The US State Department has released its annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report concerning the global phenomenon of human trafficking and the resulting conditions of forced labour, which are described as modern-day slavery.
More than 20 million people around the world are estimated to have fallen victim to some form of human trafficking, which in turn compels them to work under hazardous conditions, not only without adequate remuneration, but often without freedom of movement and under the threat of the use of force.
TIP ranks governments into four tiers based on their efforts to acknowledge and combat human trafficking, to take preemptive steps for its prevention and to prosecute perpetrators and help rehabilitation of the victims. Tier 1 countries include governments that are complying fully with the set standards. Tier 2 countries are not fully compliant, but are making visible efforts for this purpose. Then there is a Tier 2 watch list category of countries where there are a high number of trafficking, and/or which are not doing enough to improve their anti-trafficking programmes. Tier 3 countries are those considered to have the worst record in this tiered categorisation.
Diverse countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia are placed in the worst of third tier for insufficient action against human trafficking resulting in forced migrant labour and prostitution. Pakistan itself remains precariously positioned on the Tier 2 watch list category under TIP.
Pakistan is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children. Pakistan is a destination country for men, women, and children from surrounding countries like Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan or Iran and Bangladesh, who are trapped and subjected to forced labour, including sex work, within the country. Other trafficking rings use Pakistan as a transit point for smuggling people from adjoining states to the Gulf states or onto Europe. There are also multitudes of Pakistanis who are voluntarily smuggled across the borders in search of low-skilled employment, where they too become victims of labour trafficking due to false job offers and high recruitment fees charged by illegal labour agents.
Yet, a large percentage of human trafficking occurs domestically. There are between two to four million people estimated to be trapped in debt bondage arrangements in Pakistan at any given time. Many of them are involved in agriculture or the brick-making sector, or to a lesser extent, in the mining and carpet-making industries. Recent research indicates that use of debt bondage is also becoming common in other informal sectors, including cottage industries and even domestic work.
The trafficking and coercion of children by begging mafias is another major problem. TIP also takes note of women and girls being sold into forced marriages, where in some cases their new ‘husbands’ move them across Pakistan’s land borders and force them into prostitution in Iran or Afghanistan. Similarly, the practice of on-state militants kidnapping children, or coercing their parents with threats or fraudulent promises into giving their children away to participate in violence can also be considered victims of human trafficking.
Given the multiple forms of human trafficking, addressing this problem is not easy. Adopting a comprehensive approach of recognising the varied forms of human trafficking, and the varied forms of exploitative labour practices taking place due to it, would be the first step in effectively tackling this problem. Existing legislation is neither sufficient, nor effectively implemented, due to which trafficking victims themselves are frequently prosecuted for being engaged in illegal activities.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 4th, 2014.
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