A Global Alliance Against Forced Labour - International Labour ...

A GLOBAL ALLIANCE AGAINST FORCED LABOUR5. Forced labour, migration and human trafficking217. It has been seen that approximately 2.5 millionmen, women and children are victims of traffickingat any point in time, and that at the very least onethirdof these are trafficked for economic purposesother than sexual exploitation. These findings clearlyindicate that responses to trafficking need to movebeyond the present focus on commercial sexual exploitationof women and girls towards a more holisticapproach that includes the broader labour dimensionsof human trafficking.218. While there appears to be increasing consensuson this point among the global anti-trafficking community,there is still insufficient knowledge of thesebroader dimensions of the problem. Because they havebeen given so little priority by policy-makers and lawenforcementagents to date, resources have not beenmade available to investigate the labour dimensions,and as an inevitable consequence there has been verylimited official data or analytical research.219. In very general terms, the incentives for humantrafficking between the poorer and the wealthier countriescan be depicted as follows. On the supply side,often as a dual consequence of declining employmentopportunities and rising consumer aspir ations, thereare growing incentives to migrate not only from rural tourban areas, but also from the less to the more affluentcountries. In the wealthier countries, there appears tobe a persistent demand for a labour force willing toaccept low-paid and insecure jobs, often of a seasonalnature. Nationals of the wealthier countries are understandablyreluctant to do the “3D” (difficult, dirty anddangerous) jobs. But as wealthier countries place moreand more barriers in the way of lawful and regularmigration, criminal elements sense the opportunity toreap large profits. Some intermediaries charge hugesums for moving aspiring migrants unlawfully acrossborders and others use a range of coercive and deceptivepractices to extract further profits in the place ofdestination. In short, human trafficking represents anopportunistic response to the tensions between theeconomic necessity of migrating, and the politicallymotivated restrictions on doing so.220. The above picture, however, oversimplifiesthe issues. The exact linkages between recruitmentagents, transporters and employers in the destinationcountries can be tenuous. In practice, the distinctionbetween human smuggling and traffickingcan be blurred. Indeed, many of those who end up insituations of forced labour have migrated of their ownvolition and become victims of forced labour on theirway to or at their destination.221. This chapter first discusses the linkages betweenforced labour, migration and human trafficking,drawing in large part on the findings of anILO research programme in both destination andorigin countries (box 2.3). 105 Although the initialemphasis has been on Europe, including the RussianFederation, and on central Asia, similar research isnow being undertaken in developing countries suchas Ghana, Indonesia, Nigeria and the Philippines. 106Second, it gives attention to those at particular risk oftrafficking for forced labour worldwide, including domesticworkers, entertainers and women forced intocommercial sexual exploitation. Third, it examinessome structural factors behind this growing scourgeof modern forced labour, including the economic sectorsinvolved and the methods of recruitment. It alsopoints to the huge profits of over US$30 billion nowbeing realized annually by present-day exploiters –usually unpunished – of these forced labour victims.222. The remaining sections then turn to supply-sidefactors. After reviewing some root causes of trafficking,including patterns of gender and other discrimination,the chapter ends by stressing the vital need forstronger linkages between law enforcement and victimprotection, and for better migration management asan essential aspect of the prevention of trafficking.Forced labour outcomes of migrationand trafficking in destination countries223. The overall findings of the research describedin box 2.3 can be summarized as follows. First, withthe exception of coerced sex workers or membersof certain ethnic enclaves in sweatshop production,forced labour situations are not usually the result ofoutright physical constraint. The research has documentedmore subtle patterns of coercion used to pushdown wages and make people work in poor or unsafeworking conditions. Second, although it may beuseful to subsume forced labour under the umbrellaof anti-trafficking legislation and policies, the realityis more complicated. Migrants frequently enter destinationcountries of their own volition, perhaps withthe assistance of friends and family members who arealready there. They can still be highly vulnerable toforced labour exploitation, in particular when theyhave an irregular status and live under persistent105. This project resulted from two separate requests. First, during its Presidency of the OSCE in 2003, the Netherlands provided fi nancial supportto the ILO to stimulate innovative research, both thematic and country-specific. Second, the Government of Germany asked the ILOto clarify the links between forced labour and human trafficking for the purpose of reforming its criminal law – something which can onlybe done on the basis of fi rm empiric analysis.106. A number of studies to understand child trafficking for sexual and labour exploitation have been undertaken by IPEC, but they are notthe focus of this Report. For more information on IPEC activities see ILO: Unbearable to the human heart: Child traffi cking and action toeliminate it (Geneva, 2002).46