Where Does Trafficking Happen? In trafficking jargon (academic trafficking jargon at least), countries are classified as: origin, transit and/or destination. Origin countries are obviously those where trafficked persons come from and destination countries are where they arrive. Transit countries are intermediary countries where trafficked persons are temporarily held before heading to their destination. Reasons for using transit countries are usually to do with ease of crossing borders. For example, many people who are meant to be trafficked into the United States are brought to Canada first because that border is much easier to cross than flying straight into America. In Africa, Algeria is often used as a transit country.
People enter Algeria
illegally from Sub-Saharan Africa and then proceed on to mainland Europe with legal identity documents.
Origins, Destinations & Routes
Origin Countries: most of North, Central and West
Africa, China,
New Guinea, Malaysia, Burma, Cambodia, Russia, Latvia, Ukraine, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Albania, Bulgaria, Uzbekistan, Iran Iraq, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Argentina, Venezuela, Guatemala, Columbia and many others
Destination Countries: Thailand, Japan, Israel, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Yemen, Qatar, Burundi, the US, the UK, Australia and others
Sample Routes: • Eastern Europe and South East Asia: prostitution in the UK, America & Australia
• Moldova, The Stans: forced labour
in the UAE, Saudi Arabia etc.
• Iraq, Iran: prostitution in Syria (refugees and widows mainly)
40 Hambur g's Reeperbahn is a magnet for r many of whom might be victims of traf Register now for FREE instant access to ASI online by visiting
www.asi-mag.com ed light district punters and pr ficking. June 2010 Aviationsecurityinternational ostitutes,
Trends in Trafficking
The global economic collapse and the ever widening gap between the richest and poorest means that supply has far exceeded demand in the trafficking market. This is an extremely worrying development. People who are absolutely desperate for employment will suffer through the most abject and humiliating work conditions, which gives recruiters and the employers they work with even more of an advantage. The American Department of State estimated that 12.3 million people were forced into bonded labour or commercial sexual servitude in 2008/09. It sounds a lot but to put the figure into perspective, over 33 million people worldwide currently are infected with HIV/AIDs and approximately 350 million are expected to contract malaria each year. That’s a ratio of roughly 1:3:30. Despite the inequality in figures, anti-trafficking sentiment has become a touchstone issue for feminists and other women-positive NGOs. While there have been major strides
forward in recent years in terms of legislation and UN involvement, overall trafficking remains a low priority for most Western law enforcement agencies. The reasons for this are varied and complicated but the two most important are: most abuses take place on private property which is difficult to search without just cause and often victims do not identify themselves that way and refuse to take legal action against their employer. Current best practice is to take a victim-
centred approach to convicting traffickers and while this works sometimes, it often as not backfires completely. Many trafficked workers see the opportunity to reduce indebtedness and improve their lives economically as worth all the physical and emotional strain. Labour laws common in the West are completely foreign to most trafficked persons, so there is a huge paradigm shift required for them
“...12.3 million people were forced into bonded labour or commercial sexual servitude in 2008/09...”
to even embrace the idea that what they are experiencing is not normal.
And For Airport Security? The short answer is: nothing. Aside from detecting forged passports and doing the usual due diligence, there is not much else airport security personnel can do to stop human trafficking from happening. People so focused on getting ahead and starting a better life that they are willing to work a menial job in another country would rarely, if ever, resort to violence while on an airplane.
Even if you suspect a passenger may be taken advantage of, what someone intends to do or not do once they cross the destination border is the responsibility of local law enforcement. In some cases, like in Australia or The Netherlands, what a girl may be planning to do after arrival is actually legal - no crime has yet been commited. Working in a licensed brothel would be a violation of the tourist visa stipulations but this is almost never enforced. It is estimated that over 70% of the sex workers are foreigners. Unless someone tells you that their companion is forcing them to travel against their will, the best course of action for airport security personnel is to do what you always do.
The author is a freelance journalist.
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