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Topic in Focus—Trafficking in Humans

LEGISLATION

There are two major laws that deal with human trafficking in the United States:

On March 18, 2004, President Bush signed an Executive Order that reinforces the previous acts and specifically focuses on the international aspect of trafficking in persons.

International Law includes the United Nations' "Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children". [pdf format] Entry into force: 25 December 2003.

FACTSHEETS / RELEASES

Tips for Recognizing Victims of Trafficking in Persons

Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. Washington, DC. July 28, 2004

View the factsheet
Recent Developments in U.S. Government Efforts to End Human Trafficking

Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. Washington, DC. March 18, 2004

View the factsheet
U.S. Activities to Combat Trafficking in Persons

Office of the Spokesman. Washington, DC. February 14, 2002

View the factsheet
Travel Industry Code of Conduct Launched to Protect Children.

A joint venture between the World Travel Organization, UNICEF and an international advocacy group, ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and the Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes)

View the press release
Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism
View the code

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REPORTS

TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS (TIP) REPORT 2004
Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, US Dept. of State. June 14, 2004
View the report

The State Department is required by law to submit a report each year to the Congress on foreign government efforts to eliminate severe forms of trafficking in persons. This June 2004 report is the fourth annual TIP Report. Although country actions to end human trafficking are its focus, the report also tells the painful stories of the victims of human trafficking--21st century slaves. This report uses the term "trafficking in persons" which is used in U.S. law and around the world, and that term encompasses slave-trading and modern-day slavery in all its forms.

Assessment of U.S. Activities to Combat Trafficking in Persons.
U.S. Department of Justice. August 2003.
View the document [pdf format, 25 pages]

According to a 2003 U.S. Government estimate, 800,000 to 900,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year having been bought, sold, transported and held in slavery-like conditions for sex and labor exploitation. The U.S. Government estimates that 18,000 to 20,000 people are trafficked annually into the United States. The nature of this crime – underground, often under-acknowledged – contributes to the inability to determine the precise number of people who are victimized by traffickers each year. The scope of this hideous exploitation is wide and varied, but typically involves victims entrapped into commercial sexual exploitation such as prostitution and pornography, or labor exploitation in sweatshops, construction sites and agricultural settings. Additional forms of forced labor and abuse include domestic servitude and forced marriages. This assessment reviews U.S. legislative and executive branch government activities to improve U.S. protections for and assistance to victims trafficked into the United States, to increase successful investigations and prosecutions of traffickers, and to augment international activities to combat trafficking.

IS TRAFFICKING IN HUMAN BEINGS DEMAND DRIVEN? A MULTI-COUNTRY PILOT STUDY.
Bridget Anderson and Julia O’Connell Davidson.
International Organization for Migration (IOM). 2003.
View the document [pdf format, 54 pages]

This pilot research stems for the ASEM [Asia-Europe Meeting] Action Plan to Combat Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (2001), that has stressed the need to encourage research on the demand for the most common forms of exploitation of trafficked women and children. The multi-country study assessed attitudes of employers of domestic workers in Sweden, Thailand, India and Italy and clients of sex workers in Denmark, Thailand, India and Italy. The report suggests that three related factors are key to explaining the exploitative conditions experienced by many migrant domestic and sex workers: (a) The unregulated nature of the labor market segments in which they work; (b) the abundant supply of exploitable labor and (c) the power and malleability of social norms regulating the behavior of employers and clients. The continued expansion of any unregulated market is likely to require and facilitate the exploitation of vulnerable labor. Both paid sex and domestic work are peculiar market segments in the sense that there is both political and social unease regarding those who buy and sell in them as workers or consumers/employers. In both sex and domestic work, the absence of effective regulation is one of the factors that help to create an environment in which it is possible and profitable to use unfree labor.

Note: Contains copyrighted material.

Trafficking in Women & Children for Sexual Exploitation in South Africa.
International Organization for Migration (IOM). 2003. Pretoria, South Africa. May 2003
View the document

Southern Africa hosts a diverse range of human trafficking activities, from the global operations of Chinese triad groups, and Russian ‘mafia’ that touch the region, to the local trade in persons across land borders perpetrated by local syndicates. The region’s young women and children are especially vulnerable to the recruitment tactics of traffickers because civil unrest and economic deprivation leave them with few opportunities at home, and makes migration a natural and common solution. South Africa, as the most prosperous country, is a credible and appealing lure. As an historical magnet for the region’s job-seekers, its porous borders make it the obvious destination for migrants and asylum-seekers and, when coupled with a flourishing sex industry, for traffickers as well. From August 2002 to February 2003, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) conducted a research study of the trafficking in women and children for sexual exploitation in the Southern Africa. The methodology was primarily based on interviews with trafficking victims, sex workers, traffickers, police and government officials, grassroots NGOs, and the media. The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC)’s Special Assignment programme took primary responsibility for documenting and researching the cases and trends of trafficking in Mozambique. Elsewhere, IOM researchers conducted 232 interviews, including 25 interviews with victims from eleven countries.

The Migration-Trafficking Nexus: Combating Trafficking through the Protection of Migrants' Human Rights.
Anti-Slavery International. December 23, 2003.
View the document [pdf format, 28 pages]

Trafficking, smuggling and migration are separate, but inter-related issues. This publication seeks to look at the issue of trafficking within a broader migration framework and to propose policies which would be effective in reducing trafficking and in preventing the human and labor rights violations to which migrant workers are so often subjected.

The demand for migrant workers is steadily increasing, particularly in developed countries where people are living longer and birth rates are falling. Anti-Slavery International's report notes that, according to the International Organization for Migration, European Union countries will need 68 million more foreign workers by 2050 just to stabilize the existing workforce. Rather than recognize this demand and facilitate regular migration, according to this report, “many governments are making their immigration policies more restrictive. This reduces opportunities for regular migration and makes migrants more vulnerable to exploitation and trafficking.”

Is Trafficking in Human Beings Demand Driven? A Multi-Country Pilot Study
Anderson, Bridget; O.Connell Davidson, Julia
International Organization for Migration, December 2003
View the document [pdf format, 54 pages]

The research discussed in this report suggests that three related factors are key to explaining the exploitative conditions experienced by many migrant domestic and sex workers: (a) The unregulated nature of the labour market segments in which they work; (b) the abundant supply of exploitable labour and (c) the power and malleability of social norms regulating the behaviour of employers and clients. The continued expansion of any unregulated market is likely to require and facilitate the exploitation of vulnerable labour. Both paid sex and domestic work are peculiar market segments in the sense that there is both political and social unease regarding those who buy and sell in them as workers or consumers/employers. In both sex and domestic work, the absence of effective regulation is one of the factors that help to create an environment in which it is possible and profitable to use unfree labour.—from the executive summary

Trafficking in Women and Children: The U.S. and International Response
Congressional Research Service (CRS) Issue Report. Updated 26 March 2004.
View the document [pdf format, 24 pages]

Trafficking in people for prostitution and forced labor is one of the fastest growing areas of international criminal activity and one that is of increasing concern to the United States and the international community. The overwhelming majority of those trafficked are women and children. According to the Department of State, between 800,000 and 900,000 people are believed to be trafficked across borders each year worldwide; some 18,000 to 20,000 to the United States. Human trafficking is now considered a leading source of profits for organized crime, like drugs and weapons, generating billions of dollars annually.—from the summary

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PERIODICAL ARTICLES

U.S. DOMESTIC PROSECUTION OF THE AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL SEX TOURIST: EFFORTS TO PROTECT CHILDREN FROM SEXUAL EXPLOITATION
Andrews, Sara K.
Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology. Chicago: Winter 2004. Vol. 94, Iss. 2; pg. 415, 39 pgs
View article on ProQuest (password required)

The commercial sexual exploitation of minors by international tourists is a humanitarian tragedy carried out on a grand scale to end Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism, an international child advocacy organization based in Bangkok, child prostitution in developing countries is a culturally embedded problem that is significantly exacerbated by foreign tourists. The US is one of the "sending countries" that enables the international child sex market to flourish by providing a wealthy and willing customer base. Andrews discusses the efforts to protect children from sexual exploitation.

ADDRESSING THE SEX TRADE IN THAILAND: SOME LESSONS LEARNED FROM NGOS.
Arnold, Christina, Bertone, Andrea.
Gender Issues. New Brunswick: Winter 2002. Vol. 20, Iss. 1; pg. 26

This is the first in a series of articles stemming from Project Hope International's month long visit to Thailand in June 2002. Project Hope International is a non-governmental organization based in greater Washington, D.C., which fights against child sexual exploitation and trafficking in girls and women into the international sex trade, specifically in Thailand and the United States. Thailand undeniably deals with serious problems of child sexual abuse and exploitation, as well as trafficking of children into the sex trade. However, the sex trade in Thailand today is not the same as it was thirty years ago. There has been a gradual decrease in the numbers of Thai women and girls in the sex trade, and an increase in the numbers of females from neighboring countries in the Mekong sub-region, as well as non-citizen, hill-tribe girls from Northern Thailand. The goals of our research trip to Thailand were threefold: first, we wanted to learn about the current problems of the sex trade and how they have changed over the last ten years; second, we wanted to visit the child welfare centers, and meet the most prominent activists in Thailand who are targeting the political, social, and economic problems surrounding the child sex trade in Thailand; and, finally, we wanted to be able to bring the information we acquired to dispel myths promulgated by many nearsighted NGOs who work on trafficking issues.—publication abstract

CONFUSION BETWEEN PROSTITUTION AND SEX TRAFFICKING.
Butcher, Kate.
Lancet. 6/7/2003, Vol. 361 Issue 9373, p1983, 1p
View article on ProQuest (password required)

Comments on the juxtaposition of prostitution and sex trafficking, which is thought to reflect moral ideology rather than objective reality. Importance of the distinction between trafficking and prostitution, which concern the issue of individual agency; History of human trafficking in Asia for prostitution and bonded labor; View that the human rights of sex workers must be respected; Contributions of sex workers in the fight against HIV.

21ST CENTURY SLAVES
Cockburn, Andrew
National Geographic. Vol. 204, No. 3, September 2003, pp. 2-20
View article on ProQuest (password required)

National Geographic expands its travelogue format to take on a growing scourge: the global phenomenon of modern slavery and trafficking in persons -- an enormously profitable criminal activity. The text highlights the many ways this exploitation takes place: in agriculture, sweatshops, child domestic servitude, and sex trafficking of women and children throughout the world. The author describes how poverty, cultural practices, and corruption contribute to this illegal practice. In many cases modern slaveholding is characterized by well-organized and technologically sophisticated criminal networks. Slavery survivors, researchers, and anti-slavery activists provide examples from the U.S., Europe, India, Latin America, and Africa to illustrate that slavery affects developing as well as developed countries. The article notes the difference between alien smuggling and human trafficking, and describes aspects of the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act.

THE GIRLS NEXT DOOR
Landesman, Peter
New York Times Magazine. January 25, 2004, pp. 30-39, etc.
View article on ProQuest (password required)

In small towns and big cities across America, the writer relates in this investigative report, thousands of young girls are held against their will, brutalized, and endangered by traffickers who sell them for sexual exploitation. Though they may come from all over the world, most of the girls are brought in to the U.S. from Mexico by well-organized criminal operations. The article discusses some of the recent U.S. anti-trafficking laws and enforcement efforts on both sides of the border. Officials from State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking are quoted.

NIGERIA'S OTHER EXPORT.
Economist. 4/24/2004, Vol. 371 Issue 8372, p45, 2/3p, 1c

This article discusses people-trafficking in Nigeria. The market in Benin City sells just about everything: ladies' pants and bras, plastic bags, padlocks and second-hand clothes known locally as" fairly used". But this city in south-eastern Nigeria also thrives on a less wholesome trade: people-trafficking. A striking aspect of this dirty business is that it provokes so little moral outrage in Nigeria. " Adam", a headless, limbless boy fished out of a British river in 2001, came from near Benin City, and is thought to have been killed so that bits of him could be used for charms or curses, for which some Nigerians pay handsomely. It seems that the country's get-rich-quick culture, fuelled by a generation-long oil boom, has trickled right down to the bottom, unlike the oil money itself.

ERADICATING PEDOPHILIA: TOWARD THE HUMANIZATION OF SOCIETY
O'Grady, Ron
Journal of International Affairs. vol. 55, no. 1, Fall 2001, pp. 123-140
View article on ProQuest (password required)

The UN's adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child on November 20, 1989, prompted a shift within children's welfare organizations both away from a traditional focus upon material issues and towards a focus upon human rights. Globalization has played a significant, educational role in influencing and changing these social attitudes. Unfortunately, globalization has also contributed to the rapid expansion of the child sex industry via the Internet and international tourism. Advocates against the child sex crime industry will be effective only if they tackle the problem on the global level where it thrives. The UN's Convention on the Rights of the Child and the two subsequent World Congresses Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children offer solid strategies for what is sure to be a long, protracted campaign.

WEBSITES

Human Trafficking Gateway. International Information Programs (IIP)

News, fact sheets, reports, articles and links to relevant sources. Also includes a link to the electronic journal, Responses to Human Trafficking. This journal highlights what governments and activists are doing to promote human potential and protect human dignity against the horrifying practice of human trafficking, and includes a useful list of internet resources.

Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. Department of State

Official US government news, reports and statements.

International Organization for Migration

The site includes lists of specific projects conducted in countries around the world.

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