On September 30, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs held a hearing, “Out of the Shadows: The Global Fight Against Human Trafficking.”
Chair Howard Berman (D-CA) noted, “Next month marks the 10th anniversary of enactment of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act [P.L. 110-457], authored by my colleague [Rep.] Chris Smith [(R-NJ)]. That law provided protection and assistance for victims of trafficking, authorized public awareness prevention campaigns, and strengthened the prosecution and punishment of traffickers. We have reauthorized the Trafficking Victims Protection Act several times, and in the process made the act much more effective in protecting the most vulnerable and punishing the guilty. One hundred fifteen other nations now have laws on the books banning all forms of trafficking, and the number of victims identified and traffickers prosecuted have grown over the years. But trafficking remains a persistent problem and many challenges remain – both at home and abroad – as we look to the next decade of anti-trafficking efforts.”
Luis CdeBaca, ambassador-at-large for the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons at the Department of State, commented on the increased feminization of human trafficking, saying, “Since the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000 a decade ago, we have seen both appreciable progress and new trends. For instance, we have come to understand that men comprise a significant number of trafficking victims. Yet, we have also seen the feminization of modern slavery, with women making up a majority of those trapped in commercial sex as well as in forced labor situations. We have found women held in modern slavery through deceit and force, picking cotton, mining conflict minerals, harvesting rice, toiling as domestic workers, dancing in nightclubs, exploited for pornography, and offered for commercial sex. We have come to understand the unique vulnerabilities of those who work in the home, with many countries not offering adequate legal protection to domestic workers. This feminization of modern slavery has been aided by growing numbers of women migrating for work and the increasingly unscrupulous and coercive nature of recruiting. Such fraudulent recruitment practices affect both female and male workers. These practices include: work offers that misrepresent conditions, excessive recruitment fees, written contracts that workers cannot understand, and the switching of terms of employment after the original contract has been signed. In the so-called sex industry, recruiters do not merely make promises of a better life; they weave a tale of love and glamour that is quickly replaced by dependency and the abuse of what has been called ‘seasoning’ – a term that is itself as offensive as the practice it describes. Traffickers are also changing their methods of control: they are using more female recruiters, more subtle forms of exploitation, and greater psychological abuse. And these techniques demonstrate how interconnected sex and labor trafficking are, as more and more cases are being brought around the world involving the sexual abuse – both in prostitution and by their bosses – of women who migrated on domestic worker visas. These migrant women have been raped and threatened with harm by supervisors who control their work environment.”
David Abramowitz, director of policy and government relations for Humanity United, commented on the annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report issued by the State Department. He applauded the inclusion of the United States in the annual country rankings, but urged the committee to continue its oversight in several areas. Specifically, he noted, “Trafficking into sexual exploitation and into labor exploitation by force, fraud, or coercion are both heinous human rights abuses that cause tremendous human misery. While many groups focus more on one over the other, or more on activities in the United States versus abroad, we need to continue to ensure that we attach importance to all these phenomena.” Mr. Abramowitz continued, “There can be little doubt that the administration cares deeply about both trafficking into sexual exploitation and labor exploitation, but the most recent report continues a trend of increased focus on labor exploitation. In particular, the report would benefit from an analysis of the risk facing women who migrate for legitimate labor purposes that may well end up being exploited sexually as well. The 2010 report discusses this at various points, but given that on my recent trip to Nepal, activists suggested that the figure for such dual exploitation is as high as 90 percent of those who have migrated, this issue bears greater emphasis.”
Former Ambassador Mark Lagon, adjunct senior fellow on Human Rights at the Council on Foreign Relations and chair for International Relations and Security and visiting professor at Georgetown University, echoed Mr. Abramowitz’s point about distinguishing between sexual and labor exploitation, saying, “Some think sex trafficking has been overemphasized due to alleged moralism, but to focus solely on labor would be equally wrongheaded. As the TIP Office Director who established parity of emphasis for labor slavery, I hope the pendulum is not swinging toward focus on labor to the near exclusion of adult sex trafficking. On page eight of the 2010 Report the highlighted ‘box’ on ‘What Is Not Human Trafficking?’ emphasizing that prostitution is not trafficking is counterproductive. I do not think prostitution is one and the same as slavery. Few contemporary abolitionists do. But prostitution is the enabling environment for sex trafficking – whether in brothels, or seedy streets or, until recently, on craigslist in the United States. Sex trafficking and its basic enabling environment of men fueling demand for purchasing (chiefly) females globally ought not to lose attention.” He added, “One sees fissuring elsewhere. Some devoted to combating sex trafficking focus only on children. (I myself serve on the Advisory Committee of ECPAT-USA, the leading NGO fighting commercial sexual exploitation of children.) This is easier territory given global consensus that there is no meaningful consent by minors to be prostituted. But sex trafficking is not confined to minors. First of all, if lured into the sex trade as a minor, does it suddenly become a choice the day someone turns 18? Moreover, we know that numerous adult females in the global sex trade are subject to force, fraud, or coercion – including subtle psychological terror and trickery – making them trafficking victims even under the strict standards of the Palermo Protocol.”
“According to the U.S. Department of State’s 2009 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, 22,500 Nepalese women, girls, and children are trafficked annually for the purpose of sexual exploitation,” said Dr. Aruna Uprety, founder of Rural Health and Education Service (RHEST) and partner of the American Himalayan Foundation’s STOP Girl Trafficking Program. She continued, “The government of Nepal has comprehensive anti-trafficking legislation, but a weak judicial and regulatory system and inadequate resources leads to weak enforcement. For example, the Ministry of Women, Children, and Social Welfare, the government agency primarily responsible for dealing with trafficking, has formed anti-trafficking task forces at both the national and district levels. But the annual budget for the District Task Force is just $535. Trafficking of Nepalese girls and women has been part of Nepalese history for many years. Deep poverty, coupled with a cultural bias against women, makes rural Nepal a prime target for sex traffickers who lure young girls into the lucrative slave trade. The Nepali quote, ‘educating your daughters is like watering a flower in another man’s garden,’ sums up the cultural attitude towards girls. The best a girl can hope for is to be married off very young, and spend her life working in the fields. It makes the girls very vulnerable to traffickers who promise the parents that their daughters will have good jobs, marriage, and better lives. Domestic violence against women is high in Nepal. Even in well-educated families, women are seldom given full freedom to decide about their lives. The patriarchal society discriminates against women and they do the bulk of the domestic work: cleaning, cooking and tending the fields.” Dr. Uprety also discussed the Nepalese government’s response to trafficking. She said, “The Nepalese government has adopted various measures to combat trafficking of women and girls. [The] measures include [the]:
Neha Misra, senior specialist for Migration and Human Trafficking at the Solidarity Center, AFL-CIO, and Dr. Beryl Ann D’souza, medical director and anti-human trafficking director in India for the Dalit Freedom Network, also testified.
