| What is Trafficking? |
| Trafficking in
South Asia |
| Trafficking
and HIV/AIDS: the Link |
| What Needs to be Done |
| UNDP’s Response |
| Links |
| Web Resources |
| |
| |
| What
is Trafficking? |
| |
| Trafficking of humans involves moving men, women, and
children from one place to another and placing them in
conditions of forced labour. The practice includes forced
sex work, domestic servitude, unsafe agricultural labour,
sweatshop labour, construction or restaurant work, and
various forms of modern-day slavery. This global violation
of human rights occurs within countries and across borders,
regions, and continents. |
| |
| Trafficking has been defined by the UN General Assembly
statement of 1994 as: “The illicit and clandestine
movements of persons across national borders, largely
from developing countries and some countries with economies
in transition, with the end goal of forcing women and
girl children into sexually or economically oppressive
and exploitative situations for profit of recruiters,
traffickers, and crime syndicates as well as other illegal
activities related to trafficking, such as forced domestic
labour, false marriages, clandestine employment and false
adoption.” |
| |
| The UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking
in Persons, especially Women and Children, 2000, defines
trafficking as: “The recruitment, transportation,
transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of
a threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of
abduction, of fraud, of deception of the abuse of power
or of a position of vulnerability, or of giving or receiving
payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person
having control over another person for the purpose of
exploitation.” |
| |
| Social Impact of Trafficking: |
| |
- Violation of whole gamut of laws and human rights
- Threat to society because because traffickers operate across borders with impunity with the involvement of organized criminals
- Trafficking manifests and perpetuates patriarchical attitudes and undermines efforts to promote gender equality
- Enormous losses to communities and governments in terms of human and social capital investments
- Loss of future productivity and earning power through low education , ill health and epidemic like HIV/ AIDS
|
| |
| Impact of trafficking on individuals : |
| |
- Trafficked persons sre traumatized by their experiences
- Depression and suicidal thoughts are common
- The mental state of survivors include helplessness, withdrawal, disassociation , self blame
- Trafficking survivors under go psychiatric disorders depressive disorders and psychotic disorders
- Stigmatised and outcast and facing moral and legal isolation
- Vulnerable to HIV /AIDS infections , drug addiction and high risk abortions
|
| |
| Back
to Top |
| |
| |
| Trafficking
in Asia |
| |
| Trafficking has been found to be integrally linked
to the lack of secure livelihoods; it forces large numbers
of people to leave their homes, seeking income to improve
the living conditions of their families. |
| |
| South Asia is home to one-fifth of the world’s
population, of which over 500 million live in absolute
poverty, with an income of less than a dollar a day. Various
studies and researches have shown that children, especially
girl children and women bear a disproportionately large
burden of the deprivation and exploitation resulting from
such poverty related issues. The current globalisation
processes on the one hand are creating further livelihood
opportunities in urban areas and specific sectors, but
on the other are leading to diminishing choices in rural
settings, thus prompting greater human mobility driven
by both ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors.
Such trends reflect underlying patterns of poverty, marginalisation
and disempowerment. Several economic liberalisation policies
have entailed a progressive ‘feminisation of poverty’,
coupled with decreasing rural participation rates for
both men and women and rising female-underemployment.
The number of women living in poverty and the number of
women headed households living below the poverty-line
have increased over the last decade, impacting significantly
on the wellbeing and human security of children, often
leading to situations of trafficking. |
| |
| Asia is mainly an origin region as well as a destination for trafficking in person. Asian victims are reported to be trafficked from Asia to Asian countries particular to Thailand, Japan, India, Taiwan and Pakistan. |
| |
| China and Thailand rank very high on the citation index of origion countries of trafficking among persons while Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippinies and Vietnam are categorized as high according to the UNODC report, Trafficking in persons, 2006 |
| |
| Percentage of Sources reporting the Asian Region as origin transit or destination for trafficking victims |
| |
|
Adapted from Report on Trafficking in Persons , UNODC, 2006 |
| |
| |
| Women and Girl Children: Specially Vulnerable |
| |
| Trafficking is by and large a gendered phenomenon. Although
trafficking of men and young boys is also taking place
within and from the region, evidence from major government
and NGO sources indicates that the incidence of trafficking
of women and girls over the past decade has escalated
considerably. The majority of trafficking in India, both
trans-border and in-country, happens for the purpose of
commercial sex work, and over 60 percent of those trafficked
into sex work are adolescent girls in the age-group of
12-16 years. |
| |
| South Asia is witnessing an alarming trend of increasingly
younger girls being trafficked into the sex trade; the
average age of girls trafficked from Nepal into India
has fallen over the past decade from 14-16 years to 10-14
years. In Mumbai and other Indian cities, girl children
as young as eight or nine are sold at auctions. One common
myth fuelling the demand for young girls in South Asia
is that sex with a virgin can cure Sexually Transmitted
Infections (STIs) and HIV/AIDS. The multiple vulnerabilities
to trafficking and HIV/AIDS faced by women and girl children
in the region are further reinforced by socially sanctioned
forms of violence, and skewed gender and power relations.
These take various forms--rape, trafficking, commercial
sexual exploitation, dowry-related violence, female infanticide,
domestic violence and violence in conflict situations.
The lives of millions of women in this region remain defined
by traditional practices that enforce disempowerment and
endorse unequal treatment. |
| |
| It is difficult to be precise about the exact numbers
of women and children trafficked. Estimates based on the
reports of law enforcement agencies, researchers and groups
working with survivors and communities indicate that hundreds
of thousands of women and children have been or are vulnerable
to being trafficked from South Asia. Police estimate that
more than 15,000 women and children are smuggled out of
Bangladesh every year and NGOs estimate that 160,000-250,000
women and girls from Nepal are held in India’s brothels;
35 per cent of them were taken on the pretext of marriage
or with offers of lucrative jobs. NGOs report that the
numbers growing, and that trafficking is affecting communities
where it was formerly unknown. |
| |
| Impact of Trafficking |
| |
| Trafficked people often suffer from a multitude of physical
and psychological health problems. Women are specifically
vulnerable to reproductive and other gender-specific health
problems in trafficking situations as they have little
or no access to reproductive health care. These problems
include lack of access to birth control, constant rapes,
forced abortions and contraceptive use, lack of regular
mammograms and Pap smears, and other health issues. Women
in domestic servitude are subject to rape and other physical
abuse, while women in forced sex work suffer increased
risk of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS.In Thailand 4.3% of the female are HIV positive while in Nepal they are approx 2%. |
| |
| An estimated 2.2 million women are living with the HIV versus in South and South-east Asia according to UNAIDS 2006 report on the Global AIDS epidemic. |
| |
| Back to Top |
| |
| |
| Trafficking
and HIV/AIDS: the Link |
| |
| South and South-east Asia is also witnessing a rapid growth in HIV/AIDS,
and with a stated figure of over 7.6 million HIV-positive
people, human security and human development in
Asia is seriously threatened as the epidemic is steadily
spreading within a climate of stigma, discrimination,
denial and ignorance. The epidemic has a two-fold relationship
with development. On the one hand, conditions of poverty,
illiteracy, gender inequality and unequal access to resources
and information enhance the vulnerability of people, particularly
women, to infections and reduce their capacity to protect
themselves. On the other hand, the economic costs of sickness
and death from HIV/AIDS affect individuals, communities,
nations and the region as a whole, pushing people further
into the cycle of poverty, exploitation and vulnerability.
|
| |
| As the epidemic spreads wider, the link between trafficking
and HIV is emerging stronger than ever before. With
Asia recording the fastest growing rates of new infections,
the nexus of poverty, HIV, and the trafficking of young
persons within and across borders is creating ever-widening
circles of insecurity that disproportionately threaten
the lives of young children and further impoverish the
poor through sickness, loss of livelihood and rejection
by society. The epidemic is severely undermining human
security and posing serious threats to the social capital
and overall development of the region. |
| |
| Moving beyond the narrow epidemiological profile of
the HIV/AIDS epidemic within the subcontinent and examining
the broader socio-economic and development causes, an
integral connection is evident between HIV/AIDS, gender
and trafficking through the nexus of vulnerability and
sexual violence. Trafficked women and girls represent
the most vulnerable category as far as sexual violence
is concerned. HIV/AIDS, trafficking and gender are thus
linked in the following ways: |
| |
- Factors such as women's labour, sexuality and sexual
behaviour and social disadvantage, which determine
the context of sexual violence and trafficking of
women and girls, are also the factors that are associated
with the increased vulnerability of women and girls
to HIV/AIDS. Specifically, these relate to gender-related
social and economic disempowerment, and unequal access
to all the indicators of development including health
and education.
- Trafficking is part of a pattern of migration, within
and across countries, which removes migrants from
the protection of their communities and severs them
from their systems of social support. These factors
are recognised as heightening vulnerability to HIV/AIDS.
- Caught in the web of trafficking and sexual abuse,
those affected face an increased risk of HIV/AIDS
on account of lack of control over their working and
living conditions, including sexual relations.
- Common societal responses to those affected by HIV/AIDS
as well trafficking are strongly impacted by stigmatisation,
discrimination and further marginalisation. These
responses in turn undermine the basic rights and freedoms
of the affected individuals, including the right to
mobility and residence, the right to essential services,
right to confidentiality, right to free association,
and sexual and reproductive rights.
|
| |
| |
| Back to Top |
| |
| |
| What Needs to be
Done |
| |
| It is crucial to adopt a rights protective approach
to counter vulnerabilities of trafficked people and reduce
stigmatisation, which results in multiple burdens for
HIV-positive survivors. It is important to mainstream
trafficking and HIV/AIDS in an integrated manner and maximise
linkages and coordination between national and regional
programmes related to trafficking of women and girls and
HIV/AIDS. It is important to adopt a multi-sectoral and
participatory approach to develop a common strategy for
addressing trafficking and HIV/AIDS issues. Key strategies
should focus on creating a new knowledge, an increased
understanding and innovative operational strategies to
create an enabling environment for social change. Attention
should be given to activities offering legal, physical
and psychological protection and empowerment to people
who are affected by trafficking and are HIV positive.
Innovative aspects include the active participation of
affected women and girls as peer workers and educators
in designing and implementing activities. Strategic planning
and networking should be supported for inter-country bilateral
and multilateral cooperation within the region. |
| |
| Such an approach would be more enabling
in: |
|
- combating stigmatisation and stereotypes of those
affected by trafficking and HIV/AIDS,
- focussing on behaviour patterns rather than vulnerable
groups, since concentrating on such populations further
stigmatises and marginalises them and allows those
with unsafe behavioural practices who may not be a
part of the vulnerable groups, to be complacent,
- developing empowering strategies to reduce vulnerabilities
by providing information and services on safe health
and safe migration practices.
|
| |
| |
| Back to Top |
| |
| |
| UNDP’s Response |
| |
| UNDP situates both trafficking and HIV/AIDS
as development and human rights issues, which need to
be addressed through an integrated, holistic and multi-sectoral
approach to reduce the vulnerability of trafficked people
by empowering them and promoting their human rights. Between 1999 and 2001, UNDP
initiated six pilot projects in Bangladesh, India, Nepal
and Sri Lanka. The principal considerations in designing
these pilot activities have been the conceptualisation
and analysis of trafficking as a gendered phenomenon,
with wider development linkages to poverty, livelihoods
and mobility. Partners in the six pilot projects completed
are SHDSA (India), STOP (India), WOREC (Nepal), Maiti-Nepal,
OPSE (Sri Lanka) and CARE-Bangladesh. |
| |
| SHDSA (Society for Human Development and
Social Action) worked with the sex workers’ organisation
Durbar Mahila Samanway Committee (DMSC) based in Calcutta,
to develop an effective model to combat trafficking into
sex work with the active involvement and participation
of sex workers. The empowerment of sex workers’
organisations lay at the centre of this initiative, with
a view to strengthen networking and partnerships between
other NGOs working on sex work, trafficking and HIV issues.
SHDSA and DMSC were instrumental in seeking to mainstream
sex workers’ concerns and their efforts in containing
trafficking into brothels through the formation of self-regulatory
boards managed by the sex workers themselves. |
| |
| STOP (Stop Trafficking Oppression and Prostitution
of children and women) is a grassroots organisation
involved in community-based prevention activities
and the recovery and reintegration of trafficked
survivors into their communities of choice. The
overall objective of this pilot project was to implement
concrete measures to reduce the number of children
and women being trafficked across national borders
into India, besides in-country trafficking from
village to urban areas within India. STOP was successful
in recovering and reintegrating nearly 200 young
girls into the communities of their choice with
the aid of its partner NGOs in India, Nepal and
Bangladesh. They have also published ‘Guidelines
for the Media on the issue of Trafficking’.
|
| |
| CARE-Bangladesh is a well established development
organisation whose pilot project revolved around
the containment of HIV/AIDS through the provision
of information and support services using peer education
mechanisms for improving the sexual health of those
affected by trafficking, including care and support
for those identified as HIV positive. The project
also fostered partnerships and joint collaborations
with government, NGOs and grassroots organisations
working on trafficking and HIV issues to combat
the forced entry of women and girls into sex work.
As a result of this pilot, CARE undertook extensive
ethnographic research to explore the linkages between
trafficking, vulnerabilities and HIV/AIDS, while
critically analysing the role of the media, law
enforcement bodies and the judiciary. |
| |
| Maiti-Nepal is an internationally acclaimed organisation
working in the field of trafficking and the care
of HIV positive people. Their pilot project with
UNDP undertook advocacy for the prevention of trafficking
through mobilising students’ communities in
targeted districts in Nepal. It also engaged in
capacity building at the community level and sharing
of cross-border experiences in anti-trafficking
actions with partner organisations. Most importantly,
Maiti provided care and institutional support to
trafficked survivors, including those living with
HIV/AIDS. Maiti successfully mobilised its targeted
young persons’ groups and actively involved
Village Development Committees in its orientation
programmes. |
| |
| WOREC (Women’s Rehabilitation Centre), Nepal
undertook a project for building the capacities
of women and girls in high-risk situations alongside
that of their communities, for prevention activities
with regard to trafficking and HIV/AIDS. It has
also facilitated the successful reintegration of
minor trafficked survivors and developed in-country
and cross-border cooperation with NGOs, government
authorities and border police forces in Nepal and
India to support a rights-based reintegration of
trafficked women and girls. WOREC has prepared a
well-researched and comprehensively documented report
of its activities pertaining to the integrated prevention
of HIV/AIDS and trafficking in Nepal. |
| |
| OPSE (Organisation for the Protection of Social
Environment), Sri Lanka worked with UNDP in creating
awareness on the violations of rights of women and
children and advocating to establish a safe social
environment. OPSE’s pilot project has aimed
at empowering women and children through knowledge
dissemination on STD/HIV/AIDS and focusing on their
physical, psychological and sexual exploitation.
The organisation has prepared a thorough study on
the magnitude and locations of trafficking amongst
women and children and their knowledge, attitudes
and practices on sexual health and HIV/AIDS. |
| |
| |
|
| Back to Top |
| |
| |
| Links |
| |
| "Preventing trafficking in Women and Children in Asia: Issues and Options"
|
| |
| "Myanmar Factbook on Trafficking" |
| |
| "HIV
and Child Prostitution" |
| |
| "Crusade to protect Nepal " |
| |
| "Gender
Violence, HIV and Trafficking" |
| |
| "Nexus
between Trafficking and HIV" |
| |
| "Human
Rights Watch document" |
| |
| "Trafficking
and Human Security" |
| |
| "CNN
website on AIDS and Trafficking" |
| |
| "Coalition Against Trafficking in Women" |
| |
| "Child
trafficking" |
| |
| |
| Web Resources |
| |
| United Nations Inter-Agency Project On Human Trafficking In The Greater Mekong Sub-Region |
| http://www.un.or.th/TraffickingProject/ |
| |
| Web resource for combating human trafficking |
| www.humantrafficking.org |
| |
| STOP CHILD TRAFFICKING |
| http://www.stopchildtrafficking.org/ |
| |
| COMBTING HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN ASIA |
| http://www.asiafoundation.org/Women/trafficking.html |
| |
| UNDP-TAHA Project |
| www.traffickingandhiv.org |
| |
|
|
| |
| Back to Top |
| |
