Saving people for development

HUMAN trafficking in Sri Lanka is not an issue that is widely discussed. However, the 2011 Trafficking in Persons Report points out that the country does not fully comply with the minimum requirements needed to protect people and that there are still many loopholes in the law and procedures followed.

As a country that makes a significant income from remittances, there is an indivisible responsibility to ensure that people are protected when they are sent abroad. The report observes that Sri Lanka is primarily a source, and to a much lesser extent a destination, for men, women and children subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking.

Sri Lankan men, women and some children (between 16 and 17 years old) migrate consensually to Kuwait, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman, Bahrain and Singapore to work as construction workers, domestic servants or garment factory workers. Some of these workers, however, subsequently find themselves in conditions of forced labour through practices such as restrictions on movement, withholding of passports, threats, physical or sexual abuse and threats of detention and deportation for immigration violations.

Many of these migrants pay high recruitment fees – usually about $ 1,500 – imposed by unscrupulous licensed labour recruitment agencies and their unlicensed sub-agents and assumes debt in order to satisfy these costs. This indebtedness contributes to debt bondage in destination countries. A recent Human Rights Watch report noted that over one-third of Sri Lankan domestic workers in Jordan have been physically abused by their employers, 11% have been sexually assaulted, 60% have not been paid wages, over 60% have had their passports confiscated and 80% have experienced forced confinement – these are abuses that indicate forced labour.

As the report points out, there is also a significant lack of prosecution for the errant recruitment agencies, which are mostly politically connected. Assistance from the various embassies based in these countries is limited and consistent programmes are hard to find. Official complicity in human trafficking is also a problem that needs to be addressed.

With the rise in the tourism industry, there is a fear that trafficking of children for prostitution will increase. While there is always the danger of women being forced into prostitution, the issue of boys being sold to tourists is continuing to haunt the industry. In 2009, the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) estimated that approximately 1,000 children were subjected to commercial sexual exploitation within Sri Lanka although some NGOs believed the actual number was between 10,000 and 15,000. NGOs expressed concern that the recent increase in tourism in the very poor post-conflict areas on the east coast may increase demand for child sex tourism. Children are also used in domestic labour and other illegal practices.

The recommendation list for Sri Lanka is long. The main points range over vigorously investigating and prosecuting suspected trafficking offenses, particularly those responsible for recruiting victims with fraudulent offers of employment; establishing law enforcement capacity at shelters in embassies abroad; developing and implementing formal victim referral procedures; training local law enforcement and judicial officials on investigating and prosecuting trafficking crimes; promoting safe tourism campaigns to ensure that child sex tourism does not increase; and improving regulation and monitoring of recruitment agencies and village-level brokers. Developing Sri Lanka hinges on safeguarding its people.