Writes Demeter and Althea, LUDCI.eu Editorial Team
Human trafficking also known as modern-day slavery is a horrific crime that strips basic human rights and freedom from approximately 40.3 million victims worldwide. This number includes child trafficking.
Traditional approaches to preventing trafficking of humans, assisting victims and bringing criminals to justice have had but a small impact on the global phenomenon; a less than justifiable number to the millions of victims who are left with life-long mental and physical scars, diseases and addiction from the journey into ‘hell on earth’.
In order to combat human trafficking internationally, The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime (the Protocol) established the first common international definition of “trafficking in persons”.
This, it concludes, is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons by improper means (such as force, abduction, fraud, or coercion) for an improper purpose including forced labor or sexual exploitation. Human smuggling, a related but different crime, generally involves the consent of the person(s) being smuggled. These people often pay large sums of money to be smuggled across international borders. Once in the country of their final destination, they are generally left to their own devices. Smuggling becomes trafficking when the element of force or coercion is introduced.
Despite growing awareness of the issue and an influx of resources from influential bodies such as the United Nations, the number of convictions remains at a disproportionate level or in some cases, has fallen significantly. In 2019, just 9, 102 human traffickers were convicted – worldwide, while the number of victims continued to increase. In Europe, conviction rates dropped from 988 traffickers convicted in 2011 to 742 people in 2016. During that same period, the number of detected victims increased from 4, 248 to 4, 429.
According to the UNDOC 2014 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, 40 percent of countries recorded few or no convictions, and over the past 10 years, there had been no discernible increase in global criminal justice response to this crime, leaving a significant portion of the population vulnerable to offenders.
This ‘significant portion of the population’ accounts for almost 60 percent of women and children who are trafficked mainly for sexual exploitation, while forced labor accounts for approximately 34 percent of all identified cases.
UNDOC also highlighted that conflict has increased the vulnerability of such populations to trafficking as armed groups were found to use the practice to finance activities or increase troops.
Activist and U.N. Goodwill Ambassador Nadia Murad were among thousands of Yazidi women and girls who were abducted from her village and sold into sexual slavery by the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq, a tactic used in order to boost recruitment and reward soldiers.
Murad, who was the recipient of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize dedicated it to survivors of sexual violence and genocide, noting that “the only prize in the world that can restore our dignity is justice and the prosecution of criminals.”
The report also found for the first time that most victims are trafficked within their own countries of citizenship. This may be due to improved border controls at borders preventing cross-border trafficking, as well as a greater awareness of the different forms of trafficking – the report notes.
The UNODC highlighted that for a greater number of convictions globally, human trafficking must be a criminal offense in the country, where an act of trafficking is detected, and that law should be enforced.
At the launch of the report, then Executive Director of UNODC, Antonio Maria Costa said that “many governments are still in denial. There is even neglect when it comes to either reporting on, or prosecuting cases of human trafficking”. He pointed to the fact that while the number of convictions for human trafficking is increasing, two out of every five countries covered by the UNODC Report had not recorded a single conviction.
“This Report increases our understanding of modern slave markets, yet it also exposes our ignorance”, said Mr. Costa. “We have a big picture, but it is impressionistic and lacks depth. We fear the problem is getting worse, but we cannot prove it for lack of data, and many governments are obstructing”, he admitted.
A 2006 report issued by the United States of America Government Accountability Office criticised unfounded numbers cited by Governments, including the United States Government, noting that the accuracy of the estimates was in doubt because of methodological weaknesses, gaps in data, and numerical discrepancies.
The main weakness noted in such estimates is that terms (such as “victims of trafficking”) are not defined or used precisely. In addition, data on the number of people trafficked are confused with those on other groups of people, such as the number of migrants smuggled into a country or the number of women in prostitution.
Governments and social scientists must, therefore, see as imperative, the need to improve information-gathering and sharing on human trafficking. Generating statistically sound estimates of the prevalence of human trafficking is one of the greatest challenges facing researchers; if resolved, it has the greatest potential to affect policy and practice worldwide. Reliable estimates of human trafficking are important for nearly everything — from the allocation of limited criminal justice resources to the evaluation of prevention, intervention, and victim services programs (US National Institute of Justice).
Convictions globally have only recently started to grow. One such is the landmark case of American financier Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein was accused of exploiting dozens of women and girls in New York and Florida. Evidence also pointed to him abusing and trafficking hundreds of young women and girls, some as young as 11 years old to his secluded estate in the Virgin Islands, known as Little Saint James. Epstein used a ring of associates to rotate the women and girls in and out of sexual servitude, using fraudulent modeling visas to transport them across state lines and international borders.
In one undated incident detailed in a lawsuit filed by Denise N. George, the attorney general of the Virgin Islands, a 15-year-old girl attempted to swim of Epstein’s island and escape after she was forced to engage in sex acts with Epstein and others. The girl was found, and held captive on the island after he confiscated her passport.
In August 2019, Epstein hanged himself at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, where he was being held awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges.
Epstein, at the time of his death, was facing two trafficking charges, sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking of minors. It was alleged that the money manager and registered sex offender, “enticed and recruited” underage girls to his homes in New York and Florida to engage in sex acts with him, after which he would give the victims hundreds of dollars in cash.
Although the allegations pointed to possible child abuse, the office of the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, which issued the indictment instead chose trafficking charges. Why? The assault of a minor is not a federal crime.
Human trafficking is a crime under federal law in the United States, in every state. The country’s first comprehensive federal law to address trafficking in persons is the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000. The law operates under a three-pronged approach to prevent, protect, and prosecute. Under US federal law, victims of “severe forms of trafficking in persons” are guaranteed the three-pronged approach. This includes victims of sex trafficking and labor trafficking.
Since the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act in 2000, 49 states have enacted legislation that criminalises human trafficking and empowers state and local law enforcement — often the first responders to interact with victims — to investigate these cases without depending on federal authorities and to prosecute human trafficking cases in state courts.
However, reports have shown that fewer trafficking cases have been identified and prosecuted than expected. This may be because human trafficking laws are relatively new, and police and prosecutors are unfamiliar with labor laws and regulations and lack the infrastructure to identify instances of trafficking both sexually and labor exploitation.
Vulnerable people can be trafficked into labour of any kind – not just sexually. But labour trafficking tends to get less attention as it’s not salacious enough to garner widespread interest.
In a report submitted by the International Human Rights Clinic at Santa Clara University School of Law wherein local responses to human trafficking were investigated in the California Bay Area, law enforcement officials admitted that labor trafficking was under-investigated. They went on to state that labor trafficking victims were typically identified by non-governmental service providers rather than by law enforcement agencies and that law enforcement often does not pursue the investigation and prosecution of such cases.
Furthermore, police departments with federal anti-trafficking funding lacked sufficient resources to investigate labour trafficking cases, which they said was more time and resource-intensive than sex trafficking investigations. The 2012 Trafficking In Persons report corroborates this, noting that “federal and state worksite inspectors lacked sufficient resources and training to increase victim identification appreciably.”
Traffickers often confiscate the identity and travel documents of their victims, usually after arrival at the final destination. This robs victims of their official identity, and, in many cases, results in an illegal migratory status, making it very difficult for them to seek help or to escape. Because many victims come from countries where law enforcement officers are viewed as a source of oppression, rather than a means of assistance, they may be unwilling to contact law enforcement officials for help.
Traffickers often reinforce this perception by telling the victims that they are free to go to law enforcement officers if they wish, but that they will be immediately deported. Unfortunately, traffickers are often correct in this assertion because most trafficked victims that come to the notice of law enforcement officials in destination countries are likely to be immediately deported rather than treated as victims of serious crimes.
Traffickers may also tell the victims that there is no point in seeking assistance from law enforcement officers or other authorities because they are corrupt and paid by traffickers. Traffickers exploit the lack of documents combined with fear of law enforcement officers to make it highly unlikely that victims will seek to escape or lodge official complaints. (Investigating Human Trafficking Cases Using a Victim-centred Approach: A Trainer’s Manual on Combating Trafficking in Persons for Capacity-building of Law Enforcement Officers in Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago).
In the Prosecuting Human Trafficking Cases: Lessons Learned and Promising Practices, prosecutors called for greater buy-in and dedicated law enforcement to investigate these crimes. They noted an unwillingness at times of law enforcement in dealing with these cases, as well as seeing a victim as a human trafficking victim. They also identified the need for better relationships with agents in the case; greater resources to address trafficking cases; availability of more and better services for victims and more training for law enforcement.
The drop in convictions is also likely to be due to continued difficulties authorities face when building cases under modern slavery laws, which are still relatively new.
“The convictions either are hard to make, and we know that to be true, under some of the newer slavery and trafficking laws, or they are choosing to prosecute under a statute with which they are more likely to get a successful prosecution,” said Kevin Bales, professor of contemporary slavery at the University of Nottingham.
Authorities may instead pursue a conviction for crimes such as grievous bodily harm, where evidence may be easier to gather, he added. Another barrier to convicting child traffickers is the unwillingness of victims to cooperate with the criminal justice system where they have been threatened and intimated by traffickers.
While under the control of traffickers, victims often do not know where to go for assistance and/or are too scared to ask for help. Sometimes victims who do escape traffickers are revictimised by authorities who do not identify them as victims but as violators of national laws. Victims who are not properly identified are often deported, due to their irregular migratory status.
While most human trafficking cases don’t mirror Epstein’s in terms of his money and influence, there is a common thread throughout his victims: when they met him, they were vulnerable, often poor, and isolated from family members or both.
Kate D’Admo, a consultant with the group Reframe Health and Justice, says trafficking does not target people but instead targets vulnerability and marginalisation. A part of reducing human trafficking is by reducing the chances of vulnerability. These moves could include justice reform, anti-poverty work, homelessness, anti-racism work, and immigration relief.
To specifically help survivors of sex trafficking, many NGOs have made a call to decriminalise sex work. Many also call for legal reform to allow people arrested for prostitution to expunge their criminal records, making it easier to get jobs outside the sector.
Unfortunately, the Trump administration recently named the use of federal funds to help survivors of sex trafficking clear their criminal records.
Labor protections, in industries like domestic work where workers still lack basic rights like a minimum wage, must be strengthened.
Slavery is also a large part of many companies’ supply chains. Consumers must be made aware of where their favourite coffee or cotton blend really comes from.
At least 24.9 million people are thought to be trapped in forced labor worldwide. Of them, 16 million are exploited in the private sector, linked to the supply chains of large companies. Although there have been initiatives like the UK Modern Slavery which obliges big businesses to report on the steps they take to tackle modern slavery in their supply chains, the law lacks teeth. Approximately 40 per cent of businesses have been found to not comply with the Act.
The public should be made aware of such companies and decide not to do business with them until they report.
When asked at the launch of the UNODC 2014 Global Report in Trafficking in Persons on how to detect human trafficking, Costa said ‘follow the money’. Organised crime networks are in the business for profit which always flows up the ladder to those leading.
In Canada, where there is a pervasive but difficult-to-curb human trafficking community, law enforcers have partnered with the banks to follow the money that traffickers make and in so doing, gather evidence to start building cases against them. Dubbed Project Protect, banks have started looking for patterns in clients’ accounts that would point them to possible traffickers.
In 2007, Project Protect led to the rescue of nine Portuguese girls and two convicted traffickers who were responsible for $3 million being funnelled into Canada. Items acquired through the exploitation of the girls were then sold and proceeds placed back in the public purse to fund victims and law enforcement.
When HSBC – one of the world’s largest banking groups was fined for its sustained and systemic failure to guard against the corruption of the financial system and evading US laws, the Big Five Banks in the Canadian financial sector decided to err on the side of caution and began reporting everything that looked even slightly suspicious. This led to a 350% increase in reporting.
With this increased number of leads coming from the banks, law enforcement had to find a way to read and make sense of the data. The two groups created a joint select committee called the Money Laundering Intelligence Task Force. This group then partnered with QuantaVerse, a company that uses a machine-learning AI to form links from copious amounts of data analytics to efficiently find and combat financial crime.
The faster traffickers get convicted, the faster their ill-gotten gains can be auctioned and funds channelled to victims to help get their lives on track.
Conclusion:
Human trafficking is a complex and widespread issue that attacks most, if not all countries. Even with an international definition of what human trafficking is, many countries are failing to investigate and report on human trafficking siting differences in definition. But without proper and comprehensive data, states cannot allocate enough resources to prevent, protect, and prosecute.
While there is an urgent need for the number of convictions to mirror that of the number of victims involved in human trafficking, convictions are not without challenges. Some of these are the absence of anti-trafficking legislation in some counties; law enforcement’s lack of or misunderstanding of legislation that does exist; unwillingness of victims to cooperate with criminal justice system out of fear and not properly identifying victims of human trafficking or treating victims as criminals when they are held for illegal activities.
Finally, as more victims are identified by non-governmental organisations than law officials, there is an obvious need to take a more holistic and partnership approach to tackling the problem. Like the police departments charged to investigate and prosecute human traffickers are in urgent need of funding, so too are NGOs, which use much of their resources to actively seek out trafficked victims and help them through the process of getting back to some semblance of normalcy.
