Trafficking… it's everywhere

At least 25 distinct types of human trafficking were identified in the United States in a ground-breaking report published in 2017. “One of the primary challenges to ending modern slavery has been the lack of data to understand the problem,” Bradley Myles the CEO of Polaris said when their report was published. Last year, Namibia was again identified as one of the nations that is failing to effectively combat human trafficking in the 2017 US State Department's Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP). The report noted that Namibia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, but has taken significant steps to do so. In 2008, the TIP report designated Namibia as a 'special case', because of a lack of “reliable information on the country's trafficking circumstances”.

The report noted that “the existence of a significant human trafficking problem is suspected, even though the scope and magnitude remain unsubstantiated by sufficient reliable reporting.”

A baselines assessment by the gender and child welfare ministry from 2009, noted that only a small number of cases of human trafficking were identified in Namibia at the time. “However, it is possible that there might be more cases,” the report acknowledged. The report found that a global problem in tackling trafficking, namely the “conflation of terminology and understanding of trafficking, smuggling and illegal migration” was to blame for data scarcity. Moreover, that “one of the major difficulties in assessing potential trafficking cases is the lack of definitional clarity about trafficking on the part of both lay- and professional personnel.”

While several investigations were launched over the past eight years, and a handful of reports on trafficking published, recent data remains slim and information on whether suggested interventions and recommendations to tackle the issue have been effective, scarce. Nevertheless, a number of government workshops have taken place in the past three years, to equip officials to better understand the issue of trafficking, and several cases of human trafficking are on the court rolls.

And in 2017, a Trafficking in Persons Bill was tabled.

Still, general awareness and concrete data on types of trafficking and the mechanisms behind them is lacking in Namibia.



Data, data, data

The Polaris report highlighted the critical need for an in-depth understanding of the different types of trafficking occurring in a country.

“From sex trafficking within escort services, to labour trafficking of farmworkers, the ways humans are exploited differ greatly. Each type has unique strategies for recruiting and controlling victims, and concealing the crime,” the 'The Typology of Modern Slavery' stated. Polaris researchers analysed more than 32 000 cases of human trafficking documented between December 2007 and December 2016 in the United States through its national hotline and text services.

A lack of data has slowed down progress on combatting traffickers, the report warned.

Without concrete data, anti-trafficking campaigners work “at an incomplete chess game, moving pieces without seeing hidden squares or fully understanding the power relationships between players.” The report's goal was to bring the way in which traffickers operate and who the vulnerable are, into sharp focus.

The classification system created through the research, subsequently found that the 25 types of human trafficking each have its own business model, trafficker profiles, recruitment strategies, victim profiles and methods of control that allow the exploitation of people to take place.

It is hoped the research will give anti-trafficking campaigners a better understanding of the vulnerability of these networks and how to disrupt them.

“Polaris' data-driven Typology segments the market of human trafficking beyond the existing categories of sex trafficking and labour trafficking, revealing the dozens of manifestations of how traffickers control and exploit others for profit.” The data also highlighted a common problem of awareness. “Only 16% of the cases identified on these hotlines involved labour trafficking,” but Polaris “strongly believes” that labour trafficking cases in the US, and globally, are chronically underreported due to a lack of awareness and recognition of the significant vulnerability of workers.



Puzzle pieces

Trafficking categories identified by Polaris include traveling sales crews, involving mostly young, vulnerable persons, who move between cities and go door-to-door, often selling fraudulent products such as magazine subscriptions that customers may never receive.

Another type of trafficking involves criminal syndicates who force victims into criminal activities, including selling or smuggling drugs or other contraband.

This type of “labour trafficking within illicit activities can occur in tandem with sex trafficking business model,” the research indicated. Cooks and other restaurant or food industry employers, including waiters, are also vulnerable to traffickers, who “often taking advantage of language barriers between exploited workers and patrons to help avoid detection”. Trafficking victims can include peddlers and beggars, who are forced to trudge the streets during all hours of the day. This type of trafficking is “is a well-known type of labour trafficking globally,” the report noted.

Often, traffickers force young children to “sell candy or baked goods, or solicit donations on streets or in shopping centres”.

Labour trafficking has further identified in landscaping, construction, forestry and logging, agriculture and animal husbandry industries. Carnivals, the arts and entertainment industry, hotels and hospitality industries and commercial cleaning services, have all reported forced labour trafficking. Human trafficking was detected at recreational facilities, including amusement parks, summer camps, golf courses, and community swimming pools. Lifeguards, camp counsellors, ride attendants, and food vendors, have involved trafficking cases in the United States, the Polaris report found. Healthcare was frequently linked to labour trafficking cases. “Labour trafficking victims in the healthcare industry are primarily found in nursing homes and as home health aides”.

The findings also report in depth on trafficking in the sex and pornographic industries, and the wide variety of exploitation taking place there.

Polaris stated in the report that “cases of modern slavery are diverse and involve complex situations, and many cases lacked sufficient detail to be easily classified.”

Polaris believes that maximising understanding of human trafficking types “we can begin to develop strategic campaigns to spur systematic action, unite disparate efforts, allocate limited resources, and facilitate effective interventions to combat the crime”.

Further, policy loopholes can be closed and countries or communities can adopt better safeguards to reduce the risk of trafficking. “Smart, targeted interventions can be coordinated and directed at specific types of trafficking, reducing the chance that human trafficking continues to be a low-risk, high-profit crime.”

*Namibian Sun journalist Jana-Mari Smith was in the United States on invitation by the US Department of State's Foreign Press Centre. She joined 19 other journalists from around the world to take part in an international reporting tour to create awareness and gain insight into combating human trafficking through prevention, protection and prosecution.



JANA-MARI SMITH