Exploring Links between Trafficking and Migration - Global Alliance ...

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Exploring Links between Trafficking and MigrationAmong these, economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights are just asimportant as political and civil rights. ESC rights, such as the right towork or to a livelihood, are positive rights or rights to something, ratherthan negative rights or freedoms from a violation, meaning that originand destination governments are responsible for actively making suresome rights are given or met.Safe Migration 76Many NGOs and some governments promote what has come to be calledSafe Migration in efforts to link anti-trafficking and migration in a humanrights approach. Safe migration involves two elements:1. People are able to have a more equal power relationship withothers they meet along the way, so that they can negotiate goodterms with migration agents and employers;2. People have knowledge which may be required to protectthemselves from abuses in migration and work.Safe migration strategies are based on the recognition that migration isa growing feature in the global economy. With information about theirrights, or lack of rights, in transit and destination countries, people canmake informed choices, and they know who to turn to if in trouble.A human rights approach recognises that freedom of mobility is a rightin many national Constitutions, and is supported by the UniversalDeclaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil andPolitical Rights. With suitable protections in place by governments andNGOs, as well as with empowered and knowledgeable people on themove, migration may offer valuable and profitable options for peopleand destination countries.Unfortunately GAATW has observed that some safe migration programmeshave used “scaremongering” or sensational tactics to try to convincepeople not to move. This is often the case, for instance, when traffickingis discussed in sensational ways that inflate the risk out of proportion.When taken to the extreme, people can end up in a state of fear, ratherthan with any new knowledge or with any new abilities to negotiateterms of their migration. They also might leave with an idea that allmigration ends up in trafficking, or that all returning migrant womenhave been forced into prostitution.It must also be noted that safe migration approaches are limited. Theycan work towards and sometimes successfully create safe emigrationsystems in the country of origin, but it is much harder to ensure safeentry in the destination country. Safe migration approaches also cannotchange the exploitative living and working conditions people often findthemselves in once they enter the destination country.The below examples provide case studies of rights-based safe migrationprogrammes, which link trafficking and migration.26
Exploring Links between Trafficking and MigrationSmooth Flight: A Safe Migration Programme in LatviaSmooth Flight was a safe migration programme in Latvia that sought toreduce youth trafficking from Latvia and other Eastern European countriesby making migration safer. The programme was developed in 2004 bythe Project for Prevention of Adolescent Trafficking (PPAT) and supportedby the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). Itcomprised a curriculum guide and a short documentary film, SmoothFlight, and targeted young adults – men and women - aged 14-25.The programme was designed as a simple, practical tool for teachers,youth counsellors and others working with young adults to empowerthose considering work abroad with information on the realities, benefitsand risks of migration, clear guidelines for assessing situations and optionsfor seeking protection and redress. The rights of young people to live,work and travel freely represent the core of the programme model.Smooth Flight centred on the communication of ten basic, practicalprinciples:1. Verify the legitimacy of a job agency or opportunity;2. Obtain an employment contract;3. Ensure a third party has appraised and commented on the contract;4. Review, comment and sign the contract;5. Leave copies of the contract with relatives and/or friends;6. Leave copies of a passport with relatives and/or friends;7. Leave contact information with relatives and/or friends;8. Leave the employer’s contact information with relatives and/orfriends;9. Create a password/code language for letting others know “I’m introuble”; and10.Attend a career counselling session at a youth centre.Though the ten principles are not radical, PPAT research indicated thatmost young people did not regularly implement any of the steps listedabove. Despite the simple, practical basis of the strategy, however, SmoothFlight’s message was not one that has been widely adopted and distributedby other larger organisations. In presenting the example at GAATW’sGlobal Prevention Consultation, 77 Mike Dottridge suggested that thisreluctance was due to a concern that persons promoting these 10 principlesmight be held responsible should migrants following the advice still fallvictim to trafficking. He suggested that NGOs have a responsibility tofill the gap left by this unwillingness of larger organisations.Working for Improvement at Home and in Migration: Women’sRehabilitation Centre, Nepal 78WOREC understands the root causes of human trafficking to be complexbut sees trafficking as occurring in the process of migration, ratherthan as a separate phenomenon. WOREC seeks to prevent trafficking byequipping potential migrants with information on safe migration. WORECis actively advocating for the rights to mobility, employment, livelihoodand the right to be safe in the process of migration for all citizens,especially women and marginalised communities. The lessons learnedfrom WOREC’s experience over the last 18 years have made clear thattrafficking cannot be controlled without ensuring safe migration of everycitizen.27
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