Few days ago, the CEO of End Trafficking International was featured by Olujoke C. Mosaku on DNTWOK to discuss the topic; CHILD TRAFFICKING. It was indeed an intriguing session. Kindly watch the full interview with Joy Agbeyegbe below;
Thus far, little research has been conducted on those who perpetrate or participate in the crime of trafficking. Information from law enforcement professionals and immigration experts suggests that, as victims, there is no one profile or network structure description that accurately captures all global trafficking. Traffickers may include, for example, amateur traffickers (small, opportunistic operators, such as those who provide a single service, e.g., transport); small groups of organized criminals (those that specialize in escorting migrants from country to country, sometimes based on family connections, but less ‘professional’ than those operating in international networks); and international trafficking networks (those who address all aspects, including recruitment, documents, accommodation, transport, placement or sale of victims; these groups are often involved in other criminal activities). {1}
Defining the characteristics of a “trafficker” is complex, one might, for example, try to look at the various roles that a trafficker might play in order to understand perpetrators in practical ways, such as how they carry out the crime. Recruiters and recruitment in many situations include, for example, individuals posing as employment or travel services. In other circumstances, recruitment tactics include men introducing themselves to women and their family as well-situated young men living outside the country. They then make marriage proposals, promising to care for the girl and send money home to the family. {2}
Otherwise, one might attempt to tie many of the features of a trafficker to motives. One might thus look at one of the most important motives: profit. There is enormous financial gain to be made in trafficking. Viewing motives would be to look at traffickers from criminal law enforcement and/or global market perspectives. Taking a market perspective may also mean looking at the way in which traffickers are responding to demand. Common techniques used by traffickers can be assembled based on case studies in forms and execution of coercion and abuse emerge in examples from around the world. A summary of some techniques used by traffickers might include the following:
All these tend to create the sense that the individual has few options other than those preferred by the perpetrator. Additionally, to give the sense that the individual’s well-being and safety depends on pleasing the perpetrator.
REFERENCES
{1} Graycar, A. Trafficking in human beings. in international Conference on Migration, Culture & Crime. 1999. Israel.
{2} Renton, D., 2001. Child trafficking in Albania. Save the Children: Tirana.
End Trafficking International (ETI), a New York-based organization in the United States that works to end human trafficking, has reported the rescue of a Nigerian citizen who was lured to Libya for exploitation. The victim, simply identified as Maria, a 40-year-old Nigerian mother of three, was promised a well-paid job in Libya but unknown to her she was on her way to slavery. She arrived in Zuwarah northwestern city in Libya on December 9, 2019, and was sold multiple times by her trafficker to pay her unending debt. The victim was subjected to all forms of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment from her trafficker to ensure compliance.
“As typical with traffickers, the victim’s international passport and other personal items including hair and nails were seized by her trafficker for voodoo purposes,” ETI Founder, Joy Agbeyegbe Ochuko, said in a report.
She disclosed how ETI, with the help of a Nigerian embassy staff, John Olowo, ensured the safe return of the victim last week back to her three children. The victim was offered a safe space to stay and a free flight ticket, Ms Ochuko said.
According to her, “Generally, in human trafficking, the victims are usually transferred to a location where their services are needed. This is often a place where they lack language skills or other basic knowledge that would allow them to seek help. For Maria, it was just supposed to be a job to make money from, but it quickly turned into a lot more than she ever expected. The horrendous story of Maria is a traditional and most commonly used medium of human trafficking, called the “BONDED LABOUR”.
“Bonded labour, also known as “debt bondage,” occurs when a person takes a loan for security purposes or inherits a relative’s debt. It might look like an arrangement on jobs, but one where the employee starts paying debt – usually in brutal situations, only to find out that their payment of the loan is impossible. They are then forever enslaved. Labour trafficking is targeted at manipulating employees. The process of cycling starts with a debt that cannot be paid immediately, whether acquired or inherited. The employer then proceeds to add new costs as the employee is working to pay off the debts.
“The international Palermo Protocol requires the criminalisation of bonded labor as a form of trafficking. Still, this particular system of slavery is deeply entrenched around the world. This is another cry out call to individuals, private and governmental institutions to stand up and join the fight against human trafficking. Kudos to End Trafficking International (ETI), today, Maria is back home with her family after several years of forced labour (bondage debt) in a foreign country.”
The ETI Founder noted that poverty has been a push factor of migration and human trafficking. “The economic situation in most African countries has left its youths with no other option than to seek the next way out even if it means losing their lives,” she said.
She further encouraged those seeking greener pastures outside their countries to look before they leap.
The ETI Founder expressed gratitude to the Nigerian Embassy in Libya “and its kind-hearted staff, John Olowo, for providing the victim with a safe place and an emergency travel document.”
1. MYTH: Human trafficking is a global problem. There is nothing I can do to help.
FACT: Human trafficking has been reported in every single state in the United States. Know the signs and look beneath the surface when interacting with people in your community. Call the End Trafficking International hotlines.
2. MYTH: Trafficking must include some form of travel or transportation across borders. Collapse.
FACT: Human trafficking does not require movement or border crossing. If someone is forced to work or engage in commercial sex against their will, it is trafficking.
3. MYTH: Victims must be held against their will using some form of physical restraint or bondage.
FACT: While some traffickers physically hold the people they exploit, it is more common for them to use psychological means of control. Fear, trauma, drug addiction, threats against families, and a lack of options due to poverty and homelessness can all prevent someone from leaving. Some individuals who experience trafficking may also be manipulated or believe they are in love with their trafficker, which can make them resistant to seeking help.
Some traffickers use more subtle methods of trapping and controlling people, such as:
– Isolating them from family, friends, and the public by limiting contact with outsiders and making sure that any contact is monitored
– Confiscating passports or other identification documents
– Threatening to shame them by exposing humiliating circumstances to their families
– Threatening imprisonment or deportation if they contact authorities
– Debt bondage through enormous financial obligations or an undefined or increasing debt
4. MYTH: Victims will be desperate to escape their trafficker and ask for help when they need it. Collapse
FACT: Individuals who experience trafficking may not readily seek help due to a number of factors, including shame, self-blame, fear, or even specific instructions from their traffickers regarding how to behave when interacting with others. They do not always self-identify and may not realize that they have rights.
5. MYTH: Only women and children experience trafficking.
FACT: Anyone can experience human trafficking, including men. Traffickers prey on the vulnerable, often with promises of a better life. Risk factors for trafficking include prior history of abuse or sexual violence, generational trauma, poverty, unemployment, and unstable living situations, or homelessness.
Human trafficking is complex and dynamic. It is widespread but exact numbers are hard to come by. It follows patterns, but every situation is also unique. There is so much more to learn.
1. Trafficking involves transporting someone into a situation of exploitation. This can include forced labor, marriage, prostitution, and organ removal. This kind of exploitation is known by a few different names — “human trafficking,” “trafficking of persons,” and “modern slavery” are the ones accepted by the US Department of State.
2. It is estimated that internationally there are between 20 million and 40 million people in modern slavery today. Assessing the full scope of human trafficking is difficult because so cases so often go undetected, something the United Nations refers to as “the hidden figure of crime.
3. Estimates suggest that, internationally, only about .04% survivors of human trafficking cases are identified, meaning that the vast majority of cases of human trafficking go undetected.
4. Human trafficking earns global profits of roughly $150 billion a year for traffickers, $99 billion of which comes from commercial sexual exploitation.
5. Globally, an estimated 71% of enslaved people are women and girls, while men and boys account for 29%.
People who have been trafficked for the purpose of domestic servitude may:
• Live with a family
• Not eat with the rest of the family
• Have no private space
• Sleep in a shared or inappropriate space
• Be reported missing by their employer even though they are still living in their employer’s house
• Never or rarely leave the house for social reasons
• Never leave the house without their employer
• Be given only leftovers to eat
• Be subjected to insults, abuse, threats or violence
Children who have been trafficked may:
• Have no access to their parents or guardians
• Look intimidated and behave in a way that does not correspond with behaviour typical of children their age
• Have no friends of their own age outside of work
• Have no access to education
• Have no time for playing
• Live apart from other children and in substandard accommodations
• Eat apart from other members of the “family”
• Be given only leftovers to eat
• Be engaged in work that is not suitable for children
• Travel unaccompanied by adults
• Travel in groups with persons who are not relatives
People who have been trafficked for the purpose of labour exploitation are typically made to work in sectors such as the following: agriculture, construction, entertainment, service industry and manufacturing (in sweatshops). People who have been trafficked for labour exploitation may:
• Live in groups in the same place where they work and leave those premises infrequently, if at all
• Live in degraded, unsuitable places, such as in agricultural or industrial buildings
• Not be dressed adequately for the work they do: for example, they may lack protective equipment or warm clothing
• Be given only leftovers to eat
• Have no access to their earnings
• Have no labour contract
• Work excessively long hours
• Depend on their employer for a number of services, including work, transportation, and accommodation
People who have been trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation may:
• Be of any age, although the age may vary according to the location and the market
• Move from one brothel to the next or work in various locations
• Be escorted whenever they go to and return from work and other outside activities
• Have tattoos or other marks indicating “ownership” by their exploiters
• Work long hours or have few if any days off
• Sleep where they work
• Live or travel in a group, sometimes with other women who do not speak the same language
• Have very few items of clothing
• Have clothes that are mostly the kind typically worn for doing sex work
• Only know how to say sex-related words in the local language or in the language of the client group
• Have no cash of their own
• Be unable to show an identity document
• There is evidence that a person has been bought and sold.
• There is evidence that groups of women are under the control of others.
• Advertisements are placed for brothels or similar places offering the services of women of a particular ethnicity or nationality.
They may be:
• Believe that they must work against their will
• Be unable to leave their work environment
• Show signs that their movements are being controlled
• Feel that they cannot leave
• Show fear or anxiety
• Be subjected to violence or threats of violence against themselves
or against their family members and loved ones
• Suffer injuries that appear to be the result of an assault
• Be distrustful of the authorities
• Be threatened with being handed over to the authorities
• Be afraid of revealing their immigration status
• Not be in possession of their passports or other travel or identity
documents, as those documents are being held by someone else
• Have false identity or travel documents
• Be found in or connected to a type of location likely to be used
for exploiting people
• Be unfamiliar with the local language
• Not know their home or work address
• Allow others to speak for them when addressed directly
• Act as if they were instructed by someone else
• Be forced to work under certain conditions
• Be disciplined through punishment
• Be unable to negotiate working conditions
• Receive little or no payment
• Have no access to their earnings
• Work excessively long hours over long periods
• Not have any days off
• Live in poor or substandard accommodations
• Have no access to medical care
• Have limited or no social interaction
• Have limited contact with their families or with people outside of
their immediate environment
• Be unable to communicate freely with others
• Be under the perception that they are bonded by debt
• Be in a situation of dependence
• Come from a place known to be a source of human trafficking
• Have had the fees for their transport to the country of destination
paid for by facilitators, whom they must payback by working or
providing services in the destination
• Have acted on the basis of false promises
