CSOs convene to bridge evidence gaps in Laos’s human trafficking landscape
New research highlights the emergence of online fraud centers in Laos, Human Rights Watch calls for urgent protection of the international rights system, and UNODC flags up the sophisticated banking architecture used by crime groups in East and Southeast Asia.
Freedom Collaborative, together with Winrock International’s USAID Laos CTIP and USAID Asia CTIP, recently supported civil society groups in Laos to gather data on human trafficking and enhance understanding of the country’s trafficking landscape. Despite the prevalence of internal migration and cross-border movements in and out of the country, comprehensive data on human trafficking and exploitation is limited; consequently, Laos has received less attention than its Southeast Asian neighbors on these critical matters, despite the efforts of local CSOs to protect and uphold the rights of vulnerable migrants, and advocate for improved legislation, policies, and procedures to ensure safe migration.
To address this issue, we partnered with CSOs to launch an ongoing data-gathering initiative which seeks to bring groups together, bridge the existing data gaps, and provide deeper insights into trafficking and exploitation patterns across Southeast Asia. During a collaborative workshop in Vientiane Capital, participants were able to input essential data on human trafficking and exploitation activities, creating a collective evidence base for the first time. The findings from this exercise have now been published in a report, Expanding the Migration Map: CSO Data from Laos, which aims to acknowledge and build upon the expertise of these groups.
The data insights obtained provide valuable information on various aspects of migration in Laos, including vulnerabilities and the recruitment of victims and migrants at risk. Notably, the report highlights the emerging trend of forced online scamming in the country’s Special Economic Zones, particularly in Bokeo province – this shift from primarily an origin country to a destination for trafficking activities underscores the evolving nature of Laos’s trafficking landscape. Collecting credible data will help promote coordinated action through effective documentation of the scale and dynamics of forced online scamming across the region, and could also help raise these issues’ prominence on the national and international agenda.
Participants also shared relevant data on locations, routes and contextual information from recent cases, and analyzed the dynamics of human trafficking and exploitation in relation to Laos as a country of both origin and destination. For instance, the report reveals that most victims are recruited by friends, at social events, or in their workplace. It is hoped that access to the resulting repository of data will allow CSOs to understand problems more clearly, design better interventions, and share their insights with others. Drawing on a larger pool of evidence should also strengthen the legitimacy of their claims when advocating for legislative and policy reform.
While the data collected may not provide a complete picture, it is a valuable tool for identifying potential trends and patterns, and enhances our ability to understand and respond to them. The expertise and information shared by non-governmental stakeholders is crucial for informing advocacy efforts and policymakers’ actions, and bringing this knowledge together ultimately strengthens collective efforts to combat human trafficking and improve safety for all individuals in Laos and the broader region.
Freedom Collaborative will continue expanding and refining data collection initiatives to capture a comprehensive regional overview of human trafficking patterns. By further engaging non-governmental stakeholders in this endeavor, the report’s findings will gain resonance, empowering advocacy efforts and influencing policies to combat trafficking and exploitation in the region. We hope the results can be shared with a wider audience and motivate them to also contribute, so the data has enhanced relevance for advocacy and can be a timely intervention for counter-trafficking in persons efforts.
Here’s a round-up of other noteworthy news and initiatives:
The 34th annual World Report by Human Rights Watch highlights the numerous human rights challenges of 2023 across more than 100 countries and territories. The report underscores threats to the international human rights system, citing issues such as wartime atrocities, government outrages, transactional diplomacy, economic inequality, and backlashes against the rights of women, girls, and LGBTQ+ people.
A new report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reveals the significant role that casinos, junkets, and cryptocurrency play in driving banking and money laundering underground in East and Southeast Asia. The study emphasizes the urgent need for enhanced law enforcement efforts to address organized crime in the region, focusing on online scams, fraud operations, money laundering, and allegations of official complicity, including trafficking for forced criminality.
The UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, Tomoya Obokata, has cautioned the UK government about potential breaches of international law in connection with reports of forced labour within the country’s seasonal worker scheme, introduced in 2019 to address labour shortages post-Brexit. Obokata expressed concerns over the government’s failure to investigate abuse reports, emphasizing the need for proper labour inspections and accountability to fulfill international human rights obligations, and highlighting vulnerabilities caused by the scheme’s reliance on private-sector recruiters.
Despite coffee multinationals making repeated pledges to tackle labour abuse in their supply chains, instances of modern slavery persist. This recent analysis by SOMO and Conectas uncovers the troubling reality, which is especially prevalent in the world’s top coffee-producing country, Brazil, where workers face forced labour, debt bondage, deplorable working conditions, and various forms of exploitation.
This Economist special report explores various aspects of philanthropy across eight articles. Topics include innovative approaches by the super-rich to expedite aid delivery, the rise of no-strings philanthropy and its empowering effect on charities, initiatives such as GiveDirectly which streamline donation processes, the professionalization of philanthropy in Asia, the influence of the “effective altruism” movement, and predictions for the future involving a mix of philanthropic approaches. (Subscription required)
On 23 January, join The Rights Lab and HEAL Trafficking for a research webinar exploring outcomes and instruments for survivor-informed services.
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