Trafficking and Related Labour Exploitation in the ASEAN Region ICSW
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Human trafficking has become an endemic crime facilitating the exploitation and abuse of enormous numbers of people world wide. Aside from the physical and psychological trauma many suffer, there are those who remain lumbered with extreme debts from which they and their poverty stricken families will never recover. Others become rich on their misery. In the ASEAN region, many thousands of people are trafficked from, through and to ASEAN countries each year. This report has synthesised key current English language research on trafficking in the ASEAN region as a means to provide a basic outline of human trafficking as it is currently understood. Country profiles present trafficking within an economic and labour migration context, as consideration of both is fundamental to understanding why anti-trafficking responses are so challenging and why they must be multi-dimensional. Despite its size, this report provides only a ‘snapshot’ of the complexity of factors currently at play. ASEAN NGO grassroots experience with victims provides unique opportunities to engage with national and regional policy and programming in this area. This report aims to provide a framework for this engagement. Trafficking and Related Labour Exploitation in the ASEAN region International Council on Social Welfare November 2007 THIS COPY IS A FINAL DRAFT FOR CONSULTATION Trafficking and Related Labour Exploitation in the ASEAN Region International Council on Social Welfare www.icsw.org Author: Sally Cameron Research Assistant: Janet Mitchell ICSW acknowledges that this publication has been made possible through grants from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). For information on ICSW activities, other publications, or becoming a member, please see www.icsw.org or contact: ICSW Global Office: International Council on Social Welfare P.O. Box 19129 3501 DD Utrecht The Netherlands Phone +31 30 789 2226 Fax +31 30 789 2111 Email: [email protected] Table of Contents Table of Contents Chapter 1. Executive Summary -Trafficking and Associated Labour Exploitation in the ASEAN Region 1. What is trafficking? 2. ASEAN’s response Chapter 2. What is Trafficking? 1. Defining trafficking 2. The role of forced labour 3. Who is trafficked? 4. Do people have a choice? 5. Why do people migrate? 6. How is labour migration organised? Chapter 3. Country Profiles Brunei Darussalam 1. Background 2. Migration System 3. Trafficking 3.1 Internal Trafficking 3.2 International Trafficking 3.2.1 Source Country 3.2.2 Transit Country 3.2.3 Destination Country 4. Issues for Consideration 4.1 Lack of research/data 4.2 Government responses Cambodia 1. Background 2. Migration System 3. Trafficking 3.1 Internal Trafficking 3.2 International Trafficking 3.2.1 Source Country 3.2.2 Transit Country 3.2.3 Destination Country 4. Issues for Consideration 4.1 Lack of research/data 4.2 Government responses Indonesia 1. Background 2. Migration System 3. Trafficking 3.1 Internal Trafficking 3.2 International Trafficking 3.2.1 Source Country 3.2.2 Transit Country 3.2.3 Destination Country 3 Trafficking and Related Labour Exploitation in the ASEAN Region 4. Issues for Consideration 4.1 Lack of research/data 4.2 Government responses Laos People’s Democratic Republic 1. Background 2. Migration System 3. Trafficking 3.1 Internal 3.2 International 3.2.1 Source Country 3.2.2 Transit Country 3.2.3 Destination 4. Issues for Consideration 4.1 Lack of research/data 4.2 Government responses Malaysia 1. Background 2. Migration System 3. Trafficking 3.1 Internal 3.2 International 3.2.1 Source Country 3.2.2 Transit Country 3.2.3 Destination 4. Issues for Consideration 4.1 Lack of research/data 4.2 Government responses Myanmar 1. Background 2. Migration System 3. Trafficking 3.1 Internal Trafficking 3.2 International Trafficking 3.2.1 Source Country 3.2.2 Transit Country 3.2.3 Destination Country 4. Issues for Consideration 4.1 Lack of research/data 4.2 Government responses The Philippines 1. Background 2. Migration System 3. Trafficking 3.1 Internal Trafficking 3.2 International Trafficking 3.2.1 Source Country 3.2.2 Transit Country 3.2.3 Destination Country 4. Issues for Consideration 4.1 Lack of research/data 4.2 Government responses 4 Table of Contents Singapore 1. Background 2. Migration System 3. Trafficking 3.1 Internal 3.2 International 3.2.1 Source Country 3.2.2 Transit Country 3.2.3 Destination 4. Issues for Consideration 4.1 Lack of research/data 4.2 Government responses Thailand 1. Background 2. Migration System 3. Trafficking 3.1 Internal Trafficking 3.2 International Trafficking 3.2.1 Source Country 3.2.2 Transit Country 3.2.3 Destination Country 4. Issues for Consideration 4.1 Lack of research/data 4.2 Government responses Socialist Republic of Viet Nam 1. Background 2. Migration System 3. Trafficking 3.1 Internal Trafficking 3.2 International Trafficking 3.2.1 Source Country 3.2.2 Transit Country 3.2.3 Destination Country 4. Issues for Consideration 4.1 Lack of research/data 4.2 Government responses Chapter 4. ASEAN’s Response to Human Trafficking 1. ASEAN’s Broad Structure 2. ASEAN Human Trafficking Related Mechanisms 3. Other ASEAN projects Chapter 5. ASEAN – Looking Forward Appendix Appendix 1 ASEAN Declaration on Transnational Crime Appendix 2 ASEAN Declaration Against Trafficking in Persons Particularly Women and Children Appendix 3 ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers Bibliography 5 Trafficking and Related Labour Exploitation in the ASEAN Region 6 Executive Summary Chapter 1. Executive Summary Trafficking and Associated Labour Exploitation in the ASEAN Region ASEAN is not alone in facing the daunting task of developing effective mechanisms to reduce trafficking in human beings from, to and between its Member Countries. Human trafficking is an insidious, criminal form of control and exploitation that has reared its ugly head in most countries of the world. This report includes profile chapters on human trafficking in each of the ten ASEAN Member Countries. Given the enormity of trafficking within the ASEAN region and the limited resources of this project, these chapters rely heavily on existing research and reports, and are ostensibly a synthesis of those documents. ICSW is indebted to the authors of these reports and also to their funding agencies. All efforts have been made to source reliable data. Unfortunately, trafficking related data is highly problematic for a range of reasons and in some instances where data was particularly difficult to source, media reports have been referenced. The vexed issue of data collection and its use is key to developing strong anti- trafficking analysis and appropriate policy responses, and was warranted important enough to require a separate section in each of the ten Member Country profiles. It is acknowledged that the many reports on which this report relies will have employed different, varied and frequently incompatible definitions of ‘trafficking’, means of data collection and analysis. In all instances, ICSW has attempted to clarify broad references before drawing on report data, however, that has not always been possible. It is also acknowledged that due to the project’s limited resources, only English language reports have been accessed (although in some instances English language reports have drawn on reports published in languages other than English). This clearly restricts access to data. In some instances, this report has referenced the US Department of State’s TIP Reports (TIP Reports)1. These reports have been produced every year since 2001. The Department of State provides information on trafficking in many of the world’s countries and ranks each country’s performance from Tier 1 (the highest ranking) to Tier 3. Ranking is based more on the extent of government action to combat trafficking than on the size of the problem, important though that is. Although these reports reflect some US bias (as would any government report reflect government bias), they are generally considered to include a fairly accurate snapshot of what is occurring. Given the lack of a comparable UN or independent ‘world report’, these TIP Reports are a useful anti-trafficking tool. A summary of each countries ranked ‘performance’ from 2001 to 2007 is included at the introduction of each chapter as it is of some interest to see whether countries might be considered to have improved (or otherwise) their efforts to reduce human trafficking. 1. What is trafficking? At its most basic level, trafficking involves the physical movement of people, frequently across borders but also domestically. Unlike people smuggling it involves significant deceptions and controls for the specific purpose of producing forced labour at the destination. While the exploitation of migrants is nothing new, trafficking is distinctive because traffickers control both the movement and the labour exploitation. The centrality of labour exploitation is key to this formula. 7 Trafficking and Related Labour Exploitation in the ASEAN Region This report employs the definition of trafficking outlined in the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children2: “Trafficking in persons” shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs. The consent of a victim of trafficking in persons to the intended exploitation set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article shall be irrelevant where any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a) have been used.