Child Trafficking: ‘Worst Form’ of Child Labour, or Worst Approach to Young Migrants? Roy Huijsmans and Simon Baker ABSTRACT This article presents a critique to the human trafficking discourse in relation to child migration, based on data obtained from the anti-trafficking community in the Greater Mekong Sub-region combined with an analysis of secondary material. It also presents a set of qualitative accounts of migration at a young age from Lao PDR and Thailand. On this basis a more theorized, grounded and nuanced perspective on child labour migration is developed. This situates child labour migration historically, embeds it within overarching processes of rural transformation and accounts for young migrants’ agency in the social process of migration, the latter shedding light on the social production of exploitation in relation to young migrants. INTRODUCTION In various countries, a sizeable share of the migrant population is below eighteen years of age (Ensor and Go´ zdziak, 2010; Yaqub, 2009a). Some of these so-called child migrants have migrated as part of family migration whilst others have migrated without parents or adult guardians. This article focuses on the latter group of child migrants who often (but not exclusively) migrate for purposes of work. Research suggests that these child migrants are generally older children, and seldom younger than ten years of age (Bastia, 2005; Iversen, 2002; Pearson et al., 2006: 25; Punch, 2007; Thorsen, 2006: 89; Yaqub, 2009a: 12–13). When it comes to child labour migrants, ‘moving or receiving them for the purposes of exploitation is trafficking regardless of whether any An early draft of this paper was presented at the Conference ‘Easier said than done: 20 years of children’s rights between law and practice’, Institute of Child Health, University College London (11–12 June 2009). This version has greatly benefitted from comments and suggestions received from conference organizers and participants, and from the constructive feedback of the anonymous referees and the editorial board of Development and Change. Any remaining errors are the sole responsibility of the authors. The first author is grateful for the Slawson Award (through Royal Geographical Society/IBG) that contributed to financing the fieldwork on which the paper is partly based. Development and Change 43(4): 919–946. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7660.2012.01786.x C 2012 International Institute of Social Studies. Published by Blackwell Publishing, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main St., Malden, MA 02148, USA
Child Trafficking: ‘Worst Form’ of Child Labour, or Worst Approach to Young Migrants?
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Child Trafficking: Worst Form of Child Labour, or Worst Approach to Young MigrantsChild Trafficking: ‘Worst Form’ of Child Labour, or Worst Approach to Young Migrants?
Roy Huijsmans and Simon Baker
ABSTRACT
This article presents a critique to the human trafficking discourse in relation to child migration, based on data obtained from the anti-trafficking community in the Greater Mekong Sub-region combined with an analysis of secondary material. It also presents a set of qualitative accounts of migration at a young age from Lao PDR and Thailand. On this basis a more theorized, grounded and nuanced perspective on child labour migration is developed. This situates child labour migration historically, embeds it within overarching processes of rural transformation and accounts for young migrants’ agency in the social process of migration, the latter shedding light on the social production of exploitation in relation to young migrants.
INTRODUCTION
In various countries, a sizeable share of the migrant population is below eighteen years of age (Ensor and Gozdziak, 2010; Yaqub, 2009a). Some of these so-called child migrants have migrated as part of family migration whilst others have migrated without parents or adult guardians. This article focuses on the latter group of child migrants who often (but not exclusively) migrate for purposes of work. Research suggests that these child migrants are generally older children, and seldom younger than ten years of age (Bastia, 2005; Iversen, 2002; Pearson et al., 2006: 25; Punch, 2007; Thorsen, 2006: 89; Yaqub, 2009a: 12–13).
When it comes to child labour migrants, ‘moving or receiving them for the purposes of exploitation is trafficking regardless of whether any
An early draft of this paper was presented at the Conference ‘Easier said than done: 20 years of children’s rights between law and practice’, Institute of Child Health, University College London (11–12 June 2009). This version has greatly benefitted from comments and suggestions received from conference organizers and participants, and from the constructive feedback of the anonymous referees and the editorial board of Development and Change. Any remaining errors are the sole responsibility of the authors. The first author is grateful for the Slawson Award (through Royal Geographical Society/IBG) that contributed to financing the fieldwork on which the paper is partly based.
Development and Change 43(4): 919–946. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7660.2012.01786.x C© 2012 International Institute of Social Studies. Published by Blackwell Publishing, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main St., Malden, MA 02148, USA
920 Roy Huijsmans and Simon Baker
force, threats or coercion were involved’ (ILO, 2008: 6, emphasis added). Since most child labour migrants experience some degree of exploitation (e.g. Pearson et al., 2006; SCUK et al., 2004) many may thus be considered victims of child trafficking. Furthermore, ILO Convention 182 (Article 3) states that ‘the term the worst forms of child labour comprises’, among other things, ‘trafficking of children’, making it a priority area for intervention. Partly due to the above, the child trafficking frame has come to dominate policy debates concerning child labour migration and anti-child trafficking inspired interventions, often revolving around removing or discouraging children from migration, have become the main approach to counter the exploitation of child labour migrants (Busza et al., 2004; Whitehead and Hashim, 2005; Yaqub, 2009b: 5).
This article takes a critical stance against the tendency of addressing the very real issue of exploitation of child labour migrants through anti-child trafficking interventions and is critical of viewing the phenomenon of child labour migration solely through a child trafficking lens. In making our case, we focus on the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS), drawing on primary material obtained from research with Lao and Thai child migrants working in Thailand.1 The focus on the Greater Mekong Sub-region is deliberate; whilst human trafficking is regarded a global problem affecting all parts of the world (US Department of State, 2011) the GMS is considered a trafficking hotspot (David et al., 2011: 1; ILO, 2003: 29; UN-ESCAP, 2000), especially in relation to the trafficking of children (Pearson et al., 2006; Wille, 2001).
The article is organized as follows. After a note on methodology, we present a number of problems concerning the trafficking discourse. The article then proceeds with three specific cases of young female workers, one from Thailand and two from Lao PDR. On the basis of this qualitative material we develop a theoretical perspective on child labour migration that transcends that of child trafficking by accounting for child migrants’ agency, by conceptualizing child labour migration as a generational manifestation of overarching processes of rural change, and by theorizing exploitation of child labour migration from a relational perspective. The final section then returns to the starting question; whether child trafficking is one of the worst forms of child labour, or rather one of the worst approaches to young migrants.
Methodology
Material for this study was generated through a range of methods. Much of the general discussion is based on a critical reading of existing material on human trafficking, which is enriched with primary data obtained from
1. The Asian Development Bank defines the GMS as comprising Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
Trafficked Children or Young Migrants? 921
interviews with people working in the field of anti-trafficking in the GMS. The case studies of Thai and Lao child migrants were the result of PhD research undertaken by the two authors. The Thai case study material was collected in 1996 when Thai children represented the bulk of children work- ing in Thailand. The Lao case studies were collected in 2007–09 and illustrate experiences of the ‘new face’ of child labour in Thailand, namely that in- volving children from Thailand’s neighbouring countries (Baker, 2007).
THE PROBLEM(S) OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING: DEFINITION, NUMBERS AND POLITICS
Human trafficking is frequently referred to as a modern form of slavery (Williams and Masika, 2002) and there is indeed no shortage of recorded cases of severe exploitation and abuse encompassing the violation of all human rights that easily fit such a strong qualification (e.g. UNICEF and MoLSW, 2004). However, the human trafficking frame is not limited to such extreme cases of exploitation, and has come to dominate policy and practice concerning a wide range of child labour migrations (Huijsmans, 2008; Whitehead and Hashim, 2005).
Whilst the human trafficking discourse has been highly successful in generating public concern and social action towards the plight of young migrants, emotive terms like ‘modern slavery’ have contributed to turning anti-trafficking into a moral obligation that is beyond critique. In this section we aim to destabilize the discursive framework of human trafficking in relation to child migration in particular. We do this by focusing the discussion on three recognized problems with the human trafficking discourse: first, the problem of defining human trafficking, particularly in relation to child migrants, and the subsequent problem of applying this definition to real-life scenarios; second, the absence of empirical evidence for claims that human trafficking is widespread and increasing; and third, the problem that anti- trafficking interventions often conflict with child migrants’ best interests.
The Problem of Perception, Definition and Practice
Contemporary concerns about human trafficking are closely associated with the prostitution of women and girls. According to Doezema (2000), this association has an historical precedent in concerns about ‘white slavery’ at the end of the nineteenth century. Nonetheless, in publications by influential multilateral bodies an explicit effort may be observed of broadening the discourse of human trafficking to make it inclusive of male victims and of trafficking for purposes of exploitation other than forced prostitution (e.g. David et al., 2011: 11; ILO, 2008: 6–7; US Department of State, 2011: 7–8). In this light, the United Nations Inter-Agency Project, a UN body
922 Roy Huijsmans and Simon Baker
coordinating anti-trafficking initiatives in the GMS, introduced the label ‘underserved victims [of human trafficking]’, including male victims of labour exploitation, for example, on plantations and fishing boats (UNIAP, n.d.) in order to change widespread perceptions of human trafficking as a problem limited to women and the sex industry.
The Palermo Protocol, the most widely used definition of trafficking, also leaves no doubt that human trafficking is by no means limited to the sex sector.2 It defines 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. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs. (UN General Assembly, 2000: Article 3a)
Nonetheless, this definition of human trafficking has also been critiqued for a lack of clarity. For example, legal scholar Gallagher (2001: 987) has pointed out that the term ‘exploitation’, which is central to the definition of human trafficking, is defined vaguely. Furthermore, ‘slavery’, ‘forced labour’, ‘practices similar to slavery’ and ‘servitude’ are listed as examples of what exploitation should, at a minimum, include, but are undefined (ibid.: 987).
Defining human trafficking broadly and leaving room for interpretation may be seen as a strategic act, typical of many UN Conventions. Drafting teams strive for a balance between writing a Convention with teeth, and one that will be ratified by a sufficient number of States Parties for the Convention to become successful. However, in the Palermo Protocol a lack of definitional clarity has created considerable confusion about what is, and what is not, human trafficking. For example, whilst the Palermo Protocol is clear about the fact that exploitation is not limited to the examples listed in the Protocol, this raises the question of ‘how deceived does a worker have to be about the nature and terms of the employment prior to migrating before s/he can properly be described as a “victim of trafficking”?’ (O’Connell Davidson, 2005: 73).
For children, the definition of human trafficking is further stretched. Article 3c of the Palermo Protocol states that ‘the recruitment, transporta- tion, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation shall be considered “trafficking in persons” even if this does not involve any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a)’ (see above). The definition of
2. The Palermo Protocol is formally known as the ‘Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children’, which supplements the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UN General Assembly, 2000).
Trafficked Children or Young Migrants? 923
trafficking in children thus becomes: the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, for the purposes of exploitation.
This means that the Palermo Protocol renders children’s consent to any form of facilitated migration leading to exploitation irrelevant in qualifying as a case of human trafficking (Huijsmans, 2006: 12). In the name of child protection, the Palermo Protocol thus sidesteps the inherent tension of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) between adult (or adult-run organizations’) constructions of children’s best interest and the concerned children’s own opinions on this. A further factor complicating the Palermo Protocol is that migrants, child migrants included, seldom migrate independently; in most cases migration is facilitated, often including a form of recruitment, facilitated transportation, etc., and the recruiter or facilitator may profit from this (Huijsmans, 2010; Iversen, 2002). This should not lead either to the conclusion that because migration is facilitated migrants are accurately informed about the details and conditions of their migratory endeavour, or to the assumption that migrants are necessarily deceived by these facilitators.
In sum, a widespread perception of human trafficking as a problem of women and girls in the sex industry, combined with a lack of definitional clarity of what constitutes human trafficking, the rendering of a child’s con- sent irrelevant where migration leads to some form of exploitation, and a realization that migration is often facilitated yet seldom a fully transparent process, ensures that there is considerable confusion about what, precisely, constitutes a case of child trafficking. Figure 1 illustrates that between pro- fessionals working with the anti-trafficking discourse in the GMS there is
Figure 1. View of what Constitutes Trafficking by Thirty-seven People Working in the Field of Anti-trafficking (based on ten case studies from the field)
0
20
40
60
80
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Cases
924 Roy Huijsmans and Simon Baker
disagreement in qualifying real-life examples as cases of trafficking.3 Box 1 presents two of the cases which were used to generate the data shown in Figure 1.4
Box 1. Two Case Questions Testing Awareness of the Palermo Protocol (as used to gather data for Figure 1)
Which of the following children have been trafficked?
1. Dariya, 13 year old girl from Cambodia, was recruited by Mr X to work in a shoe-making factory in Thailand. She arrives and finds herself working around the clock with restrictions placed on her movement. Rent and food expenses are inflated and docked from her pay but the balance of her earnings is given to her.
Yes, trafficked
2. Sie Wing, a 17 year old girl from China, agrees to an offer made by recruiter Mr Y to work in a brothel in Viet Nam for five days per week for low wages. She arrives at a brothel in Viet Nam and the terms of agreement (time/wages) are honoured.
Yes, trafficked
Notes from a concluding session of a Bangkok-based workshop during which some of the data presented in Figure 1 were collected adds further detail to the Figure.5 The starting principles of organizations and academics concerning child trafficking vary considerably as they are shaped by, among other factors, religious, humanitarian and intellectual convictions. Conse- quently there is significant variation in organizations’ working definitions of trafficking, migration and exploitation, particularly when it comes to del- icate matters such as sex work and issues involving children. This variation is reflected in Figure 1 and is something that professionals working with the anti-trafficking discourse are well aware of.
A more pressing issue, however, for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and to a lesser extent inter-governmental organizations (IGOs), is the role of donors. Several participants claimed that they were being pres- sured by donors who demanded the creation of anti-trafficking projects, at
3. Respondents included Australian, European, North American and South-east Asian nation- als, and comprised mostly NGO and IGO personnel, but also included academics.
4. For a full list of the cases, please contact the authors. 5. ‘Perspectives on Children’s Active Engagement with Migration in the Southeast Asian
Context’, an international workshop in the Asia–Europe Workshop Series funded by the Asia–Europe Foundation and the European Alliance for Asian Studies and organized by Durham University (UK) and Mahidol University (Thailand), Bangkok, Thailand (19–20 February 2009).
Trafficked Children or Young Migrants? 925
times based on particular conceptualizations of human trafficking; pressed for urgent spending of large amounts of money on anti-trafficking initia- tives (at times regardless of form or type); and forced into the production of (anti-)trafficking data (any data) which donors require for further fundraising activities.
For NGOs working with young migrants but sceptical about the human trafficking discourse and concerned about its impact on migrant children this raises a moral dilemma. Should they voice their concern about problematic aspects and consequences of the human trafficking discourse with the chance of losing funding, or should they accept this ready source of funding, thereby contributing to the reproduction of a discourse they find problematic?
The Problem of Shaky Numbers and Unsubstantiated Claims
Over the past decade the human trafficking discourse has enjoyed a dra- matic rise in popularity. The growth in anti-trafficking projects carried out by governmental, non-governmental and inter-governmental actors has been tremendous and studies on trafficking have mushroomed (Laczko, 2005). To illustrate this, in 2005, Molland (2005: 27) counted ‘over a dozen trafficking projects’ in Lao PDR, and noted that very few of these projects were more than five years old. Within five years the Lao anti-trafficking sector had expanded dramatically. In May 2009, the Vientiane office of the UNIAP6
listed a total of thirty-five different organizations involved in anti-trafficking initiatives. This includes eleven IGOs (including eight UN bodies), eight Lao government bodies, ten international NGOs, one Lao non-profit orga- nization, two private companies, and three bi-lateral initiatives.7
The legitimizing factor justifying this growth in anti-trafficking activities is the recurrent claim that human trafficking is a rapidly growing prob- lem, which needs to be addressed. However, as Table 1 shows, this claim is repeatedly stated, but seldom substantiated.8 The inaccuracy or lack of methodological rigour underlying most figures on human trafficking is no secret in the anti-trafficking community (e.g. David et al., 2011: 4–5), and key actors have started addressing it. UNESCO has a ‘Trafficking statistics project’, scrutinizing the methodology by which figures on human traffick- ing are generated. With this project UNESCO aims to ‘separate trafficking myths from trafficking realities’ (UNESCO, n.d.).
6. United Nations Inter-Agency Project concerned with anti-trafficking specifically. 7. Data were kindly supplied by the UNIAP office in Vientiane. IGOs and international NGOs
in the Lao PDR are obliged to carry out their initiatives in partnership with a Lao government body. This probably explains the high number of Lao government bodies involved in anti- trafficking initiatives. In addition, at the time of writing the Lao government did not allow Lao citizens to establish NGOs, hence the absence of national NGOs.
8. See Zhang (2009) for a similar observation in relation to sex trafficking.
926 Roy Huijsmans and Simon Baker
Table 1. Reports Indicating that Human Trafficking is Increasing (Showing whether the statement was based on empirical research or not)
Based on Quotes Source primary research another source
UNICEF (2008a) No No UNICEF (2008b) No No Marshall (2007: 5) No No Inter-Parliamentary Union and
UNICEF (2005: 4) No No
UNICEF (2004: 6) No No UNIFEM (n.d. [produced in
2002 or later]: 5) No No
Marshall (2001: 4) No No Tumlin (2000: 3, 32) No Yes UN-ESCAP (2000: 14) No No Richard (1999: 13) No Yes Sanghera (1999: 5–8) No No McCauley (1998: xi) No Yes Ghaley (1998: 6) No No
Along similar lines, UNIAP has launched a competition calling for inno- vative research proposals to generate reliable figures on human trafficking in response to the awareness that: ‘Even after nearly ten years of attention to human trafficking, estimates of the number of human trafficking victims are very limited and generally lack empirical merit . . . the counter-trafficking community has yet to come up with reliable methodologies for getting those numbers’ (UNIAP, 2008).
These two initiatives are commendable for demonstrating that influen- tial actors in the anti-trafficking community are actively trying to address known shortcomings. However, they are also evidence of the limited ex- tent to which these actors have taken on board critical observations on the human trafficking discourse. The value of the notion of trafficking remains undisputed; the prevailing concern is with devising better methods by which human trafficking can be clearly identified, targeted and thus addressed.
The Problems of Anti-trafficking Measures, Politics and Conflicts with the Best Interests of Child Migrants
A problem plaguing anti-trafficking measures in relation to children in par- ticular is the difficulty of disentangling migration from human trafficking (Bastia, 2005; Huijsmans, 2008). The definition of child trafficking (dis- cussed above) is based on a series of binary constructs, most importantly the adult–child and migration–trafficking binary (O’Connell Davidson, 2005). The problem with binary constructs is that they cannot deal with empirical fluidity. The construct of childhood on which the child trafficking discourse is based is one of vulnerability, immaturity and…
Roy Huijsmans and Simon Baker
ABSTRACT
This article presents a critique to the human trafficking discourse in relation to child migration, based on data obtained from the anti-trafficking community in the Greater Mekong Sub-region combined with an analysis of secondary material. It also presents a set of qualitative accounts of migration at a young age from Lao PDR and Thailand. On this basis a more theorized, grounded and nuanced perspective on child labour migration is developed. This situates child labour migration historically, embeds it within overarching processes of rural transformation and accounts for young migrants’ agency in the social process of migration, the latter shedding light on the social production of exploitation in relation to young migrants.
INTRODUCTION
In various countries, a sizeable share of the migrant population is below eighteen years of age (Ensor and Gozdziak, 2010; Yaqub, 2009a). Some of these so-called child migrants have migrated as part of family migration whilst others have migrated without parents or adult guardians. This article focuses on the latter group of child migrants who often (but not exclusively) migrate for purposes of work. Research suggests that these child migrants are generally older children, and seldom younger than ten years of age (Bastia, 2005; Iversen, 2002; Pearson et al., 2006: 25; Punch, 2007; Thorsen, 2006: 89; Yaqub, 2009a: 12–13).
When it comes to child labour migrants, ‘moving or receiving them for the purposes of exploitation is trafficking regardless of whether any
An early draft of this paper was presented at the Conference ‘Easier said than done: 20 years of children’s rights between law and practice’, Institute of Child Health, University College London (11–12 June 2009). This version has greatly benefitted from comments and suggestions received from conference organizers and participants, and from the constructive feedback of the anonymous referees and the editorial board of Development and Change. Any remaining errors are the sole responsibility of the authors. The first author is grateful for the Slawson Award (through Royal Geographical Society/IBG) that contributed to financing the fieldwork on which the paper is partly based.
Development and Change 43(4): 919–946. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7660.2012.01786.x C© 2012 International Institute of Social Studies. Published by Blackwell Publishing, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main St., Malden, MA 02148, USA
920 Roy Huijsmans and Simon Baker
force, threats or coercion were involved’ (ILO, 2008: 6, emphasis added). Since most child labour migrants experience some degree of exploitation (e.g. Pearson et al., 2006; SCUK et al., 2004) many may thus be considered victims of child trafficking. Furthermore, ILO Convention 182 (Article 3) states that ‘the term the worst forms of child labour comprises’, among other things, ‘trafficking of children’, making it a priority area for intervention. Partly due to the above, the child trafficking frame has come to dominate policy debates concerning child labour migration and anti-child trafficking inspired interventions, often revolving around removing or discouraging children from migration, have become the main approach to counter the exploitation of child labour migrants (Busza et al., 2004; Whitehead and Hashim, 2005; Yaqub, 2009b: 5).
This article takes a critical stance against the tendency of addressing the very real issue of exploitation of child labour migrants through anti-child trafficking interventions and is critical of viewing the phenomenon of child labour migration solely through a child trafficking lens. In making our case, we focus on the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS), drawing on primary material obtained from research with Lao and Thai child migrants working in Thailand.1 The focus on the Greater Mekong Sub-region is deliberate; whilst human trafficking is regarded a global problem affecting all parts of the world (US Department of State, 2011) the GMS is considered a trafficking hotspot (David et al., 2011: 1; ILO, 2003: 29; UN-ESCAP, 2000), especially in relation to the trafficking of children (Pearson et al., 2006; Wille, 2001).
The article is organized as follows. After a note on methodology, we present a number of problems concerning the trafficking discourse. The article then proceeds with three specific cases of young female workers, one from Thailand and two from Lao PDR. On the basis of this qualitative material we develop a theoretical perspective on child labour migration that transcends that of child trafficking by accounting for child migrants’ agency, by conceptualizing child labour migration as a generational manifestation of overarching processes of rural change, and by theorizing exploitation of child labour migration from a relational perspective. The final section then returns to the starting question; whether child trafficking is one of the worst forms of child labour, or rather one of the worst approaches to young migrants.
Methodology
Material for this study was generated through a range of methods. Much of the general discussion is based on a critical reading of existing material on human trafficking, which is enriched with primary data obtained from
1. The Asian Development Bank defines the GMS as comprising Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
Trafficked Children or Young Migrants? 921
interviews with people working in the field of anti-trafficking in the GMS. The case studies of Thai and Lao child migrants were the result of PhD research undertaken by the two authors. The Thai case study material was collected in 1996 when Thai children represented the bulk of children work- ing in Thailand. The Lao case studies were collected in 2007–09 and illustrate experiences of the ‘new face’ of child labour in Thailand, namely that in- volving children from Thailand’s neighbouring countries (Baker, 2007).
THE PROBLEM(S) OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING: DEFINITION, NUMBERS AND POLITICS
Human trafficking is frequently referred to as a modern form of slavery (Williams and Masika, 2002) and there is indeed no shortage of recorded cases of severe exploitation and abuse encompassing the violation of all human rights that easily fit such a strong qualification (e.g. UNICEF and MoLSW, 2004). However, the human trafficking frame is not limited to such extreme cases of exploitation, and has come to dominate policy and practice concerning a wide range of child labour migrations (Huijsmans, 2008; Whitehead and Hashim, 2005).
Whilst the human trafficking discourse has been highly successful in generating public concern and social action towards the plight of young migrants, emotive terms like ‘modern slavery’ have contributed to turning anti-trafficking into a moral obligation that is beyond critique. In this section we aim to destabilize the discursive framework of human trafficking in relation to child migration in particular. We do this by focusing the discussion on three recognized problems with the human trafficking discourse: first, the problem of defining human trafficking, particularly in relation to child migrants, and the subsequent problem of applying this definition to real-life scenarios; second, the absence of empirical evidence for claims that human trafficking is widespread and increasing; and third, the problem that anti- trafficking interventions often conflict with child migrants’ best interests.
The Problem of Perception, Definition and Practice
Contemporary concerns about human trafficking are closely associated with the prostitution of women and girls. According to Doezema (2000), this association has an historical precedent in concerns about ‘white slavery’ at the end of the nineteenth century. Nonetheless, in publications by influential multilateral bodies an explicit effort may be observed of broadening the discourse of human trafficking to make it inclusive of male victims and of trafficking for purposes of exploitation other than forced prostitution (e.g. David et al., 2011: 11; ILO, 2008: 6–7; US Department of State, 2011: 7–8). In this light, the United Nations Inter-Agency Project, a UN body
922 Roy Huijsmans and Simon Baker
coordinating anti-trafficking initiatives in the GMS, introduced the label ‘underserved victims [of human trafficking]’, including male victims of labour exploitation, for example, on plantations and fishing boats (UNIAP, n.d.) in order to change widespread perceptions of human trafficking as a problem limited to women and the sex industry.
The Palermo Protocol, the most widely used definition of trafficking, also leaves no doubt that human trafficking is by no means limited to the sex sector.2 It defines 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. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs. (UN General Assembly, 2000: Article 3a)
Nonetheless, this definition of human trafficking has also been critiqued for a lack of clarity. For example, legal scholar Gallagher (2001: 987) has pointed out that the term ‘exploitation’, which is central to the definition of human trafficking, is defined vaguely. Furthermore, ‘slavery’, ‘forced labour’, ‘practices similar to slavery’ and ‘servitude’ are listed as examples of what exploitation should, at a minimum, include, but are undefined (ibid.: 987).
Defining human trafficking broadly and leaving room for interpretation may be seen as a strategic act, typical of many UN Conventions. Drafting teams strive for a balance between writing a Convention with teeth, and one that will be ratified by a sufficient number of States Parties for the Convention to become successful. However, in the Palermo Protocol a lack of definitional clarity has created considerable confusion about what is, and what is not, human trafficking. For example, whilst the Palermo Protocol is clear about the fact that exploitation is not limited to the examples listed in the Protocol, this raises the question of ‘how deceived does a worker have to be about the nature and terms of the employment prior to migrating before s/he can properly be described as a “victim of trafficking”?’ (O’Connell Davidson, 2005: 73).
For children, the definition of human trafficking is further stretched. Article 3c of the Palermo Protocol states that ‘the recruitment, transporta- tion, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation shall be considered “trafficking in persons” even if this does not involve any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a)’ (see above). The definition of
2. The Palermo Protocol is formally known as the ‘Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children’, which supplements the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UN General Assembly, 2000).
Trafficked Children or Young Migrants? 923
trafficking in children thus becomes: the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, for the purposes of exploitation.
This means that the Palermo Protocol renders children’s consent to any form of facilitated migration leading to exploitation irrelevant in qualifying as a case of human trafficking (Huijsmans, 2006: 12). In the name of child protection, the Palermo Protocol thus sidesteps the inherent tension of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) between adult (or adult-run organizations’) constructions of children’s best interest and the concerned children’s own opinions on this. A further factor complicating the Palermo Protocol is that migrants, child migrants included, seldom migrate independently; in most cases migration is facilitated, often including a form of recruitment, facilitated transportation, etc., and the recruiter or facilitator may profit from this (Huijsmans, 2010; Iversen, 2002). This should not lead either to the conclusion that because migration is facilitated migrants are accurately informed about the details and conditions of their migratory endeavour, or to the assumption that migrants are necessarily deceived by these facilitators.
In sum, a widespread perception of human trafficking as a problem of women and girls in the sex industry, combined with a lack of definitional clarity of what constitutes human trafficking, the rendering of a child’s con- sent irrelevant where migration leads to some form of exploitation, and a realization that migration is often facilitated yet seldom a fully transparent process, ensures that there is considerable confusion about what, precisely, constitutes a case of child trafficking. Figure 1 illustrates that between pro- fessionals working with the anti-trafficking discourse in the GMS there is
Figure 1. View of what Constitutes Trafficking by Thirty-seven People Working in the Field of Anti-trafficking (based on ten case studies from the field)
0
20
40
60
80
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Cases
924 Roy Huijsmans and Simon Baker
disagreement in qualifying real-life examples as cases of trafficking.3 Box 1 presents two of the cases which were used to generate the data shown in Figure 1.4
Box 1. Two Case Questions Testing Awareness of the Palermo Protocol (as used to gather data for Figure 1)
Which of the following children have been trafficked?
1. Dariya, 13 year old girl from Cambodia, was recruited by Mr X to work in a shoe-making factory in Thailand. She arrives and finds herself working around the clock with restrictions placed on her movement. Rent and food expenses are inflated and docked from her pay but the balance of her earnings is given to her.
Yes, trafficked
2. Sie Wing, a 17 year old girl from China, agrees to an offer made by recruiter Mr Y to work in a brothel in Viet Nam for five days per week for low wages. She arrives at a brothel in Viet Nam and the terms of agreement (time/wages) are honoured.
Yes, trafficked
Notes from a concluding session of a Bangkok-based workshop during which some of the data presented in Figure 1 were collected adds further detail to the Figure.5 The starting principles of organizations and academics concerning child trafficking vary considerably as they are shaped by, among other factors, religious, humanitarian and intellectual convictions. Conse- quently there is significant variation in organizations’ working definitions of trafficking, migration and exploitation, particularly when it comes to del- icate matters such as sex work and issues involving children. This variation is reflected in Figure 1 and is something that professionals working with the anti-trafficking discourse are well aware of.
A more pressing issue, however, for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and to a lesser extent inter-governmental organizations (IGOs), is the role of donors. Several participants claimed that they were being pres- sured by donors who demanded the creation of anti-trafficking projects, at
3. Respondents included Australian, European, North American and South-east Asian nation- als, and comprised mostly NGO and IGO personnel, but also included academics.
4. For a full list of the cases, please contact the authors. 5. ‘Perspectives on Children’s Active Engagement with Migration in the Southeast Asian
Context’, an international workshop in the Asia–Europe Workshop Series funded by the Asia–Europe Foundation and the European Alliance for Asian Studies and organized by Durham University (UK) and Mahidol University (Thailand), Bangkok, Thailand (19–20 February 2009).
Trafficked Children or Young Migrants? 925
times based on particular conceptualizations of human trafficking; pressed for urgent spending of large amounts of money on anti-trafficking initia- tives (at times regardless of form or type); and forced into the production of (anti-)trafficking data (any data) which donors require for further fundraising activities.
For NGOs working with young migrants but sceptical about the human trafficking discourse and concerned about its impact on migrant children this raises a moral dilemma. Should they voice their concern about problematic aspects and consequences of the human trafficking discourse with the chance of losing funding, or should they accept this ready source of funding, thereby contributing to the reproduction of a discourse they find problematic?
The Problem of Shaky Numbers and Unsubstantiated Claims
Over the past decade the human trafficking discourse has enjoyed a dra- matic rise in popularity. The growth in anti-trafficking projects carried out by governmental, non-governmental and inter-governmental actors has been tremendous and studies on trafficking have mushroomed (Laczko, 2005). To illustrate this, in 2005, Molland (2005: 27) counted ‘over a dozen trafficking projects’ in Lao PDR, and noted that very few of these projects were more than five years old. Within five years the Lao anti-trafficking sector had expanded dramatically. In May 2009, the Vientiane office of the UNIAP6
listed a total of thirty-five different organizations involved in anti-trafficking initiatives. This includes eleven IGOs (including eight UN bodies), eight Lao government bodies, ten international NGOs, one Lao non-profit orga- nization, two private companies, and three bi-lateral initiatives.7
The legitimizing factor justifying this growth in anti-trafficking activities is the recurrent claim that human trafficking is a rapidly growing prob- lem, which needs to be addressed. However, as Table 1 shows, this claim is repeatedly stated, but seldom substantiated.8 The inaccuracy or lack of methodological rigour underlying most figures on human trafficking is no secret in the anti-trafficking community (e.g. David et al., 2011: 4–5), and key actors have started addressing it. UNESCO has a ‘Trafficking statistics project’, scrutinizing the methodology by which figures on human traffick- ing are generated. With this project UNESCO aims to ‘separate trafficking myths from trafficking realities’ (UNESCO, n.d.).
6. United Nations Inter-Agency Project concerned with anti-trafficking specifically. 7. Data were kindly supplied by the UNIAP office in Vientiane. IGOs and international NGOs
in the Lao PDR are obliged to carry out their initiatives in partnership with a Lao government body. This probably explains the high number of Lao government bodies involved in anti- trafficking initiatives. In addition, at the time of writing the Lao government did not allow Lao citizens to establish NGOs, hence the absence of national NGOs.
8. See Zhang (2009) for a similar observation in relation to sex trafficking.
926 Roy Huijsmans and Simon Baker
Table 1. Reports Indicating that Human Trafficking is Increasing (Showing whether the statement was based on empirical research or not)
Based on Quotes Source primary research another source
UNICEF (2008a) No No UNICEF (2008b) No No Marshall (2007: 5) No No Inter-Parliamentary Union and
UNICEF (2005: 4) No No
UNICEF (2004: 6) No No UNIFEM (n.d. [produced in
2002 or later]: 5) No No
Marshall (2001: 4) No No Tumlin (2000: 3, 32) No Yes UN-ESCAP (2000: 14) No No Richard (1999: 13) No Yes Sanghera (1999: 5–8) No No McCauley (1998: xi) No Yes Ghaley (1998: 6) No No
Along similar lines, UNIAP has launched a competition calling for inno- vative research proposals to generate reliable figures on human trafficking in response to the awareness that: ‘Even after nearly ten years of attention to human trafficking, estimates of the number of human trafficking victims are very limited and generally lack empirical merit . . . the counter-trafficking community has yet to come up with reliable methodologies for getting those numbers’ (UNIAP, 2008).
These two initiatives are commendable for demonstrating that influen- tial actors in the anti-trafficking community are actively trying to address known shortcomings. However, they are also evidence of the limited ex- tent to which these actors have taken on board critical observations on the human trafficking discourse. The value of the notion of trafficking remains undisputed; the prevailing concern is with devising better methods by which human trafficking can be clearly identified, targeted and thus addressed.
The Problems of Anti-trafficking Measures, Politics and Conflicts with the Best Interests of Child Migrants
A problem plaguing anti-trafficking measures in relation to children in par- ticular is the difficulty of disentangling migration from human trafficking (Bastia, 2005; Huijsmans, 2008). The definition of child trafficking (dis- cussed above) is based on a series of binary constructs, most importantly the adult–child and migration–trafficking binary (O’Connell Davidson, 2005). The problem with binary constructs is that they cannot deal with empirical fluidity. The construct of childhood on which the child trafficking discourse is based is one of vulnerability, immaturity and…
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