Trafficking in human beings: human rights and ... - unesdoc - Unesco

Agency
The degree of victimization and exploitation of traffi cking victims may vary but
fundamentally they are all victimized and exploited – or there would be no case or talk
of traffi cking. This reality coexists with the fact that traffi cking victims have “agency”.
The idea that a person may be responsible for some of the decisions that resulted in their
fi nally being traffi cking may seem unattractive to some involved agents. The preferred
simplistic view is that the victim must be “blameless” in all regards. Traffi cking victims,
who have displayed some agency at a certain point (i.e. most), are most often treated
as “co-conspirators”. This distinction is unproductive since it denies the multiplicity of
factors that facilitate the operations of traffi cking networks worldwide. Notions that an
individual must be entirely “blameless” to be considered a victim of traffi cking may arise
in part as a result of confusion between “agency” and “choice”. 59 Many people who are
traffi cked are actively seeking a migration route, but they do not choose to be exploited.
Persuading, by various means, to gain the consent of an individual to accept work in
another country is important to ascertain the extent of coercion and that there is a possible
traffi cking agent involved in the fi rst instance. On the other hand, where the prospective
migrant worker did not need convincing or cajoling prior to departure, but human rights
or criminal violations are present on arrival in the receiving country, there may be doubts
as to the whether the person is traffi cked or not, here consent is an important factor. 60
In this context it is crucially important to mention, and to keep in mind, that traffi cked
victims are not voiceless and helpless receivers of aid and assistance. They are resourceful
and active human beings who have a will and often also – when given the possibility
– a plan for what they want to do and where they want to go. 61 Victims should not be
“infantilised” – by now not even children should be infantilised since their agency and
opinion should be given due weight according to the CRC – but respected.
MEANS USED BY TRAFFICKERS
Force and coercion
There is always a point in the traffi cking chain at which people are subjected to force or
coercion: when they are recruited, during transportation, upon entry or during work.
Both overt and subtle forms of coercion are used, such as the confi scation of papers,
non-payment of wages, induced indebtedness or threats to denounce irregular migrant
59 Cameron, S.: Traffi cking of women for prostitution, in in Cameron, S. and Newman, E. (Eds.):
Traffi cking in Human – social, cultural and political dimensions, p. 86.
60 Jureidini, R.: Traffi cking and Contract Migrant Workers in the Middle East”.
61 This is an aspect very often overlooked and when overlooked results in perplexity when women turn
from traffi cking victims to traffi ckers.
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