Human trafficking patterns changing in South Asia

After decades of people smuggling within and between countries in South Asia, the traffic pattern for human trafficking has changed. Increasingly, nationals of one country are stranded in another country in the Subcontinent while in transit to the Gulf, Europe or America.

Middlemen dupe compatriots with fake visas, or assurances of taking them to the West and leave them along the way, where they are vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.

It is difficult enough to crack down on traffickers within countries because of impunity and spreading authoritarianism in the region, but what makes it even harder is the increasing trans-boundary nature of the crime.

“How do we deal with human trafficking in the context of rising authoritarianism and fascism in the region?” asked Emmy Award-winning Indian filmmaker Ruchira Gupta. “We are worried about the increasing power of the police and army in all our countries and yet we want to end impunity for those who are buying and selling human beings.” 

Gupta was speaking at a webinar on trafficking of women and girls in South Asia organised by the South Asia Peace Action Network (SAPAN). 

A new bill in the Indian Parliament allows the police to raid homes on the pretext of fighting trafficked persons without any FIR. Gupta stressed that while ending impunity for rape and other sexual assaults on girls and women is of utmost importance, providing the police with a blanket warrant is not the solution.

“Fascism eroticises violence,” Gupta added.

Human trafficking is the third largest crime industry in the world in terms of monetary transactions, only behind drugs and arms smuggling. Girls and women account for 71% of trafficked persons globally. Detection of people smuggling fell by 11% in 2020 and convictions by 27%. An estimated 41% of those trafficked manage to escape on their own. 

Gupta’s most recent book, I Kick and I fly, also investigates child prostitution and human trafficking in South Asia since the 1990s. Her investigations have helped crack down on human trafficking rings in the region. In 2002, she set up Apne Aap, a welfare organisation for survivors.

India recently cut its budget for Public Distribution Services including food and housing for the poor, and Gupta called on other governments in the region not to follow that example by increasing funds for those who fall through the social safety nets. Many who are deprived of basic needs eventually fall victim to traffickers.

Indeed, traffickers often target the young, impoverished and those from marginalised communities. After the 2015 Nepal earthquake, there was a spike in the number of girls and women trafficked from low-income families in Sindhupalchok and other hardest-hit areas.

Nepal and the rest of South Asia is a source, transit and destination country for human trafficking. An increasing number of Nepali women are stranded at transit airports in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh or India after being cheated and abandoned by traffickers who promised to take them to the Gulf or the West.

Cross-border collaboration between the governments and advocates in the region is therefore crucial, the panel heard.

Sigma Huda, advocate of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh and the first UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons pointed out that regional cooperation under SAARC was largely unsuccessful to end trafficking in the region. 

Some 92% of the trafficked persons in Bangladesh, as elsewhere in the region, are girls. In the past five years, 13,000 women and children have been trafficked across the country while 4,000 have been rescued. There is also a tendency of getting the girls married off to traffickers.

People in Bangladesh are primarily taken to the Middle East under the pretext of getting jobs in carpet factories, mills and other industries. But most are forced into domestic work and get exploited.

Huda added that even though the border with India is closed and fenced, people cross over. Together with Bangladeshi women and girls, the Rohingyas are also trafficked via the Bay of Bengal into Mumbai then on to the Middle East.”

Human traffickers are liable to capital punishment in Bangladesh, but she said implementation is a different story. In many cases, survivors shy away from seeking justice in fear of retribution or ostracisation, much like in Nepal and other countries in South Asia where victim-blaming is a norm.

Mehr Husain, author, publisher and journalist from Lahore said implementation of international laws and treaties to control trafficking, was not feasible even though Pakistan was a signatory, because they contradicted local laws.

Furthermore, people smuggled into Pakistan are then trafficked inside the country, mainly for sex and forced labour with an estimated 13 million people in Pakistan are engaged in one form of slavery or other. People are also being trafficked to steal their organs for transplants.

As many as 150 women and children were being smuggled into Pakistan every month in 2013, but Husain said strict migration laws meant they were jailed instead of being served justice. The fact that Pakistani laws do not clearly define human smuggling and trafficking makes matters worse.

Interestingly, Nepal’s Civil Code promulgated in 1853 has a chapter on human trafficking which Kathmandu-based advocate Sabin Shrestha pointed out as proof that the crime was prevalent even then.

Much later in 2007, a Human Trafficking and Transportation Act defined people smuggling as a serious crime and the burden of proof was put on the accused. The confidentiality of the victims and survivors is protected. If family members are traffickers, as often happens with girls, their confidentiality would be protected to protect the victims.

Even so, there is no law addressing human smuggling in Nepal. This is being rectified, a bill is now pending in Parliament.

The webinar ended with an adoption of a resolution to take action under the SAARC Convention on Combating and Preventing Trafficking of Women and Children by assembling a working committee to understand the modus operandi, causes, and consequences of human trafficking in the region.