Migration and Human Trafficking

Ausländische Landarbeiter werden immer wieder um ihren Lohn geprellt und ackern unter Bedingungen, die Österreicher nicht akzeptieren würden. Ein Fair-Trade-Label für heimisches Gemüse könnte für Konsumenten erkenntlich machen, dass es ohne die Ausbeutung der Erntehelfer produziert wurde.
Der Mann stapft in Gummistiefeln aus einem Folientunnel-erschöpft und schweißgebadet. Er ist Ungar und an die 40, in dem Gewächshaus zieht er Paprika. Auf die Frage, ob mit seinem Job alles in Ordnung sei, reagiert er verunsichert, überlegt, blickt um sich, wartet mit der Antwort, bis die Bäuerin hinter dem Folientunnel verschwunden ist. Wir befinden uns auf freiem Feld zwischen den Ortschaften Wallern, Pamhagen und Andau im burgenländischen Seewinkel. Seinen wahren Namen, sagt der Ungar, will er nicht genannt haben. Nennen wir ihn Attila: "Wenn die Chefin hört, dass ich über meine Situation rede, schmeißt sie mich raus. Andere haben diese Erfahrung schon gemacht." "Bekommen Sie Ihre Überstunden bezahlt?" Attila wackelt mit dem Kopf und grinst, als wäre es eine völlig absurde Frage. "Also nein, davon kann keine Rede sein." Er zögert zu beantworten, wieviel Lohn er erhält. Es sei besser als in Ungarn. Dort müsste er ohne Dach über dem Kopf mit Betteln auskommen. Trotz der "Elendsarbeit", wie er sie nennt, sei er hier schon zehn Jahre Erntehelfer. "Es sind fünf Euro, die ich am Tag kriege, und Kost und Logis."-Weniger als ein Zehntel des Mindesttarifs laut Kollektivvertrag (KV). "Sicher ein Extremfall, der mich aber nicht wundert", meint Sónia Melo, die Landarbeiter unterstützt. "Wenn ich höre, dass Erntehelfer für die Gummiringe zahlen müssen, mit denen sie Radieschen und Jungzwiebeln zusammenbinden, dass sie für Kost und Logis Fantasiepreise ablegen, dass Frauen gekündigt wird, wenn sie schwanger sind, dass viele nicht in Krankenstand gehen dürfen sondern mit Fieber weiterarbeiten, und wenn ich von Bauern höre, die gegen Erntehelfer sogar physisch gewalttätig geworden sind, bin ich nicht verblüfft."

In 2004, the ‘10 Truck Arms and Ammunition Haul’ in Chittagong exposed the smuggling activities between the Bay of Bengal and North East India. The similitudes with the earliest case of weapon smuggling reported by the British administration during the mid-nineteenth century is telling of the continuity of circulations outlawed by changing political and economic regimes, in the shadow of both states’ borders and international agencies’ interventions. Trade from South West China to the India Ocean, Nicobar and Maldives islands and further, has always been part of the social and cultural fabric  of the Northern Bay of Bengal (NBB). Vernacular songs, stories, architecture, food and dress, lifestyles and languages, are witness to mutual and multiple borrowings, in which circulation has played a central role.

This paper demonstrates why and how a fuller geographical perspective extends contemporary scholarship on human trafficking within and beyond the discipline. We employ a relational approach and draw on in-depth qualitative research with trafficked persons and a range of stakeholders in Slovakia and the United Kingdom (UK), to depict how the processes underpinning human trafficking are non-linear, operate instantaneously at multiple intersecting scales and temporalities, and through diverse mobilities. The analysis problematises the discrete and homogeneous notion of space coupled with a linear conceptualisation of time and, more specifically, the normative portrayals of recruitment, transit, and exploitation as distinct and sequential phases of human trafficking. Instead, the individuated experiences of trafficked persons are examined in relational geographies of inequality, manoeuvring and mobilities. Such a conceptual shift ensures that efforts to understand and combat human trafficking address its effects as well as the wider social relations and structural conditions that facilitate exploitation. We conclude the paper by outlining how a relational-geographic perspective has the potential to foster new forms of dialogue and inquiry within and beyond the discipline.

This article uses in-depth qualitative data, obtained as part of research examining human trafficking from Slovakia to the United Kingdom, to explore the place of children in human trafficking processes. Rather than foregrounding cases of children as direct subjects of abuse, the article focuses on instances where children are used to control, manipulate and exploit relatives embroiled in human trafficking. We study examples when children are moved across national borders and those when they remain in the home country, and show how in both accounts their (absent) presence constitutes a significant means for facilitating, maintaining and intensifying the exploitation of their adult relatives. Through doing so, the article demonstrates how identifying the distinct spaces and moments within which children appear in narratives of exploitation has the potential to uncover nefarious practices occurring within the human trafficking process, as well as the indirect effects of human trafficking on family dynamics. The article extends conceptual understandings of agency in human trafficking by illustrating how children are simultaneously subjects of exploitation and emplaced through complex channels within the exploitation of others.

Human Trafficking, migrant’s smuggling and irregular migration with its ugly neck knows no borders, neither does it respect age, race, language, gender, social status, religious or political inclinations – it is a global menace, that can be likened to an epidemic and have amongst other factors led to loss of millions of lives, broken so many homes and is putting millions more in exploitative conditions making life unbearable and constituting a violation against human dignity, the Laws of God and Man.
My motivation for the current piece is drawn from two occasions where I was privileged to have participated in. The first was while acting as key informant during the University of Bertfordshire and the IOM Shared Learning Event (SLE) on Vulnerability to Human Trafficking in Vietnam, Albania, Nigeria,  and the UK earlier in 2018, the interviewer had asked what I thought was the Government of Nigeria most potent solution to curbing the increasing cases of Irregular migration and human trafficking in Nigeria and my response was simple, immediate and unequivocal “A Honest Observance of the Rule of Law & Good Governance” I had replied, she gazed for a moment, looking a bit bemused or somewhat lost and then repeated the question to me; my response was the same and at that point I proceeded to clarify and establish the nexus between a honest observance of the rule of law, good governance and the major drivers (push factors) for the increasing cases of irregular migrants and human trafficking in Nigeria. The second, which is by the way more of a personal reflection was ignited by no one else but the Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR) President Muhammadu Buhari while delivering the opening speech at the opening ceremony of the 2018 Annual NBA Conference held at the International Conference Center in Abuja last August, wherein he had posited that “the rule of law was secondary to national interests and security”  a phrase that was greeted with resentments, disbelief and outright confrontation by sections of the assemblage of legal minds in Nigeria and had remained a talking point throughout the 5 days conference, amongst other things some of the thoughts that crept through my mind was how the number one citizen conceived the rule of law and his commitment to its observance, it’s inevitable bond with good governance and the overreaching impacts on migration, human trafficking and related offences.
Our content will attempt to highlight issues that will encourage governments to promote good governance through the religious observance of the rule of law, dissuade gullible citizens to desist from embarking on high risk and uncertain travels abroad through robust policy drive or feeding the greed of traffickers by proffering recommendations aimed at addressing major push factors (root causes or predisposing factors) like unemployment, institutional corruption, endemic poverty, ignorance and ensuring improved coordination of available reintegration support services for vulnerable migrants & returnees through sustained referral and linkages. New government initiatives and research efforts.

O tráfico de pessoas, nos termos da legislação brasileira mais recente1, consiste em “agenciar, aliciar, recrutar, transportar, transferir, comprar, alojar ou acolher pessoa, mediante grave ameaça, violência, coação, fraude ou abuso, com a finalidade de: I - remover-lhe órgãos, tecidos ou partes do corpo; II - submetê-la a trabalho em condições análogas à de escravo; III - submetê-la a qualquer tipo de servidão; IV - adoção ilegal; ou V - exploração sexual. Esta é a previsão legal ou o tipo penal que define as condutas especificadas no art. 149-A do Código Penal, enquanto crime.
Além da legislação nacional, existe a previsão internacional do conceito de tráfico de pessoas, que nos termos do Protocolo de Palermo é “o recrutamento, o transporte, a transferência, o alojamento ou o  acolhimento de pessoas, recorrendo à ameaça ou ao uso da força ou a outras formas de coação, ao rapto, à fraude, ao engano, ao abuso de autoridade ou à situação de vulnerabilidade ou à entrega ou aceitação de pagamentos ou benefícios para obter o consentimento de uma pessoa que tenha autoridade sobre outra para fins de exploração. A exploração incluirá, no mínimo, a exploração da prostituição de outrem ou outras formas de exploração sexual, o trabalho ou serviços forçados, escravatura ou práticas similares à escravatura, a servidão ou a remoção de órgãos.”
Marcos regulatórios definidos, é necessário conhecer a dimensão do fenômeno. Tráfico de pessoas é um dos crimes subnotificados, ou seja, cujo índice de denúncias ao sistema de segurança pública ou a outros integrantes da rede de enfrentamento, é baixo, por razões tais como o receio da vítima de ser discriminada ou incriminada, a vergonha, o desconhecimento de sua condição de vítima, a falta de informação sobre os mecanismos de denúncia e o medo de represálias por parte do agressor. É também um crime praticado às escondidas, ou dissimulado, praticado debaixo dos nossos narizes, mas de forma que não seja facilmente identificado.
A falta de conhecimento dos profissionais que atendem as vítimas de tráfico de pessoas em reconhecê--las como vítimas é também um dos fatores que contribui para que esse evento criminoso passe despercebido. Ou seja, ainda que o/a ofendido acione de alguma maneira o sistema de segurança pública ou justiça criminal, se este não estiver capacitado para reconhecê-lo/la como vítima de tráfico de pessoas, atendê-lo, e assisti-lo/la, o fenômeno continuará na criminalidade oculta.
Finalmente, quando essa notícia de crime e/ou sua vítima chegam no sistema de segurança pública, na justiça criminal ou em outra instituição da rede de enfrentamento, e também quando, finalmente, a vítima é identificada, o sistema deve estar bem preparado para atender essa pessoa e para registrar corretamente o evento criminoso, fazendo com que os dados fornecidos por este ou esta possam se transformar em informação e, posteriormente, conhecimento sobre o fenômeno. Ou seja, uma das principais ferramentas para a implementação de uma política pública é a coleta de dados e a produção de estatísticas, que transformados em informação, geram conhecimento sobre a realidade e permitem o aprimoramento das políticas públicas.
Podem, inclusive, servir de ferramenta de “accountability” do sistema de justiça criminal (Lima, 2009, 66). Mas esta lógica não é completamente verdadeira. Sim, é bem verdade que vários avanços nos sistemas de
segurança pública e da justiça criminal têm sido registrados. Há, por exemplo, uma preocupação maior das diversas instâncias, estaduais e federais, e das diversas polícias, militar, civil e federal, em oferecer um atendimento humanizado aos cidadãos que procuram esses serviços e em registrar adequadamente a informação fornecida,no intuito não somente de colaborar com os trabalhos de investigação da polícia judiciária, mas também de reunir dados confiáveis e mais próximos da realidade. Mas as iniciativas ainda estão pulverizadas e desarticuladas.
Somada a essa desarticulação, a constante confusão entre tráfico de pessoas, contrabando de migrantes e imigração irregular, além da confusão entre o que seria trabalho escravo, servidão, exploração sexual ou exercício da prostituição, faz com que o fenômeno fique ainda mais desconhecido. Por vezes, vítimas de tráfico de pessoas para fins de exploração sexual são identificadas como imigrantes ilegais que estão exercendo a prostituição. Isso se agrava no tráfico interno devido a ausência de fronteiras e de instâncias de controle à liberdade de locomoção, permitindo que recrutadores, aliciadores e traficantes
transitem com suas vítimas pelo território nacional com uma certa facilidade. O desconhecimento se reflete nas estatísticas criminais que, muito tímidas, não retratam o fenômeno do tráfico de pessoas adequadamente, fazendo com que onde anos após o Decreto que aprovou a Política Nacional de Enfrentamento ao Tráfico de Pessoas ainda não tenhamos a dimensão da incidência do tráfico de pessoas no Brasil.
Feitas estas considerações, o Ministério da Justiça e Segurança Pública (MJSP), através da Secretaria Nacional de Justiça e Cidadania, e mais especificamente da Coordenação Nacional de Enfrentamento ao Tráfico de Pessoas, tem envidado esforços hercúleos, desde a aprovação do Decreto nº 5.948/06, de 26/10/2006, que instituiu a Política Nacional de Enfrentamento ao Tráfico de Pessoas, para produzir estatísticas, estudos, análises, ou seja, conhecimento sobre o fenômeno do tráfico de pessoas interno e internacional no Brasil. Este Relatório é um destes, cujo intuito foi o de sistematizar os dados de enfrentamento ao
tráfico de pessoas nos últimos dois anos, cobrindo o período de 2014 a 2016.

This article represents the first study to conduct a comprehensive review of employment practices within the Indonesian export fishing industry, the world's largest exporter of tuna products. In contrast to the Thai and Taiwanese fishing industries which engage primarily migrant fishers, fishers in Indonesia are Indonesian nationals, although many are internal migrants. We make two arguments. Firstly, that some of the same risks of forced labour-in hiring and employment practices-exist even where the workforce are domestic rather than international migrants. Secondly, our research identified that informal employment relations inherent in small-scale traditional fishing have been co-opted by businesses as a means of reducing labour costs while maximising their profits. Recruitment was an area of particular risk for exploitation of fishers. Our research has implications for companies sourcing from Indonesia as well governments of import companies. In particular, we argue that a narrow focus on modern slavery risks inadequate or even counterproductive policy responses.

This article sets the context to this special issue: it discusses the background to the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 and related legislative and policy instruments and sets out a methodology for comparing modern slavery in a global context. Developing the findings of a joint British Academy-DFID programme, 'Tackling Slavery, Human Trafficking and Child Labour in Modern Business', it describes a modern slavery regime defined by the production and implementation of laws and policies at both the international and the domestic level that specifically seeks to address a series of abuses associated with the term 'modern slavery'. The article interrogates the effectiveness of law and policy in curbing abuse and considers the impacts of cultural and societal norms on conceptualising modern slavery. It also suggests ways in which contributions to this special issue may advance our understandings of the modern slavery regime and where it falls short of meeting its objectives.

The juxtaposition of domestic and regional responses to child trafficking
and migration is clearly delineated in the context of South-East Asia
due to the proximity of countries and relative ease of access across the
region. This ease of access has led to well-established migration flows, or
routes, leaving the region split between source countries and destination
countries. It is well documented that migration occurs intra-regionally
from less developed countries to more developed countries, and that a
substantial number of children are making this move.1 Based on this,
this chapter examines how the best interests principle embodied in the
Convention on the Rights of the Child intersects with the issue of child
migration and trafficking in the Association of South East Asian Nations
(ASEAN) region.
Through this contrasting examination in domestic and regional contexts,
the chapter draws a conclusion regarding how the law may navigate
the best interests of the child paradigm in relation to child migration and
trafficking in South-East Asia.

En nuestro país las acciones de lucha contra la trata de personas son insuficientes. Los retos son enormes y enfrentan dualidad conceptual de las personas encargadas en cumplirlos: por un lado, existen especialistas que tienen un amplio dominio sobre el tema y que llevan trabajando muchos años en él; y por otro, muchas personas no tienen los conocimientos mínimos de este tema. Todo esto se traduce en enormes tropiezos en la coordinación de las instituciones públicas y
privadas para establecer acciones que fomenten su erradicación. Este artículo pretende visibilizar las razones por las que en México los resultados en los avances de la lucha contra la trata de personas son lentos, así como los retos actuales que enfrenta nuestro país para contar con indicadores adecuados que midan de manera constante los avances (o retrocesos) a mediano y a largo plazo.