People trafficking is the modern-day slave trade. People are being bought and sold and then exploited and abused, not just in Africa and Asia but in Europe and the UK too. Numbers are few and underestimated, but the International Labour Organisation reliably estimates that 12.3 million people are victims of forced labour worldwide, with 2.4 million of these as a result of human trafficking. 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year, perhaps into forced labour in Africa or prostitution in countries such as the UK.
The international community has only really begun to respond since the end of the Cold War and the embrace of globalisation. Following on from various ILO conventions, such as number 182 addressing worst forms of child labour, the UN in 2000 came up with the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, which for the first time adopted a victim-centred, human rights approach, in contrast to other criminal-centred, law and order approaches.
Attempts in Europe to implement the protocol were enshrined in a 2005 Council of Europe convention, which aims to prevent trafficking, while protecting victims and prosecuting traffickers.
Different countries have approached this convention in different ways. Whilst seven have signed and ratified before implementing, such as Moldova, Bulgaria, and Romania, others have signed it and are now implementing it before ratification.
As for the UK, this country took the latter approach. The then Home Secretary, John Reid, signed the convention in March 2007, deliberately co-timing it with the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act. This came after two years of delay because of ill-founded immigration and asylum fears. The Home Office minister Vernon Coaker justifies implementing the convention before ratification, stating that it’s no use ratifying it if you don’t have the measures in place on the ground. Yet it needs ten EU ratifications before coming into force.
The government have taken the initiative in other areas, such as conducting various police operations, such as Operation Pentameter in 2006 that identified 84 victims of human trafficking; setting up the UK Human Trafficking Centre (UKHTC) in Sheffield, which is recognised internationally; and supporting the Poppy Project, which provides supported housing for women trafficked into prostitution in the UK.
Yet there are also weaknesses here. Anti-trafficking police operations receive no additional funding, having to draw from existing resources; the UKHTC is run by the police, thus risking putting off trafficking victims who have had bad experiences of the police in their home countries; and between the Poppy Project and other faith-based organisations, there are only about 70 spaces provided for victims – in Nigeria there are over 700.
The four biggest challenges the world faces right now are poverty, climate change, AIDS, and human trafficking. The first three are in the public conscience and are being highlighted by such campaigns as Make Poverty History, Stop Climate Chaos, and the AIDS Alliance. Yet the fastest growing crime in the world and the second largest illegal trade in the world after the arms trade has not yet made that impact. It is time to stop the traffic.
You can get the UN to STOP THE TRAFFIK by simply joining our million-name petition, which will be presented to Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon in February 2008.
Sign it at http://www.stopthetraffik.org/help/declaration.aspx