Child Trafficking

Millions of children around the world are trapped in “3D” jobs—dirty, dangerous, and degrading work. They become enslaved when their families are desperately poor and have few options for survival.

Children are easy prey for traffickers—people who lure them into exploitative situations. They are vulnerable because they tend to be more trusting than adults, more easily manipulated, less aware of their rights, and less able to access help and protection.

No country or region is immune to the horrors of human trafficking. But for now, let’s look at one of the world’s busiest regions for migration—Asia’s Greater Mekong Sub-region, or GMS.

The GMS is the economic area surrounding the Mekong River. About 326 million people live in the GMS, which includes parts of Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. People migrate to cities within the GMS looking for work when they can’t find any in their own villages or countries.

In the GMS, the most common kind of exploitation is forced labour (any work that people are made to do against their own free will, with the threat of punishment if they don’t). Globally, forced labour is much more widespread than sexual exploitation: the International Labour Organization estimates that for every one person trafficked into prostitution, nine people are trafficked into forced labour, in places like factories, sweatshops, homes, farms and boats.

This is called labour trafficking, and it often targets children.

How are boys and girls in the Greater Mekong Sub-region vulnerable to trafficking?

The GMS is a hotbed for human trafficking—within and outside country borders—because:

1. Many families move within this region desperately seeking work. Some children also voluntarily leave their homes in rural areas due to family poverty or abuse, and head for cities in the GMS.
2. Many people in the GMS are ready to exploit others for profit and take advantage of those who are desperate.
3. There is weak enforcement of laws to protect children and adults from labour exploitation.

These factors combine to trap children in exploitative work and trafficking situations. They end up in dirty, dangerous and degrading jobs such as:

• working in the commercial sex trade
• begging on the streets
• working in factories doing difficult, dangerous work
• working long hours selling flowers and souvenirs to tourists
• working in households as domestic helpers
• working in the fishing and shrimp processing industries
• doing difficult and physically exhausting agricultural work

Farming: Farming can be one of the most dangerous sectors of work for children and young people. Work is often extremely difficult. Children are exposed to toxic pesticides, weather extremes, and long hours hauling heavy loads and using dangerous equipment.

Homes: Authorities can’t inspect private homes, so children may be trapped in slave-like conditions in homes as domestic servants. Often they are unable to go to school. They earn low pay and work long hours with little or no time off. They may be isolated and have their identity documents seized. They may be physically or sexually abused and be at risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases.

Manufacturing: In the manufacturing industry, boys and girls can end up in sweatshops, where employers can pay them less than adult workers—or nothing at all—while closely controlling their lives.

Fishing: Workers on boats—often men and older boys—report being deprived of food and sleep and having to use dangerous, heavy equipment. They are often forced to be out at sea for months or years. Physical abuse and threats are common. The only escape route is to jump overboard, hoping to swim to land or be rescued by other boats. Workers who try to resist or who become sick have been killed or thrown overboard.

Sold For $670 – Kywa Win’s Story

The real-life story of Kyaw Win from Myanmar reminds us that boys, as well as girls, get trapped in trafficking situations. Boys and men easily fall prey in the largely unregulated fishing industry, where trafficking is generally under-reported.

Kyaw * was born in a fishing port in Myanmar. He left home at age 16, vowing he would never return. Kyaw and his friends jumped on a local commercial fishing boat. They hoped to earn 4,500 baht ($150) a month across the border in Thailand.

But things didn’t turn out as Kyaw had hoped. Over the following year, he was cheated out of his salary, arrested, trafficked to an armed gang, and eventually sold to a fishing boat owner for 20,000 baht ($670).

The boat, run by Thais, operated illegally in Indonesian territory. Kyaw was pleased to find other Myanmar workers on board, but he quickly learned the boat was worse than an 18th-century slave ship. “They allowed us to sleep only about one hour per day,” he says. Controlled by a crew with guns, Kyaw and his fellow slave-migrants from Myanmar were treated “as animals.”

After six months, Kyaw and five friends jumped overboard in the middle of the night. Hours later, at daybreak, he was picked up by an Indonesian fishing boat.

“When they [pulled] me up onto their boat, I couldn’t stand on my feet,” Kyaw said. “I was nearly blacking out.”

Kyaw’s friends had also been rescued. Together, they were sent to the nearest port, where they waited in immigration detention for a year. Their only hope was a telephone number for the Myanmar Immigration Office in Jakarta. Living on a daily allowance of 5,000 rupiah ($0.55), the friends skipped meals to buy phone cards. They called the number many times, desperate to go home. Finally, a Myanmar official responded. They were taken to the airport and flown to Yangon, the capital of Myanmar.

Back in Myanmar, Kyaw wanted only one thing: to go home to his family as soon as possible. However, they had moved while he was gone. World Vision helped him trace his family and within a week we flew Kway home. We helped him reintegrate with his family, giving him a second chance at life. “I’m really happy to get back to Myanmar. I really thank you all [at World Vision] for helping me,” he says with a smile.

*real name protected

What can be done about human trafficking?

In the GMS
 Governments in the GMS are collaborating to prevent and fight trafficking. But there is much more to do:

• More frontline police are needed to spot victims, understand victims’ situations, and prosecute perpetrators.
• Improve services for victims of labour trafficking, especially older boys.
• Trafficking survivors need to be compensated.
• Governments need to reduce vulnerability to trafficking—by helping children stay in school, ensuring people have good job options, and helping people migrate safely in search of work.
• Governments must create and enforce comprehensive laws to stop trafficking.
• Systems must be in place to help people migrate safely and access help in a new country if things go wrong.
• Trafficking survivors require support services (legal, medical, counselling, etc.) and assistance to go back home and reintegrate into their communities when appropriate.
• Children and youth need support and space to be empowered to speak out against trafficking and other violations of their rights.

Around the world

• Governments must create and enforce comprehensive laws to stop trafficking.
• Systems must be in place to help people migrate safely and access help in a new country if things go wrong.
• Trafficking survivors require support services (legal, medical, counselling, etc.) and assistance to go back home and reintegrate into their communities when appropriate.
• Children and youth need support and space to be empowered to speak out against trafficking and other violations of their rights.

In Canada

The Canadian government needs to implement a plan to combat child and human trafficking in Canada and abroad. The plan must address trafficking for both labour and sexual exploitation.

Companies must ensure their activities do not contribute to trafficking, by creating and enforcing codes of conduct across their operations and supply chains.

Canadians can choose to buy from companies that are serious about fighting child labour. This means getting informed about brands and products, joining ethical consumerism initiatives, or looking for fair trade marks – for example, on chocolate or coffee.

What is World Vision doing about child and human trafficking?

World Vision works to stop child and human trafficking before it happens, and to help people find healing, hope and new beginnings when exploitation has taken place.

In the GMS, we promote safe migration, influence governments for better policy, support the safe return and reintegration of victims, and raise awareness of trafficking among children, families, and communities. Our activities include:

• A recovery centre in Cambodia to help girls who have been sexually abused, raped, or trafficked
• Community Watch groups in Myanmar to protect people from being trafficked
• A peer-to-peer approach in Laos to raise trafficking awareness

Around the world, our work to stop trafficking includes:

• Partnering with governments, law enforcement agencies, and communities.
• Speaking out about trafficking in regions such as Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia, and Africa.
• Helping communities build stronger systems for reporting exploitation and abuse.
• Ensuring children are protected after a natural disaster or emergency, when family members might be separated.
• Helping children be registered at birth so they can prove their age and nationality, and helping them access government services.
• Training youth to speak out on trafficking experiences and issues.
• Campaigning against child labour in the cocoa and chocolate industries.
• Helping working children access education and medical check-ups.
• Creating a more protective environment for children through World Vision child sponsorship.

Sponsorship supports vital development work in a child’s community, helps families meet basic needs, and ensures that sponsored children have the chance to go to school—thereby reducing their vulnerability to being trafficked.