WORKING GROUP 7

Trans-national human trafficking: the importance of promoting safe migration

BACKGROUND NOTE

Human migration is not a new phenomenon. For centuries, people have left their homes in search of better lives elsewhere. In the last decade, the process of globalization has enhanced the 'push-pull' factors which drive migrants' desires to seek more gainful employment abroad. This has caused an unprecedented amount of migration.

Criminal networks which smuggle human beings for financial gain increasingly control the flow of migrants. Currently, economic instability appears to be the main reason for illegal migration movement throughout the world.

Trafficking is distinct from smuggling insofar as the trafficking of human beings involves the exploitation of the migrant, often for the purposes of forced labor and sex work, but the procurement for financial or material gain and selling of a person remains the main reason for trafficking.

Migrating in search of a better life or better opportunity is a matter of choice. Yet, if this migration can be made safe, the chances of getting trafficked reduce substantially. Migration itself does not lead to trafficking but trafficking often happens in the process of migration. Yet trafficking is so clandestine that it is difficult to intercept it on the way. There is often no available profile of a trafficker. The trafficker could be a relative, a husband, a lover, even a female relative - a middleman or a middle-woman, a madam. The laws have many loopholes. The trafficking routes within the country and across the porous borders keep changing. The push and pull factors have their own dynamics, and migration, after all, is a right, a matter of informed choice.

Safe migration requires preparedness and community support. Safe migration is about making informed choices. Individual migrants and communities can be made aware of the possibilities and pitfalls of migration. They should be urged to make enquiries, get contacts in the new environment, obtain the right paperwork and information about what they need to do once they are in big cities.

Safe migration reduces the risk of trafficking.

Some parts excerpted from: "Not her real name…", Reporting Trafficking in Persons - A Media Handbook, UNDP Taha project, New Delhi, 2006

WORKING GROUP

Objectives

  • Deliberate on issues of safe migration
    • Migration, trafficking and smuggling of migrants
    • Principles of safe migration in the context of feminization of migration
    • Nexus between unsafe migration and trafficking
    • Discussion on the best practices adopted by different countries for promoting safe migration for women
    • Need for a regional protocol for safe migration of women
  • Awareness campaign for safe migration
  • Contribute to the Delhi declaration

Methodology

  • Presentations by resource persons
  • Case studies
  • Moderated deliberations

Chair: Mr. Martens Jonathan, IOM, Geneva
Facilitator: Prof. Manjit Singh, Punjab University, Chandigarh
Rapporteur: Dr. Bernard D' Sami, Arunodhyay Migrants Initiative, Chennai

AGENDA

DAY 1

Session 1: 2.00 - 4.00pm (2 hrs)

Deliberate on issues of safe migration
(Format: Brief presentations followed by interactive group discussion)

  • Migration, trafficking and smuggling of migrants
    Speaker: Mr. K.C. Saha, Consultant, UNODC
  • Principles of safe migration in the context of feminization of migration
  • The nexus between unsafe migration and trafficking
  • Trends and patterns of migration of women from South Asia
  • Profile of the migrants
  • Reasons for migration
  • Areas of origin of migrants
  • Migration history of the area
  • Migration within and outside the country
  • Destination countries of the migrants
  • Individual migration vis-a-vis mass migration
  • Types of employment in other countries

Speakers:
Bangladesh
Mr. Mizanur Rahman, Mr. Emranul Huq Chowdhury, Begum Shahiadi Begum, Mr. C.R. Abrar
India
Mr. Bernard D'Sami, Ms. P.N.S. Malathy
Nepal
Mr. Ganesh Gurung, Prof. K.C. Balkumar
Sri Lanka
Mr. Randeniya, Prof. Ravindra Fernando

Tea/Networking Break: 4:00 - 4:30pm (30 min.)

DAY 1

Session 2: 4.30 - 6.30pm (2 hrs)

  • Problems faced in the destination countries
  • Experiences of unsafe migration for women migrants in South Asia
  • Protection of rights, welfare and benefits for women migrants
    • Types of exploitation by the employers in the destination countries
    • Role of agents in unsafe migration
    • What are the issues for protection?
      • Human rights of migrants
      • Violence against them
      • Payment of wages
      • Health issues
      • Remittances sent by them
      • Protection and care of family at home

Speakers:
Bangladesh
Mr. S.K. Abdur Rauf (C), Md. Habibul Hasan Siddique(C), Mr. Iktedar Ahmed, Ms. Salima Sarwar (C)
India
Dr. Sreelekha Ray (C)
Nepal
Prof. K.C. Bal Kumar(C)
Sri Lanka
Ms. Annie Scarborough (C), Ms. Nimalka Fernando


DAY 2

Session 3: 9.30 - 11.00 am (1 hr 30 min.)

  • Best practices adopted by different countries for promoting safe migration for women
  • Need for a regional protocol for safe migration of women in the region
    • What measures have been adopted by the governments to promote safe migration?
    • Efficacy of such measures
    • What more needs to be done?
    • What should be the recommendation of the group in this regard which may form part of the Delhi Declaration?
      Bangladesh
      Mr. Mizanur Rahman
      India
      Mr. Bernard D'Sami
      Nepal
      Prof. K.C.Balkumar
      Sri Lanka
      Ms. Annie Scarborough

Tea/ Networking Break: 11.00 - 11:30 am (30 min.)

DAY 2

Session 4: 11:30 am - 1:00 pm (1 hr 30 min.)

  • Recap and working on the presentation for Delhi Declaration