| 1. US issues trafficking report
The
United States Department of State's 2004 Trafficking
in Persons (TIP) Report was released on 14 June (the full
report is available as a download). The report estimates that
600,000-800,000 people are trafficked across borders each year
(compared to 800,000-900,000 in last year's report) and notes
that estimates which "include global intra-country trafficking
in persons range from two to four million." The report recognises
that estimates of the number of people trafficked are "inherently
difficult to produce". Indeed, the report's own estimates
of the percentage of females trafficked across borders varies
between 70 per cent (page 15) and 80 per cent (page 23).
A total of 140 countries are reviewed in the report and Bangladesh,
Burma, Cuba, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Guyana, North Korea,
Sierra Leone, Sudan and Venezuela are listed in Tier 3 (not fully
complying with the minimum standards to combat trafficking and
not making significant efforts to do so). The report also places
42 countries in the new Tier 2 Watch List category. This is for
countries which do not fully comply with the US's Victims of
Trafficking and Violence Protection Act 2000 minimum standards
but are making significant efforts to do so, and: (a) the number
of trafficked people is very significant or is significantly increasing;
or (b) there is a failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts
to combat trafficking in people from the previous year; or (c)
the determination that a country is making significant efforts
to bring themselves into compliance with minimum standards was
based on commitments by the country to take additional steps over
the next year.
The report cautions against the practice of buying people's
freedom (page 7), noting that "the trafficker can, using
the proceeds from the sale, find new victims to perform the
same service. It is difficult to determine whether there has
been a net reduction in the number of victims. In any event,
the enslavement may continue without any cost or punishment
to the trafficker or exploiter."
Concerns remain regarding some of the country assessments.
For example, Anti-Slavery International is deeply concerned
by the report's assessment that the United Arab Emirates' decree
which prohibits children under 15 from being used as camel jockeys
was being "well enforced". It is difficult to see
how this conclusion was reached when the International Labour
Organization reported that it was only notified of three prosecutions
since 2002 for trafficking of camel jockeys, none of whom were
UAE citizens. This despite the fact that a photographer who
was in the UAE for only six days in January 2004, had no difficulty
finding young children training and competing in public camel
races. Given the continued widespread use of child camel jockeys,
the lack of prosecutions against people exploiting them and
the TIP reports claim to place "a priority on governments
criminalizing and punishing forms of trafficking in persons",
the report's assessment and praise of the UAE seems both inaccurate
and inappropriate. For more information on the trafficking of
camel jockeys see our submission to the 2004 UN Working Group
on Contemporary Forms of Slavery: Trafficking
and forced labour of children in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
. See the 2004
photographs of children racing and training in the UAE.
2. ILO Conference adopts plan to protect
migrant workers
The ILO annual conference this year discussed its report Towards
a Fair Deal for Migrant Workers in the Global Economy (the
summary is available here as a PDF file, see bottom of page
about reading PDF files). The Conference
adopted a new plan of action designed to ensure that migrant
workers are covered by the provisions of international labour
standards, while benefiting from applicable national labour
and social laws.
The plan of action will comprise international guidelines on
agreements between host countries and countries of origin addressing
different aspects of migration, promoting decent work for migrant
workers, licensing and supervision of recruitment and contracting
agencies for migrant workers, preventing abusive practices,
migrant smuggling and trafficking in people, protecting their
human rights and preventing and combating irregular labour migration.
The plan also addresses specific risks for all migrant workers
in certain sectors with particular emphasis on dirty, demeaning
and dangerous jobs and on women in domestic service and the
informal economy. It also seeks to improve labour inspection,
create channels for migrant workers to lodge complaints and
deals with policies to encourage return migration, reintegration
into the country of origin and transfer of capital and technology
by migrants. The full
report of the Committee and its conclusions is available
from the ILO website as a PDF download (see bottom of page about
reading PDF files).
3. OSCE appoints special representative
against human trafficking
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)
appointed Helga Konrad as its Special Representative on Trafficking
in Human Beings. Dr. Konrad noted that the OSCE's 55 participating
States include countries of origin, transit and destination
for trafficking and underlined the importance of the OSCE Action
Plan on Trafficking in Human Beings, December 2003. She said:
"It is my intention to tackle all the dimensions of human
trafficking,
not just trafficking for sexual exploitation, but also trafficking
into forced and bonded labour and in particular trafficking
in children and minors". She also drew attention to internal
trafficking which she considered to be increasing.
4. Child trafficking and what to do about
it
Terre des Hommes has recently published Kids
as Commodities, Child Trafficking and What To Do About It
(the full report and a separate summary can be found on the
Terre des Hommes website). The study explains the complexity
of child trafficking, noting that unless different patterns
of trafficking and exploitation are understood properly, the
action taken to prevent them or protect the children concerned
is likely to be misguided. It examines the responses of both
governments and inter-governmental organisations and pays particular
attention to the actions taken by NGOs to prevent child trafficking
or to protect children who have been trafficked. In many situations,
the study argues, the most obvious action is not the one best
suited for the children concerned.
Those involved in trying to combat child trafficking should
note that ILO Convention 182 on the worst forms of child labour
has now been ratified by 150 countries. This Convention defines
trafficking as one of the worst forms of child labour and commits
Governments to preventing trafficking of children; rescuing
and rehabilitating children who have been trafficked; and prosecuting
those responsible for trafficking. Find out more about the ILO
Convention 182 and which countries have ratified it.
5. Publications and fellowship
Vital Voices has issued the June
2004 Trafficking Alert (US edition), which includes
an article on Trafficking and HIV/AIDS, the latest Congressional
briefing on the Trafficking Victims Protection Act 2000
and awareness raising materials.
The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants has released
The Control of Rights -- The rights of workers and asylum
seekers under managed migration by Lydia Morris. The study
critically assesses the workings of the UK Government's migration
policy which has more than 20 different categories of migrant.
To order a copy, UK price £3.00, contact Lucy Hall at
lucy@jcwi.org.uk. A speech
by Home Office Minister, Des Brown on Migration in an enlarged
EU (16 June 2004) gives an overview of the UK Government's
policy and states that migration from new EU states is "more
likely to be a trickle than a flood".
The Protection Project, at the Johns Hopkins University School
of Advanced International Studies, is offering a Fellowship
Program. The programme will provide the research fellow with
a thorough academic and professional experience in the field
of human rights. It is for a three-month term (January to March
2005). The deadline for applications is 30 August 2004. An
outline of the terms and requirements of the fellowship
are attached as as a PDF file, see bottom of page about
reading PDF files. |
