Human Trafficking Considerations In Disaster Response

From cyclones and floods in Southern Africa to the earthquake in Haiti, the last year has seen a multitude of natural disasters leading to increased physical and economic insecurity. These disasters disproportionately affected the most vulnerable sectors of society – migrants, job seekers, and poor families – making them easy targets for exploitation and enslavement.

The following are useful considerations for the international community and governments responding to modern slavery in the context of natural disaster response.

• Counter-trafficking interventions must start in the emergency phase of disaster response. While human trafficking generally does not increase in the immediate days and weeks following a disaster, proper planning starting in the immediate term helps reduce the number of gaps traffickers can later exploit when the emergency phase has passed.

• Definitions matter. The key question under the Palermo Protocol is not whether someone has been moved, it is whether they are in compelled service, whether such service is termed enslavement, involuntary servitude, debt bondage, sex trafficking, forced labor, or practices similar to slavery. Focusing on movement instead of exploitation results in misdeployment of countertrafficking resources to border areas instead of interior enforcement, results in confusion over practices such as adoption, and undercuts local organizations’ pre-disaster anti-slavery efforts.

• Institutional support is the key to sustainability. Efforts should be made to support the government institutions that play a role in effective anti-trafficking response, including those responsible for social welfare, education, child protection, and the judiciary. International efforts should focus on supporting the government in playing the predominant role, avoid fostering dependence on the international community, and be well coordinated to leverage resources and avoid duplication of efforts.

• Engagement of local stakeholders and consideration of cultural factors are essential. Sustainable trafficking interventions depend on the robust engagement of civil society with government. They also should take into account cultural factors, such as practices surrounding child custody. In many areas, this requires a concerted effort to build the capacity of civil society, including NGOs, schools, civic associations, and community leaders, to identify the needs of the community, plan effective interventions, and obtain the necessary support for their implementation.

• Trafficking interventions should pay particular attention to the most vulnerable sectors of the population. Efforts should be made to rapidly identify, register, and provide interim care for separated and unaccompanied children while family tracing is done. Exploitation reduction efforts should be undertaken for displaced and migrating workers, whether moving within their own country or seeking employment opportunities in nearby countries. Special care should be taken to protect women and girls from gender-based violence, particularly in spontaneous settlements and displaced persons camps.

• Governments should assess the existing vulnerabilities and ensure policies, legislative tools, and social norms are adequate to respond. Education campaigns to warn populations about the potential for trafficking and inform them about how to receive help are important. Codes of conduct should be promulgated within rebuilding efforts and economic recovery plans, including job creation for rubble and debris removal, recovery and burial of the deceased, construction, and microenterprise. Inadequate legislation or government policies to address trafficking should be strengthened.