Trafficking in Persons: Concepts, Intervention Models and Implications for Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS Program Research

Dale Huntington, World Bank Group
Philip Guest, Population Council

Throughout the world men, women, boys and girls are trafficked within their own countries and across international borders against their will in what is essentially a clandestine slave trade. The clandestine nature of irregular migration in general, and trafficking in particular, renders it virtually impossible to obtain an accurate estimate of its true magnitude (Miller, 1995). The Congressional Research Service and the U.S. State Department estimate that 1 to 2 million people are trafficked each year worldwide with the largest number originating in Asia (Miko, 2000). Trafficking is considered among the fastest growing aspects of international criminal activity and is often cited as being as large an economic activity as illegal drugs and arms smuggling (Orhant, 2001). Trafficking is intimately bound to labor migration. Despite agreement on distinctions between smuggling and trafficking and what actually constitutes a legal definition of trafficking, the combination of forces that propel the illegal movement of people are intertwined and create complicated circumstances that exceed accurate description with empirical data and hinder the development of theoretical constructs for its analysis (Appleyard and Salt, 2000). The root causes of trafficking and other forms of labor migration involve global economic forces that exacerbate disparities of wealth (Skeldon, 1990); changes in the age composition and distribution of the world’s population (Bongaarts, 1994; Bongaarts and Bulatao, 2000); and the global homogenization of culture, in part through the penetration of mass media and the growth of socially dispersed social networks, that increases awareness of job opportunities far from home (Massey et.al., 1994). Recently there have been a number of significant international agreements pertaining to trafficking that have the combined effect of establishing a consensus on what constitutes trafficking and how it violates agreed upon human rights standards. The 1999 ILO Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labor clearly addresses prohibitions on the abduction, sale or trafficking of children for any purpose. The 1999 UN Crime Commission work and the November 2000 Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, which is supplemented by two additional protocols, Smuggling of Migrants (Annex III) and Trafficking in Persons – Especially Women and Children, (Annex II, commonly referred to as the Trafficking Protocol) both of which reiterate and extend prohibitions against trafficking, (UN DOC, 2000) The later instrument provides the currently agreed upon definition of trafficking: Trafficking in persons is defined as “…the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring 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 purposes of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation or the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.” (UN DOC, 2000) The combination of legal precedence governing State actions against trafficking is overwhelming. When these measures are coupled with the Trafficking Protocol, an international consensus is present that sufficient definitional attributes of trafficking are recognized for the development of national policies and programs to deter its occurrence and care for the victims -- despite the numerous subtle differences in the terminology used to describe irregular migration and abuse of legal forms of migration (e.g., movement of children for adoption and movement of women as brides) that will persistently complicate discussions of what does, and does not constitute trafficking, (Skeldon, 2000). In addition to the terminological difficulties in describing trafficking, other aspects surrounding the interpretation of the rights of trafficking persons continue to be problematic and interfere with programs that seek to stop the practice and care for its victims. Foremost among these contentious areas is the position of non-citizens. Pervasive and deeply rooted gender biases also confound the application of international legal instruments related to trafficking, and have been suggested as being one of the principal causes for its growth, (Sanghera, 2001). This paper begins with an analytic overview of the development of international instruments that define and serve to prohibit the trafficking of persons. The discussion moves into an analysis of contemporary anti-trafficking programs (governmental and civil society activities), revealing the complexities surrounding the delivery of services at different stages of the trafficking process. Four segments or phases are identified to frame the discussion of program models: (1) Pre-Movement; (2) Movement; (3) Post-Movement / Exploitation; (4) Post-Exploitation. The paper shows that despite the growing recognition of trafficking, programmatic responses are at a nascent state of development, hindering the conduct of evaluative research studies. Several appropriate research methods are identified for bringing scientific rigor to the study of trafficking. The final section of the paper examines the reproductive health care needs of trafficked persons, and how HIV/AIDS control programs can protect the rights of trafficked persons while providing needed services. The limited experience with providing health care services to migrants is examined for suggestions on how to design operations research studies that on the health care needs of the trafficked victim. 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