HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN GLOBALIZED WORLD – December 11, 2006

THE SCOPE OF THE PROBLEM

“Human trafficking is nothing less than a modern form of slavery,” says US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice [1].  

Whether for farms or for factories, commercial businesses or for brothels, human trafficking has reached pandemic proportions. Trafficking, or “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons […] for the purpose of exploitation” [2] is hardly a new phenomenon in the pages of world history; even the Bible records that entire nations have been conquered, displaced, and exploited for labor. Yet, although the context of the crime has changed somewhat in today’s world of globalism, human trafficking remains a significant problem requiring the attention of all. Says the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA):

“Trafficking affects virtually every country in the world.  The largest numbers of victims come from Asia, with over 225,000 victims each year from Southeast Asia. The former Soviet Union is now believed to be the largest new source of trafficking for prostitution and the sex industry, with over 100,000 trafficked each year from that region. An additional 75,000 or more are trafficked from Eastern Europe. Over 100,000 come from Latin America and the Caribbean, and over 50,000 victims are from Africa. Most of the victims are sent to Asia, the Middle East, Western Europe and North America.”

Most victims are women and children. [3]

Without doubt, human trafficking is a complex issue, yet its root cause has been linked time and again to one thing, in particular: poverty. The CIA World Factbook reports that in 33 different countries, at least half the population lives below poverty line. Indeed, says former President of Romania Ion Iliescu: “Fighting this phenomenon means fighting poverty.” [4]  Not surprisingly, some of the poorest areas of the world are also the largest source countries for human trafficking. 

GLOBALIZATION: THE NEGATIVE SIDE

Often, human trafficking is a derivative of organized crime, and with the past few decade’s remarkable advances in global communication and transportation technologies, NGOs — crime organizations among them — have sprung up in the international garden like zucchinis. [5] Further, the rise of globalization has also brought in high tides of international trade, which has helped some developing nations modernize their economies, but has also driven a deeper gap between the haves and have-nots. 

John Kennedy was famous for saying “A rising tide raises all the boats.” Under the theory of complex interdependence, increased activity on the world’s economic stage should bring prosperity for all, yet others have been skeptical, as the prosperity gap between developed and developing countries has only widened with the “rising tide” of international trade. Perhaps there is truth in the remarks of Jesse Jackson that “Rising tides don’t lift all boats, particularly those stuck at the bottom. For the boats stuck at the bottom there's a misery index.” [6] Other international leaders have also expressed concern.

Consider some of the following statistics:  

Twenty-four countries in the South have a GDP of under $900.00 per capita, while thirty-nine countries in the North have a GDP per capita of more than $20,000. [7]  

The United Nations reports that 3.8 billion people — the vast majority of which live in the South — currently live on less than two dollars per day, and more than 1 billion live on one dollar or less, what is called “abject poverty.” [8] 

According to one estimation, more than 10 million people have died in 2006 year because of starvation. [9] 

An immense divide also exists in terms of modernization. Africa, home to 14% of the world’s total population, for example, accounts for only 3% of the world’s internet users.[10] 

The statistics illustrating the North-South gap are nearly inexhaustible.  

Consequently, with limited economic security, families migrate or are trafficked in hopes of finding some measure of financial stability. The result has been an enormous exodus of 120 million migrant workers, and although there is nothing wrong with migrant labor in itself, workers are often lulled into heavy debts and reprehensible working conditions under the cover of unfounded promises. Millions of women have been trafficked into brothels or forced to otherwise work as prostitutes because of deception on the part of employers. [11] 

The Salvation Army reports the following summary of the court case United States vs. Martinez-Uresti:

Through Operation Dead End, the San Antonio U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office investigated and the local U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecuted a situation in which the defendant Martinez-Uresti executed employment contracts with minor females and their parents, falsely representing that the minor females would work for one year in a restaurant to repay their $1,500 smuggling fee. Once the girls reached the United States, they were held against their will and forced to engage in prostitution to repay the smuggling fee. On October 10, 2003, defendant Maricela Martinez-Uresti pled guilty to sex trafficking of children and human smuggling violations, and was sentenced to 108 months in prison. The co-defendant, Violeta Juanita de Hoyos-Hernandez, pled guilty to human smuggling violations and was sentenced to seven months in prison. [12] This case study is hardly an anomaly. 

GLOBALIZATION: THE POSITIVE SIDE

 While economic disparity on the international stage has been one by-product of globalization, a report issued by the United Nations suggests that other aspects of globalization may, in fact, remedy the growing atrocities of human trafficking; generally, a global economy tends to import not only technology, raw materials, and foreign investment capital, but human rights, as well. According to the “Human Development Report 1997,” [13] the definition of poverty is expanded to include the “deprivation in the valuable things that a person can do or be.” Such a condition, known as “human poverty,” is more than a mere issue of economics but is also a matter of human rights. The United Nations suggests, therefore, that “expanding human capabilities and securing human rights” can empower people to escape the clutches of poverty, thereby sidestepping the temptation to allow themselves or their children to be trafficked. 

Indeed, perhaps one of the greatest decriers of human trafficking is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, providing the document is put into practice. Consider some of the following articles from the UDHR: 

Article 4.

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

 Article 23.

(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.              

(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection. [14] 

In more ways than one, the UDHR strikes at the heart of human trafficking. Detractors have argued that some of the rights stipulated by the declaration are cultural freedoms unique to the Western World, yet the treaty, when presented before the United Nations’ General Assembly, received an overwhelming forty-eight to none acceptance vote with only eight nations abstaining. The UDHR is not a legally-binding document, but it has, according to the United Nations Association in Canada, “served as a vibrant moral conscience to the world community” for more than fifty years. [15] The treaty has also laid much of the foreground for other landmark anti-trafficking treaties like the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons Act and the International Labor Organization’s Convention number 182. 

RESPONSES OF THE EU AND U.S.  

Over the years, EU and the United States have taken numerous approaches to the human trafficking problem, and different critics have naturally suggested different means of handling this issue of human rights. As the economic backbone of organizations like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which help fuel global development, United States and the EU have thereby sought to quell human trafficking indirectly. Some international figures including the actress Angelina Jolie and the U2 singer Bono, however, have pushed for a more direct approach, urging developed world to increase their budgets for foreign aid.  

Indeed, the United States spends only 0.15% of its $11 trillion dollar budget on overseas development assistance, though under the terms of the UN Millennium Summit in 2000, the US and other developed countries pledged to increase their donations to 0.7% of their GNP. Only the nations of Sweden, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Norway have met the goal, though six of their neighbors (Britain, France, Ireland, Spain, Finland and Belgium) have committed to reach the 0.7% target by 2015. This target was based on the research of 265 scholars, scientists and poverty specialists and compiled into a 3,000 page UN report. [16] 

Others, however, are more skeptical. The governments of the South have long been plagued by corruption — another factor contributing to trafficking — and as a result, only 30 cents of every dollar of foreign aid actually reaches the hands of the impoverished people. John Githongo, Kenya’s former anti-corruption chief, said in an interview with ABC’s John Stossel that “No amount of foreign aid is going to make any difference.” [17] 

Githongo’s statement is supported by research by other agencies, as well.  In the World Bank’s “Aid Dependence and the Quality of Governance: A Cross-Country Empirical Analysis,” researchers concluded that “Aid dependence can potentially undermine institutional quality [of the recipient governments], by weakening accountability [and] encouraging rent seeking and corruption.” [18] Foreign aid, in this respect, has been counterproductive in fighting poverty and its by-product of human trafficking. 

The Untied States, however, has developed a firm policy against human trafficking that reaches far beyond the limited scope of the dollars and dimes and foreign aid. In light of the 14,500 to 17,500 people trafficked into the country every year, [19] the US State Department issues an annual “Trafficking in Persons Report.” The report is compiled from a long list of CIA data that stratifies countries into three different tiers. Tier 1 includes those countries that comply fully with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000; Tier 2 includes the countries that, though they do not fully adhere to the Protection Act, are making “significant progress” in altering their policies and practices; and Tier 3 is reserved for those countries that do not adhere to international standards and are making no effort to reform.  In 2005, the US listed its gulf allies of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) under Tier 3 and threatened sanctions. When the report was updated in 2006, however, only Saudi Arabia remained on Tier 3, and the State Department, recognizing the efforts of the other three Gulf States, upgraded Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE to the Tier 2 “watch list.” 

The European Union has similarly held its members to high standards. In 2000, the EU issued the “Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union,” which bears the purpose to “strengthen the protection of fundamental rights […] by making those rights more visible in a Charter.” While reflective in spirit and nature of the UDHR, this new joint-statement seeks to provide a clearer perspective on human rights in the twenty-first century, and though the UDHR is silent as to mentioning human trafficking specifically, the EU states their stance plainly in Article 5 of the charter: “Human trafficking is prohibited.” [20] 

This charter, if nothing else, has recommitted the governments of Europe to fighting this international issue. 

Lithuania, for example, is one country that particularly struggles with trafficking within their borders. However, since they were able to increase their number of trafficking convictions, increase their funding to NGOs, and even establish a specialized police unit to combat human trafficking, they were admitted to the EU. Shortly after their accession, they saw a sharp rise in sex trafficking, but understanding the standards of the EU charter, they have redoubled their efforts to include specialized training for law enforcement and judicial officers. [21] 

Overall, out of the twenty-five EU member countries, sixteen are classified under Tier 1—fully compliant with international human trafficking terms — and none of the other, less-developed countries are classified under Tier 3 or under the Tier 2 “watch list” except for Cyprus, which is struggling with national stability. 

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

The problem of human trafficking has yet to reveal any short-term solutions, though different remedies have certainly shown long-term promise. The United Nations has taken the lead by keeping the issue of trafficking in the international consciousness, defining the scope of poverty and trafficking, and is pushing the international community to increase foreign aid. The United States has produced its own research in the “Trafficking in Persons Report” and has shown its willingness to respond with sanctions, even if the sanctions are unilateral. The EU has seconded the human rights stances of the UN with their “Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.” Yet, although the human trafficking remains prevalent, fighting poverty has been the most direct, concrete means of remedying this issue of human rights. Best-case scenario, some economists hope that abject poverty can actually be cut in half over the next fifty years, [22] which would certainly cause human trafficking to stagger. But all in all, to resolve such a pan-national concern, every nation — developed or developing — will have to do its part in prosecuting and preventing the pandemic of human trafficking.

By: Michael Madson

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The author of the article is a B.A. candidate in Political Science and Asian Studies at Weber State University in Utah. His interests are in poverty issues, human rights, globalizations and South East Asia relations.

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1.“US Cites 4 Gulf Allies in Trafficking Report” by Elise Labott, CNN Washington Bureau. Full Article can be viewed at http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/06/03/human.traffic/

2. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/trafficking_human_beings.html

3. “Child Trafficking: The Recent Emergence of the Global Issue” by Puan Sri Datin Seri N. Saraswathy Devi. Document can be viewed at http://www.ewla.org/wf_dl/paper_Devi.doc

4. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, http://www.unodc.org/pdf/crime/trafficking/awarenessraising/Countering_Child%20_Trafficking.pdf

5. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/trafficking_victim_consents.html#facts

6. See http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/42/ messages/1052.html

7. See http://www.worldfactsandfigures.com/gdp_country_desc.php

8. United Nations,  http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:FI34igvLS-EJ:www.un.org/esa/socdev/csd/ csocd2006/statements/CShort-Speech%25208%2520Feb%25202006.pdf

9. From http://www.staravtion.net.

10. See http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats1.htm. 

11. “Trafficking in Persons Report: June 2006” p. 7, US State Department. Full text available at http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2006/

12. Case study can be viewed at http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/usn%5Cwww_usn.nsf/vw-sublinks/8203847F6BA996E585256F25005D5274?openDocument#harms%20to%20society

13. Chapter Four of the report, which I have quoted, can be viewed at http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2000/en/pdf/hdr_2000_ch4.pdf.

14. Italics added

15. See http://www.unac.org/rights/question.html

16. “U.N. Report Urges Rich To Give More: Nations Have Not Met Pledges to World's Poor” by Colum Lynch, The Washington Post, January 18, 2005; can be viewed at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16530-2005Jan17.html

17. Text of the report available at http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=1955664&page=1

18. Report available at http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/research/workpapers.nsf/0/30529397228d0a778525691c006768c7/$FILE/wps2396.pdf See Endnote 1.

19. See Endnote 1.

20. Full Charter can be viewed at http://ue.eu.int/uedocs/cms_data/docs/2004/4/29/ Charter%20of%20fundemental%20rights%20of%20the%20European%20Union.pdf

21. Trafficking in Persons Report: June 2006,”US State Department

22. See Endnote 1.