Download Can we afford to tolerate human trafficking in our society

Conference of Radoslaw Malinowski
Can we afford to tolerate human trafficking in our society?
The answer to this question is simply ‘no’. We cannot afford to live in a society where human
trafficking exists. It is not a matter of achieving a certain level of human rights standards or
reaching a higher level of development. Rather, it is a matter of having a society which is free
from human trafficking and thus a society where development can be achieved. And as long as
people will be trafficked our communal wellbeing will be at risk, individual growth will be
threatened, human rights principles will never be achievable and finally social development will
be jeopardized. In this paper, we will discuss the scope of human trafficking – the impact it has
on individuals and the society as a whole. In the second part of this presentation, the author will
recommend possible measures that are necessary if we want to eradicate human trafficking, a
phenomenon nicknamed modern day slavery.
As we read stories of victims of human trafficking in our daily newspapers, we become aware of
how human trafficking experience damages people's lives. However, we rarely realize how
trafficking of persons affects the whole society. It is this impact on the society that creates a
negative effect. In other words; we are all indirectly victimized by the presence of human
trafficking.
The scope of human trafficking and its overall impact
It is very difficult to estimate the scope of human trafficking as there are no accurate statistics
available. Various sources give different numbers of people being trafficked but it is important to
note that these are estimations. This creates a situation where human trafficking can be under or
overestimated. For example, a campaign was launched by various civil society organisations on
the occasion of Soccer World Cup in Germany in 2006. Before and during the tournament, the
media quoted different organisations that predicted a possibility of 40,000 women being
trafficked for sexual exploitation purpose. When the international Organisation for Migration
IOM did its research after the tournament, it only confirmed five cases of human trafficking that
were directly linked to this sport event. The victims were between 18 and 21 years of age and
came from Bulgaria (two women, both 20 years old), Hungary (one man, 20 years old), the
Czech Republic (one woman, 19 years old) and Germany (one woman, 19 years old). (Hennig,
Craggs, Laczko & Larsson, 2007). On the other hand, many countries tend to minimise the
extent of human trafficking for various reasons like prestige or official propaganda. In such a
scenario, victims are often treated as law breakers and thus prosecuted, or categorized as victims
of other crimes . Such errors make the exact estimation of the impact of human trafficking in our
society to be complex.
Taking into account the challenge of not having exact statistics, we can use the most popular
quotation from the annual trafficking in Persons Report, issued in 2009. The US government
quotes ILO in stating that more than 12 million adults and children are in forced labour, bonded
labour, and commercial sexual servitude at any given time (TIP, 2009). The 2006 US
Department of State Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report estimates that between 600,000 and
800,000 persons are trafficked across international borders each year while millions might be
trafficked internally (TIP, 2006).
When we heed the above numbers, we often do not capture their meaning. Statistics are after all
not very meaningful. However, in human trafficking, those numbers are not just statistics. Those
are broken and destroyed lives like the case of Florence who is one of the victims assisted by
HAART a counter human trafficking non-governmental organisation in Kenya.
Florence (not her real name) was trafficked by a Kenyan female human trafficker at the age of
13. She was kept in an undisclosed location in Nairobi where she was gang-raped for a period of
two weeks. After this period of sexual exploitation and torture, the traffickers sold her to a family
in Saudi Arabia, where she was confined to servitude and was sexually exploited by the male
family members and their guests. Her working hours were from 5 am till the last member of the
host family was gone to bed. Obviously she was not given a day off as she would use the free
time in a wrong way, as she was told. The family also allowed their sons and cousins to exploit
her sexually. She was a sex toy for them and different ways of sexual intercourse were practiced
on her by the exploiters.
Eventually, with the help of the Kenyan Diaspora she managed to contact her family in Nairobi
and flew back to Kenya after one year of exploitation. However, the person that arrived at Jomo
Kenyatta airport from Saudi Arabia was not the Florence that her family knew. Her body, mind
and soul had undergone an irreversible change. Sexual exploitation deformed her cervix and a
number of surgical operations had to be done to enable her control her urine. She had to be
treated for Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Infections as well.
Florence suffered psychologically even more than physically. Although she underwent
professional counselling therapy and was under the care of psychiatrists and a trauma counsellor,
her depression, led to an inability to cope with the social setup and a sense of guilt overwhelmed
her personality. She notoriously blamed herself for what happened and saw herself as an
unnecessary burden to her family. Unfortunately, In March 2012 at the age of 16 she decided to
end her life by committing suicide. Her story is one of the many stories of the 600,000 to
800,000 victims of humans trafficked every year. Let us reverse the time and examine Florence’
case moments before she was trafficked. From her performance in school, it was apparent that
she was a bright pupil and therefore with a bit of luck and support there was a bright future lying
ahead of her. In the Kenyan society, she could have been an important contributor to her growth.
She could have been a scientist that would have made an important discovery in the field of
science, or a medical doctor who would have saved many lives, or a poet who would cheer our
daily worries with her poetry. But unfortunately she met human traffickers and alongside all her
hopes, dreams and promising potential now lies buried in Langata cemetery,
Impact of human trafficking on an individual
The case of Florence shows the most radical scenario in which victim pays an ultimate
price. Although most of the victims survive and as they undergo the psychosocial assistance,
they become survivors, nevertheless their lives will still be affected by the experience of human
trafficking.
Victims pay an appalling price which includes psychological and physical harm and in
many cases has a permanent effect on their growth and development. As some victims might
have been initially sold by their own family members, it can create a sense of guilt and self
blame for their situation.
Impact of Human Trafficking on physical and psychological health
As victims are usually exposed to abuse and violence, they develop psychological health
problems. They experience trauma as well as the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Aggressive and hostile reactions, lack of gratitude for the assistance, imbalanced emotions and
gaps in the memory often occur as a result of traumatic experiences during the process of human
trafficking (UNODC, 2009). Victims often experience lack of control over their lives for the
periods they are trafficked; and can therefore develop a sense of danger or inappropriate attitude
towards authority. As they are constantly threatened, they develop a sense of fear that might last
long after the trafficking period. In addition, they are often witnesses of violent events like
murder, something that undoubtedly affects their psychological health (HAART Reports from
interviewing victims of human trafficking).
Victims can suffer physical injuries due to mistreatment, lack of adequate food, hard
work or sexual exploitation. They often contract STIs and STDs such as HIV/AIDS. (Bales,
2007; Anker 2004; Tip, 2009). Sometimes violence attached to commercial sex can became
extreme. For example according to Europol, hundreds of corpses of trafficked women who have
been beaten to death, shot or strangled are found annually (O’Connor & Healy, 2006).
Drug abuse
In South Africa, a destination place for some victims from the East Africa Region,
victims of human trafficking are often purposively introduced to drugs, so they will be easily
subdued to the will of the traffickers. Of course, this is also beneficial to drug dealers as they get
new customers once victims become addicted to the drug substance. (Malinowski, 2010). We can
also mention that the interplay between human trafficking and drug abuse is not limited only to
South Africa, but exists in other regions where human trafficking is practiced.
Victims who experience sexual exploitation
Sexual abuse adds another dimension on impact. Sexual abuse is not only limited to
trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation, but can also happen to victims of forced
labour (especially in the case of domestic labour) as well as in the case of organ(s) removal.
Some effects of sexual abuse on victims of human trafficking include: physical injuries,
infections, chronic illnesses, laxity of rectal muscles & incontinence due to sodomy, unwanted
pregnancies, abortions, infertility, rape trauma syndrome and post traumatic stress disorder,
disturbed sleep-nightmare, regressive behaviour, psychosomatic illness, lost opportunities,
feeling of betrayal, social-economic problems like strained family relations, nightmares, drug
abuse, low self-esteem, anxiety and suicidal thoughts, and spiritual dilemma as the individuals
tend to question their faith in God. (Thenya, 2009).
Secondary Victimization
Secondary Victimization occurs not as a direct result of a criminal act, but through
responses of institutions and individuals to the victims. (UNODC, 2009). Secondary
victimization is often expected to happen within a criminal justice system, as a result of intrusive
or inappropriate conduct of police or other representatives of criminal justice institutions. Also
when it comes to judicial trials, secondary victimization is possible especially when the official
conducting the trial is not trained in handling cases of human trafficking. Judges for example
might be unaware of the traumatic nature of the human trafficking experience and may become
impatient once the victim is not able to account for the events that happened, and may take the
victims' inability to recall the past events as a purposive distraction of a trial. Victims can also be
subjected to secondary victimization through inadequate assistance by a service provider i.e.
non-governmental organisations providing shelter, or medical staff assisting the victim in the
medical help. In addition, secondary victimization can be caused by cultural factors like lack of
acceptance, suffered by people who were involved in commercial sex. In the Kenyan context,
secondary victimization is possible as the victim's assistance is fragmented as it is still being
developed.
Although international agencies, government institutions and civil society organisations
contribute in the attempts on assisting victims, in many cases the damage done to a victim of
human trafficking is irreversible. The process of rehabilitation can never restore the victim to the
previous condition.
Impact of Human Trafficking to the society
The negative impact of human trafficking goes beyond the individual level and generates its
negative effect on the whole society. As trafficking is either a process that happens in one
country or in more than in one country, it has its effect on each part of it. Its negative impact
affects the donor country or community (places where victims are recruited), transit countries, or
communities – places where victims are transported towards the final destination and finally it
affects the destination country (where victims eventually arrive and are exploited). As Kenya is a
source, transit and destination country for victims of human trafficking, all the effects have a
heavy impact on the society.
Loss of human capital
Human capital is a necessary component for development and as we examine successful cases of
development (for example the East Asian Miracle), investing in human capital (i.e. health,
education etc.) was a main component of successful development policies (Stiglitz). Human
trafficking causes lost opportunities domestically including an irretrievable loss of human
resources and future productivity. (US Department of State 2011).
Interestingly, some activists like Rebecca Clay (Clay, 2011), an American psychologist engaged
in ending human trafficking, nickname human trafficking as a silent epidemic, while describing
the social cost of this phenomenon. Using such a phrase, often unintentionally, describes human
trafficking as a form of an epidemic with all its negative social effects. As Epidemiology has a
concept of the "Burden of Disease" which looks at the financial and social cost of the disease.
While taking into consideration the difficult task of calculating the cost of human trafficking,
calculating a Social Burden of Human Trafficking should be a future field of professional
studies.
Loss of human capital is also followed by the loss in remittance as the victims generate the profit
that is either transferred abroad, or used by traffickers to fuel their criminal activities. In cases of
child labour, the loss of human capital is more severe as children's health, psychology and
overall capacity is not ready to handle the heavy labour.
People who are lured into trafficking could be the possible future of the country. Their work,
knowledge, and experience could have been a contribution to a common good. Instead, after
being trafficked, they live in a situation of exploitation enriching traffickers and other exploiters.
Many of them after the return to the place of origin become frustrated as they try to account for
the time and capital lost. It is also very plausible that due to the physical and psychological
damage mentioned above, they are likely to rely on the social assistance. It might be hard to say
but often they may depend on their families thus being a burden to the family, friends and local
community.
Human Security
The loss of human capital is not the only negative effect of human trafficking on society. Its
effects are felt in other sectors like public health, gender balance, rule of law, and social
development. We can sum up those components using the concept of human security.
Since there are many approaches on the definition of human security we can use the most
common definition presented in the UNDP report of 1994 which states that:
Human security can be said to have two main aspects. It means, first, safety from such
chronic threats as hunger, disease and repression. And second, it means protection from
sudden and hurtful disruptions in the patterns of daily life-whether in homes, in jobs or in
communities.
The Human Security Paradigm contains different elements such as health security, the rule of
law, food security used by policy makers and analysts on different occasions. Once all those
elements are summed up in two common strains that are the subject of human security and the
content, the impact of human trafficking will become more visible.
The impact of human trafficking on the subject of human security
Human security designates the individual(s) rather than the state as a “referent object” of
security although this does not abrogate the security of a state. The relationship between state
security and that of individuals is complimentary, dependent and mutually reinforcing. Without
human security, state security cannot be attained and vice versa. (King & Murray, 2001; Paris,
2001; Tadjbakhsh, 2005). Since human trafficking targets the wellbeing of individuals, it affects
the state security as well through the mental, physical and emotional impact of this crime on the
referent of human security – the population from where victims are recruited.
The impact of human trafficking on the content of human security
Because human security concentrates on the well-being and dignity of individuals, the
human security approach recognizes the menaces beyond violence such as insufficient income,
chronic unemployment, dismal, access to adequate health care and quality education, etc., as well
as subjective perceptions, such the inability to control one’s destiny, indignity, fear of crime and
violent conflict, etc. (Tadjbakhsh, 2005). Human trafficking has deleterious effects on the health of
societies in which trafficking flourishes, and to the authority of the state itself. It undermines the
border integrity as millions of people are transported annually across national boundaries under
false pretences where officials are corrupted and the state sovereignty is affected. As Simmons
and Lloyd (2010) point out, human trafficking involves the same criminal networks as weapon
smuggling, drugs trafficking, money laundering or other contraband. In some cases, terrorist
groups are interlinked with drugs and human trafficking as it is an additional income stream for
terrorist groups in Latin America or East Europe (Jonsson, 2009). As such groups are also
present in the Horn of Africa (i.e. Al-Shabab) there is evidence to suggest Kenyans have been
trafficked through Somalia (HAART reports).
Viewing human trafficking as a transnational crime provides an insight that gives the right
perspective on the damage done. We can quote the observation of Simmons and Lloyd:
The transnational crime frame posits human trafficking as a violent and socially corrosive
activity, typically connected with broader networks and almost inevitably conducive to
corruption of public officials. While it may line the pockets of some corrupt officials, it is
generally viewed as detrimental to public health, political stability, and the domestic rule of
law in both sending and receiving countries (Jonsson 2009). For these reasons, "It would
seem to be in the interest of most states to co-operate with other states in the fight against
human trafficking. The only exception would be if the state itself somehow makes a profit on
the trafficking of persons directly or indirectly which may very well be the case…‖
(Österdahl 2009). (Simmons and Lloyd, 2010, p. 16)
Impact on health
Trafficking is also affecting human health when victims are exposed to dangerous
activities, kept in unhealthy conditions or forced into commercial sex. The negative impact of
human trafficking on the social level is threefold. Firstly, as it was described in the case of
Florence, it destroys the health and human potential of its victims. With the number of victims
increasing, it has an effect on the social dimension, as the victims in one way or the other need
assistance from the health sector.
Another dimension is the impact of human trafficking in the spread of HIV/AIDS and other
STDs across the borders and the regions. As victims of trafficking for sexual purpose often are
forced into sexual activities without protection, they are at high risk of contracting the HIV virus.
Taking into account the mobile nature of human trafficking, the HIV virus is spread to different
regions, or countries. This is causing new and virulent strains of the virus to spread. Dr. Chris
Beyrer, a leading epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins has linked sex trafficking to the AIDS virus
stating that the new strains of HIV are proving resistance to treatment, therefore "the trafficking
part of the sex industry is contributing to the global dispersion of HIV subtypes. (Source: Aids)
Thirdly, human trafficking is a mediating variable between sex and poverty. As the author
established in his research in South Africa (one of the destination countries for victims of human
trafficking from the East Africa) trafficking of persons contributes to commercial sex by virtue
of the fact that it mediates the relationship between poverty and commercial sex.
While asked a question: “What does sex involve” and cross tabulating it with the question:
“What forces people into commercial sex”, the sex workers - victims of human trafficking and
sex workers who were not victims of human trafficking presented different answers. Commercial
sex workers- who were not victims of human trafficking attributed 53.3% of what sex involves to
fulfilling client’s erotic desire, and 40% to getting money, whereas commercial sex workers –
who were victims of human trafficking, attributed only 20% of what sex involves to fulfilling
client’s erotic desire, while 50% to getting money. This evidently confirms that commercial sex
workers and victims of human trafficking perceive commercial sex from different perspectives:
the former perceive it through Eros, the latter through socioeconomic reasons. Trafficking of
persons contributes to commercial sex by virtue of the fact that it mediates the relationship
between poverty and commercial sex.
We can see that on the diagram below (Malinowski, 2010):
Poverty
Human
Trafficking
Commercial Sex
Impact of human trafficking for the purpose of forced labour
The picture of the negative impact of human trafficking on the society would be incomplete
without a brief insight into trafficking for the purpose of forced labour. Trafficking for the
purpose of forced labour is often overshadowed by trafficking for the purpose of sexual
exploitation. However, as the number of victims trafficked to work in mines, farms, sweatshops,
households or other places of exploitation is at least equal to those caught in sexual exploitation,
the impact of trafficking for the purpose of forced labour cannot be neglected.
This type of trafficking shares some commonalities with the issues discussed earlier. As the
victims are exposed to long working hours, abusive environments and no or little remuneration,
their health is going to be severely affected. Often victims of forced labour are at the same time a
subject to sexual exploitation, and/or witnesses of other forms of violation of human rights like
physical abuse or murder.
Forced Labour has its own unique effect on society. It is first a source of wealth for traffickers –
whether organized in crime syndicates or simply by individuals. Much of this money is used to
sponsor other criminal activities like drug trafficking or illegal arms trade. While victims of
trafficking for forced labour generate a substantial amount of wealth, they are neither paid for the
work done nor have any money set aside for their future retirement. Therefore this means that
after they are released they will have to rely on the society or the imminent family for their
upkeep. There is no contribution to income tax or any contribution to social security and health
security funds. As we are not able to identify the accurate figure of how much society is losing
from forced labour, we can quote the statistics from ILO that estimates the total cost of forced
labour (after excluding the commercial sex trade) in Sub-Saharan Africa at 1,511,000,000 USD,
while the global cost of forced labour is estimated at 21 Billion USD (ILO: The Cost of
Coercion, 2009).
Similarly, forced labour has a significant effect on victims who are below the age of 18. It
damages a child’s physical, social, mental, psychological and spiritual development, deprives
children of their childhood and their dignity. As children who do not complete their basic
education, they are likely to remain illiterate and never acquire the skills needed to get a job and
contribute to the development of a modern national economy. (ILO: Cost of coercion). Often,
they may be engaged in criminal activities instead. Consequently, child labour results in underskilled, unqualified workers who may jeopardise future improvements of skills in the workforce
in Kenya.
If we cannot afford human trafficking among our midst, who should then react?
As human trafficking affects each and every society around the world (TIP 2012), we need to
identify actors who are primarily responsible for counteracting this negative and dangerous
phenomenon.
The need of cooperation
Human trafficking is an international phenomenon that exists virtually in every part of the world.
Its presence is often well settled in local culture and customs, or is often the result of weak states
or state institutional neglect. The need for co-operation in countering human trafficking efforts is
indispensible. No one can work alone. First, we need horizontal cooperation between state
institutions, international organizations, churches and civil organizations from different regions.
For example, government’s institutions, faith based organisations or unions cooperating in
sending or receiving victims of human trafficking from the destination places to the place of
origin, or the above mentioned institutions jointly co-operating in prevention activities.
The international nature of human trafficking poses a danger to counter human trafficking efforts
that are conducted without co-operation. It is likely that efforts to counter human trafficking
successful in one country/region will not eradicate human trafficking but rather re-channel
criminal activities to the neighbouring countries/regions. We can quote Simmons and Lloyd
(2010) who recorded that:
the more vigorous prosecution of sex trafficking in the United States has likely led to an increase in
sex tourism to other jurisdictions (Keenan 2006). Similarly, when the United States cracked down on
Puerto Rico’s participation in drug transit between South America and the United States, drug
traffickers descended on Haiti) (p. 17)
Since Kenya is involved in the process of regional integration (East African Community), we
must also take into account such a possibility. Without co-ordinated counter human trafficking
efforts and regional co-operation, traffickers will be pushed away to other countries in the region
and so the problem will not be really solved but streamed away.
Besides horizontal cooperation between different institutions and organizations, we need strong
vertical co-operations that start with the international organizations and state institutions and end
with various Civil Society Organisations (CSOs). As the primary responsibility lies in the hands
of state institutions, others play a subsidiary yet important role.
State institutions are the prime actors in combating human trafficking. Each government has a
primary role under its jurisdiction to protect victims, prosecute traffickers, and to protect the
whole population from the danger of being trafficked.
The responsibility of protecting citizens lies with each respective government first. Therefore,
governments (through their administrative apparatus) are to play a primary role in countering
human trafficking efforts; however they need support from supranational bodies (like the UN
based agencies) and Civil Society Organisations.
Civil Society Organisations including Faith Based Organisations play a subsidiary role to
governments’ efforts in eradicating human trafficking. In both developed and developing
countries, they are an important part of the counter-human trafficking network and their role
grows once the state institutions are unable (due to scarcity of resources) or unwilling (due to
certain policies) to play a primarily role.
The more the resources are limited and the lesser the will of combating human trafficking on
behalf of the government, the bigger the role of Civil Society and Faith Based Organisations in
eradicating human trafficking.
The role Faith Based Organisations (FBOs) in eradicating Human Trafficking
A special role is reserved for different Faith Based Organisations. As improving human
conditions and realisation of human rights principles becomes a core of the evangelization
process (Hehir, 2010), the debate as to whether Faith Based Organisations (notably the Catholic
Church) should or should not engage in counter human trafficking activities is long past. The
Church in our region has the institutional capacity at the grass root as well as at the regional and
international level. Church structures like parishes are often found in places where state structure
is limited due to scarcity of resources. Also the fact that the Church is present in most of the
destination countries makes her an important entity in counter-human trafficking efforts.
Way forward
We can agree that eradication of human trafficking is a necessity and not a luxury in which way
civil society and faith based organisations can contribute towards the creation of human
trafficking-free society.
Clarifying the nature of human trafficking
It is an absolute necessity to reach a society-wide consensus on what human trafficking is. A
precise understanding of human trafficking is not only a matter of academic discourse but also a
guide to formulating effective human trafficking policies in Kenya and in the region at large.
The definition of human trafficking as used worldwide is derived from Palermo Protocol - a
supplementary document of the Convention on the Transnational Organized Crime.
Unfortunately, as the definition attempts to precisely describe what human trafficking is, it lacks
precision and is ambiguous. It states that Human Trafficking:
“shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring 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. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum,
the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of servitude or the removal of
organs.” (Palermo Protocol, art 3, 2000).
To make this complex definition simpler, we can use the UN definition presented in UNODC
Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2012 which states:
“Human trafficking can be understood as a process by which people are recruited in
their community and exploited by traffickers using deception and/or some form of
coercion to lure and control them.”
The above definition is still based on the Palermo Protocol but is more consistent. It is worthy to
note that the definition does not mention any form of movement: a component that was once
necessary and to some extent in a common understanding still is. The UNODC definition
mentions recruitment in a local milieu but does not decide whether exploitation must happen
somewhere else or locally. This widens the meaning of human trafficking where popularly the
movement is considered as a necessary component. (See stories of human trafficking presented
by media).
To gain an absolute clarity, we need to explore the meaning of human trafficking from its origins
till today. What is the first criterion of defining human trafficking? Interestingly, in the past it
was race. We can quote for example International Agreement for the Suppression of the White
Slave Trade of 1904, popularly called as a White Slave Convention (White Slave Convention,
1904) – the first international document addressing human trafficking. Similar to that were the
International Agreement for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic of 18 May 1904, and the
International Convention for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic of 4 May 1910.
The race factor did not last long as it was replaced by the gender factor. The international
conventions in the twenties and thirties of twenty century focused on gender. We can quote here
The International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children of 30
September 1921, and The International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic of Women
of Full Age of 11 October 1933.
Interestingly, to a certain extent, this perception continues till the contemporary time as the main
international treaty concerning human trafficking Palermo Protocol was titled: Protocol to
Prevent Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children,
Supplementing the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime.
We must stress here that it is very correct to state that women and children are primary targets of
traffickers. However, it is important to recognize the fact that men are also a target. To see how
this conceptual perception influences praxis, we can look at the services available to victims of
human trafficking. It is possible to find a service provider in cases of child trafficking or women
trafficking. However it is far more difficult to identify such a service when the victim is a man.
What is then the exact nature of human trafficking?
Different organisations worldwide describe trafficking of persons as “modern day slavery”.
Often this description carries more emotional connotation than the Palermo’s conceptualization
of the phenomena. Government officials like Condoleezza Rice in the introduction to Trafficking
in Persons Report (TIP, 2008) used the phrase modern day slavery. The United Nations Office
for Drug and Crime (UNODC Report, 2009) describes the trafficking of persons as “the crime
that shames us all.” In 2007 when the celebration of abolishing slave trade by Great Britain was
going on, a number of references were made to trafficking of persons as a new form of the slave
trade.
Some scholars like Bales (1999) regard trafficking of persons as “modern day slavery” which is
a continuation of old slavery. Others see trafficking as a continuation of slave trade rather than
the slavery itself (Weissbrodt, 2002). For example, Bravo (2007) presents trafficking of persons
as a slave trade. This means that the component of movement is necessary. Scarpa (2008) on the
other hand, classifies trafficking of persons as slavery – like practices. She names the
phenomenon among other practices like debt bondage or incest and juxtaposing them with
traditional-chattel slavery.
There is another approach to human trafficking as proposed by Jean Allain (2009, b). He omits
the discussion of whether trafficking of persons is slavery, slave trade, slavery like practice and
modern day slavery. He believes that those entire concepts are used together with trafficking of
persons for the rhetoric purpose. Instead he proposes the idea to which trafficking of persons is
an independent concept and arises from summing up a number of worst examples of
exploitation.
Therefore, only the concept of human trafficking as ultimate exploitation captures its destructive
nature.
Raising Awareness – Preventing the cases of human trafficking
Deepening the studies on human trafficking is necessary but might not be enough. As the
traffickers take an advantage of lack of knowledge or life experiences of the potential victims to
deceive them, creating awareness is the only way to reduce the number of people trafficked.
Awareness not only helps to prevent trafficking but also increases the community experience or
knowledge about the victims. As the victims often lack self-awareness – i.e. they are not aware
that they are victims –they tend to see themselves as lawbreakers and hence they will not be
assisted.
Awareness is needed for those who can meet victims and also for those who are vulnerable to
trafficking. We can mention here the youth, women, children, and also men. As the traffickers
target unaware populations, awareness must be targeted towards the general public so that
community resilience is created. Faith Based Organisations like the Catholic Church are in a
very good position to run this type of activity as they have well-established structures at the grass
root level.
Research
Human Trafficking is an under researched phenomenon. We do not have sufficient statistics and
many official reports like UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons or US government
Trafficking in Persons Report rely on secondary data which is mostly provided by government
institutions from different regions of the world. Although such data is very important, it cannot
replace the need for primary data collected through scientific research.
Doing both qualitative and quantitative research can help to understand human trafficking that is,
its emanation and interconnection with other phenomena in our society.
Co-operation between sending and receiving countries/churches
As victims are often trafficked to destinations outside their immediate community, they will
often travel back home after being rescued. Such a scenario requires cooperation between
sending and receiving institutions. Although official institution are able to provide basic
assistance (i.e. to cover the trip back to their place) more is needed. Knowing that there are
always chances of re-trafficking to occur, or even worse: that those victims will become
traffickers. victim's assistance is an absolute necessity.
As most of the FBOs (notably the Roman Catholic Church) are present in most of the countries
in Africa and beyond, it opens a possibility of cooperation in victims' return. So far, such cooperation is limited in some cases where inspired individuals organize networking. However, a
more structural approach is needed whereby the assisting sending agency will be able to identify
a service provider on the receiving side.
Youth programs
Young people are a special target for traffickers. They are potential victims as the demand for
cheap labour and sexual industry is still growing. However, the youth as a group in the society
can play an important role as market creators. As demand for cheap commercial sex is linked
with supply (and some part of this supply are victims of human trafficking), customers who buy
paid sex or pornography unintentionally create a demand that is going to interlink with supply.
Therefore, educating our youth - the future society of Kenya on taking an active part in stopping
the demand can play a vital role in eradicating human trafficking.
Taking into consideration the local cultural connect
Although Human Trafficking is a global phenomenon, it has its regional varieties, for example
the variances in East African Region: albinos as a special target for traffickers, organ removal for
the purpose of magic (witchcraft) or the bigger role of the family in the whole process of
trafficking.
All counter-human trafficking activities should be sensitive to cultural background, rather than
being a copy of Western World remedies. Negative cultural patterns that support human
trafficking (e.g. arranged marriages) should be isolated and transformed while positive patterns
(i.e. traditional African values like hospitality, respect for human life, etc.) that could help
eradicate human trafficking should be promoted.
Conclusion
As members of a civil society in Kenya or any other country in the region, we must realise that
combating human trafficking is not a luxury. We cannot say we are not able to counteract human
trafficking because our resources are limited and we struggle with poverty. The logic is the other
way: we are poor and short of resources because we are not combating human trafficking. The
sooner we realise it, the better.