RIGHTS: Trafficking in Humans – A 7.0 Billion-Dollar Business

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 30 2000 (IPS) - The international trafficking of human beings, especially of women who are then forced into prostitution, represents the world’s third largest area of organised crime, and a business that produces seven billion dollars annually.

Greater illegal profits are found only in the drugs and arms trades, according to data from the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (ODCCP), released during the International Seminar on Trafficking in Human Beings, in the Brazilian capital this week.

Every year, nearly one million women worldwide are victims of the activity – which amounts to slavery -, says the ODCCP, whose executive director, Pino Arlacchi, took part in the two-day seminar ended Wednesday.

Brazil’s role in the phenomenon can be seen in the 75,000 women currently involved in the sex trade in the European Union, according to the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, a non- governmental organisation in Finland.

Spain is the top destination for such women, who are usually attracted by offers of employment, good wages and other benefits. Once they arrive, the smugglers confiscate their passports and force them to pay back the airline ticket, and other supposed “travel expenses,” through prostitution.

Nearly all women – 95 percent – are tricked in similar ways and subjected to degrading living conditions, according to the Finnish study.

There are no reliable statistics available to give a precise idea of the scope of the problem, acknowledged police agents, UN experts and diplomats participating in the conference. In addition to being illegal and clandestine, the practice of smuggling migrants benefits from scant investigation and lack of information exchanged by authorities on the issue.

Arlacchi, who won fame for his efforts against the Mafia in Italy, commented that the magnitude of international trafficking in human beings approaches that of narcotics, but presents greater difficulties for authorities attempting to fight it.

The Helsinki Foundation points to Brazil as the largest Latin American source of women engaged in the sex trade in Europe, as the country is responsible for 15 percent of the region’s “human exports.”

Brazil’s Foreign Ministry has some idea of the problem’s gravity due to the number of Brazilian women deported back home, especially from Spain. In 1998 alone, the Spanish authorities returned 461 women of “irregular legal status “to Brazil, according to consular information.

Portugal, Belgium, France and the Netherlands are other countries where there are many Brazilian women forced into prostitution. Brazil’s border with Suriname is one of the major routes for such trafficking in human beings, according to the International Police (Interpol).

In Portugal, in addition to Brazilians, there are many Colombian and Eastern European women in prostitution, according to that country’s Assistant Attorney General, Euclides Simaes.

The phenomenon of smuggling emigrant women is most evident in countries facing war or prolonged economic crisis, which explains the wave of women coming from countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Hungary and Romania, pointed out Brazil’s Human Rights Secretary of State, ambassador Gilberto Saboia.

Brazil, he acknowledged, also faces intense internal trafficking, as young people are forced into prostitution in “remote areas of the country,” such as the ‘garimpo’ zones of informal gold mining, and along the nation’s borders. There are also reports of many Brazilian women sex workers in Paraguay.

Trafficking in children for illegal adoptions, and workers who emigrate, fooled by intermediaries who offer nonexistent jobs, were some of the other concerns addressed by the experts in Brasilia.

In the case of smuggling children, Saboia stressed that The Hague Convention, which regulates international adoption, must by ratified in order to better combat illegal adoptions.

Justice Minister José Gregori signed an accord with Arlacchi which establishes that the ODCCP is to assist the Brazilian government in its fight against trafficking in women and children.

In mid-December, Brazil is also to sign the Convention against Organised Crime, in Palermo, Italy, during an international meeting to further define mechanisms to combat trafficking of human beings.