Human trafficking a growing problem
Nearly half of the independent Pacific island countries are evaluated by the United States State Department’s 2013 Trafficking in Persons list, and four of these seven are either ‘Tier 2 Watch List’ or ‘Tier 3,’ the worst ranking.
Pacific islands should care about their ranking in the Trafficking in Persons (TIP) annual listing because it is an evaluation of border control, enforcement of laws, and systems and services to address prostitution, child abuse, and related trafficking issues.
The State Department evaluated 189 nations globally in its 2013 report released recently and only 29 are on the Tier 1, which designates countries that fully comply with the minimum standards of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, a U.S. law. A majority of countries are on Tier 2, which acknowledges a country is making ‘significant efforts’ to meet minimum trafficking prevention standards, but does not fully comply. Tier 2 Watch List designates that the number of victims is significant or increasing, and there was no evidence shown of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking since the previous year. The Watch List is a warning that a country could be demoted to Tier 3, where financial sanctions could apply for not meeting minimum prevention standards and not making efforts comply.
Fiji, Palau and Tonga have maintained a Tier 2 ranking over the past three years. Papua New Guinea, the only Tier 3 ranking in the Pacific islands, has not been able to improve its lowest ranking in several years. The Federated States of Micronesia was Tier 3 in 2011, but moved up to Tier 2 Watch List for the past two years. The Solomon Islands has bounced back and forth: Tier 2 Watch List in 2011, improved to Tier 2 in 2012, and was demoted back to Watch List this year. Marshall Islands was also Tier 2 the last two years, but dropped to Watch List status this year. These countries are among the 44 Tier 2 Watch List countries in the 2013 TIP report.
What does it all mean? Each country report identifies different issues the State Department, through its embassies, identifies. This year’s report on the Marshall Islands, for example, said: ‘The Republic of the Marshall Island is a destination country for women from East Asia subjected to sex trafficking…. The government made no efforts to prevent trafficking during the year. It did not conduct any public campaigns or take other steps to raise public awareness about the dangers of trafficking.’
A baseline issue that improves a country’s image is simply modernizing legislation to reflect human trafficking as a problem, with relevant penalties. Palau, for example, has adopted its own trafficking law, and officials in the Marshalls and FSM report they are working on their own legislation. For many of these small islands, the issue simply hasn’t been on the radar. Generally people view human trafficking as a problem in Asia or Africa. But, as an article in the August issue of Islands Business pointed out under the headline, ‘PNG a haven for sex trafficking,’ there is an emerging problem of teenage — and younger — girls employed in nightclubs as hostesses, dancers and bartenders.
With high unemployment rates in most urban centers in the region, the extended family system increases the burden on the few wage earners, who, in some cases, eject non-productive extended family members from their homes. Even in the smaller islands, as people migrate to the urban centers and family units break up, more young people of both genders are ending up virtually homeless — they may bounce around to the homes of different relatives — and having to fend for themselves. Lack of opportunities for young people and increasing poverty in urban centers makes a fertile environment for sex trade to expand.
A point made as part of the recommendation of the State Department’s TIP report on the Marshalls states: ‘Take steps to prosecute public officials when there is evidence they are complicit in trafficking activities or hindering ongoing trafficking prosecutions.’ This hints at a broader issue that could be a roadblock to improvement in some countries worldwide that are on Tier 2 Watch List or Tier 3 status: Are local residents in government or business actively engaged in or benefiting from human trafficking and sex trade practices?
The ‘stick’ behind the State Department’s TIP ranking is that Tier 3 status can involve cuts to foreign aid to a government. A country has two years to show improvement in Tier 2 Watch List status, but provided it is making progress, it can remain in this status for up to four years. After this, without requisite improvement, it is automatically downgraded to Tier 3.
If any of the three US-affiliated north Pacific nations end up in Tier 3, the funding package under the 20-year Compact of Free Association would not be affected, but other U.S. federal programs — to which they are eligible — could be cut. For any nation in Tier 3, this could include withholding aid other than for humanitarian or trade purposes, and US government opposition to some aid from international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
The State Department’s punch list for combating human trafficking: Train law enforcement and judicial officials to implement new anti-trafficking laws; increase efforts to investigate, prosecute, and punish trafficking offenders and apply stringent sentences to convicted offenders; work with NGOs and international organizations to provide protective services to victims; make efforts to study human trafficking in the country; adopt proactive procedures to identify victims of trafficking among vulnerable groups, such as foreign workers and women in prostitution; develop and conduct anti-trafficking information and education campaigns; accede to the 2000 United Nations Trafficking in Persons Protocol.
It’s a lot of work. But the point is for governments, with the engagement of NGOs, to establish systems for preventing abuses against people, particularly minors, and providing safety nets. And there is precedent for solving this type of international blacklisting.
In 2000, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) blacklisted several Pacific nations for being ‘non-cooperative’ with anti-money laundering programs. The Cook Islands, Marshall Islands, Nauru, and Niue were among 15 nations blacklisted globally. This blacklisting motivated the Marshall Islands, for example, to establish an interagency group in government that went to work on FATF recommendations and over the next several years implemented many of them — updating legislation, establishing a Financial Intelligence Unit, and engaging with international anti-money laundering groups, such as the Asia Pacific Group. In several years, the Marshalls got off the blacklist and has stayed off.
In light of the many factors in our islands’ urban centers that have marginalized a recognizable number of citizens, creating opportunities for sex and human trafficking abuses, the State Department’s report should be seen as identifying problems and offering a road map for improving the safety of both local and foreign residents alike.
