Alarm over rise in women trafficking for farm labour
The UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, in a report to the Human Rights Council, warns that women and girls are increasingly being trafficked for purposes of exploitation, including forced farm labour.
What you need to know:
- The UN special rapporteur on trafficking in persons has warned that women and girls are increasingly being trafficked for exploitation.
- Siobhán Mullally, in a report, highlights the importance of mandatory human rights and environment due diligence measures to combat the problem.
As the world gears up for this year’s World Day Against Trafficking in Persons tomorrow (Saturday), a new report has raised the red flag over the contribution of agriculture to the rise in trafficking of women and girls across the world.
Siobhán Mullally, the UN special rapporteur on trafficking in persons, in a report to the Human Rights Council, has warned that women and girls are increasingly being trafficked for purposes of exploitation, including forced farm labour.
They are mostly involved in planting crops, weeding, tending animals, and working for wages on the farms. They are also subjected to sexual exploitation and forced marriage.
Also read: Woman in the fight against human trafficking
The report examines the prevalence of trafficking in persons in the agricultural sector, particularly for forced labour. It highlights the importance of mandatory human rights and environment due diligence measures to combat the problem.
The special rapporteur also notes that child labour remains prevalent within the sector, with continuing significant risks of trafficking affecting both boys and girls.
Surge
Despite the global commitment to ending child labour by 2025, the report expresses concern about the recent rise in the practice, with an estimated increase of 8.4 million child labourers globally over the past four years. Agricultural work is a recognised entry point into child labour.
The release of the report comes in the lead-up to World Day against Trafficking in Persons, which will be observed tomorrow. Trafficking is a serious violation of human rights and a form of violence. This year’s theme is “Use and abuse of technology”, focussing on the role of technology as a tool that can either enable or combat human trafficking.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime 2020 Global report on trafficking in persons, women and girls are disproportionately affected. The report revealed that for every 10 victims of trafficking globally, five are women and two are girls. It also showed that women represent 96 per cent of victims trafficked for sexual exploitation.
The research further revealed that the most common form of human trafficking is sexual exploitation at 79 per cent, with victims being predominantly women and girls.
Surprisingly, in 30 per cent of the countries that provided information on the gender of traffickers, women make up the largest proportion. The report also found that in some parts of the world, women trafficking women is the norm.
The second most common form of human trafficking is forced labour at 18 per cent, although the report notes this may be a misrepresentation because forced labour is less frequently detected and reported than trafficking for sexual exploitation.
Worldwide, almost 20 per cent of all trafficking victims are children. However, in some parts of Africa and the Mekong region, children are the majority (up to 100 per cent in parts of West Africa).
Online recruitment
In 2020, the UN Women indicated that due to Covid-19, two-thirds of frontline trafficking workers had reported seeing an increase in online recruitment of women and girls by traffickers for the purposes of sexual exploitation online, including through webcam and forced online pornography.
“Trafficking is a global problem that transcends borders and is often a crime just out of reach of national law enforcement agencies, especially when it moves to the online space. The only way to stop trafficking in women and girls is prevention, which requires changing cultural norms and practices that objectify, debase and control women’s and girls’ bodies,” UN Women said.
To prevent and eliminate violence against women and girls, including human trafficking, the UN is implementing a campaign, dubbed Say No-UNiTE.
The campaign includes online petitions and social media campaigns to national awareness-raising initiatives on the ground, outreach in schools, engaging young people and faith-based organisations.
It also entails garnering concrete national commitments from governments, civil society, women’s organisations, young people, the private sector, the media, and the entire UN system to join forces in addressing the global pandemic of violence against women and girls.
