Writes Hera, Content writer, Headline Diplomat eMagazine, LUDCI.eu
The tourism industry is worth over 8 trillion dollars, contributing 10% to global economic activities last year.[1] The industry is diverse in its operation constituting several sectors, such as accommodation, recreation and entertainment, food and beverage services, transportation, and travel services to name a few. Tourism professionals develop industrial ties with corporate businesses, individuals organising group stays for convenience and improved profits.
Despite its vast operations, the tourism industry lacks an official modus operandi combating trafficking, frequently coming in contact with traffickers seeking to transport victims especially during major events of sports, conventions, and popular vacation destinations. In fact, hotels may unknowingly or in some cases knowingly do business with crime syndicates who make bulk room bookings in advance or even hire human-labor trafficked individuals to work for their organisation.
In parallel, Tourism destinations are growing increasingly commercialized, with new models of business for lodging and transport such as airBnB and Uber being underuse. Traffickers have taken advantage of victims and combined them with tourists looking for sexual activities during their stay. Traffickers are known to move victims on all forms of transportation, frequently relocating to avoid detection by law enforcement officers. Often described as ‘ modern-day-slavery’ trafficking victims are exploited for sexual or labor services. Victims are kept in isolation and are deprived of any access to their identification documents or financial resources and are often suffering from emotional, physical, and sexual abuse.
Although there are solid laws in place to prosecute those who commit crimes against children abroad, law enforcement officers have their share of difficulties in enforcement simply due to lack of evidence, and jurisdictional laws that prevent them to bring the perpetrators to justice if they are not located in their country.
Approximately 400,000 people are believed to be trapped in human trafficking in the United States, from forced labour to sex trafficking, as per the Global Slavery Index, published by the human rights group ‘Walk Free Foundation’.
The Wall Street Journal reports hotel staff recounting sordid details such as ‘Blood and used condoms littered the hotel rooms where she had sex in Naples. Skinny, underdressed women loitered in hotel lobbies while men wearing gold chains waited their turns’.
In 2019, Weitz & Luxenberg filed a case against twelve hotel chains who were named and accused of willfully ignoring warning signs that women and children were sold as sex slaves inside their hotels, according to the filing, a consolidation of 13 existing cases, in U.S. federal court in Columbus, Ohio. The named list includes Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc., Red Roof Inn, Intercontinental Hotels & Resorts, Best Western Hotels & Resorts, and Wyndham Hotels and Resorts Inc.
Still, the tourism and hospitality industry ultimately carries a social responsibility and moral obligation to help stop and prevent human trafficking. Staff must be increasingly trained to recognize and respond to human trafficking situations by keeping vigilant to warning signs and initiating process improvements that create checks and barriers to such illegal activities.
Here we present a series of actionable ways to prevent illicit activities happening inside of your business and thereby save human lives,
Trafficker -victim interaction could look like:
- Victim refers to trafficker as “Daddy”
- Trafficker uses derogatory slang
- Openly threatens or physically assaults victim
- Inconsistency in story
- Ordering adjacent rooms
- Bookings at late or unusual hours
Some specific behaviors room and lobby staff can look out for are
- Insists on little or no housekeeping
- Little or no luggage/clothing
- Room frequented by men
- Use of backpage.com
- Requests large number of towels and linens
- Pay in cash
- Requests room with access to exits
- Use of inappropriate nicknames
Process improvements involving checks and barriers are to be set in place to detect trafficking efforts early on,
- Traffickers are known to travel with underage victims claiming them to be their daughter(s)
- Bank transactions occurring for bulk bookings should be thoroughly scanned for their source
- IDs, Names and claimed relationships should be cross verified in cooperation with police
With proactive monitoring and vigilance, it is possible to detect and warn the authorities on time.
Conclusion:
The tourism and hospitality industry plays an unexpected role in human trafficking via accommodations and transportation. The industry can play a larger role in minimising victims of human trafficking, due to the sheer network size of the industry and its global nature.
