Perspectives on Trafficking and sexwork.

[Guest guest]

Dear moderator,

On the forth of this month there was a discussion on 'Trafficking' in a

meeting jointly called by SFDRT of Pondicherry and The American Consulate,

held in Aruna Hotel at Chennai. Many NGOs participated along with the

officials of the American Consulate. As Trafficking always brings in the

issue of sexwork and sexwork brings in HIV/AIDS, I thought the concept note

prepared for that occasion will be relevant for discussion in this forum.

This is an improved version. So I am sending it. If you think it is good

for discussion, please put that on the e-forum.

Love Maitreya

e-mail: <maitreya@...>

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TRAFFICKING AND MIGRATION

Maitreya

It is easy to come together on a consensus about trafficking, because who

could say recruiting, moving and selling persons against their will or

forcing persons to do work they don't want to do is an acceptable thing.

But the issue of trafficking is intrinsically related to the issue of

migration, which should be central to any discussion on trafficking.

People, time immemorial, traveled from places to places in search of better

living conditions, food, shelter and in the modern age for adventure, job,

pleasure and out of sheer curiosity. When the nation states came into

existence, all mobility of people was curtailed by instituting passports

and visas. This is against the nature of human spirit and evolution. So

when laws, denying the mobility of people, were instituted the issue of

trafficking also came into existence.

If we just take one side of the coin as the truth itself, we will miss

the boat. So we should understand the issue of trafficking in this complex

situation. When we say that trafficking is against the will of the person

trafficked is not always true and at the best a partial truth. This is a

dilemma we should address. So instead of blocking all migration, by placing

it in the frame work of trafficking, we should address the issue in the

frame of " safe migration " . This way we could really monitor the needs of

the people and contain their exploitation by trafficking Mafia.

Again the issue of migration usually will be confined to the discussion of

the movement of women only and that also for sexwork. We should know that

men, women and children are all trafficked and for different reasons. So

any discussion should address this issue in its complexity and divergence.

We should know that all don't want to stay at home or everything is rosy at

home also. This knowledge will help us to know, whether we are sending

people back to their home or country is also " against their will " . So

rescue and rehabilitation efforts and measures should be taken in

consultation with the so called 'victims'. We are of the opinion that the

'victim' status should not be thrust upon people unnecessarily.

So, to begin with, any discussion on trafficking should first of all

de-link sexwork from trafficking and then link it with migration. People

may do any job available, in inhuman conditions, in the migrated country

from housework to sexwork, bonded labor to organ transplantation, camel

riding to begging. But we always forget that they do the same thing in

their own home country. It is the miserable condition of the place they

live that drives them in hordes rather than the enticement of the Mafia.

People are ready to pay any devil dearly just to get out of the inhuman

hole they are born into. In India billions live in abject poverty, treated

inhumanly, and discriminated on caste and class and none of them are

trafficked. This can be seen almost all over the third world countries.

Think about the " Vietnam boat people " , the " Afghan boat people " , think

about the " Chinese wagon tragedy " . There is more to trafficking than the

need for sexwork and involves men also along with women and children.

Then the discussion rounds only about poor people's migration. Nobody talks

about the " trafficking of doctors, engineers and IT professionals " . In

India anyone working in the Government or Private Sector has all the job

security and pension, but all these professionals working abroad have

nothing of that sort and live a stressed, exploited, machine like-life.

They could be thrown out, ill treated, arrested, killed and put to untold

racial discrimination. (For example, the aftermath of September 11 in US)

Indeed we see it so much, we take that for granted. See the plight of all

the labor we export to the Gulf countries. Of course, the argument is good

money, even though being second or third rate citizens or life of shame and

oppression. Ask any sexworker s/he will have the same answer.

Then, there is this hidden agenda of the developed nations. After the

demise of former Soviet Union, labor from the erstwhile East European

countries started flowing to the rich west. Now the job markets of these

developed countries are filled with " white labor " and they want to stem the

flow of the " brown and black labor " from the other third world countries.

So all these talk and projects around anti-trafficking grew out of this

need to block migration from poor countries. They are out with lot of money

and are wooing the local NGOs with talks of humanitarian concern and love.

If humanitarian concern is the root of all this, why not allow safe

migration and lift unnecessary laws blocking it.

But they do want cheap labor also for their menial jobs, which they will

get by allowing the traffickers to bring in cheap labor. Initially they

will turn a blind eye to all trafficking. But when the need is fulfilled,

they will go for a drive of humanitarian concern. Then there will be

another lag for some time and again it will be done in cycles. This, you

can see from the new laws enforced in the Gulf countries in the recent

times. They have enough labor now and so there is strict enforcement of

immigration and migration. People are all sent back and there are dead

lines hanging around (again out of humanitarian concern) in all these

countries. One may wonder what they were all doing while these poor people

were going in.

All this do not mean that there is no issue of trafficking and violation of

human rights. There is a real issue in it and we should fight it also. But

we, the NGOs of the third world, should know ' the politics' of funding and

projects. We must have a balanced understanding of the issues involved.

Then, we should help all anti-trafficking measures taken by our own people

and along with it we should raise the issue of migration in appropriate

forums. We should not fall into the gullible talk of humanitarian concern

and love by the rich nations. It is the humanitarian love of bombing the

water treatment plants of Iraq first and then giving bottled water, at a

price, to drink.

So to conclude, trafficking is migration, when all official sources are

restricted or closed. Make " safe migration " possible and we will be able to

curtail all activities of trafficking.

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