Paul KeenanSlaves are a hidden population in modern Europe, writes Paul Keenan
This morning, countless thousands of people within the European Union’s ‘hidden population’ rose to begin their day’s work. The vast majority of the number re-engaged with the illicit sex trade, with the bulk of the remainder undertaking labour roles. July 30, the United Nations’ World Day against Human Trafficking, was a day established specifically for them, yet for most if not all, the day will pass off as yet another in servitude with little hope of change tomorrow.
It is a sad reality that as EU citizens continue to watch aghast the tides of human misery undertaking desperate measures to reach Europe, dying on the Mediterranean or in fatal attempts to leap aboard Eurostar trains, as many, if not more people are passing silently through rail and bus terminals en route to roles within the continent’s modern slave industry.
Research
It is an industry. In time for this year’s World Day against Human Trafficking, the Jesuit Migrants Service in Spain unveiled the latest piece of research into the trafficking trade, describing it as a “flourishing business on the increase” and estimating the ‘business’ worldwide to be worth in the region of €7-10 billion annually.
According to the International Labour Organisation, today there are an estimated 20 million men, women and children worldwide who exist, trapped, in servitude as a result of deception and coercion, virtually unseen by the rest of us.
A small indication of the disconnect for Europeans in considering 21st-Century slavery is contained in recent journalistic undertakings to go deeper into the Mediterranean migrant story to uncover and meet with those individuals packing unfortunate migrants into flimsy boats in Libya and along the Adriatic coast and beyond. Such exposés refer to ‘traffickers’, ‘traffickers in lives’, ‘traffickers in human misery’, but in this, correspondents are – quite unintentionally – muddying the waters for Europe’s massive internal problem with human trafficking, distracting viewers into seeing trafficking (in fact, migrant smuggling) as an outside-in issue to be dealt with, be that compassionately or with tough border controls.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) makes a clear definitional distinction between migrant smuggling and human trafficking, requiring elements such as a lack of consent in the act, ongoing exploitation of victims and profits from that exploitation for case of trafficking to be established.
However, UNODC does concede: “The distinctions between smuggling and trafficking are often very subtle and sometimes they overlap. Identifying whether a case is one of human trafficking or migrant smuggling and related crimes can be very difficult”.
Without seeking to create a ‘hierarchy of suffering’ between those smuggled and trafficked or to suggest priority of one over the other, when one makes the clear mental distinction between the two, some stark and disturbing facts emerge on the reality of trafficking in human lives within Europe.
For example, the majority of victims of ‘human traffickers’ on this continent are themselves EU citizens (65% according to Eurostat’s 2015 report on the years 2010 through 2012).
Additionally, the majority of traffickers are also EU citizens (69%), as opposed to the bogeymen of the back streets of Tripoli.
In fact, the top five source countries for trafficked individuals within the EU over the three years studied were Romania, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Hungary and Poland. Looking at source countries beyond EU borders, the top five countries for trafficking people in 2010-2012 were Nigeria, Brazil, China, Vietnam and Russia.
The inclusion of the Netherlands in the list throws up another notable factor in terms of perceptions of trafficking, in that victims of trafficking within that country were almost exclusively trafficked within their own nation.
The island nation of Ireland is not untouched by the trafficking phenomenon.
The inclusion of Vietnam on the list of non-EU source countries might prompt the reader to recall the 2012 case of ‘Miss P’, a Vietnamese national arrested by gardaí during a raid on a cannabis-growing operation in Dublin. The woman subsequently spent two and a half years in the Dóchas women’s detention facility and faced charges of possession of controlled drugs, despite her repeated claims that she had been lured to Ireland with the promise of a job in a domestic setting before being forced to live in the grow-house under lock and key.
Miss P’s claims were subsequently borne out when the Migrant Council of Ireland (MRCI) dealt with her case.
Trafficking
Miss P was just one of 183 cases of human trafficking recorded for Ireland in Eurostat’s report. The Migrant Council of Ireland has since stated: “Forced labour… is a growing problem in Ireland and globally. Over the last six years MRCI has dealt with some 200 cases – which is only the tip of the iceberg. Forced labour occurs mainly in unregulated low-paid employment such as catering, domestic work, care, construction, agricultural and entertainment sectors.”
The existence of modern slaves in such everyday areas of the modern economy led Pope Francis in April to refer to “the least among us’’ in his denunciation of human trafficking in an address to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences in April as the body discussed ways of tackling the issue.
Describing trafficking as a “plague on the body of contemporary humanity”, the Pontiff was unequivocal in stating that society not only had a duty to victims, but to formulate legislation to deal with traffickers.
In this, EU states are trying. Eurostat records 3,855 convictions for human trafficking in its study from 8,805 prosecutions.
Towards a coordinated response to trafficking, UNODC runs the Global Programme against Trafficking in Persons (GPAT), supporting UN states in tackling the issue through prosecutions and cooperative actions.
No less willing to play his part, yet unable to make a Lampedusa-style visit of solidarity with trafficked persons as he has been able to do for migrants who have come ashore there, Pope Francis instead designated February 8 as the International Day of Prayer and Reflection against Human Trafficking for the hidden population, adding to the UN day.
February 8 is the feast of St Josephine Bakhita, the patron saint for trafficking victims who suffered slavery herself when abducted in Sudan as a child. Notably, she was later forced into servitude in Europe.