People Trafficking and People Smuggling
When people are ‘smuggled’ or ‘trafficked’ it means that they cross international borders in an unauthorised way. Both involve breaking the law. 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.
There are many grey areas. People may be very willing to move because of appalling poverty or fear, and for some people travelling with legal documents is just not an option. Others may think they are going to have proper jobs in a new country, only to find they are in the power of gangsters, or have been misled about the work or remuneration. Often, in either trafficking or smuggling, people end up with a large financial debt, owed to the person who smuggled or trafficked them. There can also be subtle ways in which somebody is ‘bound’ to, for example, someone from their own country who has arranged for transport and employment, and to assert one’s rights would seem to be breaking a debt of honour. Stricter border controls and entry requirements create an underground economy where money is made in providing fraudulent papers, help with transport, guided border crossings, and the facilitation of jobs and accomodation.
Often, it is assumed that people trafficking only refers to the movement of people for sexual exploitation but the economic exploitation of people is also common - a modern form of slavery. This is a dark area. It is difficult to establish facts, so rumour thrives. We need to beware of hysteria but at the same time be aware that there are people who have come here by travelling in terrible conditions, or are trapped here by criminals and do not know how to improve their situation. The arrival of unaccompanied minors is also often a cause for concern.
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 about trafficking 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.’
Her research, on behalf of Women’s Aid, can be read here Women’s Aid [pdf]
For a discussion of the definitions, read the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime paper, Distinguishing between Human trafficking and People Smuggling [pdf]
People smugglers make profits by helping people enter countries without the proper authority, for example by organising transport and false documentation. There are, however, many people such as Oscar Schindler, who help refugees flee persecution not for profit, but out of compassion, and they are often confused with people smugglers. National Council for Churches in Australia
The situation in Europe
Governments and non-governmental organisations have become increasingly worried about the illegal movement of people. EU enlargement, world poverty, war, cheap travel, a fluid labour market and criminal gangs, all combine to make people smuggling and trafficking more likely.
Some examples:
2004 figures show that 32 out of 33 London Boroughs were concerned over trafficked children. (Amnesty International UK, 14/10/04)
A rising influx of eastern European women are trafficked to London for sex work: They face rape, beatings, threats of slavery, and are forced to have sex with up to 40 men a day for little income. (Guardian, 11/02/05)
Police have found that hundreds of Turkish boys have been brought to the UK to work in restaurants over the past few years. (UNICEF, Child Labour Today, 2/05)
The government of Malta has been accused of turning a blind eye when issuing visas to likely victims of trafficking. Trafficking agents in China market Malta as an easy gateway into the European Union. (Malta today, 4 and 10 April 2005)
The Italian government has claimed that armed Maltese traffickers force Chinese passengers to jump to shore to avoid Italian surveillance. If they refuse, they are beaten, sometimes to death. (Malta Today, 4 and 10 April 2005)
Source: Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative Newsletter Vol 13 No 1 Spring 2006 http://www.humanrightsinitiative.org/
Response by Christians in Britain
A consultation day to alert Christians to trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation was organised by CHASTE (churches alert to sex trafficking) in order to encourage Christians to become more aware and involved with the issue. The government has just concluded consultation on a draft action plan to tackle trafficking and presently operate the Poppy scheme, providing safe housing for 25 women. This provision is for the whole of the UK but it does not cover the need. Issues raised by the action plan include the following: are the government right in not providing automatic asylum status to victims of trafficking? Should the government give an automatic period of time for people to reflect on their situation?
Little is known about the full extent of trafficking for sexual exploitation within the UK, primarily because of its secretive and highly dangerous nature. The consultation day hoped to encourage further research in order to respond more effectively.
Useful Organisations:
CHASTE
PO Box 983, Cambridge, CB3 8WY tel: 0845 456 9335 www.chaste.org.uk
National Christian Alliance on Prostitution:
NCAP PO Box 37077, London, E15 4XR, tel: 08450044231, www.ncapuk.org
The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army has an anti-trafficking resource pack with a DVD of a short movie, 1 sermon outline, 2 posters and other information costing £5. They can be obtained from:
The Salvation Army Anti-Trafficking Campaign, International Development, 101 Newington Causeway, London SE1 6BN, UK www.salvationarmy.org.uk/internationaldevelopment
CROP
This is a voluntary organisation, which was founded in 1996 by Irene Ivison whose 17 year old daughter Fiona was murdered in 1993 3 weeks after being coerced into working in street prostitution. (See Fiona’s Story Virago Press.) Address: 34 York Rd, Leeds, LS9 8TA, www.crop1.org.uk
Ireland
The Conference of the Religious in Ireland in the north, CORI(NI), co-hosted a seminar with the Law Centre, Belfast, in December 2005, ‘The Face of Human Trafficking: A Haunting Cry in Our Time’. Dr Helene Hayes, whose international research led to the book, The Voices of Trafficked Women, led the seminar which had as a focus the aspiration that the international trade can be countered by international networks of people who explore and find ways to oppose it.
The seminar highlighted the deeply traumatising effect on women:
the deep sense of loss; self blame and low self worth; sense of denial; loss of identity; the loss of trust in other people; isolation, without family and friends; the fear of violence, sexually transmitted disease, especially HIV and AIDS. Rehabilitation can take years and involves the giving of unconditional love, rebuilding identity and the capacity to love and trust, and creating new dreams for the future.
An ad hoc CORI anti-trafficking working group has issued a leaflet, Trafficking of People;Modern Day Slavery,to provide information for Catholic religious on the issue of trafficking.
The official view of the local situation
It is very difficult to make absolute statements about what is happening here. On the one hand, in a written answer to a question from David Simpson MP, Tony McNulty Minister of State (Immigration, Citizenship and Nationality) at the Home Office wrote 24 January 2006:
(a) It is not possible to state with accuracy the number of people smuggled illegally into Northern Ireland over each of the last five years. The nature of facilitation is such that many of those who have been facilitated may state if encountered that they entered by themselves on a false passport or stowed away without assistance, or similar response. In the absence of any evidence to the contrary it is often not possible to disprove the subject’s claimed method of entry.
(b) The Police Service of Northern Ireland has conducted a number of inquiries into suggestions of people-trafficking to Northern Ireland for the purposes of prostitution. There is presently no evidence to suggest that this is taking place in Northern Ireland. The Police Service of Northern Ireland is acutely aware of the problems experienced in other jurisdictions and they continue to monitor the situation closely.
However Paul Goggins, NI Security minister is reported as saying that women are working as sex slaves here, with police seemingly powerless to act because the women claim they are doing it on a voluntary basis. ‘Many are not ready to say straight away that they are victims of trafficking.’ He said that a new immigration unit and enforcement team to be operational in Northern Ireland later in the year was specifically to tackle the problem of people smuggling. ‘Human trafficking – is certainly not at the level it is elsewhere in the UK, but it certainly is a more pressing issue than it was’. Daily Mirror, 8 June 2006.
There have already been indications that the police are not complacent about the issue. In a talk at Queen’s University on 28 January 2006, a PSNI detective inspector spoke of the lucrative brothel business in Northern Ireland. She is reported as indicating that:
‘The horrible phenomenon of women packed into vans and lorries and imported to the UK to work as prostitutes has so far not been seen in Northern Ireland. Her prediction is that human trafficking of this kind, where women are held under duress, will arrive as trafficking routes extend to include Belfast airports.’
Full Report [pdf]
People smuggling and exploitation in the agricultural sector
As long ago as 2002 a BBC Northern Ireland Spotlight programme exposed the fact that hundreds of eastern European workers had paid money in order to be smuggled into Ireland, to work on farms here on the promise of high wages. In reality they were passed on to farmers who just wanted cheap labour. On one farm, Lithuanian journalists posing for Spotlight as immigrants were paid about £1.20 an hour - a quarter of the UK minimum wage.
news.bbc.co.uk
Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings
The link between international sporting events and exploitation:
‘Give red lights red card’
The Northern Ireland Region of Soroptimist International, an organisation dedicated to the improvement of the status of women writes:
We have become concerned about information coming from the United Nations, European Union and Germany that the football World Cup, being held, this year is to be the focus for the trafficking of an estimated 40,000 women into Germany to service the prostitute trade.
Resolutions concerning this have been debated in the UN and EU. Indeed on March 8, International Women’s Day, a seminar was held in the European Parliament by FEMM, The Women’s Rights Committee, on ‘Forced Prostitution in the Framework of World Sports Events’.
Northern Ireland Soroptimists are writing to acquaint Irish men who will be going to the competition, of the situation. It is only by highlighting this issue, and by men standing against it, that this dreadful practice can be stopped.
All decent people, both men and women, cannot but be appalled at the sexual exploitation of these women, many of whom are very young. By raising our voices against it we can ensure that the traffickers are brought to justice and these women restored to their families.
FEMM’s slogan for this campaign is ‘Show the Red Card to Forced Prostitution’. The IFA used this idea very successfully against sectarianism in football in N Ireland. Please support the use of the Red Card again against this vile trade.
RITA ALLEN NI Regional President Soroptimist International, 17 April 2006
© 2006 Independent News and Media (NI) a division of Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd
belfasttelegraph.co.uk