COMPILING the value of human trafficking is inherently problematic because of many unknown facts and figures but the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently said that the scourge of human trafficking is a lucrative global industry worth some US$1.5 billion (RM6.16 billion) — and still going strong.
Human trafficking will thrive further because of its economic significance; however, the entire world needs to be united in cracking down on all the players in the trade’s supply chain, as it were, both at the source of supply and in the market where demand exists.
The US is the world’s biggest market for human trafficking in value terms, according to the FBI. Aside from the ill-gotten money that fills the pockets of the operators, the grief and pain inflicted on the victims, usually young females, need to be urgently addressed. The US government, according to the FBI, is taking action to curb the scourge and deter those responsible for proliferating the scourge.
Going into graphic details of the horrendous treatment meted out to victims of human trafficking, they usually carry lifelong the physical, mental and emotional scars of their cage-like confinement by their handlers.
An all-female FBI expert team recently highlighted the pecuniary motivation driving this nefarious human trade, not sparing even 10-year old girls who are forced into prostitution through physical and emotional pressure.
“It’s a US$1.5 billion industry worldwide … this is an estimated value of the entire world’s human trafficking. The FBI compiles these figures from various sources,” said Laura Riso, a senior FBI representative who works with victims of human trafficking, during a recent meeting at the State Department’s New York Foreign Press Centre.
According to Riso, human trafficking is the world’s third largest criminally-organised trade with various manifestations, including prostitution, sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, etc. FBI sources said that over 6,000 children were “recovered” — not just rescued, as Riso put it — since 2003, and some 2,500 convictions pronounced on the perpetrators.
Some 40 per cent of the child victims were connected with strangers online. Although the FBI grapples with several areas of crimes such as terrorism, cyber-crimes, crimes against children, and others, it is also focusing on human trafficking.
Trafficking is different from human smuggling. International law defines smuggling of persons as procuring “the illegal entry of a person” into a country “in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit”. In other words, smugglers help people cross borders undetected in exchange for payment.
Trafficking of humans, on the other hand, is defined as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons”, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, or abuse of power “for the purpose of exploitation” with exploitation referring, “at a minimum” to “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”.
Traffickers engage in moving people from one place to another without the latter’s informed consent, and exploit them along the way or at their final destination.
In short, the smuggled person consents to being moved from one place to another, while trafficking victims have either not agreed to be moved or, if they have, have been deceived into agreeing by false promises, only to face exploitation. While smuggling ends at the chosen destination where the smuggler and the smuggled person usually part ways, traffickers exploit their victim at the final destination and even beyond that point. Another difference Is that smuggling always involves crossing international borders, while trafficking occurs regardless of whether victims are taken to another country or moved within a country’s borders.
FBI records list some horrifying cases of torture and physical abuse inflicted on young girls with skulls broken, broken or missing teeth, and other physical distortions. Riso narrated the case of a young girl who was pregnant at age 10; others had been forced by their pimps — known as “Daddy” — to have sex with “Johns”, the customers, some 30 or more times a day. Indeed, the pimps use ugly tattoos on the bodies of the women to mark their “ownership” of the girls.
“Human trafficking is worse than drug dealing. While drugs are sold once, trafficking victims are sold over and over again,” Riso said, adding that the FBI cooperates with Interpol, and non-governmental organisations to track down the syndicates.
While the flesh trade in the US is, largely, catered to by South American and Mexican women, there is growing trafficking from Asia. China, according to the FBI, is the largest source of Asian women trafficked to the US. But, women from other Asian countries were also spotted, notably from Thailand, Myanmar and Indonesia. Waves of refugees such as Syrians, the Rohingya and others are potential constituencies for exploitation by traffickers.
FBI representatives are posted as “legal officers” in many US embassies abroad, including in China, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and other places around the world where they cooperate with the local authorities. Riso explained that these are safeguards aimed at curbing trafficking, considering that the US has become the number one destination country to bring someone for sexual exploitation.
Whether the FBI has an effective reach in countries considered the source of women trafficking can be debated, but the harsh truth is that we are not talking about commodities being traded — we are talking about human beings who are being sold as slaves in lucrative “markets” worldwide by greedy operators whose manipulative ways have caused irreparable physical, mental and emotional harm to the victims.
Slavery may have been officially banned, but it still exists and flourishes in various manifestations. The world can stop this scourge if it is united and determined to fight it.
The writer is a New York-based journalist with extensive writing experience on foreign affairs, diplomacy, global economics and international trade.