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Forced labour, human trafficking,
slavery haunt us still
Forced labour, slavery and criminal trafficking in human beings - especially women and children - are on the rise worldwide and taking new and insidious forms. A new study by the ILO Stopping Forced Labour, say slavery, oppression and exploitation of human beings have by no means been relegated to history.
GENEVA - Forced labour - a relic of a bygone era? No, sadly not.
Although universally condemned, forced labour is revealing ugly new faces alongside the old. Traditional types of forced labour such as chattel slavery and bonded labour are still with us in some areas, and past practices of this type haunt us to this day. In new economic contexts, disturbing forms such as forced labour in connection with the trafficking of human beings are now emerging almost everywhere.
So begins a new ILO report entitled "Stopping Forced Labour". The 128-page study, compiled as part of the follow-up to the ILO's 1998 Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work was published worldwide in May and discussed by the ILO's 175 member States at the 89th session of the International Labour Conference.
The growth of forced labour worldwide is deeply disturbing," said ILO Director-General Juan Somavia in announcing the publication of the report in May. "The emerging picture is one where slavery, exploitation and oppression of society's most vulnerable members - especially women and children - have by no means been consigned to the past. Abusive control of one human being over another is the antithesis of decent work."
Although they might vary outwardly, different types of forced labour share two common features: the exercise of coercion and the denial of freedom. It was in recognition of this affront to the human spirit that the ILO Declaration included the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labour.
"In light of these findings the entire world needs to re-examine its conscience and instigate action to abolish forced labour and the often terrible living and working conditions that go with it, Mr. Somavia said.
The most vulnerable victims
• Women
• Ethnic or racial minorities
• Migrants
• Children
• The poor
The scope of the problem
What are the main patterns of forced labour today? According to the report, such ancient, barbaric practices as slavery and feudal bondage are not declining under the impact of national and international legislation and government action, but are still disturbingly alive.
In addition, the phenomenon of trafficking for forced or compulsory labour is growing so fast that most countries in the world today fit into one of three categories - "sending countries, transit countries and receiving countries".
"Main destinations may be the urban centres of the richer countries - Amsterdam, Brussels, London, New York, Rome, Sydney, Tokyo - and the capitals of developing and transition countries," the report says. But the movement of trafficked persons is highly complex and varied. Countries as diverse as Albania, Hungary, Nigeria and Thailand can act as points of origin, destination and transit at the same time.
Forced labour today
• slavery and abductions
• compulsory participation in public works projects
• forced labour in agriculture and remote rural areas
• domestic workers in forced labour situations
• bonded labour
• forced labour imposed by the military
• forced labour in the trafficking in persons
• some aspects of prison labour and rehabilitation through work
The report notes that outright slavery, though increasingly rare in the modern world, is still found in a handful of countries, and the wholesale abduction of individuals and communities in such conflict-torn societies as Liberia, Mauritania, Sierra Leone and Sudan is not uncommon. The forced recruitment of children for armed conflict, deemed one of the worst forms of child labour, is also on the rise.
The report also highlights debt bondage and slavery-like practices that are widespread on the agricultural plantations of such West Africa countries as Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali and Togo as well as on sugar cane plantations of the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
Slavery-like conditions and debt bondage await many workers who fall prey to coercive recruitment practices in rural areas, especially for work on agricultural plantations or in domestic work. Indigenous peoples as diverse as Pygmies and Bantus in Africa, and the Aymara and Exnet in Latin America, are especially vulnerable to such forms of forced labour, the report notes. It reminds us of the extreme case of forced labour in Myanmar, which has spurred an exceptional reaction by the international community. But it also details successful efforts to combat bonded labour in India, Nepal and Pakistan.
Poverty, unemployment, civil disorder, political repression and gender and racial discrimination make for an all-too-propitious environment for traffickers' exploitation of vulnerable persons, the report warns. Europe in particular, "has seen an explosion of trafficking since the breakup of the former Soviet Union", and large-scale sweatshop activities involving clandestine migrants have been found in Europe and North America.
Forced labour is increasingly difficult to detect, organized as it often is around international criminal gangs who find the trafficking of humans to be less dangerous than trafficking of drugs. Much forced labour involves underground or illegal activities and is otherwise hidden from public view. The growth of unregulated industrial work, agriculture and the urban informal sector are contributing factors to the economic and social forces fueling much migration and exploitation.
"There is no excuse for forced labour in the twenty-first century."
In border regions of south-east Asia, "coercion, deception and the selling of minors result from direct recruitment from the village," the report finds, with the sex sector fueling much of the activity.
In the Balkans and Eastern Europe - especially countries such as Moldova, Romania and Ukraine - trafficking in women is on the rise, with Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Kosovo region emerging as significant destination points on the way to Europe.
In Israel, "there has been an influx of women brought in by many criminal networks." The United States is thought to be the destination for 50,000 trafficked women and children each year, with the sex sector as well as domestic and cleaning work (in offices, hotels, etc.) stimulating much of the demand. Main entry points are New York State and California.
While there is universal consensus on the definition of forced labour (essentially work performed under compulsion and subject to a penalty), some of the forms it takes are still sources of policy debate. Among the most contentious issues are those involving compulsory participation of citizens in public works in the context of economic development, a practice which prevails in a number of Asian countries (including Vietnam) and African countries (Central African Republic, Sierra Leone and Tanzania).
The use of prison labour is another area of contention in countries where rehabilitation through labour is part of punishment, as in China, or where the hiring out of prison labour to private entities is permitted, as in the United States. According to the ILO report, "with prisoners already deprived of their liberty, there is an evident risk that private hiring of prison labour can involve exploitation, thus negating any pretense of the exercise of free will.
Echoes of the past
"During the past 100 years or so, the coercive practices of forced labour first came to be associated with the colonial regimes of the early twentieth century and remnants of serfdom. Then came the concentration camps, labour camps and other forms of compulsory labour that blighted the mid-century period, and which haunt us to this day in the form of continuing claims for compensation involving countries and enterprises. With the contemporary consolidation of democratic regimes, together with more open economies and renewed commitments to fighting poverty and transnational crime, there is fresh hope that forced labour can in fact be relegated to the past."
The ILO response
What can the ILO, working with its constituents and partner institutions, do to prevent and eliminate it? In spite of different aspects and the scale of the forced labour problem, the report highlights some successes of the international assistance to governments in identifying the nature and dimensions of the problem within and across their national borders. The complex mixture of social and economic conditions which permit forced labour to breed, present a daunting task for any one country to tackle alone.
The complexity of the phenomenon requires a combination of anti-poverty and labour market regulatory measures. Long-standing problems of forced labour might be linked with agrarian institutions requiring reform as regards sustainable agriculture, productivity and human rights concerns. Trafficking in persons, while displaying forced labour dimensions, also needs to be addressed from other perspectives.
While the ILO is pioneering projects which involve microfinance, rehabilitation and re-skilling of workers out of forced labour situations, and expanding its knowledge base on labour trafficking and means of prevention for those at risk, there is a global challenge at hand for the ILO and its partners. In addressing this challenge, following the discussion of this report by the Conference, the ILO is committed to working closely with governments, employers and workers in specific countries and with the international development community.
The report highlights the ILO International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) which has been working with governments, trade unions, employers' organizations and NGOs to address the problems of child labour and trafficking of children. Programmes which involve women, through education, training, credit and other empowerment tools have been crucial to an effective strategy in combating the trafficking of children.
The report examines the important role played by law enforcement agencies and United Nations bodies which have joined forces to coordinate efforts and tackle the problem on multiple fronts (such as the Global Programme against Trafficking in Human Beings). Additionally, workers' and employers' organizations, as well as individual corporations, have also taken some concrete steps such as by ascribing to the Global Compact, the United Nations system business partnership agreement, which includes freedom from forced labour as one of its principles.
"It will not be an easy task to improve the socioeconomic conditions that permit forced labour to breed, or to detect and punish the culprits who perpetrate it," the report says, adding that governments and the ILO's social partners in all countries must "deepen understanding and redouble efforts to eliminate this terrible blight on human freedom in all its forms".
Why no precise figures?
How many people are affected by forced labour today? Where are they? Who are the main victims? While these issues crop up in the report, it is not possible at this stage to give an accurate estimate of the numbers affected on a global scale. Forced labour is increasingly exacted in the illicit, underground economy. These are areas which tend to escape national statistics. And the statistics available are not sufficiently refined to get a proper handle on forced labour. Contemporary forms of forced labour thus require more investigating and attention to prepare the ground for more accurate, gender-sensitive indicators and appraisals, as a basis for policy determination and action in the future.