(In)Human Trafficking
By Daniel Zueras
(IPS) - The rescue in a Costa Rican port
of 36 Asians working as slaves in
appalling conditions on two fishing
boats once again highlighted the need to
fight people trafficking in this Central
American country.
Costa Rica is a transit point as well as
a destination and point of origin for
people caught up in trafficking rings,
said Ana Hidalgo, head of the
International Organisation for Migration
(IOM) regional counter-trafficking unit
for Central America and Mexico.
The victims are not only taken to
"traditional" destinations like Canada,
the United States and Europe, but are
also transported within Central America
for the purposes of sexual exploitation,
she told IPS.
The 36 Asians rescued by the police in
the Pacific port of Puntarenas on Apr.
10 were subjected to labour exploitation
on two fishing boats.
The 15 Vietnamese, 13 Indonesians, five
Filipinos, two Taiwanese and one Chinese
national said they were forced to work
up to 20 hours a day, and were regularly
flogged. They were underfed and had
never been paid.
The four individuals arrested in
connection with the case, from Taiwan
and Costa Rica, are facing charges of
human trafficking, which carries a
penalty of between eight and 16 years in
prison. Their release on bail after less
than 48 hours in custody caused a public
outcry in Costa Rica.
In the last few months, trafficking
networks that send people to Europe,
sometimes through Costa Rica, have also
been uncovered in Nicaragua and
Guatemala.
Human trafficking generates an estimated
32 billion dollars a year in illicit
profits, making it the world’s third
most lucrative illegal activity after
drugs and arms trafficking, according to
the United Nations.
The U.N. Protocol to Prevent, Suppress
and Punish Trafficking in Persons
defines human trafficking as the
"recruitment, transportation, transfer,
harbouring or receipt of persons, by
means of the threat or use of force or
other forms of coercion, of abduction,
of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of
power or of a position of vulnerability
or of the giving or receiving of
payments or benefits to achieve the
consent of a person having control over
another person, for the purpose of
exploitation."
According to the U.N. Office on Drugs
and Crime (UNODC), 80 percent of the
victims, mainly women and girls, are
forced into prostitution. The remaining
20 percent, usually men and boys, face
forced labour. Worldwide, around 20
percent of victims of human trafficking
are minors.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO)
reports that at least 2.4 million of an
estimated 12.3 million victims of forced
labour worldwide had also been subjected
to human trafficking.
Police collusion with trafficking rings
facilitates such crimes. "The worse
enemy of organised crime is an honest
police force," Minister of Public
Security Janina del Vecchio remarked to
IPS.
For that reason, her work has focused on
purging the police in Costa Rica, she
said.
Drug trafficking organisations have
"diversified their activities,"
branching out into human trafficking,
because similar routes and mechanisms
are used for both, said the IOM's
Hidalgo.
The government of this country known as
"the Switzerland of Central America"
because of its strong democracy and
relatively high standard of living has
made efforts to get the situation under
control.
In October, it created an office on
trafficking in persons and promotion of
human development, under the Ministry of
Public Security.
Costa Rica also has a victim and witness
protection and assistance law and
programme. However, victims are rarely
allowed to stay in the country.
Although "each time a victim of
trafficking seeks asylum, the request is
studied carefully," very few
applications are actually approved, due
to the country's lack of funds, del
Vecchio said.
For her part, Hidalgo said the
government's policies "have been
strengthened, but still fall short."
Under Costa Rica's new immigration law
that went into effect on Mar. 1, migrant
smugglers or "coyotes" face stiffer
prison terms.
The aim is to convince immigrants,
especially from neighbouring Nicaragua -
this country's main source of migrants -
"that it is much easier to come in
legally," and enjoy the right to a
minimum wage and social security
coverage, del Vecchio said. |
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