Hidden Forms of Human Trafficking: A Critical, Gendered Discussion

Last Thursday night, I had the pleasure of delving into another interesting yet horrible international topic: the issue of human trafficking. The panel discussion was organized by the group Dignity for Women Worldwide (DWW), and sponsored in part by the Kay Spiritual Life Center, the International Peace and Conflict Resolution program at SIS, the Break the Chain Campaign, and the AU Student Government’s Women’s Initiative. DWW is a student formed organization created last year to discuss the position of women in many international situations.

The discussion began with a reading of the UN’s definition of what human trafficking is to try and clear up any misconceptions. The United Nations definition of human trafficking is “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". (UN) It is a blatant violation of basic human rights that is silently slipping under the radar while look on in disgust but do nothing about it.

The first panelist to speak was Tiffany Williams, who is the Advocacy Director for the Break the Chain Campaign at the Institute for Policy Studies. She has focused on research and writing that highlights the connection between immigrant rights, workers rights, and human trafficking. She stated that domestic work is often considered women’s work because of centuries of gendered and racialized views established by the general hierarchy of most societies. Domestic labor is often not considered productive labor, and it has resulted in general disregard for the necessities of domestic workers. In fact, even during the New Deal era, domestic workers were not ensured Social Security until the 1950s – both domestic workers and farmers dealt with many problems such as this during the New Deal era. Ms. Williams pointed out that there are still not many protections for domestic workers. The Break the Chain Campaign began as a result of the influx of domestic workers into DC, and has been working hard ever since. Many of the workers that come seeking aid mostly do domestic work for international diplomats, members of the IMF, and members of the World Bank. Most of these domestic workers are immigrant women of color, and although they may be suffering major issues, diplomatic immunity makes incarcerating these felons for their mistreatment even harder.

Evelyn Chumbow is a living testament and a powerful symbol of hope for many in this kind of situation. She is an inspiring speaker who was brought from her native Cameroon to be a slave in the US. She is now studying as a full-time student in the University of Baltimore’s College of Arts and Sciences to become a social worker. She explained how she was brought here at the age of nine under the pretense of being adopted to have a better chance in life, to start her education and make something of herself. She didn’t start school until she was eighteen. As soon as she arrived in the US, her passport was taken away by the Cameroonian diplomat who had come to take her away and was forced to clean, cook, and take care of the two children in the home. If she did not do all of the tasks in a timely manner, she would be beaten or face worse. She would sometimes go without food for 2-3 weeks or even a month. One punishment she was subjected to was standing up in place from 10:00PM until 5:00AM so that she would be ready to help the kids getting ready.

Evelyn has not seen her parents in over eighteen years. She is twenty-six now and still has never been back to Cameroon. She really wants to go back though. She also does not like that when it comes to human trafficking, people almost always think only of sex trafficking because what she suffered is just as terrible. She barely knew the value of a dollar and would accidentally steal food without even knowing it when getting food for the family, how to call 9-1-1 for help, and she had to sleep on the cold floor of the garage. She spent a lot of time contemplating suicide, becoming a prostitute, and anything else that could get her away, and she thanks her friend, Melanie, for being an inspiration to get through. Her trafficker was eventually incarcerated and is now spending a seventeen-year term in prison. Before she taken to prison, her trafficker spread vicious lies about Evelyn, making her the most hated person in her community. Evenlyn’s family was even threatened, but she spoke out nonetheless. She wants to inspire more people to speak up, and also wants Congress to focus less on American girls involved in sex trafficking and do something about this very prevalent issue.

The third panelist, Chissy Mueller, is a project coordinator for the Caribbean at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) office located in DC. She has recently been covering the Caribbean region of her organization and as such has not spent a lot of time in DC. She wanted to focus more on men in human trafficking since most of the attention usually goes on women. For in fact, a recent study in central Asia showed that 70 percent of the people being trafficked were males. A lot of awareness and academic research is now shifting to include men. One of the biggest issues is that of the trafficking of fishermen in Thailand. There is a chronic shortage of fishing hands that hurts Thailand’s fish industry, so recruiters scour Southeast Asia seeking potential workers. The workers are promised jobs in factories and more, and then transported and traded off several times before being bought by the captains. The night before they go to work, they are taken to a karaoke bar to spend their money and accumulate massive debt due to inflated prices. This is when the hell begins.

Due to debt bondage, they must work off what they owe before they can leave. Thus the men are forced to work 20 hour days nonstop, getting worn down and abused, and if you cannot work anymore, you get thrown over the edge. One might think that a mutiny could be organized, but then the workers are reminded that the captain killed people before – sometimes he gives a live example as incentive to work. Being so far away from mainland society, there really is little hope of people coming to save you. If a worker falls asleep on the job he will most likely be beaten with a stingray tail. Thus they are left with two options: stay or jump ship.

This situation has no paperwork involved so it is even harder to track the process. Worse even more, if you stay at an NGO shelter, you will not be allowed to work. Meanwhile in Belarus and Ukraine, the trafficking situation is much more believable. As Ms. Mueller put it, it is a formal façade. The recruiters accurately mimic serious companies and other groups with convincing legal documents, but when the work begins it is brutal once again. They receive no pay to work in terrible factories for seven days a week, dealing with beatings, sexual abuse, and terrible living conditions. Victims of the trafficking ordeal often deal with psychological trauma. In some situations, people are even docked pay for simple requests. One man was fined 150 Euros for requesting gloves to handle materials. People who would show up late to meetings would be docked $40.00 and then an extra $40.00 for medical attention. Even begging is part of the trafficking ordeal, as children are commonly used for this, as well as petty theft and drug dealing.

The last panelist was Ann Jordan, the Director of the Program on Forced Labor and Trafficking in the Center on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at AU’s Washington College of Law. She is an international human rights attorney who specializes in the human rights issues related to human trafficking, forced labor, and women’s rights. She made a quip about the talk of boys committing theft relating to something out of Dickens, such as in Oliver Twist. She then went on to say that human trafficking is often seen as a silo issue, separate from everything else. It is often thought to only deal with women and sex. The problem is that people has been focusing mostly on prostitution and more with trafficking instead of all the factors it encompasses, including forced labor. If we didn’t talk using “trafficking,” we could connect many women’s groups. The problem is that most of the information we know is based on anecdotes, not real research. We need to find the source of information and get quantitative figures, not qualitative opinions. Jordan pointed out that even with all the laws passed to reduce trafficking, very little has changed. Even when law enforcement is used, the case usually ends up dealing with prostitution. We need to have more labor inspectors and more searching for offenses in the US. Worldwide the forced labor work will continue if we don’t do anything. Peruvian men will still be trafficked in to be sheep herders in Colorado, Uzbeks will still be forced to pick cotton by the government, and nothing will change unless we do something. But what can we do?

The panelists suggest learning about the global community and economy dealing with human trafficking. We should look for organizations to help with the cause while looking for others involved in exploiting the work of these workers. These groups should be boycotted for their exploitation of cocoa, cotton picking, and even iPad production. We are considered responsible in the US because of our materialistic tendencies, and as such we often seek out cheaper clothes even though it could have been made by a forced labor worker.

The panelists seemed to be in agreement on that last point, going on to say that Americans would be much better consumers if we received less illegally made products. Prices would be higher without trafficking, and if capitalism cannot thrive without trafficking, there is evidently something wrong with it. Meanwhile much of Congress is unaware of child labor trafficking. Some may try to hide the truth, but Evelyn has the ultimate proof: scars all over her body. While many still treat her badly in her community because of the situation, she continues to go on with her studies to better her future. As for organizations that can have an influence on the situation they are very cynical with the media and its attention on only certain topics.

This was an incredibly informative talk, and Evelyn is definitely a source of inspiration for anyone in that situation. What I would have liked to ask more is what groups could do the greatest amount of work to cause a positive change in this situation? Is it the government, the media, NGOs, IGOs, or businesses? Who can do the most to stop this horrible issue, and what can they do?