Glenda Simms, Contributor
THE TRAFFICKING of human beings in general, and women in particular, for commercial sexual exploitation is described by the Commonwealth Secretariat as "one of the fastest growing areas of international criminal activity" and one that must be of concern to the international community.
In places such as Bangladesh and Haiti abject poverty and hopelessness pre-dispose many children to expect nothing worthwhile out of life. For these children and their families, human traffickers, who offer the possibility of jobs, houses, clothing and food, are seen as 'angels'. Their ulterior motives, inhumane approaches and actions are not anticipated. Indeed 'poverty is a crime' and to the poor any avenue out of grinding poverty is seen as 'better than nothing'.
In the Commonwealth Secretariat's expert group report on Strategies for Combating Trafficking of Women and Girls, it was pointed out that in the face of globalisation, traffickers are employing a wide spectrum of methods to enslave persons in these modern times. Some kidnap their victims, others abduct them, some offer good prices to poor families for young girls and boys, while others promise good jobs in hotels, restaurants and night clubs. The more insidious of these characters, even pretend to be in love with their potential victims and it is not unusual for them to offer marriage to starry-eyed girls who have been socialised to wait for 'Mr. Right'. Unfortunately, 'Mr. Right' is sometimes "a sleazy criminal or a pimp who would sell his or her mother for any amount of money".
WORST FORM OF LABOUR
In its June 2003 The World of Work, the International Labour Organisation has described the trafficking in children as one of the "worst forms of child labour". The organisation has pointed out that over 1.2 million children worldwide, through coercion and deception, are being lured into economic and sexual exploitation.
The trafficking in children is not a new issue but it has taken on more serious overtones, and the world's children are becoming more and more at risk to adult predators. The most vulnerable of these are still the girls who are lured to sex work and domestic slavery.
The United States Agency for International Development has made the development of strategies to combat trafficking in human beings a priority, both at the national level and in line with the U.S. international agreements with a number of governments. In its February 2003 strategy the agency argued that "poverty, economic deterioration, conflict and population displacement conspire to make everyone, but especially women and children, very vulnerable to trafficking and related atrocities." In addition to these issues are the realities of the low status of women in most societies, and the high level of physical and sexual violence against women and girls.
In the Tuesday, September 9, edition of The Gleaner, it was reported that local narcotics detectives are probing what they say seems to be an "expanding drugs, arms and alien smuggling ring between Haiti and Jamaica." With the much discussed poverty-stricken conditions under which the majority of Haitians live, it would be surprising if they would not be a source of human cargo to carry out all kinds of criminal activity. Along the same line, there have been reports of women of Cuban, Eastern European and the Dominican Republic turning up in various CARICOM nations as dancers, prostitutes and other categories of 'good time girls'. Sometimes it takes a long time for these women to realise that they are merely 'trophies' in a cleverly crafted game of 'women as cheap commodity'.
ALARMING
At the local level, the Jamaican society is reminded on a regular basis, that there are patterns of both internal and external trafficking of human beings. Internally, girls are lured and enticed by 'small change' into brothels, go-go clubs, massage parlours and other places where they are expected to provide sexual favours and titillate the sexual fancies of all categories of men impotent, potent, rich, poor, gays, straight and sometimes just the 'ordinary joe'. Other young persons boys as well as girls are recruited to be drug couriers across international borders.
Others are offered the possibility of escaping poverty by false identification, which get them into England, the U.S. and Canada. Unfortunately, for many of these young people, there is no 'pot of gold at the end of the rainbow' Many of them end up in situations, which are akin to slavery of all sorts.
Human trafficking is therefore, a serious social problem in many countries of the world. Trafficking in humans is still clandestine and the true statistics in any country is largely hidden. In spite of this, the Commonwealth Secretariat has published figures, which are alarming. They estimate that "200,000 women from Bangladesh have been trafficked into Pakistan over the past 10 years". They also calculated that between 5,000 to 7,000 Nepalese women are trafficked into India annually even though Hong Kong remains the largest market for trafficked Nepalese women.
As Jamaicans, we ought to take a strong stance against the trafficking of human beings. After all, we shouldn't forget that the majority of our ancestors were bought, stolen, abducted and trafficked across the Middle Passage to enter forced labour, sexual exploitation, and the most degrading conditions of plantation slavery. Yes, formal slavery was abolished in our region in the mid-nineteenth century but there is another subtle and insidious form of slavery that is going on today and the women and children of Jamaica are very much at risk. We must do something about this now!
Dr. Glenda Simms is the executive director of the Bureau of Women's Affairs.
