If we call everything 'trafficking' whose purpose does it serve? GAATW-IS comment

Written on 12 June 2015.

‘Trafficking’, ‘slavery’ and ‘clamping down on traffickers and smugglers’. These were the words and phrases used widely and interchangeably in recent media coverage of the people adrift on sea in Europe and Asia. As people struggled to survive in their rickety boats and fought over the water bottles and food packets airdropped to them, most of us watched helplessly and hoped that somehow a solution would be found. 

While civil society made statements and reminded the states of their human rights and humanitarian obligations, most policymakers responded by wanting to punish the traffickers and smugglers who they insisted are at the root of these tragedies. Headlines and statements said things like: 'It is just trafficking,' 'it is the failure of trafficking prevention programmes', 'we need to crack down on the smugglers and traffickers'.

Agreed, most of the people on those precarious boats had sought help from or were lured by unscrupulous third parties. Many of those agents could be smugglers or traffickers. We can only know the facts if and when each case is investigated in detail. The evidence from detention camps in Southern Thailand and the few interviews with survivors clearly show that criminal gangs were involved in transporting people with false promises and torturing them to extract more money.

So it is not the assumptions or analyses, but the response to the situation and the self-serving use of the anti-trafficking discourse that are worrying. If the people are indeed victims of trafficking, is it not the duty of all states to protect their rights?  What comes first, deploying military to clamp down on the ‘criminals’ or providing assistance to the stranded people?

Sadly, when it comes to fulfilling their obligations to trafficked persons, states are quickly changing their tune and describing the people on the boats as ‘refugees’, ‘asylum seekers’ and ‘economic migrants’. As far as the Rohingyas are concerned, they do not even have a state identity to fall back on. 

Despite numerous ‘anti-trafficking’ initiatives around the world, confusion abounds over the identification of trafficked persons and protection is still very weak even for those who are identified as trafficked. As a matter of fact, various protection frameworks created to uphold the rights of specific groups of people such as ‘refugees’, ‘asylum seekers’ and ‘trafficked persons’, seem to be inadequate to meet the needs of people on the move. A large number of people in many parts of the world are experiencing multiple discriminations and human rights violations. Many work places fail to protect the rights of the workers. Often categories and frameworks created to protect the rights of people get co-opted by states to advance completely different agendas.

This is where GAATW’s concern lies. With this huge focus on traffickers and smugglers, very few are asking why so many people are risking their lives and leaving their ‘home lands’. It only shows the shallowness of our analysis if we indeed believe that the ‘criminal trafficking gangs’ are the cause of these tragedies. Governments are clearly not doing enough to examine and address the contexts which spur people to migrate, or the impossible situations they face. 

This is a critical moment for those who believe that people should be able to move freely and seek livelihoods wherever they want to and that their rights should be protected regardless of their legal status. This is a moment for social activists working on different but interconnected issues to join hands with each other and push for fundamental social changes. Quite simply, this is the moment when we need to remind ourselves that we are all human beings.

In his compelling speech at the Carnegie Council earlier this month the High Commissioner for Human Rights made a point that many of us have always believed in: ‘Our planet is indivisible. There is no longer such a thing as a small, faraway country. No such thing as an acceptable level of discrimination, against any group. ... We must build respect, and acceptance, and not just tolerance into our societies – tirelessly, beginning again and again, repairing constantly the rule of law and the bonds of empathy.’

Read more about this issue…

‘When spring comes, smugglers are in the news’, Inka Stock, OpenDemocracy

‘The danger of conflating migrant smuggling with human trafficking’, Natalia Paszkiewicz, Middle East Eye