ISLAMABAD, Sept 9: The United States has urged Pakistan to translate its strong ‘will and commitment’ to fight human trafficking into concrete steps.
“There is a clear will and commitment on the part of Pakistan government to ensure that people are not exploited but that needs to be translated into reality,” director of the US office to monitor and combat trafficking in persons Mark P. Lagon said at a media briefing here on Tuesday.
The US government in its ‘Trafficking in Persons Report 2008’ has placed Pakistan in a group of countries with a significant trafficking problem but making efforts to deal with it. The report says that the country faces a considerable internal problem reportedly involving thousands of women and children trafficked to settle debts and disputes, or forced into sexual exploitation or domestic servitude.
It estimates that there are over one million trafficking victims in Pakistan.
Mr Lagon, who had a series of meetings with officials here, said he had offered US government’s assistance to Pakistan in this regard.
He said the US would help Pakistan find useful partners for addressing the issue and facilitate it in developing collaborative relations with them in training and law-enforcement.
He said he had raised the issues of punishment to the perpetrators, developing procedures for finding victims in vulnerable sections of the population, providing them shelter and rehabilitating them.
Mr Lagon said powerful land-owners and complicit officials were undermining efforts to deal with the problem.
Unemployment major cause of human trafficking
Federal Minister for Law, Justice and Human Rights Farooq H. Naek has termed unemployment and lack of implementation of anti-trafficking laws the major causes of human trafficking in South Asia.
He expressed these views while talking to a delegation of the US State Department’s ‘Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons’. The delegation was led by Mark P. Lagon.
“Lack of employment opportunities, organised crime and presence of organised criminal gangs, economic disparities, social discrimination, corruption in government, political instability, armed conflict, profitability, growing deprivation and marginalisation of the poor, and insufficient penalties against traffickers are common causes of human smuggling around the world,” Mr Naek said.
Mr Lagon, highlighting gravity of the issue, said that due to its illegal nature and differences in trafficking methodology, the exact extent was unknown.
“According to United States State Department data, an estimated 600,000 to 820,000 men, women, and children are trafficked across international borders each year, approximately 70 per cent are women and girls and up to 50 per cent are minors,” Mr Lagon added.
The law minister said that human trafficking was prohibited under the Constitution of Pakistan as it provided for freedom from slavery and dignity of human beings.
Mr Naek urged Mr Lagon and his team to collaborate with the ministries of law and labour so that a comprehensive legal framework could be worked out against the menace.
“Human trafficking differs from people smuggling. In the latter, people voluntarily request smuggler’s service for fees and there may be no deception involved in the (illegal) agreement. On arrival at their destination, the smuggled person is usually free.
“On the other hand, the trafficking victim is enslaved, or the terms of the debt bondage are highly exploitative. The trafficker takes away the basic human rights of the victim. It is estimated that worldwide human trafficking generates total annual revenue between $5 billion and $9 billion.”
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