‘People who used to move drugs around now move people around.’

Phil Taylor, Scotland and Northern Ireland Regional Director,UK Border Agency
speaking at the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission Conference,
Belfast, 20 April 2009

More women were trafficked in the 1980s from Asia than during the whole 400 years of slavery, from Africa.

Point made at the National Women’s Council Trafficking Seminar,
Dublin, 3 April 2009

‘Trafficking involves transporting people away from the communities in which they live and forcing them to work against their will using violence, deception, or coercion. When children are trafficked, no violence, deception or coercion needs to be involved: simply transporting them into exploitative conditions constitutes trafficking. People are trafficked both between countries and within the borders of a state.’

Definition by Anti-Slavery
Read in full

‘Smuggling’ or ‘trafficking’ both usually involve crossing international borders in an unauthorised way. The difference is that people who are smuggled are assumed to have given their consent, and people who are trafficked are moved against their will. Those who are controlled by others in their own country are also trafficked people. 

Families and individuals may have to move because of poverty or fear, and for some travelling with legal documents is just not an option. Others may travel legally, thinking that they are going to proper jobs in a new country, only to find they are in the power of gangsters, or have been deceived about the work or remuneration. Often, in either trafficking or smuggling, people end up with a large financial debts, owed to the people who smuggled or trafficked them. There can also be subtle ways in which they are ’bound’ to the people or gangs back home, who arranged their transport and employment. To assert one’s rights would seem to be breaking a debt of honour, and family at home may be at physical risk.

Stricter border controls and entry requirements create an underground economy where money is made in providing fraudulent documents, help with transport, guided border crossings, and the facilitation of jobs and accommodation.

The difficulty in getting successful prosecutions has led to suspected traffickers being charged with other offences such as failure to pay tax or living off immoral earnings.

It is often assumed that people trafficking only refers to the movement of women for sexual exploitation but the economic exploitation of people is also common - a modern form of slavery, which is rarely prosecuted. The arrival of unaccompanied minors is another increasing cause for concern. Children may end up in domestic or sexual servitude, or be used to facilitate benefit fraud.

For a discussion of the definitions, read the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime paper, Distinguishing between Human trafficking and People Smuggling [pdf]
 

Rev Becky Dudley who has undertaken research locally, says:

‘Hard data is difficult to find, but professionals and community workers have encountered a cause for concern in four areas: exploited labour; women and girls who are exploited, including in the sex industry; unaccompanied minors arriving in Northern Ireland; and young people (born in Northern Ireland) who are being systematically sexually exploited.’
From research published in 2005 on behalf of Women’s Aid which can be read here [pdf].

For more on the situation locally please view the further information document here [pdf].