A global menace
by
S.Madhusudhana Rao |
Sultanate’s action plan to fight human trafficking
One of the side-effects of globalisation is human trafficking. It is defined as recruiting and transporting people illegally from one country to another or from one region to another within a country. But a simple definition doesn’t explain the ramifications of human trafficking and how deep-rooted the menace is. It’s a multi-faceted problem with its tentacles spreading across the globe.
Unscrupulous elements prey on poor and gullible people aspiring for a better life and transport them illegally to different lands where they are left to fend for themselves as refugees or unlawful immigrants. If they are lucky, they survive the harsh journey lasting several days, often without food and water. Unlucky ones are left wayside or thrown into the sea.
There is no gender or age difference and it’s a snake and ladders game for the survival of the fittest. It is one of the most heinous criminal industries thriving on human greed and desperation with estimated total annual revenue of about $10 billion. Accurate figures are difficult to come by because of the secret underworld dealings and surreptitious transactions. The very nature of illegal trading in humans involves organised criminal gangs with links to arms dealers, smugglers and drug barons.
That’s the biggest problem for law-enforcing authorities in any country to tackle human traffickers because of their nexus with other criminals. Nevertheless, huge efforts are going on to minimise, if not completely eliminate, the menace. This has assumed international urgency following fears of terrorist infiltration into human trafficking rackets. A global cooperation among different security agencies is under way to check the scourge.
But it’s not an easy task because the problem has to be tackled at the grass-root level first. Since most of the victims hail from developing nations and their laws differ from country to country, they have to deal with human trafficking according to local legislations. But at the global level, various international agencies, including the United Nations, are coordinating the fight against human trafficking. In recent years, trafficking of women has been increasing alarmingly. Young girls and women are lured into vice trade and are shipped from one place to another either illegally or on fake travel documents. It is a cross-border business in Europe and Asia and the victims are at the mercy of their traffickers.
Women are ill-treated, victimised and in some cases abandoned. They are helpless in countries they were brought to and live without access to medical, welfare, social and official care. Being illegals, often they end up in transit camps awaiting deportation or in prisons to face judicial decisions or refugee camps. Thousands of human trafficking victims, a good majority of them women, are languishing in camps or jails in many countries at any given time waiting for their fate to be decided by their host governments. Their plight is indescribable. The only way for governments to end their misery is to take stern action against human traffickers and put in place laws to tackle such offences with an iron hand.
The Sultanate is one of the few countries to deal with human trafficking from humanitarian, legal and rehabilitation angle. A National Committee for Combating Human Trafficking (NCCHT) was set up in November last year under the Human Trafficking Law with representatives from relevant ministries and public bodies.
Recently, it has taken a series of steps to curb human trafficking, although crimes of such nature are limited in the country. The measures include a new website and a hotline to enable residents to report cases of human trafficking to authorities. The twin steps, first in the GCC countries and second in the Arab world, indicate the government’s resolve to curb the menace. By doing so the Sultanate has once again demonstrated to the world that it would fight along with others against human trafficking.
The Sultanate’s decisions are born out of the fact, and belief, that human trafficking is an international challenge to societies and it must be dealt with effectively at national and international level. Keeping this in mind, the Sultanate has formulated an action plan which will go a long way in curbing trafficking of people, particularly women. One of the salient features of the plan is synergising national and international efforts through collection and analysis of data on trafficking. This is an excellent approach to the problem because the two-pronged strategy will give the local authorities an overall picture and reduce delays in acting against offenders.
The action plan is comprehensive, both in scope and in its application. It focuses on ways and means of developing cooperation between the authorities concerned in public and private organisations in helping victims. If any plan is to succeed it is important to see its benefits reach the targeted people. Many social benefit and rehabilitation schemes fail in several parts of the world because they largely remain on paper without their benefits percolating to the victims for whom the plans are chalked out.
The Sultanate’s action plan aims at overcoming such pitfalls with in-built provisions for help to the affected and making them aware of the aid available to them. Among the services victims can tap into are help in identifying the culprits and bringing them to book; legal aid; medical help; board and lodging and protection for victims and witnesses from traffickers and their cronies.
Thus the Sultanate’s measures and laws against human trafficking in all its manifestations – sexual exploitation, bonded labour, human organs sale, child labour, etc – should help protect the Omani society from the ill-effects of one of the 21st century’s social scourges. By doing so the country is also helping the world community to fight the evil with renewed vigour.
Oman Tribune |
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