World in denial about trafficking, says UN
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Independent Minds
Many of the world's governments are in denial about the extent and seriousness of human trafficking in which women are often significant offenders, according to a report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
The study is the first comprehensive look at the world's trade in humans, drawing on evidence from 155 countries. It warns that the failure to prosecute modern-day slave traders means that efforts to fight the practice are severely hampered. And it draws the conclusion that in many countries most traffickers are female.
"It's sick that we should even need to write a report about slavery in the 21st century," said UNODC's executive director, Antonio Maria Costa. The report found many countries, including China, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, failed to collect useful data on the problem.
Global conviction rates for human trafficking remain as low as 1.5 per 100,000 people. While a fifth of countries, many of them African, have no such offence on their books, the problems extend to many countries which have legislation in place: nearly 40 per cent of the countries examined have failed to record a single conviction.
"The problem is enforcement," said Tomoya Obokata, an expert in human trafficking, at Queens University Belfast. "Law enforcement officers just don't know the legislation, and they can't identify what trafficking is."
In eastern Europe and central Asia, women account for 60 per cent of the traffickers, many of them former slaves themselves, the report said.
The British Government has seen 79 of the 217 prosecutions brought against traffickers between 2004 and 2007 result in a conviction. "We are doing fine in the global context," said Dr Obokata. "But the conviction rate is low when you think of the number of victims."
The report's publication is part of a wider UN effort to turn the spotlight on the issue. Yesterday the actress Mira Sorvino was named a goodwill ambassador to combat the problem.
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Comments
Many people who are "trafficked" choose to be, even compete to be taken across borders illegally, but lobby groups have got us using the term "trafficked women" as a substitute for sex-slaves. This will not help in data gathering, since, depending on your point of view, a "trafficked women" could be an illegal, but willing immigrant, or a sex-slave. No wonder things are so confused about this subject.
After the various anti-trafficking operations, in Germany, the U.K. and internationally across Europe, having failed to find more than a handful of "trafficked women"- only a fraction of of those claimed to exist, it is little wonder the whole idea of thousands of sex-slaves being bartered across borders is looked on with some scepticism, by many, except of course journalists, who love a "juicy" story they can weave any kind of illicit sex into.
Some lobby groups say women are afraid to tell the police that they are sex-slaves, but we also hear reports of social workers telling women that unless they claim to have been forced to cross the border, that they will be deported. There are lobby groups who claim any foreign sex-worker must be trafficked, a claim akin to saying foreign plumbers were strong-armed into crossing borders for the better pay they receive in another country. This is the same mind-set that denies women can freely choose to be a sex-worker, whether a lap-dancer, prostitute or any other variety.
"Trafficking" is another case where the data is confused by over-enthusiastic politicking. Firstly define what is meant by "trafficked women", then data can be collected more consistently.
Unfortunately we are seeing the rise of the "militant-liberal". a breed of those who will deny the evidence because it contradicts their "common-sense" view. Unbelievably, this is an actual argument made by Lord Hunt on behalf of the U.K. government, in a recent Lords debate. The government won that debate... Independent assessment of the anti-prostitution laws in Sweden shows clearly that the most vulnerable women are hurt by it, but, damn the evidence, other governments are leaping onto the band-wagon, because their liberal guts tell them to. We are seeing more and more laws that interfere in private lives, crimes that have no victim are being created with little or no opposition in parliament, free speech is limited, not because what is said causes actual harm, but because it "offends" one group or another.
We are seeing governments attempting cultural engineering through the blunt instrument of the law. It is as if, by denying certain "distasteful" activities or ideas, through prohibition, society can be "civilised" and all made to be wine-sipping, book discussion group members. The left-wing Stepford plan for us all.
It would be of some comfort if opposition parties promised to review new laws and remove them if found ineffective, or that they intrude into private lives without a pressing need to do so. Unfortunately for us in the U.K., no party seems to have the will to oppose the march of the shrill lobbyists.