Noting that according to the International Labor Organization, nearly 21 million people are enslaved at any given time, and most of them are women and children, Senator Jim Walsh from Ireland & PGA Board member, introduced a proposal to combat human trafficking calling for PGA’s global network to raise awareness about this human rights abuse to effectively eradicate it.
Proposal - Combatting Human Trafficking [Trafficking in Human Beings]
The Challenge:
The first challenge is to recognise that according to the International Labour Organisation, nearly 21 million people are enslaved at any given time, and most of them are women and children. The majority of this figure will have found themselves trapped in conditions of forced labour as a direct result of human trafficking.
This human rights abuse is in effect modern slavery and human trafficking has now become one of the most profitable criminal businesses in the world. Human trafficking and forced labour are said to be the fastest growing source of income for organized crime and is the third most important source after drugs and the arms trade.
An essential requirement for eradicating human trafficking is to raise awareness that it exists and how prevalent this problem is.
For example two groups which are especially vulnerable to trafficking are refugees and asylum seekers. As victims enter the process they are generally vulnerable and attempting to escape poverty, persecution or war.
They do not realize that they are going to be trafficked and are often misled and persuaded by a person they might perceive as a friend.
In relation to the Prevention and Prosecution of Human Trafficking, Parliamentarians for Global Action
Recognise: That Human Trafficking makes a significant contribution to the figure quoted from the International Labour Organisation, that approximately 21 million people across the world are enslaved at any given time, most of whom are women and children.
Recognise: the need to raise awareness on the part of those most likely to be at risk of becoming victims of trafficking and, secondly, raise awareness on the part of society at large as to those countries from which and to which victims are trafficked.
Recognise: that asylum seekers and refugees are particularly vulnerable to Human Trafficking and such victims should not be subject to automatic deportation whatever the legislative position in relation to illegal migrants generally.
Aware: that commercial sexual exploitation, begging, domestic servitude and other forms of forced labour, as a consequence of human trafficking, can result in serious lifelong consequences for the physical, psychological and spiritual development and well-being of a person, especially children.
Recognise: that sex tourism including the travel of a person to a foreign destination where he or she engages in commercial sexual activity with a child is a form of exploitation of human trafficking, besides being an extremely serious crime in and of itself when it involves a minor (pedophilia).
Recognise: that effective prevention of sex tourism, a form of exploitation of human trafficking, can be enhanced by co-ordination between law enforcement agencies of participating States and destination countries to notify intended travel by individuals previously convicted of sex crimes against children and against non-consenting or vulnerable adults.
Parliamentarians for Global Action:
- Calls on all PGA members, to recognise the need to raise awareness of how traffickers operate [and of what should arouse suspicion on the part of any potential migrant];
- Calls on all PGA members, which have not already done so, to urge their Government to clarify or establish laws that will allow prosecution of citizens and legal permanent residents who participate in unlawful sex tourism or other forms of human trafficking while abroad;
- Calls on all PGA members, to scrutinise and where necessary, to amend laws regarding deportation, to give more protection to victims of human trafficking despite the position their nation may currently hold in relation to illegal migrants generally;
- Calls on all PGA members, to scrutinise weakness in legislation in areas which may serve to accommodate human trafficking such as employment and recruitment processes and seek to strengthen and enforce such legislation to hold to account such businesses which may benefit from trafficked labour.
- Calls on all PGA members, to urge their Government to facilitate appropriate law enforcement co-ordination and notification procedures between participating States, as well as with other destination States, so that States are aware in advance of travel by individuals previously convicted of sex-related crimes against adults and children;
- Calls on all PGA members, within their own Parliament, to seek the development and implementation of policies and actions, including law enforcement co-operation between participating States, to prevent the tourism industry from being used for all forms of human trafficking;
- Calls on all PGA members, to recognise that victims of human trafficking, in particular men, women and children trapped in sex tourism and forced labour, require adequate time to recover from trauma, need practical rehabilitative assistance and when participating in prosecution, special accommodation in trial procedure in order to be protected from re-traumatization;
- Calls on all PGA members, to legislate within their own parliaments to ensure that victims of human trafficking are not required to participate in the prosecution of their traffickers in order to receive assistance or rehabilitative counselling;
- Calls on all PGA members, to advocate with their Government to exercise special vigilance and care of adults and children particularly vulnerable to Human Trafficking and implement the necessary preventative measures.
- Calls on all PGA members, to ensure adequate penalties and sanctions are imposed on perpetrators of human trafficking commensurate with the seriousness and heinous nature of this crime of enslavement of human beings in the 21st Century.
