Trafficking and Global Crime Control by Maggy Lee

Author:Maggy Lee [Lee, Maggy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Emigration & Immigration, Criminology
ISBN: 9781412935579
Google: S9lMoRuPeNwC
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Published: 2011-01-15T03:36:11+00:00

Human trafficking and the state

The limitations of the trafficking-as-organised crime thesis are evident if we move beyond the individual perpetrator paradigm in criminal justice to consider the broader role of the state in trafficking. There is evidence to suggest that political elites, law enforcement officers and security personnel in some regions either condone human trafficking, assist in provision of passports, visas and other documentation in exchange for bribes, or actively participate in the trafficking process. In Northern Thailand, police and border patrol officers have been known to escort women and girls trafficked from Myanmar to brothels in cities such as Chiang Mai, at a cost of 2,000 baht per journey (Brow, 2001: 203). In Central Asia where there is limited access to legitimate visa and recruitment services and considerable scale of impoverishment and informal labour market, there is evidence of border guards and police ‘organising and selling migrants according to their skills and physical condition’ either to a ‘middleman’ or directly to employers, such as farmers during harvest (Kelly, 2005b). In Bosnia and Herzegovina, local police actively participated in trafficking by procuring false documents for traffickers, issuing residency and work permits to trafficked persons, or by providing tip-offs about raids (Human Rights Watch, 2002b).

The implication of states and transnational bodies in the continuation of human traffic raises important questions about culpability and harm. As Cain and Howe (2008) argue, there are multiple levels of culpability that need to be addressed: the state’s culpability (if this is the case) for a policy that is known to produce socially harmful acts, and the culpability, in causal terms, of the individuals committing harmful acts. ‘It is necessary to identify ultimate as well as intermediate and direct perpetrators, in order to solve the problem in a constructive way, i.e., to stop the harm, identify a way forward and secure redress’ (ibid.: 16).

The relationship between the stationing of troops, prostitution and sex trafficking in post-conflict regions is a case in point. According to Human Rights Watch, Bosnia and Herzegovina emerged as a major trafficking destination not during the war but since the stationing of international troops that followed formal fighting. The presence of thousands of well-paid expatriate civilians and soldiers in locally impoverished economies has been a significant motivating factor for traffickers. Troops (including peacekeeping troops) feed a demand for prostitution, and in some cases prostitutes include victims of trafficking. ‘Jurisdictional gaps, lack of political will, and indifference toward the crime of trafficking ensure that the small number of SFOR [The Stabilisation Force] military contractors and IPTF [International Police Task Force] monitors who participate in trafficking-related offenses do so with nearly complete impunity’ (Human Rights Watch, 2002b: 46). The US State Department TIP Report (2003) acknowledged that trafficking activities increased in Afghanistan and Iraq, as ‘the demand for prostitution often increases with the presence of military troops, expatriates and international personnel who have access to disposable income’. All this raises the question of state-induced trafficking harms and the lack of mechanism for holding the state to account.

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