Fight Against Trafficking - Essay Example

Fight against trafficking. Affiliation: To tackle the fight against trafficking, weneed to concentrate on state intervention and stricter border controls. Discuss Introduction Trafficking of human beings has been on the rise and especially with less border patrol and policies about the issue of human trafficking from one country or state to the other. Most of the people being trafficked are women and from poorer nations who are deceived through promises of better employment and decent jobs which will enable them cater for their family’s needs and extract them from the jaws of poverty while at the same time hoping that the promised jobs will act as a stepping stone to a more brighter future with better jobs. This however is not usually the case as sexual exploitation is the first harsh condition they encounter before being sneaked into the desired and promised country due to lack of proper travel documentation. Human trafficking is majorly carried out by agents whom according to Agustin (2005) may be governmental, religious, nongovernmental, academic or even medical groups and organizations (Agustin, 2005, pg. 100). These groups and organizations operate on a legitimate basis upfront but carry out the illegal immigration and human trafficking as a form of black market business hence making it harder for immigration authorities to detect them. Even with the strict immigration laws being enforced in some European countries like Germany and even UK, illegal immigrants still find their way inside those nations. According to statistics provided by the United Nations, there are over 175 million people who cross borders on a yearly basis and majority of them do so illegally without being detected or through fraudulent means. Human trafficking is a global affair and it has been able to rise due to the fact that it is intertwined with issues of international crime, corruption deals (conducted through unscrupulous immigration officials), coercion and even lack of stringent state laws concerning immigration or even border patrol. The lack of anti-trafficking statutes in most states contributes to the increasing trafficking of people. This is evident in even famous place like New York City in United States of America. This lack of laws provides a leeway for the agents to ferry the illegal immigrants from Latin nations like Mexico, through US and finally finding themselves in European nations like France. Testimonies have been provided by the trafficked people especially women who are illegally or even legally assisted to migrate into European nations through the promise of being enrolled into the domestic labour market of that country. However on reaching their destination, the domestic labour market turns out to be a thriving sex industry where sexual exploitation is the order of the day under organized pimps and even in brothels. Those lucky to enter the domestic labour market do so as helps or by providing cheap labour services and even in these places, they are still sexually exploited (Long, 2004, pg. 18). Some critics argue that it is easy to prevent such sexual exploitation that happens through the cover of provision of domestic labour market but it is not so easy. This is because the trafficking that takes place under this front has legal cover ups as mentioned earlier of legitimate organizations whose side business is trafficking of people without the knowledge of the authorities. It is evident that trafficking moves from the South towards the North and it heavily consists of women. According to feminists and especially the African feminists, women are the most negatively affected by development policies and measures taken by their countries, for example those that follow conditions dictated by International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in order to grant loans and financial aid to these countries. These Bretton Woods financial organizations demand (as one of their conditions) restructuring which in short means cutting some of the social services which heavily affects the women as it falls under their reproductive roles. The lack of proper planning in those nations also leads to massive unemployment. Considering the fact that majority of the women compared to men lack proper educational qualifications, they are forced to seek employment elsewhere in order to provide for their families. It is this desperation and the lack of strict immigration rules in these countries that leads to a large number of women falling under the hands of the traffickers who promise them greener pastures in Europe only to turn out to be nothing but sex trade they land into. Despite the exploitation, majority do not report to authority because they are either there illegally or work illegally, the pay is much higher (sometimes up to four times higher) than they could get back at their home countries providing the same services and even in some countries, the employers threaten them and coerces them to work for them since the labour provision is way cheaper being provided by the immigrants (this is especially the case in Middle East Arab nations like United Arab Emirates) (Degeorge, 2006, pg. 650). One way of ending or tackling this issue of trafficking is to have state intervention. The intervention should be in each and every state globally because the traffickers and the victims of trafficking may be from any nation around the world (especially though from Latin and African nations) and destined to any nation especially the European nations. The intervention may be through many different channels but the leading one should be in strict migration laws. In most European nations according to research by Richards (2004), the laws of migration exist but they do not prevent the illegal immigration because of the corruption existing within the system (Richards, 2004, 150). Other than the migration laws, there should be intervention on the human rights basis from the state. This is especially so for the legal migrants who are sexually exploited or whose labour is exploited by their employers because it is cheap, readily available and being provided by a desperate foreigner. The exploitation according to UN and other human rights activists is considered a form of slavery which was not only abolished in most of these nations in Europe and even in the United States of America but is also a form of human rights violation (Hogan, 2008, pg. 652). This should not only take place in the destination countries for trafficking but also from the countries of origin. As most traffickers originate from poor countries in search of greener pastures, these countries of origin should aim to have their own form of intervention through public education about the effects of trafficking (whether legal or illegal) and both positive and negative but with more emphasis being placed on the negatives. This is not a way to discourage them from migrating and looking for better opportunities elsewhere but as a way to mentally prepare them of what they may face or may be up against. The interventions can also have testimonies from those who have experienced trafficking in those nations. In 1991, the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers adopted a recommendation (dubbed Recommendation No. R (91) 11), that was meant to ban issues of trafficking and sexual exploitation among a few others. This recommendation has been constantly revised since then (but only until 1997) to focus mainly on trafficking against women and children and also against their sexual exploitation when they are legally trafficked in any European country. This is one of the migratory laws against trafficking that has been put across borders of European nations. This is however just among the few border laws and they have proven not to be very effective for that matter. More policies on border control need to be formulated that are stricter and constantly monitored. If all the other channels of state intervention or enforcing migratory laws across borders fail, there is one that may make the criminals trafficking people stop or reduce the rate of trafficking and that is their criminalization. Even though this sometimes proves to be expensive and even futile due to the corruption from the border and migration authorities, having higher fines and even prison sentences imposed on them may be a solution across the borders (Chapkis, 2003, pg. 928). Control of migration by even the legal migrants should be constantly monitored or even curtailed to prevent the illegal immigrants who are trafficked into the countries. If the migration is to be controlled, it means that proper documentation and certification of these documents should be carefully ascertained. This is to prevent fraudulent traffickers who pose as agents from illegally ferrying immigrants into the European countries and even in the United States of America. Other than preventing the entry of immigrants into the country whether illegally or not, there is the issue of protecting the immigrants from sexual and other forms of exploitation. The different countries can have state protection programs for the victims after they are rescued from their employers. These programs should be just like the witness protection programs that the US federal governments has on its witnesses in sensitive and high profile cases where they are protected from harm and even sometimes given new identity. The same can be done for the victims once rescued and even instead of providing them with new identities, they can be deported back to their homes (Desyllas, 2007, pg. 62). In order to ease the work of border patrol police and migration authorizes, there can be a set number of immigrants that should be allowed annually into the European nations. Having a specific known number of immigrants will enable the border and migration authorities keep track of them and thus prevent any exploitation and especially sexual exploitation. This will also prevent illegal immigrants and trafficking of people as those who are seeking greener pastures abroad will openly have an opportunity to do so freely and if not that year, then the following year. Most European countries under the European Union have the asylum program that they offer to immigrants who want to live an even work in the European countries. This program is usually however slow and takes into consideration very few people hence leaving a wide opening for illegal trafficking to take place for those desperately seeking asylum. If the program is speeded up so that those seeking asylum can get it quickly and more of them can immigrate legally will tackle the trafficking problem and even exploitation of women and children. Conclusion The main menace of trafficking is that it violates most human rights and freedoms as stipulated by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights including but not limited to the right to liberty and freedom of movement. However with the follow up of the above mentioned recommendations on state intervention and border controls that are very strict, then the menace can be controlled or at least reduced. The most effective of the recommendations however is anti-trafficking campaign especially when it focuses on its negative effects (Koser, 2003, pg. 56). Reference Agustin, L. (2005). ‘Migrants in the Mistresses Houses: other voices in the ‘trafficking’ debate’, Social Politics, 12 (1), pp. 96-117. Chapkis, W. (2003). ‘Trafficking, Migration and the Law: protecting innocents, punishing immigrants’, Gender and Society, 17 (6), pp. 923-937. Degeorge, B. (2006). ‘Modern Day Slavery in the United Arab Emirates’, The European Legacy, Vol. 11, No. 6, pp. 657-666. Desyllas, M. C. (December, 2007). ‘A Critique of the Global Trafficking Discourse and U.S. Policy’, Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, Vol. xxxiv No. 4, pp. 57-79. Hogan, K. (2008). ‘Slavery in the 21st Century in New York: what has the state’s legislation done?’ Albany Law Review, Vol. 71, pp. 647-672. Koser, K. ‘Reconciling Control and Compassion? Human smuggling and the right to asylum’, in E. Newman and J. Van Selm (eds), Refugees and Forced Displacement: international security, human vulnerability and the state, (New York, 2003). Long, L. (2004). ‘Anthropological Perspectives on the Trafficking of Women for Sexual Exploitation’, International Migration, Vol. 42, Issue 1, pp. 5-31. Richards, K. (2004). ‘The Trafficking of Migrant Workers’, what are the links between labour trafficking and corruption? International Migration, Vol. 42, Issue 3, pp. 147-168. Read More