1. What is the main objective of TICW?

“Our main objective is to help eliminate the sexual and labour exploitation of children and women by reducing the vulnerability to human trafficking”

2. How are we doing that?

“We are reducing their vulnerability by working with those at a higher risk of being victimized, warning them of the dangers of uninformed and ill-prepared migration, encouraging their direct participation, preparing communities, workers and employers, and supporting governments at all levels to develop and maintain safer migration while promoting sustainable local alternatives to migration.”

3. Why focus on just children and women. What about men?

“We focus on children (girls and boys) and women because they are more economically disadvantaged, under-educated, and more vulnerable to sexual and labour exploitation through the deception and coercion of human traffickers”

4. Why discourage people under 15 from migrating?

“There are two reasons. First, there is an internationally agreed minimum age for work (ILO c138). Children under the age of 15 should remain in school and only migrate as part of a family unit. The longer they remain in school, the better their prospects of getting decent work. Second, we discourage young people from migrating because the younger they are, the more vulnerable they are to the deception and coercion of human traffickers. This doesn’t mean they should never migrate. As adults, many will benefit from migration. But, when old enough, and only then, and before leaving home, they should fully investigate the potential job market and conditions of work at their destination, fully aware of the dangers of human trafficking. If using agents, they should use only ones who are government registered and that they know and trust.”

5. Why shouldn’t children work to contribute to the family income?

“The ILO’s Convention 138 sets out a minimum age for work, and it differs from country to country. However it is generally accepted by member states that anyone below 15 should not be in work, they should be in school. In today’s information age, the longer a child remains in school, the more likely he/she will get a better paying job upon completion of their studies, and the more likely she/he will be able to supplement the family’s income over a longer period. In other words, from a financially struggling parents’ perspective, this is short term pain for longer term gain.”

6. Why does the project encourage direct participation of children and women in combating trafficking?

“Although we operate at various levels (e.g. with governments, etc), we actively seek direct participation of those most affected by human trafficking and exploitation – children and women. By dealing directly with vulnerable groups of children and women we can better focus our responses to the problem and come up with relevant prevention measures. Working directly with children, for example, provides an insight that is hard to gain through more traditional forms of research and it affirms children’s right to speak up and be listened to. Not only does it directly raise their awareness about the dangers of human trafficking and exploitation, but it raises their confidence in their own ability to protect themselves from abuse.”

7. What is worse, trafficking for sexual exploitation or for labour exploitation?

“The key word here is exploitation. Whether it is for the purposes of sex or labour, both categories result in a person or persons exploiting another and in the worst forms possible – for personal gain”

8. Why focus on prevention instead of protection, rescue, or instead of trying to catch the traffickers, etc?

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. And while those young people already caught up in the cycle of trafficking need help and support, the ILO and our donors have agreed that the best long-term solution to human trafficking is to tackle the ‘supply’ problem at its source – in the villages and towns where so much of the ill-informed migration begins – and the problem of ‘demand’ at the destination, in the towns and cities where most of the exploitation takes place”

9. Why not just work with law enforcement agencies and judiciary?

“Although trafficking is a crime, the objects of the crime are human beings. There is a tendency for some authorities to treat trafficking victims as criminal ‘evidence’ and/or ‘illegal’ immigrants. So in order to de-criminalize and re-humanize the situation, we work with a variety of government departments, including law enforcement officials. But it is a multi-dimensional issue, requiring multi-dimensional responses. Therefore, we also place strong emphasis on civil society, and our relationship with the ILO’s two other constituents: employers associations and workers’ groups. The more segments of society we can enlist in our prevention methods and messages the greater chances of success in eliminating the labour exploitation and the trafficking that leads to it”

10. What can you do to help change the attitudes of society toward labour and sexual exploitation of children and women?

“First we need to raise public awareness regarding the plight of those who are exploited – in both sending and receiving countries – and the negative consequences that labour and sexual exploitation have on their own society. The public need to realize the problem exists in their country. At the same time we need to show the positive benefits their society would experience by eliminating the demand for the services and products provided by those being exploited. Second, we need law enforcement officials, the judiciary, and society at large to recognize that many working in the sex trades, sweatshops, factories, construction sites and domestic workers are not there of their own choice, but have been coerced and deceived. Those individuals are victims and should be treated as such. Indeed anyone under 18 working in exploitative, slave-like of near-slave like conditions – including the sex trade – is a victim of trafficking, regardless of whether they were deceived or coerced.”

11. Can ILO-IPEC actually prevent trafficking in children and women?

“Our specific mandate is to ‘contribute’ to the elimination of labour exploitation of children and women. Working to prevent trafficking in these groups is a major step in that direction. We are laying the foundation for effective prevention, but it is up to the policy makers of each country – and their societies as a whole, including employers’ and workers’ organizations – to join forces in working toward sustainable reductions in the supply and demand for the exploitative labour of trafficking victims, thereby leading toward the elimination of human trafficking and child labour.”

12. What can Governments do?

“Governments can give priority to the situation by publicly recognizing and addressing the causes of supply and demand of trafficked labour and the victimization of those providing the exploitative labour. They can implement policies and legislation to effectively deal with illegal and fraudulent recruitment agencies, by registering bona fide agents, as part of an overall development of safer migration policies to protect the more vulnerable groups within their societies. Governments can also tackle the root causes of uninformed and ill-prepared migration of young people, especially girls, and encourage them to complete their education.”

13. What can employers organizations do?

“Employers’ organizations can rally their member companies to the global cause of eliminating child labour and exploitative labour practices in general. There are existing examples of organizations and individual companies that have led the way in anti-child trafficking and anti-exploitative labour practices, most evident in tourism and clothing manufacturing sectors. These companies have found it in their best interest to become involved in these campaigns because their customers want to buy goods and services from sources that do not exploit others. The companies can then advertise this fact as a badge of corporate honour. They maintain the moral and ethical high ground. If a company manufacturing soccer balls advertises the fact that it prohibits child labour, then the customer is left wondering whether a competing manufacturer does not. It is also a question of bottom-line competition. A company that has an illegitimate, and/or ‘illegal’ work force is undercutting the company that abides by the labour laws and labour codes of that country.”

14. What can workers’ organizations do?

“Similarly to employers, workers’ groups, unions, professional associations, etc, can rally their members to single out factories and work places where labour exploitation is taking place. Again, it is an issue of maintaining the moral and ethical high ground. But it is also a chance to ensure their existing members are not losing jobs to employers who would hire cheaper, undocumented workers. It is also another opportunity to sign up new members.”

15. How will ILO stamp out trafficking through prevention?

“Implementing effective prevention measures to combat trafficking takes time and widespread public involvement and a general understanding that human trafficking is not someone else’s problem to solve. It is a problem within society. We work with the leaders of society – governments, employers’ and workers’ groups, and others, to build up an understanding that society must work together to find their own effective and sustainable solutions”

16. Some countries refuse to accept they are part of the problem, how can we convince them otherwise?

“The government of every nation-state defends its own interests first. We recognize that and point out that even if they believe they are not part of the problem, the problem is affecting them directly, and so it is in their best interests to look at the demand and/or supply that is being created within their borders. Migrants wouldn’t flow into a country if demand didn’t exist there, and they wouldn’t flow out of a country if there wasn’t a reason to leave, like a shortage of employment opportunities. We are providing technical assistance to countries to find the extent of the human trafficking problem and, once presented with the findings, encouraging the Governments to take on the responsibility they have to their own people to effectively counteract the situation.”

17. What has this project achieved?

“In just three short years, 2000-2003, a series of pilot projects (interventions) was carried out across the sub-region. Using a participatory approach that involved the views of children as well as adults in villages where unprepared migration was a problem. We learned a lot. For example, we learned that working at the grassroots level as well as simultaneously working with higher levels of Governments was crucial in approaching the problem. This multi-track approach is already being replicated beyond the pilot stage in some countries. In 2004, in China and Lao PDR for example, the Governments have replicated the project’s practices in other provinces. Replication and mainstreaming into public policy are two of our key objectives”

Our Mission Statement:

Our mission is to help eliminate the sexual and labour exploitation of children and women in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region by reducing their vulnerability, and preventing their exposure, to human traffickers and exploitative employers.

In partnership with governments, employers’ and workers’ groups, and other organizations, we are striving to help countries create safer, open and accessible migration channels – and working conditions for adult migrant workers – within and between countries.

We are helping to raise awareness of the long-term benefits of a child in school, while working to reveal and reduce demand for exploitative occupations that disrupt their education and their human development.

We are helping to mobilize society and policy makers in order that they may take over our campaign to permanently eliminate the exploitative conditions that lead to and stem from trafficking in children and women, while introducing financially sustainable local alternatives to unprepared and ill-informed migration.