ICAT organizes its first consultation on trafficking in persons in Eastern Africa
The image represents a Sudanese refugee in Tunisia. Refugees and asylum-seekers are particularly exposed to risks of trafficking in persons.
Eastern Africa has been a hub for traffickers in persons for several years, according to participants during a recent virtual regional consultation on trafficking in persons conducted by the Inter-Agency Coordination Group against Trafficking in Persons (ICAT) for Eastern Africa.
The crime of trafficking in persons is complex and fluid in the region and it is closely connected to mixed migration movements taking place along a number of internal and external routes, aiming toward Europe, the Arab Peninsula and Southern Africa.
Such mixed movements are often driven by intertwined factors, such as poverty, conflict, instability and—more recently—climate change, which is having a harsh impact on several countries in the region.
In line with global trends, women and children are reported as particularly susceptible to human trafficking in Eastern Africa.
Detected victims in the region are mostly trafficked for forced labour, mainly in the agricultural and construction sectors. Trafficking for domestic servitude is also rife, with victims being predominantly young girls.
While labour-related trafficking constitutes the majority of reported cases, sex trafficking also remains a pressing concern in Eastern Africa. Young girls are also trafficked for the purpose of forced marriages, where they often end up being exploited in various ways.
The ICAT regional consultation for Eastern Africa, conducted on 7-8 February 2022, gathered over 50 participants from UN entities and local civil society organizations that play a key role in combating trafficking in persons and assisting its victims in the region.
Concerns were voiced on different challenges, such as the lack of adequate resources for civil society organizations providing essential services to trafficking victims, as well as the lack of data on the real extent of the phenomenon in the region.
Challenges were also noted regarding the effective cooperation and coordination among the full spectrum of individuals that might be involved in countering trafficking, from law enforcement agencies and border officials, to migration, asylum and labour authorities, diplomatic personnel and assistance and health providers.
Noting the recent rise in online sex trafficking, also due to the restrictions imposed to contain the COVID-19 pandemic around the world, participants acknowledged the importance of engaging more meaningfully with private sector players, including internet providers and social media platforms, whose products are often used by traffickers to recruit and exploit victims.
On the other hand, social media platforms can be particularly apt for targeted awareness-raising campaigns as proven by a recent initiative launched by one of ICATs members, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), who also co-chaired ICAT in 2021 together with UNODC. The initiative, ´Telling the Real Story´, uses social media and community leaders to reach out to people on the move and empower them to make informed decisions concerning risks associated with irregular movement, including risks of human trafficking, and the options available to them.
Participants also highlighted the need for regional labour migration agreements to ensure better protection of Eastern African migrant workers abroad and prevent abuse and exploitation, while called for more resources to support the repatriation of migrant workers who are victims of trafficking for forced labour and domestic servitude in other countries.
Similar to what occurs in other regions of the world, the role of recruitment agencies in Eastern Africa and in countries receiving labour from the region remains problematic as these are often found to indirectly or directly being involved in recruiting human trafficking victims. In this sense, participants stressed the need for governments to not only better regulate the work of these intermediaries, but also to ensure that monitoring and enforcement of such regulations take place to prevent abuse and exploitation.
Protection and access to justice for victims of all forms of trafficking in persons, including access to remedies, should be a prerogative of any comprehensive response to this crime, further stressed the participants. Intervening in the discussion, the UNHCR Special Envoy for the Western and Central Mediterranean Situation highlighted the challenges faced in these regards particularly by refugees and migrants trafficked along the mixed movements routes that originate in this region and lead towards the Mediterranean.
Meaningfully preventing trafficking in persons in the Eastern African region requires addressing those factors that contribute to perpetuating this crime by, for example, creating enabling environments for labour growth and development to reduce poverty and unemployment and tackling social and cultural norms that are conducive to gender-based violence and discrimination.
This regional consultation was a first pilot exercise by ICAT, organized in close cooperation with three of its members, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), UNHCR and the UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons. The latter, in particular, had a chance to present her mandate to participants and indicate available avenues to report human rights abuses related to trafficking in persons in the region to the United Nations Special Procedures.
Ultimately, the consultation is part of ICAT’s recent efforts to increase its impact at field-level and to include the views of on-the-ground stakeholders in the development of joint policy on trafficking in persons, while providing a platform for key anti-trafficking actors to share information and fostering partnerships. The ICAT 2022 Co-chairs, UNODC and the International Centre for Migration Policy Development, have committed to replicate a similar exercise in other regions in 2022.
About ICAT:
ICAT was established in 2007, pursuant to UN General Assembly resolution 61/180, as a policy forum to enhance cooperation and coordination among UN agencies and other relevant international organizations to facilitate a holistic and comprehensive approach to the scourge of trafficking in persons. Its members include 30 UN entities and other international and regional organizations.
UNODC and the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) are the current co-Chairs of ICAT for 2022.
ICAT has published extensively on trafficking in persons. Its wealth of information can be accessed on the website here.
For more information, follow @ICAT_News on Twitter.
