The Economics of Trafficking: The Kachin and Burma

Human Trafficking is a lucrative business. The United States estimates that per year, 600,000-800,000 persons are trafficked across international borders. It is though that 2.5 million people are being trafficked around the world at any given time. This generates an estimated annual global profit of $32 billion dollars. It is the third largest illegal industry in the world after drugs and armed sales. In this post, we examine the economic and social factors motivating the human trafficking of one particular population: the Kachin.

The Kachin

Kachin women in traditional garb

The Kachin is a population that has been a target of human trafficking, due to the nature of their situation. The Kachin people are a group of ethnic peoples who inhabit the Kachin Hills, from which the population derives its name, in northern Burma and neighboring areas of China and India. This population has been greatly effected by the conflict between the Burmese government and the Kachin Independence Army. The Burmese government has attempted to expel this population group, therefore rendering them extremely vulnerable. actors that have proved dangerous to the Kachin. Since June 2011, when the Burmese military ended a 17 year ceasefire and launched an offensive against the Kachin Independence Army, there have been 24 documented instances of trafficked individuals; however, those are only the documented cases. The Kachin Women's Association-Thailand (KWAT) published a report stating that Kachin women and children are particularly vulnerable to trafficking, and it is an extremely lucrative business for the traffickers.

Fast Facts

• Between 2004-2007, there were 133 verified trafficking cases, involving 163 women and girls
• A quarter of those trafficked were under 18, with girls as young as 14 forced to be brides
• The continuing high incidence of trafficking indicates that the regime's new anti-trafficking legislation is failing to have any impact
• The Kachin population are vulnerable due to
• forced migration
• lack of recognition from government
• lack of governmental power

Why Are the Kachin So Vulnerable?

Part of the problem is the way they are treated in Burma. As the government has attempted to expel them from the country, they have no official governmental recognition, therefore rendering them extremely vulnerable as there are no programs in place to protect them, nor records of individuals when they go missing. Further, due to the conflict, approximately 100,000 people have been uprooted in the last two years and are now living in displacement camps. The Burmese government has also barred international aid organizations from accessing refugee camps housing the Kachin, and China has refused to provide assistance to Kachins who are seeking refuge across the border. In August 2012, the Chinese government even forced thousands of Kachins who were seeking shelter in the country back into Burma. "Push tens of thousands of people to China's doorstep, deprive them of food and status, and you've created a perfect storm for human trafficking," said KWAT spokesperson Julia Marip.

Kachin Women's Association-Thailand

Who is Trafficked?

Women and children are profitable income sources for traffickers. Women are either sold as brides or into brothels or massage parlors. China's one-child policy has created a particular market for trafficked Kachin women. Currently in China there are 117 men for every 100 women, and by 2020 there will be 30 million men looking for brides among 24 million women. Kachin women are considered favorable brides due to the lightness of their skin and proximity to the border. Kachin women are also thought of as fertile and excellent child bearers. They are sold for around $6,5000. Traffickers either kidnap women who are either migrating to the city from their villages, or will go into villages and refugee camps and offer families a dowry, playing on traditional customs. Chinese businessmen form a significant portion of the clientele. Lower income Chinese men pay brokers to fetch women from Myanmar families. Other women are trafficked into Thailand's sex industry; trafficked sex workers are often raped, and are sold from $300 upwards to the prostitution industry

Kachin Refugee Camp in Burma

Children are also viewed as highly sought after commodities by traffickers as well. Children trafficked to Thailand are occasionally rented out from parents. Brokers offer around $100-224 a month for children; children can earn from $15-100 a day working as beggars or shop assistants. Owners often beat children who are working as beggars so they appeal more to alms givers. Children also make excellent assistants as they can be paid less, are less likely to attempt to escape, and are more subservient in general; the favored age by traffickers are 3 month old toddlers to children under ten years of age. Young children are also sold to fuel Thailand's growing adoption rackets; others are sold into the child prostitution industry. Traffickers use the Internet to dodge international forces against child proposition. Recently, NGOs' efforts and stricter Thai laws have created a crack down on child trafficking, therefore increasing the demand for child trafficking as the supply dwindles.

Jasmine Prokscha

Intern

Official Complicity with Human Trafficking

Although actions must be taken at all levels, it is crucial to any anti-human trafficking movement to have strong governmental support and action. However, according to the U.S. State Department's report on trafficking around the world, there are many governments whose officials who comply with, or even aid, traffickers. For example, NGOs in Malaysia have reported that the police often will not investigate complaints that employers are confiscating passports, travel documents, or withholding wages as possible trafficking offenses. Furthermore, in 2010 the government did not report any prosecutions of employers who subjected workers to conditions of forced labor, nor were any government officials convicted of trafficking related complicity, despite numerous reports of collusion between police and trafficking offenders. Police collaboration is a common thread throughout many countries; local law enforcement officials are willing to take bribes to look the other way when presented with cases of human trafficking, or, at the most extreme, are the ones perpetrating human trafficking themselves.

India

One such example is India. The report stated "Official complicity in trafficking was a serious problem that remained largely addressed by the government. Corrupt politicians, police, and border security forces on both sides of the India-Bangladesh border reportedly recognized a token used by human traffickers to evade arrest if caught at the border." Some corrupt law enforcement officers facilitated the movement of sex trafficking victims, protected suspected traffickers and brothel keepers from enforcement of the law, took bribes from sex trafficking establishments and sexual services from victims, and tipped off sex and labor traffickers to impede rescue efforts. Many owners of brothels, rice mills, brick kilns, and stone quarries who engaged in human trafficking were politically connected and therefore immune from prosecution.Further, of the Anti-Human Trafficking Units established by the government, many were criticized as being ineffective or only existing on paper and not in practice. Furthermore, there was significant complicity of some governmental officials in human trafficking. Many sources noted that the Indian central government approached anti-trafficking measures in an uncoordinated and piecemeal manner, therefore allowing for greater instances of corruption.
One highly publicized case of sexual and physical abuse, including both sex and labor trafficking, of women and children in Apna Ghar shelter for mistreated victims in the state of Haryana, demonstrates the pervasiveness of official compliance with human trafficking. Not only was the shelter run by the state, but police officers reportedly raped some of the inhabitants and destroyed evidence once an investigation into the home commenced.

Burma

Burma is one of the highest offenders in regards to official complicity in human trafficking. The Military is the main perpetrators. Internally, there are several different ways in which the military implements human trafficking. The military engages in the unlawful conscription of child soldiers. Boys as young as 10 years are forcibly recruited to serve in the Burmese army and ethnic armed groups through intimidation, coercion, threats, and violence. Children of the urban poor are at particular risk of involuntary conscription; UN reports indicates that the army has targeted orphans and children on the streets and in railway stations, as well as young novice monks from monasteries for recruitment. It also continues to be the main perpetrator of forced or compulsory labor inside Burma. Military and civilian officials target minors of ethnic minority groups, and use men, women, and children for forced labor for the development of infrastructure and state-run agricultural and commercial ventures, as well as forced portering for the military. 

An NGO study published in 2010 found an acute problem in Chin State, where a survey of over 600 households indicated that over 600 households indicated that over 92% experienced at least one instance of a household member subject to forced labor; the Burmese military reportedly imposed two-thirds of these forced labor demands. Children are often subjected to forced labor in tea shops, home industries, and agricultural plantations. Exploiters traffic girls for the purpose of prostitution, particularly in urban areas. There are also reports that Burmese officials kidnapped Rohingya women from Sittwe and subjected them to sexual slavery on military installations. There were also reports that victims deported from Thailand into Democratic Karen Buddhist Army controlled areas of Burma continue to be extorted and retrafficked by DKBA elements, in collusion with Thai officials.

How can the military do this? There are many causes of human trafficking in Burma. The military regime's climate of impunity, gross economic mismanagement, and the acceptance of child soldiers as a method of recruitment remain top causal factors. Further, the authorities refuse to recognize members of certain ethnic minority groups, such as the Rohingyas, as citizens and provide them with identification documentation, which make them a prime target.

Vietnam

The Vietnamese government is complicit in human trafficking as it has certain programs in place that human traffickers can easily utilize to gain access to their victims. For example, Vietnam is a source country for men and women who migrate abroad for work opportunities. Many of the migrants are process through state-affiliated export companies which coerce migrants to sign contracts in languages they cannot read, and charged exorbitant fees, sometimes as much as $10,000. This has forced Vietnamese migrants to incur some of the highest debts among Asian expatriate workers, making them highly vulnerable to debt bondage and forced labor. Also, there has been a significant lack of prosecution of perpetrators of human trafficking; many NGOs claim that government officials are often willing to turn a blind eye towards trafficking in return for bribes.

Thailand

Thailand's greatest issue is corrupt law enforcement. The majorities of networks that traffic foreigners into Thailand tend to be small and not high organized, those who traffic Thai victims abroad tend to be more organized and work in more formal networks and will collaborate with law enforcement officials. Also, as the Thai government has no official laws that address sex tourism, there remains greater leeway for sex trafficking. Broader issues in regards to the Thai government and trafficking are local police corruption, including direct involvement in and facilitation of human trafficking, biases against migrant laborers, lack of understanding among local officials and courts in regards to human trafficking, particularly labor abuse cases, and finally systematic disincentives for trafficking victims to be identified. Corruption is one of the largest issues as it is widespread among Thai law enforcement personnel, creating an enabling environment for human trafficking to prosper. There are reports that officials protect brothels, other commercial sex venues, and seafood and sweatshop facilities form raids and inspections. Furthermore, there are also reports that Thai police and immigration officials extort money or sex from Burmese citizens detained in Thailand for immigration violations, and sell Burmese people who are unable to pay labor brokers and sex traffickers.

Further, due to the refusal of the Thai government to grant legal status to Ethnic minorities from the northern Hill Tribes, these populations are at an extremely high risk for trafficking.

Cambodia

Cambodia has a significant history of human trafficking, due to the longtime civil unrest that created an unstable environment rendering many homeless; refugees are particular targets for human traffickers. Furthermore, there are reports that some law enforcement and government officials are believed to have accepted bribes to facilitate the trafficking and sex trade. There are other reports of government officials who are complicit in the trafficking by accepting bribes. Corrupt officials facilitate the transportation of victims across the border, or route migrants deported from Thailand to human traffickers. However, there have been several large-scale prosecutions of police officials for trafficking corruption charges. The former Deputy Director of the Police Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection Department was convicted for complicity in trafficking and sentenced to five years' imprisonment; two officials under his supervision were also convicted and sentenced to seven years' imprisonment. Another example was when police arrested two military officers and one member of the military police for running brothels and trafficking.

Jasmine Prokscha
Intern

President Obama Raises Human Trafficking on Visit to Asia

President Obama made his first post-election visit abroad two weeks ago to three countries in Southeast Asia. He spent November 18^th in Thailand and held a joint press conference with Thai Prime Minister, Yingluck Shinawatra. On November 19^th, he journeyed to Burma and met with Burmese President Thein Sein and Member of Parliament who was formerly under political house arrest, Aung San Suu Kyi. He then attended the East Asia summit in Cambodia on November 20^th and met with leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). This trip was significant not only because President Obama was the first U.S. president to visit Burma and Cambodia, but also because he raised the priority human rights issue of human trafficking in his conversations with leaders in each of the three countries.

This visit echoes in action the address that President Obama gave at the Clinton Global Initiative in September, which he focused entirely on human trafficking in the form labor and sex services, both in the United States and globally. He began describing human trafficking as such:

“It ought to concern every person, because it is a debasement of our common humanity.  It ought to concern every community, because it tears at our social fabric.  It ought to concern every business, because it distorts markets.  It ought to concern every nation, because it endangers public health and fuels violence and organized crime.  I’m talking about the injustice, the outrage, of human trafficking, which must be called by its true name -- modern slavery. “

Recognizing that it is a tragedy that “modern slavery” should exist in the U.S. but acknowledging that the U.S. has resources and technical knowledge to be a leader in the anti-trafficking movement, the president called to attention these anti-trafficking initiatives that his Administration has designed:

·         Executive order strengthening protections in federal contracts: The U.S. is strengthening adherence to its zero-tolerance policy on human trafficking within government contracts in the U.S. and overseas.

·         Tools and training to identify and assist trafficking victims: Government employed professionals from the local to federal levels who are most likely to cross paths with trafficking victims will be provided human trafficking training.

·         Increased resources for victims of human trafficking: Social services and legal assistance for trafficking victims will be expanded so they will have increased access to help. The T-visa application and prosecution of the victims’ traffickers are being streamlined to expedite processing times.

·         Comprehensive plan for future action: The first strategic action plan to strengthen services for victims of trafficking and the first domestic human trafficking assessment tool to track trafficking trends in the U.S. is being developed by federal intelligence agencies.

President Obama's speech at the CGI 

The President calls upon members of every community to be educated on human trafficking and join in on the existing efforts to combat this worldwide epidemic. In the same address, he urges Congress to renew the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which he says, is “something we should all agree on”, whether Democrat or Republican.

On his visit, President Obama commended Burma on the extensive progress made toward its transition to democracy and addressing sex and labor trafficking in the last two years. Burma has repealed the 1907 Towns and Villages Act, which condoned government use of forced labor and has enacted the 2012 Wards and Village Tracts Administration Act, which criminalizes all forms of forced labor. It has also signed a child soldiers action plan with the UN to release child soldiers from the Burmese military. These are just a few signs of evidence for Burma’s advance in human rights.

President Obama meets Aung San Suu Kyi (Official White House photo)

 In his subsequent conversations with the Thai and Cambodian leaders, President Obama affirms that the technical knowledge and practices developed by the U.S. and its partners in anti-trafficking efforts will be shared with all three countries. The bilateral partnerships between the U.S. and these countries signify cooperative efforts to share ideas and learn from each other how to tackle this issue. However, human trafficking is not a standalone issue; therefore, the U.S. will work with the Thai, Burmese, and Cambodian leaders to improve education, revamp public health systems, and focus on human development from childhood.

This visit seems to have provided added momentum for the anti-trafficking movement in Asia. With such a huge focus on trafficking as President Obama begins his second term, those already engaged in anti-trafficking work are looking forward to greater development in advocacy and services for victims as well as abusers being held accountable to their crimes. It is a tremendous sign of progress as the covert operations of human trafficking are being exposed and awareness of the issue has gained prominence in the last decade.