Of Hunger and Human Trafficking

Khaleej Times Online, OPINION, 24 June 2009

Ramzy Baroud (Issues)

One might be tempted to dismiss the recent findings of the US State Department on human trafficking as largely political. But do not be too hasty.

Criticism of the State Department's report on trafficked persons, issued on June 16 should be rife. The language describing efforts of US allies aimed at combating the problem seems undeserved, especially when one examines the nearly 320-page report and observes the minuscule efforts of these governments. Also, it was hardly surprising to find that Cuba, North Korea, Iran and Syria — the US foremost foes — languish in the report's Tier 3 category, i.e. countries where the problem is most grave, yet least combated. Offenders in Tier 3 are subjected to US sanctions, while governments of countries 
in Tier 1 are perceived as most genuine in fighting human trafficking in 
their countries.

One could also venture off to question the US government's own moral legitimacy; classifying the world into tiers and watch lists, congratulating some and reprimanding and sanctioning others, while the US itself has thus far (and for nine consecutive reports starting 2000) been immune from self-criticism.Undoubtedly, the political hubris and self-righteous underpinnings of the report are disturbing, but that should hardly represent an end 
to the argument.

The fact remains that the report's rating of over 170 countries is both thorough and largely consistent with facts as observed, reported by the media and examined in other comprehensive reports pertaining to the same issue. Indeed, the UN's own Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, launched by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), in February 2009, affirms much of the State Departments' findings regarding the pattern of abuses reported around the world, most noticeably in Africa, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region.

The report examined the calamity and governmental responses to the exploitation of people, including children, for the purposes of forced labour, sexual servitude and stolen organs. At least 12.3 million adults and children are used to sustain the thriving business of modern-day slavery. One can only predict that the number is much higher, considering that human traffickers have little interest in divulging exact data.

More, the global financial crisis has fueled the demand for cheap labourers, making the exploitation of the most vulnerable people part and parcel of the economic recovery plans of many companies, and even countries.

One of the testimonies cited in the State Department's report was that of Mohammed Salim Khan, who "woke up in a strange house and felt an excruciating pain in his abdomen. Unsure of where he was, Khan asked a man wearing a surgical mask what had happened. 'We have taken your kidney,' the stranger said. 'If you tell anyone, 
we'll kill you.'"

Khan's nightmare epitomises the nightmare of millions of people around the world, forced out of the sheer need to survive or to provide for a hungry family to accept the intolerable. But their plight is no secret. It can be seen in the streets of many cities around the world, from Europe, to Asia to Central America to the Gulf, where worn out, haggard looking men in dirty uniforms are working long hours for little pay, trapped between pressing needs back at home and the merciless demands of their 'recruitment agencies'.

But cheap labour, or forced labour is not the only form of human trafficking. According to the UN's Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, based on data collected in 155 countries, "the most common form of human trafficking (79 per cent) is sexual exploitation."

IRIN News, affiliated with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, reported on June 18, "women from the former Soviet Union and China are still being trafficked across the border with Egypt into Israel for forced prostitution by organised criminal groups," making Israel a "prime destination for trafficking by both the State Department and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime." One Israeli gang alone, according to the report, had trafficked over 2,000 women into Israel and Cyprus in the last six years. One has to wonder at the wisdom of international conferences and global efforts aimed at cracking down on Gazans smuggling food and medicine across the same Egyptian border to survive the Israeli siege, while next to nil efforts have been dedicated to ending the stark exploitation and abuse of thousands of women enriching Israel's sex industry.

Dare I say, that while human trafficking is itself an apolitical issue, recognising and combating, or failing to combat the problem is very much political. Imagine the sense of absolute urgency in which the banking crisis, which fueled a global recession has received, the astronomical amounts of money that have been dedicated to solve it, the trillions of dollars in global bailouts, ultimately rewarding the very culprits, etc.

Now, compare these efforts to the pathetic attempts at halting the disgraceful commercialisation of humans, their organs, their sexuality, their 
very humanity.

Alas, the problem is now compounded, as UN food officials declared on June 19 that hunger around the world has reached an unprecedented threshold of 1 billion; that is one in six people. The alarming increase of 100 million hungry children, women and men from last year's estimates is blamed on the economic recession. While international institutions are efficient at recognising such problems, proposed solutions often lack sincerity, and frankly, any sense of urgency.

"A hungry world is a dangerous world," said Josette Sheeran of the World Food Programme. "Without food, people have only three options: they riot, they emigrate or they die." They also become fresh products in markets ready to exploit those whose very survival is at stake.When Julia, from the Balkans was 8 years old, she was taken along with her sisters to a neighbouring country, where she was sold to beg. She was beaten every time she failed to return with a certain amount of money.

Once a teenager, she was sold into prostitution. After escaping, she was placed in some government orphanage, from which she also escaped, returning to the streets and sold to local men and tourists for prostitution. According to the State Department report, eventually "Julia was arrested on narcotics charges." Can this injustice be any more obvious?

Ramzy Baroud is an author and editor of PalestineChronicle.com