Trafficking Human Beings

The trafficking of human beings (trafficking of persons) has attracted the attention of the international community since the beginning of the 21st century; however, it was with the ratification of the Palermo Convention and its three Additional Protocols that several countries, especially those aimed as the destiny of the victims, were able to join in the fight against this type of crime and also in the elaboration and approval of a Treaty as means of putting pressure on the countries of the origin of the victims to the adoption of public policies aimed at hindering the crime. This thesis highlights the basic motivation of the recipient countries of these victims, in general, states that are motivated by internal pretensions rather than the defense of the victims' human rights, which is relegated to the background. The thesis has as its general objective the analysis of the social organizations involved in the process of criminal prosecution in charge of the fight against the international trafficking of human beings (trafficking of persons), by analyzing the flow of justice of the Brazilian criminal judiciary system, which will be done in an exploratory descriptive and quantitative research, followed by a qualitative data research , in which it is sought, in parallel, to define the profile of the victim of international trafficking of human beings (trafficking of persons), as one of the specific objectives. The chapters that compose this thesis are the result of the analysis of data collected in a field research that begun in 2016 and was completed in 2018, covering the history and production of decisions in Brazil within the parts involved in fight against the trafficking of human beings (trafficking of persons) in the period from 2004 to 2015. To do so, after first collecting the data in a quantitative survey based on data provided by the Federal Public Ministry and the Presidency of each of the five Federal Courts of Brazil, the thesis analyzes the intra and inter-organizational relations and the basic assumptions of the decision making of these courts´ decisions, without losing sight of the theoretical framework, which is the applied systemic theory. The analysis of these same quantitative data provided the option of choosing the Judicial Sections of the Federal Justice System of Brazil that showed to be  more relevant from the point of view of interest, for a movement until the Federal State Courts for the handling of  the physical procedure and data collection aiming at the elaboration of a new statistical analysis, with the focus of answering the problem of the thesis: how is the prosecution in criminal proceedings for international trafficking of human beings (trafficking of persons) implemented? The research is oriented by the organizational approach of the systemic theory and by the analysis of the network and governance for the fighting of the trafficking of persons.

When it comes to human trafficking, hype often outweighs evidence. All too often, the discourse on trafficking – increasingly absorbed under discussions of so-called ‘modern slavery’ too – is dominated by simplistic treatments of a complex problem, sweeping claims and dubious statistics [1, 2, 3]. Such an approach might help to win attention, investment and support for an anti-trafficking agenda in the short term, but ultimately risks causing credibility problems for the entire field and contributing to ineffective, even harmful, interventions [see, e.g., 2, 4, 5, 6]. From the 1990s onwards, levels of interest and investment in counter-trafficking expanded rapidly [3, 7, 8]. In tandem, the literature on trafficking has proliferated [9, 10]. Yet, actual empirical (data-driven) research remains relatively rare [11, 12, 13, 14]. Of course, non-empirical approaches have value too – for example in challenging how we conceptualise trafficking or highlighting tensions in governments’ or businesses’ commitments to anti-trafficking measures. Nevertheless, empirical research is clearly crucial to advance understanding of the trafficking phenomenon and shape nuanced, evidence-informed policy and practice. Even where empirical research exists, its quality can be highly variable, with many publications (even peer-reviewed ones) found to fall short of even rudimentary scientific standards [13, 15]. Additionally, there is a particular dearth of rigorous, independent evaluations of interventions [7, 13] – despite the many millions of dollars spent thus far on anti-trafficking efforts worldwide [12, 16].

Combatting trafficking in human beings is a well-established social policy and crime prevention priority for the twenty-first Century. Human trafficking, as defined in international law, can occur for diverse exploitative purposes. Yet, different forms of trafficking are routinely conflated in research, policy and interventions. Most of the attention to date has been on sex trafficking of women and girls, leaving male victims and other trafficking types comparatively overlooked. In this study, we disentangle differences between key trafficking types using rare individual-level data from the United Kingdom’s central system for identifying trafficking victims. For a sample of 2630 confirmed victims, we compare those trafficked for sex, domestic servitude and other labour across variables relating to victim demographics, the trafficking process and official responses. Having established significant and substantial differences at bivariate level, we use multinomial logistic regression to identify predictors of trafficking type. Overall, our results underline the complexity and diversity of human trafficking and warn against conflating different types. Within a holistic counter-trafficking framework, a more disaggregated and nuanced approach to analysis and intervention is vital in ensuring more finely-targeted responses. This original study has clear lessons for research, policy and practice.

A report written by Caitlyn McGeer to summarise key findings from the Cumberland Lodge Police Conference on 'Eliminating Slavery: Enhancing the Police Response', held on 21 - 23 April 2017.

The conference brought together more than 60 representatives from police, non-governmental, academic, private sector and government backgrounds. It addressed the pressing issue of modern slavery, its implications for policing, and priorities for the police response.
Participants analysed the unique challenges that modern slavery presents for policing and highlighted the amount of progress that has been made in this regard over the last 10 years.

Changes in the political landscape have brought modern slavery to the forefront of legislation, policy-making and policing. Whilst modern slavery used to be viewed chiefly in terms of sexual exploitation, it is now recognised to cover a range of exploitative offences, such as labour exploitation and forced marriage. 

Although progress has been made in strengthening legislation, and in improving awareness of modern slavery amongst front-line service providers, the war against it has yet to be won. 

This report includes the following sections:

Introduction

Celebrating a Decade of Progress - broadening understanding, increased effort, political will, leading by example

A Challenging Landscape Remains - intersectional nature of the problem, links to consumerism, cross-border dimensions, the 'intelligence gap', victim needs

Overcoming the Challenges: Improving the Response - tackling demand and empowering the front line

Summary of Recommendations - key recommendations for law enforcement, first responders, PCCs, prosecutions, private sector organisations, increasing partnership engagement, and policy makers.

Useful links

Since 2016, human traffickers and smugglers in East and North Africa have repositioned their business models in response to efforts to contain migration flows to Europe, resulting in notable shifts in migration patterns. Efforts to combat illicit financial transactions linked to trafficking and smuggling from Africa are still at an early stage. In this context, relying on financial institutions, law enforcement and prosecution resources without further integration and information sharing including with other stakeholders, is not enough to make a significant impact in the fight against organised criminal networks.
Undermining the capacities of criminal networks and affecting their financial capabilities requires a new approach, outlined in this paper,  that uses innovative ways of gathering and sharing information, intelligence and evidence of the processes that underpin smuggling and trafficking operations and the networks behind them.

Pimps quit their illicit work in sex markets for many reasons, such as
job dissatisfaction, having a child, going to prison, and feeling guilty.
In this study, we used a mixed methods approach to explore pimps’
interdiscursive reasons for quitting. Our analytic sample focuses on
43 self-identified former pimps, who were interviewed in situ in
housing projects in Harlem, New York. Based on existing desistance
research, we hypothesize that pimps would express external or internal
themes of quitting. External reasons involve changes due to the
environment, (e.g., job dangerousness), events (e.g., going to prison)
or opportunities (e.g., getting a legitimate job). Internal reasons
center on change from within, such as in their morality. First, we
qualitatively identify these themes and how they are connected
within the accounts. Many accounts are interdiscursive, i.e., with
multiple themes or some themes occurring across categories, such
as having children and moral reasons. Second, we use non-metric,
Multi-Dimensional Scaling (MDS) to triangulate and systematically
assess our qualitative findings. We find adequate support for this
External to Internal typology, with 67.5% of the cases being classified
as dominantly within one theme. Using non-metric MDS is a novel
method to triangulate this type of qualitative data.

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.

Diaspora communities are complex networks that usually hold a multifaceted influence within their host and home region (Arhin, 2016). They have an advantage from their hybrid identities, having the ability to act as a bridge between the host and home region. A limited number of studies have slowly recognized this trend of diasporic involvement within trafficking of persons, but not enough research has gone into studying the role of the diaspora within the Human Trafficking Chain.

This paper joins the current growing narrative that calls for more research in studying the possible nuanced roles of the diaspora in the Human Trafficking Chain.

Methods: Using the “Diasporic Network Approach” developed by A. Arhin (2016), the possible nuanced roles of a diaspora will be analyzed through (1) a literature review; (2) established trafficking flows; (3) supplemented with interviews by relevant anti-trafficking stakeholders in Greece, Serbia, and Croatia.

Research suggests that victims are often trafficked by their own co-ethnics or co-nationals. While data may be scarce and anecdotal, there is a clear connection that “traffickers in the origin country are citizens of the destination country or fellow citizens of the victims, or perhaps both, working in coordination to exploit victims” (UNODC, 2014: 50). Diasporic involvement and exploitation has been found at every stage of the Human Trafficking Chain – from recruiting, transporting, to destination.

The interviews raised many common themes that are important to explore further. One in particular is the issue of linking ethnicity to criminality; some conceptions of ethnicity in research has seen it as more of a tool, not a predictor of crime (Bovenkerk et al., 2003). In terms of a vulnerability predictor, ethnicity is possibly a large factor. Within the diaspora, it is clear that ethnicity is a useful connecting or networking tool. More research needs to be conducted to discover the nuances of ethnicity within a diaspora, the Diasporic Network Approach, and within the Human Trafficking Chain.

Traffickers exploit vulnerabilities, which may be exacerbated by factors such as poverty, discrimination, gender inequality, violence against women, lack of (access to) education, ethnic conflict, natural disasters, and so on. This paper calls for more research using the Diasporic Network Approach, while being mindful of the “ethnic mobility trap: instead of studying opportunity structures for crime, criminologists act as if ethnicity represents an independent compelling force affecting the crime pattern” (Bovenkerk et al., 2003: 36).

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.

Released in June 2019, the 5th Global Report on prostitution and sexual trafficking provides a global and regional picture of the phenomenon of prostitution in its various aspects. Through 11 revealing studies in current issues and an overview of 35 countries across all continents, the 5th Global Report is an objective, accurate and reliable decoding of the realities of prostitution.

International efforts to address human trafficking are not new, but the rapid expansion of counter-trafficking programs and initiatives over the past two decades is significant. Following adoption of the United Nations Trafficking Protocol in 2000, most countries adopted criminal laws against trafficking, and the number of intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), nongovernment organi- zations (NGOs), and other actors addressing human trafficking greatly increased. Today, estimates number counter-trafficking organizations in the thousands, working in practically every country of the world, including those without anti- trafficking laws. This chapter provides an overview of counter-trafficking IGO and NGO efforts, along with their networks and partnerships with government agencies, the corporate sector, and civil society to reduce human trafficking, hold violators accountable, provide victim services, safeguard workers’ rights, and expand anti-trafficking advocacy on a global scale. Though the efforts detailed here are global in scope, this does not imply domestic NGOs are insignificant. Many of the international organizations described depend on local organizations to carry out their mission. The chapter begins by describing the work of policy and advocacy organizations and then turns to an overview of NGO networks, public-private partnerships, direct service organizations, and organizations engaged in raising awareness and social movement building.

The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (Palermo Protocal) established an internationally agreed upon definition of the crime of “trafficking in persons” under its Article 3. By virtue of this definition, the crime of trafficking in persons is substantiated when an “act” (recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons) is committed by way of a “means” (the 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 the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person) for a purpose of exploitation. This protocol is subject to its parent instrument, the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (CTNOC). The CTNOC notes that it extends to offenses which are transnational in nature and involve an organized criminal group. It therefore appears that the CTNOC imposes additional elements forming part of the crime of trafficking: that the offense be transnational in nature and involve an organized criminal group. Whether these are required elements is a discrepancy found throughout trafficking scholarship and has been identified as a point of unresolved contention. The lack of clarity regarding the definitional contours of this offense means that there is potential for issues in the investigation and prosecution of trafficking. In an effort to bring clarity to the constituent elements of trafficking, this contribution uses a textual analysis to show that, despite some language suggesting that trafficking is strictly a transnational organized crime, the codified definition is not limited to offenses which are transnational, and nor does it require the involvement of an organized criminal group.