Human Good| Human Trafficking Road Map

Human Good| Human Trafficking Road Map

Written by Saadia Haq

“Initially everything was fine. I was told that I will work as a child-minder with rich families’ children. But I got tricked, my passport, money snatched away, next thing I knew I was sold to a pimp. He told that I had to work for three months before moving to a new place. I had to choice but to comply, like the other girls. Most of us had agreed to jobs in the sex industry, because there was no other solution. It’s been eleven-gruesome years that I am stuck here,” says Ronja.*
Her voice echoes a diminutive fraction as to what countless trafficked women are forced to cope up with. We are aware about the growing phenomenon “feminization of trafficking.” It continues to destroy lives of hundreds of women. Logically, a query comes to mind as how Ronja* ended up from a little Persian town to turbulent provincial capital of Pakistan; Peshawar.
The answer is not so simple. But there is substantial evidence to support the claim that cross-border illegal activities between Pakistan and its neighboring countries have a lot to do with human smuggling and trafficking issue.
Ronja* and many others were unfortunate to have fallen into the hands of traffickers that were aided by border-police to be smuggled into Pakistan from across the borders. Many a times, these women also carry drugs for the human traffickers.
The Soviets Invasion of Afghanistan forced Pakistan to bear long-term consequences till today. Since 1980s, some 6 million Afghan refugees took refugee in Pakistan to escape the war. The prolonged war entered Pakistan’s North West that always remains a contentious bone.
Recent UNHCR estimates that 3 million Afghan refugees still continue to stay in Pakistan, making them the largest refugee community in the world. The conflict has also served as a gate-way for human trafficking organizations in their ambitions, lucratively. Human trafficking from Afghanistan to Pakistan continues — women, children and in many cases militants or would-be Islamists.
According to the HRCP’s report on Implementation of the HRTO 2002, the porous borders in Afghanistan allows frequent trafficking to occur between it and Pakistan. This report has been compiled by Ms. Sofia Akram, a humanitarian-based communicator-researcher. Ms. Akram has a notable solid background on issues around human rights, international development and human trafficking. Further, her report highlights the grave issue of the selling of women and girls from refugee camps that ends up in problems of sexual slavery and forced labor.
The report adds that less attention has been placed on the trafficking that comes into Pakistan from Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Burma. Economic and political refugees that find themselves in Bangladesh and using the same coercive methods can find themselves trafficked to Pakistan. West Pakistan retains a large Bengali in habitation in particular and they can be easily absorbed in this area.  They arrive in Karachi via Calcutta or Delhi (both Indian cities) by land. Countless Nepalese are bought and then sold in India. Additionally, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Nepalese, and Burmese women end up trafficked through Pakistan en route to the Gulf or Greece.
In recent times, a new pattern has started getting media attention within the country.  The asylum seeking Afghans, Iranians, and former Soviet-Union countries use Pakistan as route to reach Malaysia. A huge international racket is working on transporting these foreigners illegally from the sea port of Karachi, in Pakistan and eventually they arrive to Malaysia.
A police source in Karachi nods in confirmation that paying $10,000 to Pakistani human smugglers helps these foreigners to make it to Malaysia.
In Pakistan, human-rights organizations as well as rights activists are continuing to raise their voice on the issue. Significant efforts have been made by NGOs and Pakistan Thematic Group on Human Trafficking (PTGHT) in terms of data collection-research and awareness raising on the gravity of the situation.
Overview of PTGHT report
The last year’s estimates reveal that women are trafficked into Pakistan from Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Burma, Iran, Myanmar, Nepal and Central Asian states for forced sexual exploitation. Additionally, Pakistan is hosting also illegal immigrants from Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia, Somalia, Philippines, Burundi, Indonesia, and Mozambique.
The report indicates patterns of “transit-passage country” for the trafficked women and under-age children from East Asian countries and Bangladesh through Pakistan.
To curb international human trafficking, Pakistan’s Federal Investigative Agency (FIA) has steeped up various measures. On a sporadic basis, the agency offers statistics of grave concern. The estimate says that during the last 3 years, human trafficking has increased manifold between Pakistan, Iran and Middle Eastern countries.
Once startling case of organized women trafficking that came to light in 2011, where Pakistani and Indian girls aged 11 and 13 were smuggled to the Middle East countries for forced sexual labor. The girls were shown to be aged between 20 and 22 on their passports, were brought to these rich-countries on the pretext of getting them lucrative jobs.
The case came to light after a Pakistani human rights activist Ansar Burney rescued a group of minor girls from the Middle East; he came across horrifying facts regarding the flesh trade going on in the region.
The usage for passage from Iran for onward journey to Europe is also very common. This is common for other nationalities as well as Pakistanis who are fleeing the country with help of agents, travel assistants.
There is no easy-fix to this complex problem, while Pakistan needs to continue putting stricter measures to curb the prevailing menace, it will not get anywhere – all alone. Most of South Asian countries rank along with India as Tier I Watch List countries, Pakistan is ranked as Tier II — one level better than India.
A telling indicator that South-Asian governments must join forces to demonstrate political will for implementation of regional collaborative measures to tackle this inhumane trade.
*Names have been changed.
References:

1. UNHCR Pakistan
2. HRCP report on Implementation of the Human Rights Trafficking Ordinance 2002
3. Pakistan Thematic Group on Human Trafficking (PTGHT)
4. Federal Investigative Agency (FIA)