Saturday, 22 June 2013 06:50
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HUMAN trafficking is a global problem with local solutions and according to a recent US report Sri Lanka is failing to do its share.
Sri Lanka still does not fully comply with the minimum standards and failed to demonstrate evidence of increasing overall efforts to address human trafficking last year, a US report on human trafficking said.
The 2013 Trafficking in Persons Report released Wednesday by the United States Secretary of State John Kerry has placed Sri Lanka among Tier 2 Watch List countries.
Tier 2 countries are the countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.
Given the large number of Sri Lankans that have been detained in the last few years, it is clear that much needs to be done to minimise human smuggling. Last year along an estimated 1,500 people were arrested while attempting to illegally migrate to Australia while another 1,200 odd have been returned.
The fact that such high numbers are being recorded after the end of the war is telling for it points directly to economic reasons rather than political motivation.
The report underscored that despite trainings and the partial implementation of victim identification procedures the Sri Lankan Government officials did not have a clear view on human trafficking and they confused trafficking in persons with other crimes, such as human smuggling, illegal immigration, and prostitution. This confusion impeded law enforcement and victim protection efforts, the TIP report noted.
The US report recommended the Government among other things to improve efforts to investigate and prosecute suspected trafficking offenses, respecting due process, and convict and punish trafficking offenders including Government officials suspected of complicity in human trafficking.
It also suggested expanding the Bureau of Foreign Employment’s mandate to include the regulation of subagents and train local and national Government officials on the differences between trafficking and crimes such as smuggling and prostitution.
Some other recommendations included approving and fully implementing procedures to proactively identify trafficking victims among vulnerable populations and refer them to care facilities, improving services for shelters, legal aid, and counselling and improving data collection on the number of trafficking victims identified and assisted in Sri Lanka and in Sri Lankan embassies.
The TIP report also asked Sri Lanka to accede to the 2000 UN TIP Protocol. Sri Lanka is yet to ratify the United Nations TIP protocol of 2000, the protocol to prevent, suppress, and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children.
Even Australian officials admit that the economic reasons are the main push behind people deciding to leave and then get caught by human traffickers who find a way to make them pay through their teeth to undergo an extremely dangerous journey.
Prostitution is another much ignored avenue for people smuggling and rampant corruption ensures that offenders are given immense leeway. Action taken by the Government to stem people smuggling will only result in positives and could even overflow into other areas of crime. Yet solutions are few and far between in coming.
