Organizations worldwide call for a stronger response to technology-based trafficking
World Day Against Trafficking in Persons discussions focus on the role of technology, the U.S. strengthens its key anti-trafficking law, and a new report explores life after liberation for former domestic workers in Ethiopia.
The Inter-Agency Coordination Group against Trafficking in Persons (ICAT) has called on state parties to counter the increasing use of technology to recruit, advertise and exploit victims of human trafficking, and to harness technology’s potential in countering this crime. The appeal was made to coincide with the 2022 World Day Against Trafficking in Persons (WDATIP) on Saturday, which focused on the role of technology as a tool that can both enable and impede human trafficking.
As outlined in the 2020 UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, internet technologies and digital platforms are increasingly used for the facilitation of trafficking in persons. Victims are recruited through social media, with traffickers taking advantage of publicly available personal information, and the anonymity of online spaces, to contact and manipulate victims. This development has transformed patterns of exploitation, with webcams and livestreams creating new channels for abuse, while the need for the transportation of victims is reduced or eliminated. In March, GRETA released a report which detailed the extent to which technology impacts THB, as well as an exploration of the traffickers’ modi operandi in the context of online and technology-facilitated trafficking.
In addition, during Saturday’s discussions, a group of United Nations and regional human rights experts raised serious concerns about the risks of trafficking for those displaced by conflict, including the increased risk of the trafficking of children. A statement on behalf of 12 OSCE states highlighted the ways in which Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine has led to the largest flow of refugees and displaced persons and the biggest humanitarian crisis in the OSCE region since the Second World War.
According to a Thomson Reuters analysis, there has been an alarming increase in online searches for Ukrainian women and girls since the conflict began. Global online search traffic for “Ukrainian escorts” increased by between 200 and 300 per cent from February to March; in some countries of transit and destination, online searches for “Ukrainian porn” increased by 600 per cent; and searches in Europe for terms such as “Ukrainian rape” went up by 300 per cent, from being virtually undetected before 24 February.
However, technology can also provide important opportunities to respond to the needs of victims and survivors, to enhance prosecutions and aid investigations, to raise awareness, and to lower the risks of trafficking. Last week, OSCE and Thomson Reuters launched a global campaign to warn Ukrainian people of the risks they face from traffickers and to share information and advice; the “Be Safe” campaign aims to mobilize the global anti-trafficking community, and several governments, agencies and NGOs have already pledged their support. In southeast Asia, ASEAN-ACT advises ASEAN Member States on good technology practices to combat human trafficking, and works with local partners to harness technology solutions for counter-trafficking efforts.
In his statement, the UN Secretary-General said that governments, regulators, businesses and civil society must join forces to invest in policies, laws and technology-based solutions that can identify and support victims, locate and punish perpetrators, and ensure a safe internet for all. Together, they must ensure that accountability for trafficking in persons – in particular in conflict situations – is strengthened, for instance through the effective application of international humanitarian, criminal and human rights laws.
Here’s a round-up of other noteworthy news and initiatives:
On June 27, the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2022 (H.R. 6552) was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill received overwhelming bipartisan backing and authorizes more than US$200 million per year for federal anti-trafficking programs and grants to civil society. H.R. 6552 joins three other bills to reauthorize and strengthen the Trafficking Victims Protection Act which are currently pending in the Senate.
To explore liberation as experienced by women and girls who were trafficked as domestic workers, the University of Nottingham’s Rights Lab and The Freedom Fund have released a new research report: Lived realities of sustained liberation for survivors of trafficking in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Survivors emphasised the need for immediate support to enable victims to exit situations of exploitation, as well as longer-term services to aid healing and the attainment of financial independence.
Human rights advocates have accused China of exploiting thousands of Congolese children to work in cobalt mines. Witnesses testified to the inhumane treatment and abuse of 40,000 children in Chinese-controlled mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, at a U.S. congressional hearing on July 14.
Antwerp’s Labour Prosecution office is carrying out an investigation into 55 potential cases of human trafficking on a construction site belonging to the chemical company Borealis, close to the port of Antwerp, local media has reported.
A new report by the University of Nottingham has identified the factors that put paid live-in migrant carers at greater risk of modern slavery. Following an 18-month study into the working conditions of workers in London, the researchers have recommended policy changes to immigration law to reduce vulnerability to labour exploitation, particularly for those with precarious immigration status.
A new study by Winrock International’s USAID Thailand Counter Trafficking in Persons Project (USAID Thailand CTIP) on Service Provision for Gender Minorities in Shelters for Human Trafficking Survivors aims to understand the existing policies and procedures for providing services in specialized TIP shelters, and give recommendations on how to better meet the needs of this group.
The lives of women and girls in Afghanistan are being devastated by the Taliban’s crackdown on their human rights, says Amnesty International in a new report. Since it took control in August 2021, the Taliban has violated women’s and girls’ rights to education, work and free movement; removed support for those fleeing domestic violence; detained women and girls for minor violations of discriminatory rules; and contributed to a surge in child, early and forced marriage.
The Global Fund for Children is currently hiring for a Program Specialist-Bangladesh, Program Specialist-Consultant Network Facilitator Guatemala, and a Thailand Partnerships Catalyst.
A new research project by the Global Learning Community (GLC), Azadi Kenya, UCI and EverFree aims to identify and map survivor-led organizations globally, with an emphasis on Global South inclusion and under-represented groups. Please consider filling in this survey if you are a representative of an anti-trafficking organization founded by a survivor, with a survivor as the current CEO or executive director, or consider the organization to be survivor led.
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