Panel discussion: Trafficking Migration and Human Rights

Thursday 7th August, 2003

After having presented the speakers, the chairman, Mr Pinheiro, Chair of the Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, introduced the panel. He reminded everyone of the Working Group in June and its major issue (trafficking). There are two challenges: 1) how should standards be implemented, and 2) how can the issue be better researched and understood by the general public. This panel, he said, will contribute to a better understanding of human rights in the context of trafficking and will brood over the strategies for prevention.

Mr Cimafranca, First Secretary of the Permanent Mission of the Philippines, stated that issues on trafficking are significant in his country, since ten percent of the population of Philippines lives abroad. He briefly noted the creation of the Global Commission for International Migration (June 30th) with the participation of Switzerland, Sweden Morocco, and Brazil. It will be an independent Commission, but with strong links with the United Nations system.
He said his country is very concerned about the matter, and is interested in the fight against trafficking in general as well as the recovery and the rehabilitation of the victim in the society.

Mr Dieter, First secretary of the Permanent Mission of Germany, said Germany was a country of destination for the trafficked persons. Women are particularly victims of this phenomenon. One million women are victims of traffic each year in his country. He proposed three solutions that would help fight against trafficking: factors generating trafficking have to be understood; 2) the perpetrators should be condemned by the national justice system; and 3) victims must not be ignored by the government nor society in general. Furthermore, some forms of the traffic are not covered by the present definition of trafficking. Both sexual abuses as well as the deprivation of liberty occur on a daily basis. He declared that we must change the way of looking at the problem of trafficking. We should consider illegal migrants not only as guilty persons who breached the law, but also as those who are suffering as victims.

Mrs O'Hara, legal officer in the department of international protection of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said her organisation was interested by the question of trafficking because it directly connected with the question of asylum. Her intervention focused on migration. She recalled the increase of illegal migration and how it is related to trafficking. The countries signers of the 1951 Convention on refugees have signed a document called Agenda for Protection, in December 2001, initiated by the UNHCR. The future challenge for the states is to balance human rights concerns and criminal control procedures, Mrs O'Hara declared.

Mrs Grange, from International Catholic Migration Commission, underlined the vulnerability of women and children. She stated the fact that trafficking often lead to slavery. She then presented some reasons for this trafficking problem, such as the global absence of legal avenues for migration, the obstacles for asylum, and the lack of proper protection for refugees in the regions of origin, and no prospects of durable solutions. Mrs Grange stated that migrants are human beings, and not second-class citizens. She drew up a list of some international instruments that could be used to protect migrant persons and fight trafficking. The recognition of the rights of migrants will increase protection against trafficking. "We do have tools", she said, we just need a "co-ordinated and integrated implementation of existing human rights instruments and political will".

The last speaker was Dr. Bisnath, political economist, author and expert on development, gender and globalisation. She spoke about the economic causes of migration. She discussed the fact that migration is often due to the search for better economic opportunities. She declared that we have to think about the link between these policies and trafficking, and take more into account economic and social spheres.

The last part of the meeting was devoted to questions by the public. Mr Obembo raised the question of the difference between smuggling and trafficking. One person, working for the International Labour Organisation, said perpetrators of trafficking crimes often avoid penalty.

The meeting was concluded by a summary of the main questions: why are trafficking and migration are linked? On what conditions could governments deliver residency permits to victims? How can the states balance their obligations of restrictions and the respect for human rights?

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