons, human trafficking: A possible nexus

July 30 marks the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons and Aug. 30 marks the International Day of Missing Persons so the timing of these two dates could be less of a coincidence than it might seem. The correlation between missing persons and human trafficking is unavoidable, and a topic that is under-researched. Missing persons and human trafficking are both transnational issues and so strongly interlinked that in many cases action in one area directly impacts the other.

Most of the time, the vulnerable people who involuntarily go missing are the same vulnerable people that are susceptible to being trafficked. Ambiguity, complexity and lack of research has impeded discourse to connect the interlinkages, which if strengthened may promote better coherence that will eliminate the gap between the two topics of missing persons and human trafficking and serve to maximize the achievement of collective outcomes for the common good. Disappearances under unknown circumstances of involuntary missing persons may share common causes that include being lost in migration routes worldwide, domestic violence, child abduction, poverty, homelessness, lack of communication and access to service providers (mainly inrelation to refugees, migrants and internally displaced persons, mental health (including suicide or ailments such as Alzheimer’s, dementia or memory loss), drug abuse (recreational or addiction) natural disasters and escaping genocide.

In the past few years, Saudi Arabia has undertaken a successful case study and achieved remarkable progress through reforms, introducing new measures and most recently launching a digital international awareness campaign titled “United Against Trafficking.” The campaign is a successful digital communications case study that disrupts the status-quo by combining creative tactics, applying omni-partiality, and a resonanceinformed ad-hoc art exhibition by Saudi artists as a visual tool to expand the campaign’s platform.

The campaign was the first initiative of the newly established Saudi Arabia’s National Committee to Combat Human Trafficking (NCCHT), which falls under Saudi Arabia’s Human Rights Commission and involves intergovernmental agencies, in partnership with the UN Office on Drugs and

Crime (UNODC) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM). It was launched on July 30, on the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons.

The National Committee to Combat Human Trafficking emphasized the importance of global dedication, commitment and coherence to eradicate all forms of human trafficking through reduction then prevention mechanisms worldwide. Solutions must be applied in two parallel directions; elimination and prevention. With elimination, it is important to start by addressing more of the structural causes of vulnerability by using a root cause analysis.

Elimination has four main elements: Financial, educational, psychological and legal.

Financial institutions can play an important role in unmasking illicit traders though the financial trail they leave behind. In addition, it is important to raise awareness on the less common unseen forms of human trafficking including the illicit trade in organs, organ harvesting, child harvesting, drug trade, labor trafficking and the recruiting of child soldiers.

On education, it is crucial to recognize the importance of interagency integration and building their capabilities to use the latest technologies and tools for identification of traffickers and those who are being trafficked, in addition to using forensic sciences to identify deceased or missing/trafficked persons.

For the psychological aspect, the media can play a huge role in reprogramming the collective consuming behaviors of buyers across the globe through campaigning. This may the most challenging factor since different cultures have different beliefs and values, however, we must be reminded of our objective pan-cultural virtues.

On the legal element, without the international high demand on commercial buyers, in addition to the relatively less-relaxed law enforcement, there would be no transnational human trafficking. Disrupting the supply chain can not only end human trafficking but also save future generations from becoming potential victims. A nexus approach can be used to better understand and enable academics, policymakers and practitioners to achieve solutions that will optimize results in both missing persons and human trafficking.

Most of the time, the vulnerable people who involuntarily go missing are the same vulnerable people that are susceptible to being

trafficked.