The recent interception by the Italian Navy of two ships filled with refugees from Syria and other migrants has highlighted in a dramatic way the ever-present trade in persons.
Awareness of the trade has been growing, but effective remedies are slow and uncoordinated. Effective remedies are often not accessible to victims of trafficking because of gaps betweeen setting international standards, enacting national law, and then implementation of national law in a humane way.
The international standards have been set out in the "United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime" and its "Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children". The Convention and the Protocol standards are strengthened by the "International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families". These worldwide standards have been reaffirmed by regional legal frameworks such as the "Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings".
Despite clear international and regional standards, there is poor implementation, limited government resources and infrastructure dedicated to the issue, a tendency to criminalize victims, and restrictive immigration policies in many countries.
Trafficking in persons is often linked to networks trafficking in drugs and arms. Some gangs traffick in all three, in other cases, agreements are made to specialize and not expand into the specialty of other criminal networks.
The scourge of trafficking in persons will continue to grow unless strong counter measures are taken. Unfortunately, police and governments worldwide do not place a high priority on the fight against trafficking unless illegal migration becomes a political or a media issue.
Thus, real progress needs to be made through non-governmental organizations (NGOs). There are three aspects to this NGO anti-trafficking effort. The first aspect is to help build political will by giving accurate information to political representatives and to the press.
The second aspect is research into the geographic areas and social classes from which children and women are trafficked. These are usually the poorest parts of the country and from among marginalizd populations. Socio-economic and educational development projects must be directed to these areas so that there are realistic avenues for advancement.
The third aspect is psychological healing. Very often, women and children who have been trafficked into the sex trades have had a disrupted or violent family life and have a poor idea of their self-worth. Thus, it is important to create opportunities for individual and group healing and to give a spiritual dimension to the person through teaching meditation and yoga. There is a need for creating adult education facilities so that people may continue a broken education cycle.
There are NGOs who are already working along these lines. Their efforts need to be encouraged and expanded through cooperation and the development of greater capacity.
René Wadlow, Association of World Citizens
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