Better Funded, Longer Term Assistance Needed to Prevent Re-trafficking of Victims
Many existing reintegration programmes for victims of trafficking
are not effectively tackling the economic realities faced by
victims post-rescue and should be of much longer duration and
efficacy if re-trafficking is to be avoided, says a new IOM report.
The problem stems from the lack of adequate funding for such
programmes, according to the report. As a result, interventions are
unable to address the full range of economic, cultural, social or
psychosocial needs of a trafficked individual.
The report, "The Causes and Consequences of Re-Trafficking:
Evidence from the IOM Human Trafficking Database", is a rare look
at the issue of re-trafficking of which little is known by using
information gleaned from IOM’s unique database on the victims
of human trafficking it has assisted.
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target="_blank" title="">The Causes and Consequences of
Re-trafficking: Evidence from the IOM Human Trafficking
Database
It draws upon 79 known cases of re-trafficking in the database
out of more than 14,000 people over a 10-year period, although it
is widely accepted that levels of re-trafficking are likely to be
much higher in reality.
The report, funded by the US State Department’s Office to
Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (G/TIP), found that
women, young adults and children are most vulnerable to
re-trafficking with the under-18 most at risk of re-trafficking
when older. Poverty, gender or racial discrimination as well as
conflict and displacement in their home countries are common
denominators.
The role of traffickers who make direct threats to the victim or
their family upon return home, as well as the involvement of law
enforcement officers in the re-trafficking process are also
highlighted in the report. It notes too that those forcibly
returned home without referrals to IOM or other organizations are
vulnerable to re-trafficking, particularly en route home.
Victims are also frequently re-trafficked within two years of
being rescued and are usually trafficked to different destinations
or for a different kind of exploitation. It is not uncommon for
victims trafficked internationally to then be re-trafficked within
their own country.
The report recommends that as a first instance, alternatives are
needed to simply returning victims of international trafficking
back to their home countries and invariably to the same situation
and dangers that led to their trafficking in the first place. In
some instances, particularly where a victim would be in continued
danger from his or her trafficker if they returned, victims should
have the option to remain in the country of destination.
"Not a single one of the 79 people on the IOM database that form
the backbone of this research, had been granted either temporary or
permanent residency after the first time they were trafficked,"
says Sarah Craggs, IOM trafficking research coordinator. "If they
had, it would have given them a layer of protection they could
never have at home and would probably have prevented their
re-trafficking."
The report also argues for tougher penalties to be imposed on
state officials who collude with traffickers and for those
penalties to be applied vigorously. The IOM database shows that in
cases where law enforcers were involved in human trafficking and
re-trafficking, victims understandably mistrusted everyone around
them and as a result, would refuse the essential rehabilitation and
reintegration assistance offered to them by IOM or non-governmental
organizations.
In a final call, the report recommended that victims should be
monitored for much longer post-rescue then they currently are to
ensure their reintegration is complete while acknowledging that it
is only by finding sustainable ways to challenge the wider economic
inequalities, both global and local can counter-trafficking efforts
be truly effective.
The report is available at the
"paragraph-link-no-underline" href=
"http://publications.iom.int/bookstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=41_7&products_id=684"
target="_blank" title="">IOM online bookstore.
For further information please contact:
Sarah Craggs
IOM Geneva
Tel: + 41 22 717 9526
E-mail:
"mailto:scraggs@iom.int">scraggs@iom.int