A LOOK INTO HUMAN
TRAFFICKING IN EASTERN EUROPE.
Figure
1: Map outlining Eastern Europe
Source: Wikipedia.com
HISTORY OF EASTERN
EUROPE
Some
of the present Eastern European countries, specifically those in the medium
orange colour, (refer to Fig 1), were once part of the largest socialist state,
known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) between 1922 and 1991.
The Soviet Union was supposed to be “a society of true democracy,” but in many
ways it was no less repressive than the czarist autocracy that preceded it.
(History.com) Before the dissolution of the USSR, there was a lot of focus on
the building up of the Soviet military and large amounts of their resources
were funneled into it at the expense of
domestic and economic development. With resources not being used for the
improvement of the lives of members of the union, a ‘stagnant economy’ and
failed structural reform, some soviet states began to oppose the union.
(Wikipedia.com)
As with the history of any country where citizens were dissatisfied, the
union’s communist status did not make things different, and a revolution ensued
in 1989 where the metaphoric ‘Iron Curtain was dropped as one by one, states of
the USSR pulled out of the union and declared their independence.
Figure 2:
The Iron Curtain
(francistapon.com)
Present Eastern Europe consists of the
independent nations of the USSR and those states who
were liberated from Nazi Germany during World
War II, by the USSR, (countries in the second
lightest orange). (Curtis,1992) Since the fall of the USSR, modern Eastern
Europe has been plagued with problems such as migration, poverty, crime and
human trafficking, with the latter being the focus of this study.
HUMAN
TRAFFICKING
Human
trafficking involves an act of recruiting, transporting, transferring,
harboring or receiving persons through a use of force, coercion or other means,
for the purpose of exploitation (unodoc.org). The following table illustrates
the act, means and purposes of human trafficking.
Figure
3
Source:
Eastern Europe is considered a transition
economy as it is moving from being a command
economy to a market
economy. There has not been a smooth transition in many
former Soviet Bloc countries with the exception of Czech Republic, Hungary and
Poland, and these countries are referred by the New York Times as being “stuck
in a post-Communist twilight zone,” causing them to be economically and
politically behind. Transition countries are seen as vulnerable to trafficking
as there has been difficulty in the development of a market economy, which has
caused high unemployment and hardships in these countries, resulting in
desperate attempts to better one’s life, which at times leads them into the
hands of traffickers. (Wikipedia) To understand how people are trafficked,
Radio Free Europe gave an account of a Ukrainian woman leaving her family
behind after being promised a job as a cleaner in Italy, and being deceived by
the employment agency, which resulted in her working as a prostitute for almost
nine months before the Italian police raided the brothel, freeing her from
captivity.
THE SYSTEM
Within Eastern Europe, the system of sex
trafficking has divided countries into either being source, transit and/or
destination countries. An article states, and it is compounded by UNODC
“Trafficking in Persons; Analysis on Europe,” that Eastern, Central and the
Balkans are the source and transit places, while Western, Northern and partly
Southern Europe are the final destinations. (Charlotte Gueriaux,2012) In
Eastern Europe, the UN has estimated that around 200,000 (8%) of the 2.5
million persons in forced labour, are in transition countries. Although this
number is small compared to the 1.4 million in Asia and the Pacific, what needs
to be acknowledged is that the UN is stating that transition countries like
Eastern Europe, are least likely destination countries for trafficked persons.
However countries like Moldova is said to be a major source country for women
and girls trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation. (US
State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, 2007)
As said before, human trafficking entails
many reasons and therefore anyone can be a victim. However due to the
prominence of trafficking for sexual exploitation, the majority of the victims
are young girls and women. The major age range is between 18-24 years, and 95%
of victims experience some form of physical or sexual violence, with 43% used
for forced commercial sexual exploitation, 85% of which are women and girls,
and 32% used for forced economic exploitation, where 56% are women and girls.
(UN.GIFT) There are a range of suppliers, one of which was stated above in the
story of the Ukrainian woman with the employment agency, also the UN stated
that suppliers can also be individual be it males or females. The state that
with traffickers 52% were men whilst 42% were men and women and 6% can be a
pair of recruiters. Also based on whether recruiters are person familiar or
unfamiliar to victims, statistics show that in trafficking cases 52% were
strangers and 46% were know to victims. (UN.GIFT)
CHALLENGES AND SOLVING
THE PROBLEM.
There are a number of organizations involved
in and who assist with Anti-Human Trafficking in Eastern Europe where some are
situated within the region and others are international organizations. They
include, the Stability Pact Task Force
on Trafficking in Human Beings (SPTF), Organization
for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), UN Convention on Organized Crime and the Palermo Protocol, UN Office of the High Commission for Human
Rights (OHCHR), UN.GIFT, International Labour
Organization (ILO), International
Organization for Migration(IOM)
and
the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and
various Non-Governmental Organizations
(NGO’s).
Map
showing human trafficking trade routes Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/guides/456900/456985/html/
Also some initiatives by organizations
are, OSCE’s “Action Plan to Combat
Trafficking in Human Beings,” UNICEF “Guidelines
on Protection of the Rights of Child Victims of Trafficking”,
When trying to implement any type of measure,
there are always challenges faced. In the case of the Anti-Human Trafficking
Organizations, there are 3 main issues: (1) Statistics
and data on human trafficking; (2) The concept itself; (3) The anti-trafficking
measures (Wikipedia). The concept itself is misleading in that the definition
of “Human Trafficking,” even in Article 3 of the Palermo Protocol ,“trafficking in
Human Beings,” is still unclear and not fully understood by many of the
Anti-Human Trafficking Organizations and those who assist them either locally
or nationally. It has been argued that Human Trafficking is in reality, an act
of illegal migration that involves various different actions: some of them may
be criminal or abusive, but others often involve consent and are legal. The
critics of the current approaches to trafficking say that a lot of the violence
and exploitation faced by illegal migrants derives precisely from the fact that
their migration and their work are illegal and not primarily because of some
evil trafficking networks (Wikipedia).
As a
result, there would be problems with the statistics and data, since the
definition of “victim of trafficking” and who they are would obviously be
unclear. The numbers of trafficking victims produced by the NGO’s and
governmental agencies are usually estimations having rarely any identifiable
sources and transparent methodologies behind them; they are mere guesses
(Wikipedia). There is a lack of trust between some of the NGO’s and government
agencies, making it difficult to obtain and share the information in the first
place. Also, only certain types of trafficking are taken more seriously than
others; for example, trafficking in men is not as investigated or even
recognized as much as trafficking in women and children for similar purposes.
The opinions of the victims themselves or even potential victims are
overshadowed by the decisions made by the police officers and assisting agencies
and hence some victims may not even identify themselves for fear that they
would not be heard or get the required assistance.
Stemming from the
unclear definition of the “trafficking in human beings” is the anti-trafficking
measures themselves. The patterns, victims and types of trafficking are unique
to each individual country and hence, the strategies and policies to combat
them must also be formulated based on the data collected by the national
anti-trafficking agencies. However, in some cases, the results showed that
trafficking was on the decline. This could have meant that the anti-trafficking
policies and strategies have worked very effectively over the years. On the
other hand, trafficking has not declined but has in fact just become less
visible; which suggests that it has been pushed further underground and new
ways have been formulated for the perpetrators to find a loop hole in the
measures being implemented creating a “new situation” for which the current
strategies are inadequate (Trafficking Report 2005).
So if it is there
are so many challenges associated with anti-trafficking measures, what exactly
is being done?
There are campaigns
and awareness raising programmes that are being put in place across the region
to educate the potential victims and general public about human trafficking. So
much precaution is being practiced as to start teaching children about it in
schools and teach them how to equip themselves with the necessary knowledge and
skills to protect themselves and understand the dangers of trafficking
(Trafficking Report 2005). Also, in 2003 the OSCE established an
anti-trafficking mechanism aimed at raising public awareness of the problem and
building the political will within participating States to tackle it effectively.
The activities of the Office of the Special
Representative range from training law enforcement agencies to tackle human
trafficking to promoting policies aimed at rooting out corruption and organised
crime (Wikipedia). The countries that are signed to the Palermo Protocol will
also implement their policies of precaution and prevention.
However, no large
scale programmes have been put in place for addressing the root causes of
trafficking; poverty, unemployment, discrimination and violence against women. There are also no initiatives to include an
assessment of the situation regarding trafficking and anti-trafficking
activities into developmental policies or poverty reduction strategies; and
very little research has been done on the demand side on trafficking in human
beings in the region (Trafficking Report 2005).
Re-integration programmes have been explored, but they are costly and,
even if implemented, not always successful (Trafficking Report 2005).
Hence, there is a
need for new strategies to combat human trafficking in Eastern Europe with
prevention being the new approach. More research is needed both nationally and
internationally with all of the anti-trafficking organizations working
together; where the NGO’s play a significant part. The mistrust between the
NGO’s and the governmental agencies has to be put aside for the sake of their
people. As time progresses, let us hope that changes are made for the better
and this issue be addressed accordingly.
HOW DOES THIS
RELATE TO TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO?
Trinidad has been identified as a source, transit and destination
point for children and adults for sex trafficking and forced labour. It has
been cited for not fully complying with the minimum standards for elimination
of human trafficking (Express). Women and girls from Columbia, Dominican
Republic, Venezuela and Suriname are brought to Trinidad (Wikipedia) to work as
prostitutes and forced labourers in Trinbagonian clubs and brothels.
Trinidad is not a major source, but a major transit and
destination point; and because of this, no preventative measures will be put in
place since the general population is not at risk. However, it is still a
problem since it still condones, and contributes to some extent, the act of
trafficking from other countries and allows many opportunities for the
perpetrators. So they should play their part in ensuring the access points in
their country should be blocked and help in the struggle to minimize this growing
and evident international problem.
As it probably has been
recognized, the size of the country doesn’t stop it from being a source
country, and just like the Eastern European countries who are plagued with
economic problems such as employment, so too do Trinidad and Tobago and other
Caribbean countries. Unemployment of persons can lead to desperation to find
jobs, which can have them be trapped into employment scams of traffickers and
leading to them being exploited, especially women. Also on the other hand, lack
of qualification and education can see both men and women becoming traffickers
or middlemen in Caribbean countries. Hence governments need to make stronger
efforts to combat trafficking even though they see it as not threatening their
countries at present, it can affect them in the long run.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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·
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·
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·
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