News Release:
Trafficking in women, children the 'new slavery'
| Date 2/12/03 No 223/03 Trafficking of women and children in the Asian region was "the modern form of slavery", and generated global revenues estimated at 5-7 billion dollars a year for the perpetrators, a speaker at an international conference at the University of New England told delegates today. Dr Denis Wright, from UNE's School of Classics, History and Religion, said the traffickers targeted women and children not only because they were in demand for domestic servitude and commercial sex, but because they were "more compliant and less able to protest and protect themselves". "It is the third biggest international racket after drug smuggling and gun running," Dr Wright said. "It is well organised and very lucrative, and it is almost impossible to trace or prosecute the people at the top. One of the major problems is that, the way laws are enforced, victims who have been coerced into illegal activities such as prostitution are penalised rather than the perpetrators." Speaking at the Migrant Labour in South-east Asia: Needed, Not Wanted conference, he said the traffickers were usually organised-crime figures or men with legitimate business interests in travel and tourism who hired agents to dupe women and children with offers of well-paid work, sometimes in other countries. The offers came with so many built-in costs to repay travel, rent, agents and other fees that women and children often found themselves in bondage and at the mercy of their employers.
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Often coerced into prostitution, the difficulties for women were compounded if they returned to their home countries and villages, because many had contracted AIDS or other sexually transmitted diseases and were considered unfit for marriage and a disgrace to the family, Dr Wright said. He explained, however, that many families who offered their children and women for work that became slave labour were so desperately poor that they had few other options, and that some victims preferred the long hours at low pay to the alternative of even greater hardship at home. Cities like Mumbai in India acted as centres for the illegal activities as they provided easy access for tourists, many of whom were seeking sex with children, Dr Wright said. They were also a base from which to traffic women and children from poorer countries like Nepal and Bangladesh for domestic service in the Gulf States. He said the trafficking had increased in the past decade, and the most effective method of arresting it was through on-the-ground operatives such as workers with non-government organisations. More diligent enforcement of laws already on the books, and better education of police and other officials, would assist the reform process. Media contact: Dr Denis Wright, School of Classics, History and Religion, UNE, Armidale (02) 6773 2479 or Lydia Clifford, Public Relations Manager, UNE, Armidale (02) 6773 2779. A photograph of Dr Wright is available. Please contact Jim Scanlan on (02) 6773 3049. |
