Two planes and a 20-hour commute landed me in Bangkok, Thailand on May 29 this summer. I was about to begin a three-month internship at the United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking (UNIAP), where I hoped to become a veritable expert on trafficking.
I arrived in Bangkok on the last day of curfew and witnessed the ashes of political turmoil between Thai “red shirt” demonstrators and the government—an issue that, while subsided, was never fully resolved. The clashes claimed dozens of lives and injured over a thousand people.
In the weeks following the violence, an atmosphere of uncertainty plagued the city. Most Thais preferred not to discuss the political situation. Those that did confessed that they never imagined such events could take place on their doorsteps, especially since Thailand has been historically (and appropriately) dubbed the “land of smiles”—a reputation earned from its peaceful culture and society. It is a society where its citizens proudly stand at attention when the national anthem plays on loud speakers twice a day in the capitol, and where its citizens offer unwavering deference and devotion to its king.
This tone colored the backdrop to my summer at UNIAP, a project that was established in 2000 and seeks to coordinate responses to human trafficking in the Greater Mekong Subregion. During a time when everyday politics rested on extremely rocky terrain, the internship proved to be a rewarding challenge to refocus attention toward the issue of human trafficking, a crime that is often overlooked and loaded with misconceptions.
Human trafficking is the third most profitable criminal industry in the world. Its clandestine nature and fluctuating patterns, however, make it exceptionally difficult to monitor. Most people I spoke to equate human trafficking with women and the sex trade. While the sex trade comprises a large part of the industry, trafficking in persons also occurs in the form of debt bondage, labor exploitation and domestic servitude; for example, an emerging concern is the trafficking of men onto fishing boats at sea.
While tackling an independent project on cross border cooperation, I was able to meet with NGOs and agencies of the UN to determine which government efforts were successful in fighting against such examples of human trafficking. Governments are eager to collaborate against this serious crime for various reasons, including sincere concern, preservation of public reputation and a desire to make larger strides than the next country.
However, a major impediment to success against trafficking in persons is implementation. Decisions that are made at the ministerial level are often not executed by local authorities. During my fieldwork interviews, I discovered that some local authorities were not even aware of government agreements on human trafficking that dictated some of their daily duties. Infrastructure, communication, resources and willingness are often to blame for these shortcomings. But, regardless of the reasons why, it is evident that trickle-down diplomacy is not the most effective means of battling human trafficking.
This uphill struggle requires tremendous dedication by NGOs and international organizations, in addition to government actors. Without improved implementation and prosecutions in this field of law, progress will most likely remain stagnant. Furthermore, the role of actors such as UNIAP remains invariably important in eradicating the very grave and prevalent international crime of human trafficking.
A version of this article appeared in print in the October 2010 issue of the Bridge.
No comments:
Post a Comment