• E4J University Module Series: Trafficking in Persons & Smuggling of Migrants

• Module 13: Gender Dimensions of Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants

• Introduction and learning outcomes

• Key issues

• • Basic terms: gender and gender stereotypes
  • International legal frameworks and definitions
  • Global overview on TIP and SOM
  • Gender and migration
  • Key debates in the scholarship on TIP and SOM
  • Gender and TIP and SOM offenders
  • Responses to TIP and SOM: Is gender taken into consideration?

• Exercises

• Possible class structure

• Core reading

• Advanced reading

• Other resources

• Student assessment

• Additional teaching tools

 

Published in May 2019 

 

 

  This module is a resource for lecturers  

 

Global overview on TIP and SOM

 

This section presents a global overview of Trafficking in persons (TIP) and Smuggling of Migrants (SOM) while acknowledging the limitations and shortcomings of such an exercise. It is crucial to emphasize that data on these crimes must be used with caution. The numbers provided are based mostly on the UNODC Global TIP reports (especially 2016) and the first UNODC Global Study on SOM (2018). The numbers and statistics on TIP gathered in the UNODC Global report, for example, correspond to detected and identified cases of trafficking, victims, and offenders. As such, it does not represent estimates of the scope or the scale of TIP worldwide. On the topic, you can also consult the UNODC research brief on Multiple Systems Estimation (2016). On the methodology used in these documents, see UNODC's Global TIP Report 2016, Annex I, and Global SOM Study. There are still numerous gender gaps in the data and knowledge available. Regarding SOM, there is scarcely disaggregated data by age and sex. Regarding TIP, there is no mention of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and intersex (LGBTI) persons.

 

Why do we need to be so cautious about the use of numbers on TIP and SOM?

Among the first questions raised when discussing TIP or SOM are the extent of these phenomena. How many victims of trafficking are there worldwide? Who are the victims? Who are the traffickers? How many migrants cross the borders with the help of smugglers? Who are the smugglers? These are legitimate and important questions for any social inquiry. However, data collection on these issues is difficult, and available data can hardly provide us with an accurate picture of the realities of TIP and SOM.

First, data collection is determined by definitions (who to count in) and, both in the field of trafficking and SOM studies, there are debates and contentions. The migrant smuggling figures are often conflated with irregular migration data. There are also different legal definitions in national legislation, as well as variations concerning the interpretation of the offence.

Second, being two types of crimes, TIP and SOM are related with illegality and thus hard to observe. Reported crimes represent only a fraction of the scale of crime occurrence in societies. In addition, differences across countries may reflect not only differences in legal definitions, but also the capacity of criminal justice systems to identify and investigate. In turn, detection by law enforcement is influenced by political priorities (e.g. to deter sex work, to deter irregular migration) and levels of awareness, which will impact on the resources and efforts being mobilized to, pro-actively or not, facilitate the identification of trafficking victims for example. As an illustration, in a given country, if an increase is reported in the number of identified cases of labour trafficking, it may reflect more awareness towards the issue, rather than a rise in its occurrence. 

 

Data on trafficking in persons

The latest UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons (2018) covers 142 countries and to a great extent, data come from national authorities (with few exceptions when the data are from international organizations).

Data on victims

According to the data collected in the UNODC Global Report on TIP (2018), 72 percent of identified victims of TIP are women and girls, respectively 49 percent are women and 23 percent are girls. The main form of trafficking affecting them is sexual exploitation, which has remained constant over time, although there are some regional differences. Since UNODC started collecting data on TIP in 2003, females have always represented the majority of victims. However, there has been a decrease in the number of women, alongside an increase in the number of girls, as well as an increase in the number of male victims.

Figure 2: Shares of detected victims of trafficking in persons by age group and sex

Source: UNODC, elaboration of national data, in: Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2018, p. 10

Children form, after women, the second most important groups of detected victims of trafficking, with 30 percent in 2018 (boys and girls).

The data gathered in the UNODC Global report suggest that in certain regions, children represent a much higher proportion of detected victims, such as in Sub-Sahara Africa, where children represent more than 50 per cent of trafficking victims. However, the issue of definitions may impact on data collection. As outlined by scholars, children mobility and child labour migration are often framed and understood as being a form of trafficking. This framing may obscure and neglect the complex realities of youth mobility for labour under different structural constraints (Huijsmans and Baker, 2012; Okyere, 2012; Howard 2014, 2017; Howard and Boyden 2013).

Data on types of trafficking

Trafficking for sexual exploitation and for forced labour are the most common types of trafficking being reported and identified. There is a sharp gender differentiation between the two - when looking at global data. Global data suggest that 82 percent of men are trafficked for forced labour, and 10 percent for sexual exploitation (UNODC Global Report on TIP 2018), and in the case of women in 83 percent of cases it is for sexual exploitation (UNODC Global Report on TIP). However, women and girls are also victims of other types of trafficking: sham or forced marriages, begging, forced labour in different sectors (domestic work, agriculture, catering, garment factories, cleaning industries), as well as organ removal. Women and girls also often suffer sexual violence as part of the exploitation. However, it is important to re-emphasize that if trafficking is still more readily associated with sexual exploitation, then more efforts and attention will be dedicated to identifying such cases, and TIP for sexual exploitation might therefore be over-represented.

Trafficking for forced labour encompasses different labor sectors: domestic work, agriculture, fishing industry, catering services and restaurants and hotels, construction, cleaning industry, etc. There are gender differences between different labour sectors, given the gender division of labour. Some labour sectors still today comprise more men (such as construction) or women (such as domestic and care work).

For example, trafficking in domestic work is known to affect predominantly women and girls. Domestic work is a highly gendered labour sector. The International Labour Organization (ILO, 2013) estimates that 83 percent of domestic workers worldwide are women and girls (and there are an estimated 52,6 percent million domestic workers). Literature on domestic work has demonstrated that it is a sector particularly at risk of exploitation (the topic of domestic work will be further discussed in this Module, in the section on 'TIP and migration').

Another form of trafficking that affects disproportionally (almost exclusively) women and girls is trafficking for forced marriage. However, there is no consensus on whether forced marriage would classify as a form of trafficking (it is not included as a form of trafficking in all national legislation). Hence, data on the topic must be used with caution. According to the data collected in the Global Report on TIP, different situations may be included under this form of trafficking: organized fraud schemes related to irregular migration, practices of child marriages or marriage without the woman's consent, and even the trade of women for marriage (UNODC Global Report on TIP, 2016 and 2018). These practices have been reported worldwide and are not limited to a few countries. It is important to note that sham marriage does not equate with forced marriage and trafficking. Sham marriages are marriages where the purpose of the marriage is not to live in marriage with the other person but to serve a different purpose, such as migration into a country.

While it is crucial to acknowledge situations in which women and girls are forced into marriages that may be violent and abusive, it is equally essential not to reinforce the image of women as being solely passive victims. Women (as well as men) may willingly engage into sham marriage for several reasons, including as a mean to facilitate their mobility. See for example the work of Kyunghee Kook on the experiences of North Korean escapees toward China. In her article "I want to be trafficked, so I can migrate: Cross-border movement of North Koreans into China through brokerage and smuggling networks", the author explores North Korean escapees' migration to China, their motivations to leave and the blurred linkages between trafficking and smuggling. (Kook 2018).

Child labour may be found in numerous sectors, mines, construction, fishing industry, or domestic work. Children can also be exploited through forced begging. Involving both boys and girls, this type of exploitation has also been reported and studied in various parts of the world, such as the exploitation of the Talibé in Senegal (HRW 2017), as well as in India, Albania and Greece (just to name a few) (see Save the Children 2007; Anti-Slavery International 2009).

In the United States, Human Rights Watch has published a report on the working conditions of children in the tobacco industry. The report " Tobacco's Hidden Children: Hazardous Child Labor in US Tobacco Farming" documents, among other things, long working hours without overtime pay, health problems related to nicotine exposure (poisoning) as well as work safety issues (see HRW 2014). These are only a few examples.

Few examples and case studies of TIP

Some examples of TIP from different countries are presented below to show the distinct types of TIP. Lecturers are also encouraged to use the UNODC SHERLOC Case Law database to select other cases of trafficking in the country and region of their choice.

The first two examples involve men as victims in two different labor sectors and regions.

The example in Box 9 is the first successful conviction of trafficking for forced labour in Canada, which involved the exploitation of migrant workers in the construction sector by members of a same family (R. v. Domotor case).

Box 9

Another example of trafficking for forced labour involving men concerns the fishing industry. Recently, more attention has been given to trafficking in the fishing industry, notably in South-East Asia. While far from being the only country where exploitative practices occur in this labor sector, the following example concerns Thailand. The case example is taken from Human Rights Watch, providing insights from the workers' experiences. HRW has produced a report as well as a video (see Additional Teaching Tools).

Box 10

The following example concerns domestic work and involve young women who were under 18 years old when the exploitative situation started. The case stresses different elements of vulnerability that can be taken into consideration: the youthful age of the victims, the family ties with the perpetrator or the informality of the first arrangement, and the fact of being a newly arrived migrant.

The case will be used in one of the exercises for this Module to identify, through a gender and intersectional approach, key factors that have increased the vulnerability to TIP, such as:

• The youthful age of the victim, being a child
• Being a refugee or a migrant in an unfamiliar environment (country), without a family and social network support
• The use promises by the exploiter (hence deception)

 

Box 11

 

Smuggling of migrants

In the case of SOM, the Global Study on SOM (2018) relies on a review of existing data, also, and provides some estimates.

Data on SOM are limited. At a global level, there is no statistical analysis on smuggling of the same extent than what we can access on TIP. The Global Study on SOM (UNODC 2018) is based on the review of available data worldwide (mostly coming from national authorities and international organizations) and provides some estimates about the number of migrants using smuggling services in different regions. Specific migration routes are identified as smuggling corridors.

For example, the estimates presented in the UNODC Global Study situate at 375,000 the number of smuggled migrants on the three Mediterranean routes (East route - toward Greece, West route - toward Italy, and Central route towards Spain), and the number of those traveling along Sub-Saharan countries to North Africa at 480,000. In the case of North America, the number is in the 735,000 and 820,000 range, and 550,000 from neighbouring countries to Thailand (UNODC 2018).

None of these are precise figures. Furthermore, there are scant data disaggregated by sex and age. When available, data indicate that most migrants tend to be young men. The gender composition of irregular migrant flows may vary according to trends of mobilities in a given region or for a given nationality. On certain routes, there are more women, more unaccompanied minors or more family units (UNODC 2018). For example, the differences between the data on irregular migrant flows to Greece, Spain, and Italy, in table 1 below reflect that on the Eastern route toward Greece, the majority were Syrians migrating in families (74 percent, p. 37). On the Central Mediterranean route, toward Italy, and the Western route to Spain, most migrants were young men.

Figure 3: Composition of irregular sea migrant arrivals - by age and sex - on the three Mediterranean routes (to Greece, Spain and Italy), year 2016 (Jan to Dec 2016)

UNHCR, Monthly Data Update, Refugees and Migrants Sea Arrivals in Europe, December 2016

Similarly, from the Horn of Africa to Yemen, available data suggest that males represent 83 per cent of smuggled migrants (UNODC 2018), and from Central America to the United States the estimate is about 75-80 percent (UNODC 2018).

Among migrants using smuggling services, there are children who may travel with their families and many others who are unaccompanied or separated children. The presence of children in situations of irregular migration poses challenges to the protection of their rights and their well-being. Numbers indicate that most minors who migrate unaccompanied are boys between the ages of 14 and 18 (UNODC 2018). However, empirical data suggest that on many occasions, children may travel in the care of friends, distant relatives and smugglers themselves, who are paid a fee in exchange for caring/protection.

Box 12

While smuggling is not always associated with violent practices, it is acknowledged that migrants face many risks and are more vulnerable to violence and robbery (UNODC 2018). Violence can be perpetrated by smugglers and/or other criminal gangs along the smuggling routes. Different forms of severe violence have been reported, such as extortion for ransom, forced confinement, forced labour to repay the debt, killings and many other forms of abuses. Sexual violence (including sexual assault and/or intimidation) is also common.

 

Gender-based violence (GBV)

Gender-based violence (GBV) is among the root causes of Trafficking in Persons (TIP), as well as part of the realities and experiences of TIP and Smuggling of Migrants (SOM). It is an important aspect to understand when considering the gender dimensions of TIP and SOM.

The terms gender-based violence (GBV) and violence against women are often used interchangeably. However, GBV is broader and includes all types of violence perpetrated based on gender norms and unequal power relationships. The focus on the violence against women does not exclude the fact that men and boys can also be victims of violence. However, it is still women and girls who are disproportionally affected by violence because of their gender, and unequal power relationships (see also E4J University Module Series on Integrity and Ethics, Module 9 on Gender Dimensions of Ethics, E4J University Module Series on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, Module 9 on Violence against Women and Module 10 on Gender in the Criminal Justice System). Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and intersex (LGBTI) persons are also victims of violence on grounds of their sexual orientation, gender identity, or sex characteristics.

Box 13

Along irregular migration corridors, sexual violence (including sexual assault and/or intimidation) is common. Sexual violence against women and girls has been reported widely in different regions of the world: from Africa to Europe, to South Africa, to the Middle East, in the Americas and within the European Union (See UNODC Global Study on SOM, 2018). However, while less visibility is given to it, and scarce data is available, sexual violence is also used against men, not solely against women, along all migration corridors. 

Regarding TIP, sexual violence is part of TIP for sexual exploitation or the exploitation of the prostitution of others. While most identified victims of TIP for sexual exploitation are females, victims can also include men and boys, and LGBTI persons. In addition, victims of other forms of exploitation, such as forced labour, can also suffer sexual violence at the hand of their exploiters.

For example, a study on the conditions of migrant women working in agriculture and the vulnerabilities to trafficking in Italy has documented instances of sexual blackmailing being used by employers against the women working in the greenhouses (in the region of Ragusa, Sicily). Employers used different forms of pressure to obtain sexual favours, such as the risk for the migrant worker to lose her job if she did not go along with the requests:

As the president of Proxima told us, most of the cases of concern involve women who live on area farms with their children. For example, Luana, one of the women helped by Proxima, used to work and live on a small farm near Vittoria with her young daughter and son. Every day, the employer took her children to the area school, which was far from the farm. In exchange for this 'favour', he asked Luana to have sex with him. In order to protect her children and keep her job and accommodation, she accepted this situation. (Palumbo and Sciurba 2015)

Another example concerns a case of a successful conviction on charges of trafficking which also included sexual violence, and consequently a conviction on charges of rape.

Box 13

See the special issue on GBV at work, on the Beyond Trafficking and Slavery Blog to find other examples.

 

Next: Gender and migration

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