Global Policy Forum

By Marwaan Macan-Markar

Governments across Asia have agreed to work in tandem to stem the number of women and children being trafficked over national borders by international crime syndicates, but using the legal weapons they have at present is by no means easy.

Regional cooperation is needed because of the transnational nature of the crimes committed by these syndicates, said the representatives of 17 Asian governments during a three-day regional meeting that ended here on Friday. ''Countries that share a border or the countries of origin, transit and destination of trafficking should consider establishing bilateral or multilateral agreements to define the terms and procedures of cooperation,'' stated the final document they issued after the meeting. That would help to ''prevent and punish the offence of trafficking and to help victims return to life with dignity.''

''Countries need to come together and work on a common agenda for justice,'' said Suphanvasa Chotikajan of Thailand's ministry of foreign affairs. ''Trafficking rings often try to exploit laws in individual countries and that needs to end. A regional response will make it difficult for the traffickers.'' One model of cooperation that participants were asked to consider was a regional initiative underway in the Americas -- the Puebla Process. According to Ricardo Cordero, of the Geneva-based International Organisation for Migration (IOM), 11 countries in Central and North America have been working under the Puebla Process since 1996 to combat trafficking.

High on this initiative's agenda is the quest to identify and combat trafficking networks, he added. To achieve that, the countries involved, including Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico and the United States, have agreed to ''training initiatives, and coordinated, simultaneous joint actions and the exchange of information about the entry of migrants who have been victims of smuggling or trafficking''.

In the nineties, several Asian countries have passed or tightened laws relating to sexual exploitation and trafficking, including one by Thailand in 1997 that decriminalises and gives help to victims of commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking while clamping down traffickers and organised networks. These are in addition to international conventions currently in place, including a protocol on human trafficking approved last year. Amparita Santamaria, heads of the migrants' section at the Manila-based Ateneo Human Rights Centre, agreed that Asian governments have to realise that ''you cannot solve this problem without recognising the significance of a regional approach''.

But for a regional solution to really succeed by using the increasing number of legal mechanisms in the region, she added, there has to be consensus among the countries to perceive trafficked persons in a similar light. ''It has to be reflected in their national laws,'' she explained. For Santamaria, that means national laws across the region reflecting uniformity about the status of the women trafficked across national boundaries. They should be classified as ''victims'' of human rights abuse, ''not criminals'' or ''violators'' of migration laws -- because the classification of the victims as offenders is a hurdle to getting information needed to crack down on the real perpetuators, the traffickers.

Currently, Santamaria admitted, there is a lack of uniformity regards on distinction. Labour and migrant-receiving countries like Malaysia and Singapore, for instance, classify those trafficked into their territory as '''criminals''. In such situations, this often means the trafficked victims are either detained or deported like illegal immigrants and authorities are no closer to stopping trafficking syndicates.

S K Ghua of the United Nations' Fund for Women (UNIFEM) says that governments need to be ''more sensitive'' about the plight of those being trafficked. ''The laws must draw a distinction. Women and children who are trafficked by crime gangs are victims, whichever way you look at it,'' he pointed out. Such legal measures, he added, will make it easier for those trafficked to approach the local authorities in the foreign counties they are in, since they will be assured protection as victims. ''You must remember that these victims are in alien conditions and have no legal status,'' he said, quite unlike the normal legal procedure where aggrieved complainants come forward with charges.

What is more, he said, governments determined to crack down on trafficking rings have to win the confidence of the victims for a number of reasons, including the manner in which they are abused and the pattern of such human smuggling operations. ''The evidence of trafficked women and children are vital to combat this crime. Laws that protect them will make it easier for the victims to come forward,'' Ghua added. International crime syndicates lure women and girls from poor and marginalised communities countries within Asia for the sex industry, for forced marriages, begging syndicates, drug trafficking and the adoption of children.

In a May report, the United Nations Children's Fund said that the largest number of children are trafficked for sexual purposes and that ''they are being traficked into the sex industry for younger and younger ages''. Japan draws thousands of women from countries like Thailand and the Philippines each year, including those trafficked into its huge entertainment industry. Some 150,000 non-Japanese women work in this industry.

Other countries where human trafficking has been reported include the Philippines, China, Indonesia, Burma, Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Australia. Some countries, like Thailand, are both receivers of trafficked women and girls from neighbouring Indochinese countries and a source of trafficked persons. Between 5,000 to 7,000 Nepali women are taken to brothels in India every year. Some 400 women from Bangladesh are trafficked to Pakistan each month, says the Coalition Against the Trafficking of Women (Asia- Pacific).

Women from Asia are also trafficked to western countries. There are between 200,000 and half a million illegal sex workers in the European Union, some two-thirds of whom come from Eastern Europe and the other third from developing countries including Asia, says the U.N. Global Report on Crime and Justice issued in December. Many women are lured by ''advertisements for domestic work abroad and then find themselves bought and sold via catalogues, advertisements or by close family members'', it said. Others are promised work as waitresses or guest relations officers, but are forced into sex work.

Women are often beaten and raped and moved from brothel to brothel, working up to 18 hours a day, said the report. ''It is tantamount to slavery,'' the authors of the report argued. In most cases, there is hardly an escape route for the women. They are at the mercy of the brothel owner, especially if they are without documents in a foreign country and forced to repay debts owed to the middleman who arranged for their travel, the report said.

To stem such abuse in Asia will require a shift from the normal criminal justice process, says Ghua, and not just better, stronger laws. ''The victim is a non-person in the foreign country and governments have to look at the problem from a different perspective. You cannot charge the women smuggled in by gangs for illegal entry.'' Added Santamaria: ''They (governments) must stop criminalising the women and children trapped in the net of trafficking gangs,'' she said.

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