By Cliff Montgomery – June 12th, 2012
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney loves to humor business people by consistently calling them “job creators.” But some of those “job creators” are chiefly to blame for the current wave of human trafficking sweeping the globe, according to a U.S. Congressional study.
“The modern manifestation of this trafficking problem is driven by the willingness of labor and service providers to violate anti-trafficking laws and regulations in the face of continued international demand for cheap labor and services and gaps in the enforcement of such rules,” declares a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report released this April.
Below, The American Spark offers numerous quotes from the study’s introduction:
“Trafficking in persons, or human trafficking, refers to the involuntary subjection of men, women, and children to exploitative conditions that some equate with slavery. It is a centuries-old problem that, despite international and U.S. efforts to eliminate it, continues to occur in virtually every country in the world.
“Common forms of human trafficking include trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation and trafficking through forced labor and debt bondage. Other forms of human trafficking also include trafficking for domestic servitude and the use of children in armed conflict (e.g., child soldiers).
“The modern manifestation of this trafficking problem is driven by the willingness of labor and service providers to violate anti-trafficking laws and regulations in the face of continued international demand for cheap labor and services and gaps in the enforcement of such rules.
“Ongoing demand is particularly concentrated among industries and economic sectors that are low-skill and labor-intensive.
“To address the complex dynamics at issue in human trafficking, policy responses are cross-cutting and international, bringing together diverse stakeholders in the fields of foreign policy, human rights, international security, criminal justice, migration, refugees, public health, child welfare, gender issues, urban planning, international trade, labor recruitment, and government contracting and procurement.
“In the United States, Congress has enacted legislation to address aspects of the problem…”
“Although the United States has long supported international efforts to eliminate various forms of human trafficking, a new wave of contemporary action against international human trafficking galvanized in the late 1990s as news stories drew attention to the discovery of trafficked women and children from the former Soviet Union forced to participate in the commercial sex industries in Western Europe and North America.
“Across the international community, the trans-national nature of the phenomenon highlighted the need for improved international coordination and commitment to halting trafficking flows.
“To this end, the United Nations (U.N.) adopted in 2000 the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (hereinafter U.N. Trafficking Protocol), a supplement to the U.N. Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime.
“The U.N. Trafficking Protocol is not the first or only multilateral mechanism to address human trafficking – it was, however, the first to define trafficking in persons and require States Parties to criminalize such activity.
“Since the U.N. Trafficking Protocol entered into force in 2003, the international community has seen an uptick in the number of countries enacting laws that prohibit and criminally punish human trafficking.
“While observers note that continued vigilance is required to encourage the remaining 46 U.N. members to become States Parties to the U.N. Trafficking Protocol, emphasis from the U.S. foreign policy perspective has also been placed on improving the implementation and enforcement of anti-trafficking laws.
“According to the U.S. State Department’s 2011 Trafficking in Persons Report…62 countries have yet to convict a trafficker under laws in accordance with the U.N. Trafficking Protocol.
“Continued public attention and academic research suggest that human trafficking remains a problem […]. Data on the global scope and severity of human trafficking continue to be lacking, due in large part to uneven enforcement of anti-trafficking laws internationally and related challenges in identifying victims.
“According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), an estimated 12.3 million individuals are currently subjected to forced labor worldwide. The sources of victims have diversified over time, as have the industries in which such trafficking victims are found.
“Known flows involve victims originating not only from Eastern and Central Europe, but also from South and Southeast Asia, North and West Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean.
“Observers, however, debate whether existing anti-trafficking efforts worldwide have resulted in appreciable and corresponding progress toward the global elimination of human trafficking.”
