An Introduction to Human Trafficking - United Nations Office on ...

AN INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN TRAFFICKING: VULNERABILITY, IMPACT AND ACTION
IV.—Prevention
Despite the saying that “prevention is better than a cure”, the lack of certainty about which
preventive techniques are effective appears <strong>to</strong> have discouraged donors from investing in
prevention. Where funds have been invested in prevention initiatives, there has been insufficient
evaluation of the techniques used <strong>to</strong> assess which are most appropriate in particular
circumstances. Furthermore, until better systems are developed <strong>to</strong> collate existing
information about where and how victims were trafficked, there is a limited basis on which
<strong>to</strong> locate and target prevention initiatives.
The fac<strong>to</strong>rs that contribute <strong>to</strong> trafficking or enable it <strong>to</strong> take place (all of which can be
tackled by prevention programmes) occur at different levels and in different places. In
addition <strong>to</strong> the immediate causes that put an individual in<strong>to</strong> the hands of a trafficker, a
variety of underlying and root causal fac<strong>to</strong>rs influence decisions taken by individuals that
lead <strong>to</strong> trafficking and contribute <strong>to</strong> a social and economic environment in which
trafficking and exploitation can flourish. They include, for example, an economic crisis in
the trafficked person’s home country, social exclusion, gender discrimination (both in
general and specifically in relation <strong>to</strong> births, as female infanticide in several countries has
resulted in an excess of men of marriageable age over women and precipitated patterns
of trafficking in women in<strong>to</strong> forced marriage) and a weak legal or social protection
system. The remedies for these require a broader set of actions than those designed
specifically <strong>to</strong> s<strong>to</strong>p trafficking. Relevant fac<strong>to</strong>rs exist simultaneously in the areas that
people are trafficked from and in the places <strong>to</strong> which they are trafficked and exploited.
“Poverty” has frequently been identified as a cause of trafficking. In practice, most
people in dire poverty are not trafficked, demonstrating that poverty is a context, but not
the specific cause. A study of the circumstances in which girls migrated and were
trafficked in<strong>to</strong> the commercial sex industry within one South-East Asian country
identified the social and cultural reasons why certain adolescents were recruited and not
others. The author urged that: 26
“Academics and policymakers must move beyond ‘poverty’ and ‘lack of education’
<strong>to</strong> recognize the subtleties of the challenges and frustrations confronting people living
in the less developed parts of our rapidly developing world.”
A.—Prevention in areas of origin
Prevention efforts in areas of origin have addressed a wide range of causal fac<strong>to</strong>rs, some
linked <strong>to</strong> the specific circumstances that precipitated individuals in<strong>to</strong> the control of
traffickers and some addressing shortcomings in protection systems. Prevention efforts
can take several forms. The bulk of these activities use information <strong>to</strong> alert people <strong>to</strong> the
risks entailed in leaving home or seeking work abroad (or <strong>to</strong> alert parents <strong>to</strong> the risks
their children run, if they are sent <strong>to</strong> work elsewhere). Alongside awareness-raising, a
26
L. Rende Taylor, “Dangerous trade-offs: the behavioral ecology of child labor and prostitution in rural northern
Thailand”, Current <strong>An</strong>thropology, vol. 46, No. 3 (June 2005).
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