In the West, we like to believe that the heyday of slavery is over. The reality is that, in many parts of the world, poorly-enforced international legislation has not reduced the allure for forced labour. According to the American Administration for Children and Families, human trafficking is the world’s fastest growing criminal enterprise and is tied for second spot with arms trading behind the drug trade. Whilst many people are transported across national borders by road, rail and ship, there are significant numbers being sold into slavery or sexual exploitation that board international flights, especially in the era of the low cost carrier. To what extent is it a problem for the aviation security community? Marcia Adair reports on some of the trends and issues surrounding human trafficking.


the term is almost impossible to define concretely. Cases involving children are fairly clear-cut because they are not able to consent. Classic examples are: children kidnapped from school and turned in to child soldiers; young, poor girls from rural parts of North Africa sent to work as maids for rich African families abroad in exchange for schooling that never quite materialises; parents selling or renting their children as beggars or mine workers. It offends our Western sensibilities to think of children as assets that can be traded or sold but large, desperately poor families are much more pragmatic about taking advantage of what little resources they have. Whether that is right or wrong is a question for another time. As wealthy Westerners living among people of a similar socio-economic station (generally speaking) we often say that money doesn’t buy happiness.


While


this may be true, what it does buy is the ability to choose – a commodity most of the world’s population will never be able to afford. Where trafficking gets murky is when adults are involved.


They are able to


consent to starting work or moving to another country and often times they do entirely within the confines of the law. The problem is what happens when they arrive at their new workplace. Men often find that they are crammed


into a room full of 20 others and forced to work 14 hour days without time off for months. If they rebel or look like they may leave, their employer will withhold payment. Not only does this curtail their plans to desert but it hurts the worker’s family back home that is depending on remittances to survive. Women often leave their village on the


promise of a job as a nanny, housekeeper or other domestic work only to discover


June 2010 Aviationsecurityinternational


For both men and women, passports and other identity documents are usually confiscated, making it almost impossible for victims to run away.


The 6 Main Types of Trafficking There is no limit to the trafficker’s imagination in terms of what improbable stories they devise to


trick the


unsuspecting. However they are recruited, trafficking victims usually end up in one of the following situations:


Forced Labour – This is the most common type of trafficking and has become even more prevalent as a result of mass global unemployment due to the recession. Previously employed men desperate for a way to feed their families often go abroad to work in construction and other labouring jobs. When they arrive they find a situation resembling Victorian factories before labour laws were introduced.


on arrival that they have been sold into prostitution. Women are beaten and raped into submission and then forced to have sex with upwards of 30 men a day. Trafficked women who actually make it to a household, are expected to work up to 20 hours a day for little to no pay and often required to include sex as part of their domestic duties.


“...we often say that money doesn’t buy happiness. While this may be true, what it does buy is the ability to choose...”


Long hours, low pay, poor food and accommodation, dangerous working conditions and no time off are all par for the forced labour course.


Organ Removal – WHO estimates that 10% of the 70,000 kidneys transplanted each year originate on the black market. As the Western population ages, viable


Suspicious Signs


According to Steve Chalke's "Stop the Traffik", the following are signs, specifically related to travel, that might indicate a child is being trafficked:-


� A child who is travelling alone � A child who does not seem to have many possessions but who has a mobile phone


� A child who is not travelling to meet his or her parent or guardian


� A child who is suspicious of adults � A child who is very afraid of being deported


� A child who shows signs of inappropriate or sexualised behaviour towards men


Other general signs include:-


� A person showing obvious signs of being abused, such as bruises, cuts or mutilation


� A person who seems fearful of adults (especially law enforcers) or whose behaviour is jumpy


Stop The Traffik can be contacted at their London-based international HQ via info@stopthetraffik.org


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