HUMAN TRAFFICKING

HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Monday, August 30, 2010

Causes of Human Trafficking

There is no one cause of human trafficking in world. Trafficking is caused by an entire range of different conditions and issues. These include:

􀂾 Lack of Awareness: Many people who migrate for work within Indonesia or abroad are unaware of the dangers of trafficking and the ways in which migrant workers are deceived or pushed into abusive or slave-like labor.

􀂾 Poverty: Poverty has forced many households to devise survival strategies that have included migrating for work and bonded labor, i.e., renting out a person’s labor to pay off a debt or a loan.

􀂾 Material Expectations: The desire for consumer products and higher standards of living fuel migration and render migrants vulnerable to trafficking.

􀂾 Cultural Factors: The following cultural factors contribute to trafficking:
• Women’s Role in the Family: Although cultural norms stress that a woman’s place is at home as wife and mother, it is acknowledged that women may have to become supplementary wage earners in times of family need. A sense of duty and obligation drives many women to migrate for work in order to support their families.
• Children’s Role in the Family: Obedience to parents and an obligation to support the family makes children vulnerable to trafficking. Child labor, child migration for work, and child bonded labor are deemed acceptable family financial strategies to survive.
• Early Marriage: Early marriage has serious implications for girls, including health hazards, the end of schooling, limited economic opportunities, disruption of personal development, and, often, early divorce. Divorced girls are legally seen as adults and are vulnerable to trafficking as a result of their economic vulnerability.
• History of Bonded Labor: The practice of renting out one’s labor or that of a family member to pay off a loan is an accepted family survival strategy. People placed into bonded labor are especially vulnerable to abusive and slave-like work conditions.

􀂾 Lack of Birth Registry: People without proper identification fall prey to trafficking more easily, since their age and nationality cannot be documented. Children who are trafficked, for example, are more easily passed off as adults to anyone who asks.

􀂾 Lack of Education: People with limited education have fewer viable job skills and opportunities and are thus more prone to trafficking as they look to migrate for unskilled work.

􀂾 Corruption and Weak Enforcement of Laws: Traffickers can often bribe corrupt law enforcement and immigration officials to overlook criminal activities. Public administrators can also be bribed to falsify information on ID cards, birth certificates, and passports, making migrant workers more vulnerable to trafficking due to illegal migration. In addition, lack of state funds budgeted for countertrafficking efforts hampers law enforcers’ ability to effectively deter and prosecute traffickers.

Monday, August 23, 2010

The Star Newspaper Friday April 2, 2010 Vietnamese gets seven years for human trafficking By M.MAGESWARI mages@thestar.com.my



PETALING JAYA: A Vietnamese woman who was convicted of trafficking another woman for the purpose of exploitation cried openly while being led to the court lock-up after she was jailed seven years.
Fruit seller Nguyen Thi Mai, 26, was found guilty by a Sessions Court here for trafficking Nguyen Thi Bich Tien, 25, by threatening to injure her.
Thi Mai initially insisted on staying in the court lock-up and refused to be taken to the main basement lock-up so that she could be transported to Kajang prison.
Judge Rozina Ayob convicted her of the offence committed at Impian Heights Apartment in Puchong Jaya between 1am on May 24 last year and 12.30am on May 26.
The judge also sentenced her to eight months jail for wrongfully confining the victim at the same apartment between 2.05am on May 24 and 1am on May 26.
The judge, however, ordered the jail terms to run concurrently from Feb 9 last year – the date she was released on bail.
In sentencing her, the judge said she hoped that the accused would learn her lesson and not repeat the offence. According to the evidence produced during the trial, the victim was promised a job in Malaysia but was not told the nature of the work.
The victim told the court that the accused wanted her to work as a prostitute and threatened to sell her in Thailand if she refused.
To escape, the victim used a rope to scale down from the the apartment’s ninth floor balcony to the eighth floor.
A doctor who saw her alerted a security guard who immediately informed the police.
DPP Shah Rizal Abdul Manan applied for a deterrent sentence saying that human trafficking cases had become rampant.
“The United Nations estimates that around four million persons are trafficked each year in the world. Malaysia views such cases very seriously,” he added.

The Star Newspaper Thursday April 29, 2010 Human trafficking on the rise By RUBEN SARIO sario@thestar.com.my

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah police, which have crippled several human trafficking syndicates, said trafficking is thriving in the state.

State CID (anti-vice, gambling and secret society division) chief Deputy Supt Mohd Taufik Maidin said police had detained 23 pimps including seven women over the past two years.

In January, police arrested six pimps and 29 women in raids here and in the interior Keningau district.

Police were investigating two of the pimps and 22 of the women under the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act 2007 as the victims were duped and trafficked in for prostitution.

DSP Mohd Taufik told a seminar on the Act here that while prostitutes were free to move around, trafficked humans were abused and confined.

Noting that it was a challenge to prosecute a person under the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act, he said those caught were usually charged under the Immigration Act for overstaying or under the Penal Code for prostitution or for living in or trading in prostitution.

DSP Mohd Taufik said police needed the cooperation of the victims who were trafficked in and lured into prostitution to be able to charge a suspect under the anti-trafficking law.

“I believe if 10 people point to the same person and the same illegal operation, we will be able to nail this person,” he said, adding that police were working with other enforcement agencies including foreign consulates in tackling human trafficking.

Meanwhile, Sabah Women’s Advisory Council deputy chairperson Mariati Robert said more shelter homes were needed for human trafficking victims particularly in Sabah’s east coast.

She said there were currently only three shelters in Sabah, two in the state capital and one in Sandakan.

Mariati said the homes could not cope with both domestic violence and human trafficking victims.

“Sabah needs more such homes to protect these victims while waiting for their police cases to be resolved,” she added.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Cause Of Human Trafficking

  • Lack of economic opportunity- with no jobs at home, people are forced to go abroad or starve
  • Feminization of migration- as the international labor market shifted its focus to women-staffed occupations, the population vulnerable to trafficking ballooned
  • Organized crime syndicates- elusive and adaptive, crime syndicates have maximized their profits from trafficking by taking advantage of the large number of people seeking work abroad
  • Government corruption- trafficking will be difficult to solve with customs officials and other government staff accepting bribes to facilitate the trafficking
  • Poor education- many uneducated, desperate men and women are duped into trafficking by manipulative recruiters
  • Low awareness of trafficking- the fewer people that know about trafficking, the less awareness there is, and the less chance that an effective movement can be mobilized to effectively fight the issue
  • Poverty-which forces people to seek any job while ignoring the risks, trafficked persons often come from countries and communities marked by poverty and social exclusion
  • Cultural factors - made women and children vulnerable to trafficking through forced marriage by parent and through early marriage- to live outside of their home region or migrate overseas away from people they can turn to for help



Wednesday, August 11, 2010

HUMAN TRAFFICKING

WHAT IS HUMAN TRAFFICKING?
Human trafficking is the illegal trade in human beings for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation or forced labor: a modern-day form of slavery. It is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world, tied with the illegal arms industry as the second largest, after the drug-trade.

Trafficking can take various forms include:
  • forced labour  
  • sex trafficking
  • child labour
  • trafficking in children  
  • sexual exploitation.