平和
和平
평화
ASIA
24 April 2016
Curious Rohingya kids

Human trafficking and smuggling in Asia

Asia has long been a global hub for human trafficking and smuggling, writes John West. The region must make serious efforts to tackle these heinous crimes.

Human trafficking and smuggling are perhaps the most heinous of all crimes. Motivated by greed, traffickers and smugglers exploit poor, vulnerable people. They are able to prosper where governments are weak or uncaring, and in societies where respect for human rights and dignity is shallow.

Tragically, virtually all countries are to various degrees sources, transit points and destinations for human trafficking and smuggling. And the efforts of governments and civil society to combat these vices varies greatly from country to country.

What is human trafficking?

Human trafficking can take many forms as traffickers move people without their informed consent and exploit them along the way or at their final destination. For example, a young Asian lady may sign a contract with a migration agency to work as a maid in Saudi Arabia, only to find that when she arrives at her destination that she is actually working in a massage parlour in Dubai, that she owes a large financial debt to the agency, and that the agency has confiscated her passport to entrap her.

The many forms of human trafficking include forced labor, debt bondage, involuntary domestic servitude, forced child labor, trafficking of children for armed conflict or petty crime or forced begging, trafficking for sex, forced marriage, and trafficking for organ removal. And some groups are particularly vulnerable to human trafficking like LGBT individuals, indigenous persons, refugees, women, and children. Trafficking can occur both within countries (notably in the case of India), and through labor migration especially to the Middle East, like the example above.

In more technical terms, the US State Department defines human trafficking as "the act of recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining a person for compelled labor or commercial sex acts through the use of force, fraud, or coercion". Human smuggling is different in that smugglers help people, with their consent, illegally cross borders for a payment, as we discuss later on.

Two-thirds of human trafficking victims come from Asia

Some 23.5 million of the world's 36 million victims of human trafficking (often referred to as “modern slavery”) come from Asia, according to the 2014 Global Slavery Index. India tops the global list with over 14 million victims of modern slavery.

The challenge of human trafficking in India is immense, with all forms of modern slavery present, especially inter-generational bonded labour, trafficking for sexual exploitation, and forced marriage. Some 90% of India’s human trafficking occurs within the country, with members of lower castes and tribes, religious minorities, and migrant workers being the most vulnerable. Forced labor is India’s most prevalent form of trafficking, especially in industries like brick kilns, carpet weaving, embroidery and textiles, forced prostitution, agriculture, domestic servitude, mining, and organised begging rings.

The next most important Asian locations for human trafficking are China with over 3 million and Pakistan with over 2 million. Indonesia (714,100), Bangladesh (680,900) and Thailand (475,300) also make it into the world's top 10. It goes without saying that the actual figures are bound to be far higher than these estimates which probably only scratch the surface.

The United Nations estimates that some 64% of human trafficking in Asia is for forced labor, servitude and slavery, while 26% is for sexual exploitation (in Europe and Central Asia the figures are the inverse). In Asia, 36% of trafficked victims are children, while 64% are adults. Trafficking victims from Asia can be found all around the world. While 72% of convicted traffickers are men, the share of women is 28%, much higher than the share of women convicted of crimes in general (10-15%).

The International Labor Organization estimates the illicit profits of forced labor to be $150 billion a year. Many victims work in Asia’s global value chains for industries like food, garments, and technology, including in middle income countries like Malaysia. In short, modern slavery is big business.

Asia’s worst offenders for human trafficking

Most countries in the Asia-Pacific exhibit a range of pre-conditions for modern slavery including weak rule of law, corruption, high levels of poverty, along with highly mobile unskilled labor forces who are dependent on remittances. Only two Asian countries, South Korea and Taiwan, are making very serious efforts to combat human trafficking, along with most advanced Western countries, according to the US Department of State in its excellent "Trafficking in Persons Report". While Asia’s most notorious cases for human trafficking are North Korea, Thailand, Malaysia and China.

In North Korea, forced labor is part of the government's political repression. Some 80,000 to 120,000 people are held in prison camps in remote areas where they are subject to forced labor. The government has also sent 50,000 or more labourers to countries like Russia and China to earn much needed foreign exchange for North Korea’s atrocious government, but not the workers themselves.

In Thailand, there are three to four million migrant workers, mainly from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia, some of whom are forced, coerced or defrauded into labor or sex trafficking in sectors like the sex industry, commercial fishing, forced begging, domestic work, manufacturing, and agriculture. Indeed, Thailand is still notorious for slavery, trafficking, murder, and corruption at all levels of government in its billion-dollar fishing industry, despite recent arrests and the threat of an EU-wide boycott. And social media is being used to recruit children and women into sex trafficking.

There are reports that some Thai officials are complicit in trafficking crimes and corruption undermines anti-trafficking efforts. Migrant workers are fearful of reporting trafficking crimes due to a to lack of trust in government officials, and lack of awareness of their rights. According to the US State Department, the Thai government is not making significant efforts to fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.

Most of Malaysia's trafficking victims come from its more than four million documented and undocumented foreign workers who mainly come from Indonesia, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Nepal and Myanmar. Many are subjected to forced labor or debt bondage by their employers, employment agencies or labor recruiters. Authorities report that large organized crime syndicates are responsible for some instances of trafficking. There are also reports alleging that some corrupt officials impede efforts to address trafficking crimes. Rohingya and other refugees lack formal status or the ability to obtain legal work permits, thus leaving them vulnerable to trafficking.

In China, trafficking is most pronounced among the large internal migrant population, who can be subject to forced labor in brick kilns, coal mines and factories. Chinese women and girls are recruited from rural areas and taken to urban centers by crime syndicates and local gangs. There are also reports of young girls being kidnapped from Vietnam and other countries for forced marriage to Chinese men in light of the China's "gendercide", which has resulted in a high male/female birth ratio.

Other countries like Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka are also among the world’s worst offenders when it comes to human trafficking.

Advanced Asian countries also guilty of human trafficking

Even seemingly civilized countries like Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore have human trafficking horror stories to tell.

Japan has long been notorious for human trafficking for its sex industry. And despite pressure from the international community, sex trafficking remains endemic in Japan. Many women and children travel to Japan from Asia (especially the Philippines and Thailand) and elsewhere for employment or fraudulent marriage and are subjected to forced prostitution in bars, clubs, brothels, and massage parlors. Traffickers strictly control the movement of victims using debt bondage, threats of violence or deportation, blackmail, and other coercive psychological methods. Japanese men are also notorious for their sex tourism in neighboring Asian countries.

The Japanese government has an internship program -- Industrial Trainee and Technical Internship Program (TITP) -- to address labor shortages, which attracts migrants especially from China and Vietnam. Although the program is billed as an internship program to foster basic industrial skills and techniques among foreign workers, it is in reality a guest worker program, with some “interns” being subject to forced labor. Some pay up to $10,000 for jobs and reports continue of excessive fees, deposits, and “punishment” contracts under this program.

In Hong Kong, which has one of the highest densities of migrant domestic workers in the world, forced labor and exploitation are widespread, despite the efforts of the government to sweep the problem under the carpet, according to the Hong Kong based Justice Center. Some 17% of its study sample are subject to forced labor, which means that some 50,000 of Hong Kong's migrant domestic workers could be subject to forced labor. According to all reports, the situation of migrant domestic workers is fairly similar in Singapore.

Little action to tackle human trafficking

Most countries have laws and policies to protect possible victims and prosecute offenders from human trafficking. But overall, there are still very few convictions, highlighting the gross inadequacy of enforcement of these laws and policies. According to the UN, only 40% of countries reported having 10 or more yearly convictions, with nearly 15% having no convictions at all. This is unbelievable given the prevalence of human trafficking in Asia.

The 2014 Global Slavery Index has highlighted in particular the cases of Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore which are countries, despite their great wealth, have done little to respond to the challenge of human trafficking. As to Thailand and Indonesia, they appear to have strong responses on paper, but these are often poorly implemented or are hampered by high levels of corruption. In contrast, the Philippines is one country that, when national economic capacity is taken into account, is making strong efforts with limited resources.

At the regional level, there are also initiatives like the Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative involving Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. And regional organizations like the Asian Development Bank and UNESCAP (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific) have human trafficking programs. But despite their good intentions, these initiatives rely on national governments for implementation and enforcement.

Human smuggling

Human smuggling is different from trafficking in that smugglers help people, with their consent, illegally cross borders for a payment, as we mentioned above. It is a very risky venture for these political and economic refugees in light of the uncertain welcome they receive at their destination.

But even when they consent to being smuggled, many people also suffer great abuses at the hands of their nefarious smugglers who coerce, force or even abduct them into being smuggled, who don’t inform them of the physical risks involved, and who abuse and extort them during their journey. Thus, most smuggled people also become victims of human trafficking as well, as many aspects of their journey are imposed without their consent.

Perhaps the most tragic cases of human smuggling in Asia are the Rohingya Muslims escaping persecution in Myanmar. The Rohingya is an ethnic group of over million people living primarily in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State. After decades of discrimination, the government stripped the Rohingya of their citizenship in 1982, leaving them stateless.

The government considers them illegal migrants from Bangladesh, and refuses to use the word Rohingya. They are referred to as “Bengalis”. Anti-Muslim propaganda has become part of the regular nationalistic discourse. Even Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi refuses to say anything in support of the Rohingya. There are now hundreds of thousands of Rohingya displaced in Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Since 2012, the Rakhine state’s Buddhist majority, assisted by religious leaders, government officials, and state security forces have engaged in widespread violence against the Rohingya. Hundreds have been killed, and homes and businesses destroyed. There have been claims of ethnic cleansing and even genocide. Over 150,000 Rohingya now live in virtual concentration camps where they lack access to health care, education and employment. Efforts by international organizations and civil society to provide assistance are often impeded by Myanmar authorities.

This situation has led many Rohingya to risk their lives and flee by boat to neighboring countries, usually Malaysia, facilitated by Myanmar security forces and human smugglers (some Bangladeshis escaping poverty at home are part of these boat trips). The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates there have been 160,000 Rohingya maritime departures to neighboring countries since 2012.

They are typically transported to Thailand, where they are put in camps. Smugglers then demand a ransom before smuggling further by land to Malaysia. But if this extortion doesn’t work, Rohingyas are often killed. A number of mass Rohingya graves have been found in Thailand and Malaysia. These smuggling operations are reportedly arranged through well-organized transnational networks of smugglers and trafficker, usually with the complicity or involvement of corrupt government officials.

The human tragedy of the Rohingya refugees reached a head in 2015. Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand towed smugglers’ boats back out to sea. And when the Thai government announced a crackdown on smuggling in early 2015, many boats were abandoned at sea by their crews, leaving passengers at sea for weeks. Many Rohingya died. Eventually, following international criticism, Malaysia and Indonesia allowed the Rohingya to come ashore, on the condition that they only stay one year, before being resettled in third countries. At the time of writing, the future of these Rohingya is uncertain.

Since mid-2015, much fewer Rohingya have been leaving Myanmar, in part because of a crackdown on smugglers. And it seems that there may be some softening of the attitude towards the Rohingya of the new Myanmar government.

The attitude of the Myanmar government towards the Rohingya population is reprehensible. The international community, which has been pressuring the government to be more humane, should be more forceful. But Myanmar is in the midst of a delicate transition to democracy, and the West is still seeking to woo the government away from the clutches of China.

The Rohingya refugee crisis cries out for effective regional cooperation to address the issue. Most regrettably, it has highlighted yet again how ineffectual ASEAN is when confronted with real challenges. Southeast Asian countries must cooperate to establish measures to combat human smuggling and trafficking, and to protect people from human rights abuses from smugglers and traffickers. A lot more could also be done at the national level. Both Thailand and Malaysia are experiencing labor shortages, and could readily absorb large inflows of Rohingya migrants.

The crisis also highlights the apparent unwillingness of China, which has not been visible at all, to make a positive contribution to Asian regional problems -- despite its massive buildup of naval and other maritime assets in the region, and also despite its desire to be a regional hegemon in Asia.

Concluding comments

Our brief overview of human trafficking and smuggling in Asia can only leave one feeling deeply despondent about Asia. Economic development without human development makes no sense. And Asia’s human development lags well behind its spectacular economic development. In particular:

-- Japan, the region’s first economic mover has never taken human trafficking and smuggling seriously, and is now moving backwards through its bogus intern program.

-- Hong Kong and Singapore, Asia’s current leaders in terms of GDP per capita, treat their maids and other low-skilled migrants abominably.

-- Malaysia and Thailand are two economies that have enjoyed great economic success, but are at the bottom of the barrel in terms of human trafficking and smuggling.

-- China has pretensions of becoming a great power, but is totally bereft of ethical and moral leadership when it comes to human trafficking and smuggling.

-- the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar highlights the fractured and fragile state of the country’s society and politics, and how ineffectual ASEAN in dealing with regional problems.
Tags: asia, human trafficking, human smuggling, Rohingya

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