Human trafficking: definition

Transcription

1 Human trafficking: definition Trafficking in persons shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use by force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving and receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs; a) The consent of a victim of trafficking in persons to the intended exploitation set forth in subparagraph a) of this article shall be irrelevant where any of the means set forth in subparagraph a) have been used; b) The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation shall be considered trafficking in persons even if this does not involve any of the means set forth in subparagraph a) of this article; c) Child shall mean any person under eighteen years of age. Based on the above definition of the UN Protocol, the National Plan of Action on the Elimination of Trafficking in Women and Children, formulated by Presidential Decree No: 88 Year 2002, defines trafficking as trafficking in persons encompassing all forms of action undertaken by perpetrators of trafficking that have one or more elements of recruiting, transporting between regions and countries, transferring, sending, receiving and temporary placement or placement at their destination of people by using threats, verbal and physical abuse, abduction, fraud, deception, misuse of vulnerability (e.g. if someone has no alternative, is isolated, is addicted to drugs, trapped in debt), giving or receiving payments or profits in cases in which a person is used for prostitution and sexual exploitation (including paedophilia), legal or illegal migrant workers, child adoptions, fishing platform work, mail order brides, domestic helpers, begging, pornography, drug dealing, selling of body organs as well as other forms of exploitation. In 20 March 2007, the government of Indonesia together with its parliament passed Law no 21/ 2007 on UU PTPPO / Pemberantasan Tindak Pidana Perdagangan Orang ( Elimination on Crimes of Human Trafficking ). This law provides a mandate to local government to make policies to prevent trafficking and to handle trafficking ( Article 57, verse 2, Law 21/2007 ). It is important to provide a clear definition of trafficking lest it be confused with regular migration and people smuggling. Once there is coercion, force or exploitation, migration turns into trafficking. The following description from an ILO publication will contrast the nuances of people smuggling and trafficking: In practice, it is not always easy to differentiate between people smuggling and trafficking, because voluntary agreement may be a result of deception, or may involve an individual or family entering into debt to pay for the travel, debt that puts them at the mercy of the lender. It may result in physical confinement when the

2 human cargo is locked into a vehicle or into a sending or reception centre. It may result in forced labour, where compliance is assured because documents have been confiscated, or by threats of disclosure to the authorities. In these cases, the voluntary agreement has become a ticket to trafficking. international bodies have addressed trafficking and counter-trafficking measures in a variety of declarations, resolutions and other instruments, such as 1 : Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Declaration on the Rights of the Child, Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action of the World Conference on Human Rights, Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Devel- opment, Cairo, World Summit for Social Development, Copenhagen, Beijing Declaration and Platform for Actions of the Fourth World Conference on Women, ECE Regional Preparatory Meeting on the 2000 Review of Implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, United National General Assembly has, since 1993, adopted a series of resolutions on the Trafficking in Women and Girls and on the Need to Adopt Efficient International Measures for the Prevention, Eradication of the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography and on Measures for the Prevention of Smuggling of Aliens. The Economic and Social Council has adopted a series of resolutions, such as the Resolution on Measures to Prevent Illicit International Trafficking in Children and to Establish Penalties Appropriate to Such Offences (1996), the Resolution on Action against Illegal Trafficking in Migrants, Including by Sea (1998), the Resolution on Action to Combat International Trafficking in Women and Children (1998), and the Resolution on Human Rights of Migrants (1999). Commission of Human Rights, since 1996 has adopted several resolutions on Traffic in Women and Girls, on Contemporary Forms of Slavery and on the Rights of the Child, whereby governments, intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations, and other bodies are called upon to continue and develop new measures to combat trafficking in women and children. From the office of the Secretary General and the office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights several reports on Traffic in Women and Girls. The Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, as well as the Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery have all reported about trafficking. 1 Combatting Trafficking in Southeast Asia: A Review of Policy and Programme Responses, a paper prepared by Annuske Derks for IOM, 2000.

3 INTERPOL adopted in 1996 a resolution on Traffic in Human Beings and the International Exploitation of Prostitution. This resolutions recommends a multidisciplinary, cooperative approach regarding sharing of information and other activities aimed to combat trafficking, exploitation of prostitution and illegal marriages. Ten ASEAN countries committed to the ASEAN Declaration against Trafficking in Persons Particularly Women and Children on 29 November 2004 in Vientiane, Lao People s Democratic Republic.` INDONESIA AS A COUNTRY OF DESTINATION Apart from being a country of origin, there have been newspaper reports that Indonesia is now regarded as a transit and country of destination of human trafficking, especially of foreign women who enter Indonesia as [commercial] sex workers. The ICMC and ACILS publication Trafficking of Women and Children in Indonesia, quoted several media articles which reported that in October 2002, 60 Chinese citizens, mostly sex workers, were deported from Indonesia for misusing their visas. Around the same time, five Uzbekistan women were also arrested for prostitution. The Jakarta Post also reported that the police were investigating the existence of an international crime syndicate which lures foreign sex workers from the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Venezuela, Taiwan, Spain, and the Ukraine into Indonesia. In Batam, there are also reports of 150 foreign sex workers from Thailand, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, and several European countries working in Batam. Jakarta is a haven for pimps who work prostitutes, both domestic and foreign. On 6 November 2004, Indonesian television stations covered the raid on Hotel Golden in Sunter, North Jakarta, where a group of sex workers from Guangzhou, China were arrested and deported. These Chinese women also worked as dancers, singers, and bar waitresses. In a Hayam Wuruk restaurant, the employer proudly lines up several blonde women from Uzkbekistan. These women are said to have been tricked since they claimed to wanting to find work in Indonesia. Officials from the Immigration Direktorat record that most foreign sex workers come from China and Uzbekistan. In January 2004, 15 sex workers from China, in February 9 from China and 3 from Uzbekistan. In March 2004, 17 Uzbekistan sex workers were arrested 2. An official claimed that the trafficking ring of foreign sex workers in Batam is closely protected by the Special Forces of the military. Many of them from Uzbekistan, are brought to Batam via Jakarta. They also work as striptease artists in hotels and luxurious homes in Batam. The short-time fee is Rp 2.5 million (US$295) and the allnight charge is Rp 3.5 million (US$410) 3. The modus operandi used by traffickers based on the experience of the Centre for Women Migrant Workers Protection in Batam are as follows : Victims are confined in shelters and not given the opportunity to contact families or friends. Victims are misled by calo on the type of the available work, the amount of salary, and salary reduction. 2 Tempo daily newspaper, 1 April Interview with an official in Batam in October 2004, ILO study.

4 Calo or recruitment agencies falsify victim s identity such as changes in names, address, or age. Calo or recruitment agencies or employers withhold the victim s identification papers such as ID card, passport, or work visa. Women migrant workers are forced to work constantly to pay off their debts. Children below 18 are often recruited due to their susceptibility and the increasing demand for child workers. Baby Trafficking There have been cases of pregnant women looking for work who have been brought into East Malaysia, but instead of getting work are enticed to sell their babies to Malaysian couples 4. Calo specifically are on the look out for pregnant women, especially those without marriage ties. These women are lured into Kuching and stay in a secluded house until they give birth. The babies are sold to Malaysian couples looking to adopt children 5. Dita is a 45 year old mid wife who lives in Dumai, Riau. For 20 years she is wellknown as a midwife who often helped women, particularly the poor, in giving birth. Besides helping in delivering babies, Dita is also known as a baby trafficker. She carries out this practice in cases when the family of the women was incapable to pay for the cost of the delivery and/or taking care of the child. Usually the parents of the baby would ask Dita to find someone who would care for the baby. If there was such a request, Dita would find someone, who was willing to pay to obtain the baby. Soon, people would come to her house to specifically ask whether she could find unwanted babies for them to buy. Dita would always know whether there were any babies avalaible. A source from the neighbourhood had said that apart from poor women, many of these babies were from unwanted pregnancies from the brothels in Dumai. News of her baby-selling service has even reached neighbouring Malaysia. Dita set the tariff of RM 1,500 or Rp 3,500,000 (US$411) for each baby. The cost included the cost of the delivery and the issuance of fake birth certificates which state the names of the buying couple as the natural birth parents of the baby. In order to escape the notice of immigration authorities, she has advised foreigners, especially women, to come into Indonesia, a couple of weeks before leaving with the baby under the assumption that the woman would have given birth in Indonesia. (Case Study 1) In Batam, the modus operandi is quite sophisticated. No one in the chain of baby trafficking knows each other. The person looking for babies, the person bringing the baby, the person carrying tha baby in the tongkang to Malaysia, they are all conditioned to not know each other. There have been cases where even the Malaysian police can be bribed to bring them to shore. Also, reports of babies being sold not only to Malaysia, all the way to Taiwan and Hong Kong 6. Similar reports come from East Kalimantan, where babies are sold to Malaysia, China, Japan, and Australia. These babies are either bought for Rp 500,000 (US$60) or kidnapped. The younger the baby the better, traffickers fetching a commission fee as high as between RM 2,000 to RM 4,000 (US$526 to US$1,052) from their counterparts in Malaysia 7. 4 Interview with Hairiah, Director of YLBH-PIK in Pontianak, West Kalimantan on 10 November Interview with Sri Astuti Ningsih, Special Service Unit, Regional Police, West Kalimantan 6 Interview with Surya Makmur Nasution, Kompas daily correspondent in Batam on 5 November Interview with Abbas, former environmental activist, Nunukan, 27 November 2004.

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