Trafficking: A Perspective from Asia

Trafficking: A Perspective from Asia

Ronald Skeldon*

ABSTRACT The main theme of this article is market development and trafficking as a business. It touches upon most of the aspects of the phenomenon, which have been encountered elsewhere, and translates them into the relatively unfamiliar context of many of the Asian and South-East Asian economies. Equally, the literature cited is also probably unfamiliar. Themes touched upon include democratization, inter-state relations, human rights, and scale and perspectives, together with the problems of definitions, theory, and the reliability of data. The directions and characteristics of trafficking flows together with routes and border control are also considered. Coordinated official responses to criminality and criminal organizations, as well as to trafficked individuals, are beginning to emerge. There is a note of caution sounded that contextual and cultural perspectives, particularly on sex workers, must be viewed somewhat differently to those in Western societies. The article concludes that as long as countries in Asia maintain their policies of restrictive immigration, trafficking can be expected to continue and almost certainly increase. This is because accelerating development creates demand for labour at various skill levels and because even in times of recession migrants and brokers will seek to side-step attempts to expel immigrants and restrict access to labour markets. The elimination of trafficking is unlikely to be realistically achieved through legislation and declarations of intent but by improvements in the socioeconomic status of the population.

* University of Sussex, Brighton, Sussex, UK, and Honorary Professor, University of Hong Kong. Published by Blackwell Publishers Ltd., 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK, and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.

© 2000 IOM International Migration, Special Issue 2000/1 ISSN 0020-7985

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TRAFFICKING: A DEFINITIONAL AND CONCEPTUAL MORASS As in countries of the West, the trafficking of human beings has become a major concern to governments both in and beyond Asia. It is a concern within Asia itself because a great deal of population migration (within the region) is undocumented. It is a concern beyond Asia because, increasingly, Asians are moving to more developed countries in Australasia, Europe and North America without going through the immigration channels of the destination countries. “Illegal”, “irregular”, “undocumented” or “clandestine” migration is intimately associated with “trafficking”, although there are subtle differences in interpretation that render the discussion a terminological minefield. “Trafficking”, as in the trade in narcotics, implies an illicit exchange of goods but, because these goods are human beings, there is a clear moral dimension absent from the illegal trade in materials. Trafficking has taken on the mantle of a latter-day slave trade with coercion, deception, violence and exploitation as central themes. These themes take on even greater consequence when gender and age criteria are introduced. To “trafficking” is so often added the rider “particularly of women and children” to underline unequivocally the heinous nature of the process and its links to prostitution, pornography and paedophilia. The unanimous adoption of Convention 182, the Convention concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour of the International Labour Organization in June 1999, perhaps the most widely accepted international convention to date, reflects global repugnance towards the trafficking of children. This Convention seeks international action to eliminate the worst forms of child labour, including “all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom and forced or compulsory labour”. International conferences seeking the prevention of trafficking of women, however, go back to the last decade of the nineteenth century but are a continuation of longer established action towards the abolition of slavery (Wijers and Lap-Chew, 1997). The emphasis on exploitation in trafficking means that the internal movement of those trafficked is often incorporated in any assessment of the issue. Such an approach, while logical in terms of the nature of the process, makes policy intervention more complex as the internal affairs of particular states are then addressed rather than a bilateral or multilateral concern among sovereign states. The internal trade of women may have been going on for centuries and be seen as part of the “traditional” practices of a nation. In order to try to separate such traditional practices, no matter how exploitative they might appear to western eyes, the role of the intermediary – the “trafficker” – is essential. These individuals are seen to profit from the trade in people and are thus key agents in linking the exploited labour to the capitalist global economy.

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Thus, exploitation, trade, profit and illegality are all central to the idea of “trafficking”. While clearly related to “human smuggling”, trafficking is generally seen to imply a much greater degree of coercion and exploitation. Human smuggling, too, is generally applied only to movements across international borders. However, while the general intent of the term “trafficking” may be clear, in practice it is difficult to apply. Networks of human smugglers have proved to be highly successful in moving large numbers of people illegally and in amassing substantial profits. Violence, coercion and exploitation are an integral part of smuggling and it is virtually impossible to discuss smuggling without trafficking. A critical examination of the whole process will reveal that a clear distinction between coercion and freedom of choice becomes blurred. In fact, a clear distinction between trafficking, smuggling and other forms of population movement also becomes blurred. Traffickers have learned to manipulate legal channels of migration in order to gain entry to particular countries at particular times.

LABOUR MIGRATION AND TRAFFICKING: CLEARLY SEPARATE CATEGORIES? A clear separation between trafficking and other forms of supposedly legal migration may be more apparent than real. For example, most labour migration within Asia is arranged through the medium of brokers, usually in both countries of origin and countries of destination. Most commonly, an employer will approach a broker with a request for so many labourers. That broker, broker A, will contact a counterpart agency, broker B, in a supply country to arrange the recruitment of the labour and the organization of the formalities for their passage out of the country. Broker A has the responsibility for arranging their entry into the destination country and for the transportation to their place of employment. Broker A may also be responsible for the repatriation of the workers after their contract has been satisfactorily completed. Costs of transportation may be borne by either broker A or broker B. Potential workers in the origin country may also contact broker B in order to see if he or she can place them in another country. Clearly, there are expenses involved at many points along the way: transportation; for passport and visas; medical checks, security clearance, and so on. It is well known that the costs of placing legal labour migrants vary widely. In studies made on Thai migrants going to Singapore in the late 1990s, for example, the average amount paid was 47,071 Thai baht (approximately US$1,240), but with a large variation of 23,776 baht (US$627) between the highest and lowest figures (Atipas, 1999).1 This variation in cost is due to many factors, not the least being charges to “facilitate” the process based on a person’s ability to pay or the exigencies of particular situations. Progress through the various stages in the complex process of obtaining a passport is

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likely to be possible only through the provision of “tea money” at various points along the way. Failure to do so is likely to result in no progress at all. However, charges reportedly paid to illegal traffickers for arranging entry to Singapore were considerably less than the “official” and “legal” costs, at an average 12,260 baht (US$325). These figures are difficult to compare as the latter charges refer to pre-1997 crisis costs while the former reflect costs that straddle the crisis. Interestingly, however, “legal” costs do not appear to have changed significantly from before to after the crisis, suggesting a clear cost difference between the two migration channels. The point of looking at the costs of recruiting legal workers in the context of trafficking is twofold: first, to show that bureaucratic procedures are often so complex and costly that it is cheaper and faster to approach a trafficker to gain entry to a desired destination; second, to suggest that there are illegal payments in the legal process and that there is overlap between trafficking and legal labour migration at several points in the process, starting with certain employers and, most particularly, government officials. Thus, there is a seamless transition, starting from completely transparent, fully invoiced and accountable recruitment on the one hand, through to the movement of people through networks entirely controlled by criminal gangs on the other. The relative importance of movements of people in Asia at points along this “continuum of facilitation” is impossible to gauge. The following conditions need to be considered: - Labour markets are extremely tight, with severe labour shortages at many skill levels in the more developed parts of Asia. - There are, as yet, few legal immigration channels to allow workers to enter most of these developed parts of Asia. - There are significant differences in average earnings between potential supplier areas and potential destination economies. - There is a demand for overseas employment in potential areas of origin due to increasing awareness of opportunities outside the country, which itself is a product of rising levels of education and possible previous experience of overseas employment. - Government officials in origin countries (and some destination countries) are paid extremely low wages and are always in search of alternative sources of income. Interestingly, studies of entrepreneurship are rarely directed towards the public sector, while any initiative to improve survival wages is virtually universally condemned as “corruption”. All these factors are likely to contribute to an increasing shift along the continuum towards movement involving at least some illegal practices. If trafficking practices are not too dissimilar from many of those involved in more legal labour migration, a more logical distinction might perhaps be between those migrants who move legally from one country to another, the “documented”, from those who do not, the “undocumented”. At least from a statistical point of

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view, information is often available on the former. Again, two points need to be borne in mind: first, that the statistical difference need not necessarily imply a significant difference in process between a trafficked migrant on the one hand and one who finds his or her job through a supposedly legal broker on the other; second, and increasingly in Asia, many who enter a country legally as a student, tourist or short-term worker, often arranged through a trafficker or broker, stay on as illegal workers after the stay granted through their visa has expired. Here again, the difference between legal and illegal becomes blurred as employers, government officials and brokers/traffickers may all be involved in facilitating the “overstayers”.

TRAFFICKING AND SETTLER MIGRATION The blurring of a distinction between trafficking and the process of legal labour migration has been highlighted, particularly as they operate in Asia. The admission of legal migrants as settlers might seem to be a clearly separate type of migration from trafficking: a process conforming to the immigration law of developed destination countries. Here, too, however, there are grey areas. A whole brokerage industry of immigration consultants has emerged to coach potential applicants through the immigration process and facilitate the paper work. Many of these concerns are legitimate businesses, but others have proven unscrupulous and willing to be less than honest in the interests of their clients. In Hong Kong, during the late 1980s and early 1990s, more than 100 companies cited migration advice as their primary business (Hardie, 1994). Consultancy fees ranged from a “moderate” US$3,000 up to around US$12,000 in the early 1990s and for this service the agency will “create” in their client a particular ideology of migration which will help him/her over the various hurdles of the application process. Much more dubious are services to arrange new nationalities and passports in order to provide access to particular states, such as passports from the Dominican Republic or Tonga that might allow the purchasers advantages in entering the US or Canada. The distinction between trafficking and two other forms of apparently legal migration is also blurred. These forms are the movement of children for adoption and the movement of women as brides. It is reported that there have been about 21,000 foreign adoptions of children from China since the mid1990s with some 5,000 alone in 1998 (Asian Migration News, 2000a). The average cost to a foreign couple is between US$13,000 and US$24,000, with donations to the orphanage and fees for lawyers, visas, adoptive papers, and so on. Adoptions are also common from Viet Nam. The trade in Asian brides is also subject to abuse on both sides. While the exploitation of women will be examined in more detail below, there are other dimensions to the trade. Many, perhaps the majority, of the marriages are genuine, but many are also bogus in which foreign men knowingly or unknowingly are used as a means for

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syndicates to “place prostitutes” in foreign countries legally. A related pattern, small in terms of total numbers involved but illustrative of the way legal channels are manipulated, refers to asylum seekers from Viet Nam in the late 1980s and early 1990s who were screened out as refugees. Rather than face the prospect of repatriation to Viet Nam, asylum seekers could arrange marriage with citizens of potential countries of destination through brokers for between US$6,500 and US$15,000 (Redden, 1995). Here again, there is overlap between trafficking and legal migration.

TRAFFICKING, INTERNATIONAL CRIME AND DEVELOPMENT There may be also be linkages between the trafficking in persons and the international trade in narcotics and in other core activities controlled by international crime such as money laundering. Also, and most clearly, prostitution is an integral part of the international trade in women. The criminal syndicates have the financial resources to “influence” key agents along the way and the contacts among brokers and traffickers to achieve their objectives. However, it would be incorrect to assume that all trafficking or illegal migration is controlled by international criminal syndicates. There are many amateurs, either individuals or small groups of villagers, and small groups of criminals as well as transnational syndicates, involved in the process. In fact, trafficking seems to lend itself to a fissiparous operation requiring little start-up capital and little in the way of organizational capital. Individual entrepreneurs and petty criminal groups are both capable of attempting to bring in or export small numbers of workers. The operative word appears to be “flexibility”, with groups responding to particular situations, constantly changing routes and tactics, involving whoever can assist at specific locations and specific times. Rather than any large organization, trafficking is the product of diverse groups constantly shifting in composition and alliance as the need arises. All these issues illustrate that trafficking is a hugely complicated and multimillion dollar business. They are writ large in any discussion of migration in and from Asia, and trafficking in and from that region is, at the highest level of generalization, essentially a reflection of a failure in policy. The trafficker, in a sense, helps to make the labour market more efficient by facilitating the movement of labour from where it is to be found to where it is needed. Such a transfer, however, need not necessarily be in the best interests of the state of destination. A continual inflow of labour can depress wage levels in certain sectors and perhaps maintain outmoded, labour-intensive industries in areas undergoing rapid upward shifts towards capital-intensive application. The example of the garment industry in New York, maintained in large part by illegal Chinese labour, is a case in point (Kwong, 1994). The business of trafficking can be conceptualized as in continuous tension with the state-

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controlled business of immigration control, always seeking to by-pass it and sometimes seeking to subvert it. Trafficking is in constant conflict with that state apparatus which, in turn, grows and becomes ever more complex because of trafficking as it seeks to manage more effectively entry to the state. Not all trafficking need be negative for development or for the welfare of the migrant. Perhaps a parallel can be sought in the debate on child labour where some child work can be considered to be in the best interests of both children and their families. What is important is that the worst forms of child labour should be eliminated. Similarly, it is the worst forms of trafficking that require urgent attention. The next section of this article will attempt to outline the principal characteristics of undocumented and illegal migration in and from Asia and then consider the issues with a focus on the worst forms of trafficking in the region.

TRAFFICKING FROM AND IN ASIA: THE KNOWN AND THE UNKNOWN Given the definitional imprecision surrounding “trafficking” and the difficulty of logically separating it from several other types of migration, it is hardly surprisingly that accurate numbers are elusive. The only statement that all who examine trafficking in Asia appear to agree upon is that the illegal movement of people is substantial and that it is growing: Undocumented migration is occurring at an unprecedented rate and will continue to increase in scale and impact as the forces of globalization become more pervasive and the friction of distance separating nations is further eroded in South-East Asia (Hugo, 1999: 35).

However, perhaps even this generalization requires some modification, as weak databases, changing social and economic conditions and the varying agendas of those studying the phenomenon render difficult definitive conclusions. Estimates are of varying reliability. Globally, US estimates place the annual number of women and children trafficked at more than 1 million, including 250,000 from South-East Asia alone (Asian Migration News, 2000b). The same source estimates that trafficking in women and children generates the third largest source of profits for organized crime, after guns and narcotics, at some US$6 billion. Trafficking from Asia Currently, some 50,000 Chinese may be smuggled to the US every year on purpose-bought ships, containers on regular shipping routes and, most commonly, on commercial airlines using both genuine and forged documentation.

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Many Chinese also enter their final destination, which is usually the US, by land from either Mexico or Canada, countries which they may have entered legally under some category of visitor. The global network of overseas Chinese communities facilitates the movement of those smuggled by providing contacts and assistance along the routes. These routes are extensive and complex: for example, over 60 different routes from China to the US were identified by US investigators in the early 1990s (Skeldon, 1994). South-East Asia is a common stopover, particularly Bangkok, from where migrants can be moved (a) through Central Asia or Russia and Eastern Europe to Western Europe or on to North or Central America; (b) through African countries to South and Central America; (c) directly across the Pacific. Other routes take the migrants to Australasia. It is common to talk of “Chinese migrants” and “smuggled Chinese”, but it is important to bear in mind that these Chinese come from only very small parts of the vast country that is China: primarily from Fujian province and from very particular parts of that province (Hood, 1997). From certain villages there are more people in North America, mainly New York City, than are registered in the village itself. Increasingly, in the illegal migration of Chinese to Europe, there are people from Zhejiang province and again from specific areas within that province, mainly Wenzhou. While the reasons for these specific origins in China are to be found in the evolution of historical patterns of movement in the context of coastal locations, it is perhaps a sobering thought that the traffickers are barely touching the vast resource of China’s population as a source of illegal migration. Ethnic linkages within the complex Chinese community will probably restrict the development of illegal (as well as legal) movement from other parts of China over the short term, at least. Other flows of trafficked migrants from Asia include Sri Lankans, particularly Tamils, to western European countries, Indians and Pakistanis to the countries of the Gulf and increasing numbers of South-East Asians to Europe, particularly Filipinos to Italy. The number of illegal workers in the Gulf countries is substantial, with the majority coming from the Asian subcontinent. Of the 25 million resident population of Gulf states in the late 1990s, about 10 million were foreigners. In 1997-98, about 750,000 illegal workers left these states during crackdowns to regularize the status of resident populations (Migration News, vol. 6(11), 1999). There are perhaps 1.4 million illegal workers in Iran. The stock of illegal migrants from Sri Lanka who were overseas, mainly in the Gulf, East Asia and Europe in the mid-1990s has been estimated at around 100,000 (Gunatilleke, 1998: 87). Numbers such as these have to be treated with a great deal of caution and it is perhaps significant that an analysis providing much insight into the mechanics of trafficking from Bangladesh to South-East Asian countries, as well as to the Gulf, did not venture estimates of the numbers of illegal migrants involved (Mahmood, 1998). Estimates of illegal Asian migrants in Europe vary at around a few tens of thousands a year.

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A small stream of trafficked migrants that has generated much publicity has been the movement of boat people to Australia: small in terms of total volume, some 2,500 in the first 11 months of 1999, but large in political impact in Australia as a harbinger of massive and uncontrolled migration from Asia. Although there are certainly Asian traffickers involved, the majority of those trafficked thus far come either from Iraq or from Afghanistan. In this case, Asia is the conduit rather than the origin of the movement. The political impact has been great as Australia sees itself as one of the most liberal immigration regimes, and the illegal entrants are not only costing the taxpayer over US$30,000 each to process, but are abusing the system as queue jumpers. That is, they are seen to be economic migrants who are claiming asylum in order to jump up the queue of legitimate applicants for settlement in Australia under the humanitarian programme. It is extremely difficult to send people back to regimes such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan, and with a strictly imposed limit of 12,000 humanitarian acceptances every year, the illegal entrants do, in effect, manage to manipulate Australia’s asylum system. Trafficking within Asia The numbers of illegal migrants leaving Asian countries are tiny compared with the numbers moving within Asia itself. Asia covers such a large and complex area, incorporating the most populous countries in the world, that it is difficult to make meaningful generalizations. Nevertheless, over the last 20-25 years, flows of population have been linking these countries together as never before, with many of the migrants trafficked. Most of that migration still tends to be towards neighbouring countries, but the increasing differences in development within the region are now generating important legal and illegal flows between such distant countries as Bangladesh and Malaysia and Japan, or Iran and Japan. It is exceedingly difficult to estimate the number of intraregional legal migrants, let alone those who are undocumented. The International Labour Organization produced estimates of the number of migrant workers in East and South-East Asian countries just before the onset of the economic crisis in 1997 and these are given in Table 1 (page 27). Estimates of the number of illegal workers are given in parentheses in the table. A second set of estimates of irregular migrants generated from a variety of sources is given in Table 2 (page 28). In terms of the number of irregular migrants in East and South-East Asia, the principal destinations are Malaysia, Thailand, Japan and the Republic of Korea. Estimates in the above tables, however, must be treated with great care; some are likely to be more reliable than others. Generally, there is a difference between the most developed economies of East Asia and Singapore and the more recent developing economies of South-East Asia. In the case of the former, the majority are either island economies or have closely defended land borders where it is easier to monitor arrivals and departures. In the case of the latter, there are long land and sea borders that are difficult to monitor. In the

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former economies, and excluding the dependants of highly skilled or professional migrants, who are unlikely to be either illegal or trafficked migrants, the vast majority of foreigners, legal and illegal, are workers. In the latter economies, there are also large numbers of dependants among the undocumented migrants, not all of whom will be working. Local authorities in the province of Ranong on the Thai-Myanmar border, for example, estimate that one fifth of the 100,000 foreign migrants in the province are family members (Chantavanich et al., 2000: 110). It is not clear whether dependants are ever included in estimates of foreign populations in South-East Asian countries provided in the tables, although it is fairly safe to assume that they are not. The figures in the tables are therefore likely to be underestimates, particularly for countries in South-East Asia, and there are no accurate estimates of the numbers of persons trafficked. There are, however, many estimates of varying reliability generated from surveys of target groups, particularly at points along Thailand’s long border and in the sex sectors of major urban centres in the region (Archavanitkul, 1998; Caouette, 1998). Throughout that region, the international borders separating states often pass through groups that are closely related and which have maintained trade and marriage relations for decades, if not centuries. The relations between northern Thai groups and the Shan in Myanmar, and between Thai in the north-east of Thailand (Isan) and Laos, are examples of such relationships, where people can move across the border to stay with relatives or co-ethnic groups. Much of the movement into East Malaysia also falls into this type of migration, which is guided along traditional trade routes. What is apparent in studies carried out on trafficking across borders in South-East Asia is the great range in scale and types of organizations carrying out the trafficking (Derks, 1999; Hugo, 1999). Often, individuals with access to boats are used to traffic people across rivers, with villagers on both sides of a border participating in the supply of food and accommodation. Similar situations are reported in South Asia. There, many tens of thousands are moved illegally from Bangladesh to India and to Pakistan every year, and from Nepal to India, although the majority of those trafficked are estimated to be within India’s vast territory (Tumlin, 2000). There are figures of 300,000 Bangladeshi women trafficked to India over an unspecified period and 200,000 to Pakistan (Sanghera, 1999). Over 200,000 Nepali sex workers are reported to work in Indian cities, fully one fifth of whom are supposedly under the age of 16 years (ESCAP, 2000). Again, accurate numbers are virtually impossible to verify. There is free movement between India and Nepal and the boundary between India and Bangladesh passes through some densely populated areas of peoples of the same ethnic group. Partition of the subcontinent in 1947 and movements during and following the war that eventually gave rise to Bangladesh in 1971, left relatives separated by the new political divisions. There is much movement backwards and forwards, particularly from Bangladesh. The fence

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being constructed by the Indians in order to try to control the undocumented movement from Bangladesh was built in such a way that 500,000 Indians in 200 villages are locked out of India after the gates are locked every night at 6 p.m. (Migration News, vol. 6(12), 1999). Also, women and children in villages along the border are among the beneficiaries of the trafficking as they guide those wanting to cross and supply food and accommodation along the way. The limitation of trafficking would restrict this micro-business, which provides important additional income for poor families in the region (Sanghera, 1999). Studies on trafficking have tended to focus on women and children. Men, however, are also trafficked and they are, in a way, the invisible dimension of trafficking. The majority of those trafficked to the Gulf from the countries of South Asia, and of those from southern China to North America, are men, even if there are not inconsiderable numbers of women among their ranks. Given the difficulty of clearly separating trafficking from other forms of labour migration, and given that men are arguably less open to exploitation than women, the remainder of this article will examine what might be termed the “worst forms of trafficking”, which relate primarily to the illegal movement of women and children for purposes of exploitation. It can generally be accepted that these “worst forms” are the selling of women and children into slave-like conditions for the purposes of sexual exploitation, even if objective criteria on trafficking are elusive. In many of the studies the actual trafficking is incidental because the real problem is sexual exploitation that is at the root of the movement. Given the abhorrent conditions in which these “disposable people” are to be found in the new global economy (Bales, 1999), it seems invidious to seek objective numbers and improved definitions when the priority must be on action to improve the conditions in which the women and children are to be found. Nevertheless, and without denying the very real exploitation that exists, the time may be right for more dispassionate analysis in the assessment of existing trends in trafficking and child labour in the Asian region.

THE WORST FORMS OF TRAFFICKING: OF COERCION AND FREEWILL IN THE SEX INDUSTRY The image of the young girl sold out of poverty to unscrupulous brokers, or kidnapped from a village and transported to the city, where she is kept in sordid conditions to serve an endless procession of men until she is eventually released to return home to die of AIDS, is a powerful driving force for many to seek the elimination of the worst forms of trafficking and child labour. That such events occur seems indisputable. How common they are is much more difficult to assess. That they occur at all appears an indictment of modern patterns of development. Objective analysis becomes difficult because slavery and prostitution are twin abominations of western, particularly middle-class, perspectives which often clash with Asian points of view. To dismiss the latter as simply male-dominated

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opinion would, however, be too simplistic. Recent studies of the sex industry in South-East Asia, particularly in Thailand, that reputedly notorious centre of trafficking, are providing important insights into the whole process of migration, trafficking, sex and development. Perhaps the most critical contribution of the debate has been to move away from the “woman as victim” interpretation so favoured by many feminist and NGO representatives, to an acceptance of the complexity of the sex sector in South-East Asia.2 The industry is divided into many sub-sectors, each catering to different markets, each with their own geography, price structure and organization. Those who have studied the various sectors are virtually unanimous in their assessment that the majority of women entered the sex industry voluntarily. In an examination of two sectors of the industry in Thailand, brothels and massage parlours, for example, only 13.5 and 7.4 per cent respectively had been introduced to the sector by agents or middlemen. Thus, the link between trafficking and the sex industry may not be as close as first assumed. Introductions by friends, or “self-arranged”, were the most important modes of entry cited in the survey. Only 13.5 per cent of those in the brothels reported that they had been forced into the industry and not one girl in the sample of those in massage parlours reported that force had been used (Boonchalaski and Guest, 1998: 151). The same study also revealed that one third of the brothel sample had first become sex workers when they were younger than 18 years of age, one fifth of them commencing between the ages of 13 and 15. The origins of sex workers also tend to be concentrated, suggesting the importance of specific family and friendship networks in entry into the profession. Over one third of sex workers in Bangkok came from the provinces of Chiang Rai and Phayao, with one specific district in Phayao being known for its supply of girls. The district of Indramayu, which accounts for but 3 per cent of the population of West Java and Jakarta combined, supplied 28 per cent of the sex workers to one of the largest official prostitution complexes in north Jakarta (Jones et al., 1998). Such “voluntary” entry into the sex industry, however, need not necessarily imply that, in an ideal world, prostitution would be the chosen occupation. Lack of alternative opportunities in village economies, and the responsibility of daughters to sacrifice themselves to support their families, undermine the whole idea of freedom of choice in poor societies. In cases where a family may have been abandoned by the male head of household and the principal breadwinner, the adolescent daughter may represent the only realistic hope of earning money to support the family. Entry into the sex sector is thus an attempt to help families escape from poverty rather than an occurrence forced upon them by unscrupulous traffickers (Caouette and Saito, 1999). In these contexts, however, any meaningful distinction between free will and coercion becomes academic.

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The “force of circumstance” argument is undermined to some extent by the fact that many girls enter the sex industry to escape from abusive conditions at home. The sex industry provides an avenue into a potentially high-earning occupation and a way out of a boring life that may be but abusive drudgery at home. The fact that only a minority of the girls will reach the high-earning end of the market need not necessarily imply that they have been deceived into the industry. It is clear that the girls, as active agents in the industry, are able to forge new identities that allow them to come to terms with their situation and permit some to achieve cultural as well as economic satisfaction (Askew, 1998).

TRAFFICKING OVERSEAS AND THE SEX INDUSTRY Participation in the sex industry discussed thus far involves movements within the domestic markets of South-East Asian countries. In 1993, for example, the Thai Embassy in Tokyo estimated that between 80,000 and 100,000 Thai women were working in Japan’s sex industry (Caouette and Saito, 1999: 25). However, given that the total number of illegal workers in Japan, male and female from all countries of the world, was estimated at the end of 1997 by Japanese authorities at some 300,000, that estimate seems wildly inflated. Also, while much is made of links to criminal organizations, statistics cited to demonstrate this fact reveal that, in 1995, only 1 per cent of those persons arrested for violating the Immigration Control Act of Japan were identified as having links to criminal organizations (Caouette and Saito, 1999: 26). Even granted that all those arrested included men as well as women and the proportion of Thai women with criminal linkages is going to be very much higher, it is also clear that there are major differences between what people wish to see and the real situation. Even assuming that a large number, even the majority, of women migrants to the overseas sex industry had turned to criminal groups to facilitate their placement, it is not entirely certain that this might make them “particularly vulnerable”. The majority of Thai women working in the sex industry overseas moved from domestic to foreign circuits of prostitution using contacts in the local sex industry, or foreign men, to traffic them into still more potentially lucrative markets. They did so of their own volition and were not forced into the trade. The majority knew exactly what kind of job they were going to do on arrival, even if the conditions turned out to be more difficult than expected: most ran up substantial debts to organize their passage overseas. That said, in Japan, women commonly repaid their debts and set themselves up independently at far higher levels of income than would ever have been possible in Thailand. The trafficking to an overseas destination had empowered at least some of the women who went overseas (Watenabe, 1998). While exploitation undoubtedly exists, much greater care is required in drawing definitive conclusions from the

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inadequate data available. There is clearly another dimension to the sex worker as helpless victim, either of circumstance or of traffickers. The sex industry is clearly closely associated in the public eye with trafficking, the worst forms of child labour and exploitation, and equally clearly generates ready moral outrage. It is thus going to be difficult to reconcile the views of those who see the industry created by the trafficker, the exploiter and the new slaver and those who see the industry as a legitimate occupation for women to achieve some form of independence in a male-dominated world. Critical to the success of the latter point of view is for authorities to recognize the industry as legitimate rather than as an activity to be eradicated. Over time, the controversy may become less intense as demography and the development context of an economy change. The decline of fertility in Thailand has led to a reduction in the cohorts of children available to be trafficked. This decline has been associated with increasing female participation in secondary school which, in turn, is a reflection of shifting demand for labour in Thailand. The combination of these factors resulted, during the first half of the 1990s, in sharp declines in child labour throughout the country, which was almost certainly accompanied by a reduction in both trafficking and under-age entry into the sex industry.3 Programmes to spread information about, and respond to, the dangers of HIV/ AIDS may also have had a role to play in a shift away from organized prostitution in Thailand (UNAIDS, 1998). Thus, the forces of globalization need not act in a way that will see an ever-upward spiral in trafficking. The real situation is more complex, with the forces of globalization that generate upward shifts in the demand for quality of labour leading to a reduction in the worst forms of trafficking. Of course, as those worst forms of trafficking decline in one area, they are likely to move to other regions as traffickers extend their ambit outwards towards less developed parts of Asia. It is in the least developed areas on the margins of economically dynamic regions that the worst abuses are likely to occur. For example, the techniques of deception used to bring young Chinese women into the Thai sex trade today from isolated parts of Yunnan Province have been compared with the techniques used to deceive northern Thai women about 30 years ago (Mahatdhanobol, 1998: 29). Without sanctioning this type of behaviour in any way, it must be recognized that the kidnapping of young women for sale as brides has been a long-established practice throughout rural China, a practice that has persisted to this day. Thus, the attribution of naiveté is somewhat at variance with traditions in rural China, exploitative though these may be. As this discussion should have shown, the real situation of incorporation into some of the perceived worst forms is highly complex and not easily reduced to popular and western stereotypes. This statement, however, does not imply (a) that exploitation does not exist in trafficking – it can, and does – although

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almost certainly not in the majority of trafficking cases, or (b) that the sex industry will be a limited phase in development. The nature of both activities, however, changes and the extent that it does change will reflect, at least to some degree, change in official policy.

THE GOVERNMENT RESPONSE Within the Asia region, understandably, the response of governments towards trafficking is universally negative and here we are talking principally about trafficking across national borders rather than within borders. The reasons for this response, however, have less to do with the moral or social issues discussed above and more to do with the fact that trafficking of large numbers of nonnationals into a country without their going through official immigration channels gives the impression that governments have lost control of their borders. There is the perpetual fear of the outsider and the fear that foreigners will create trouble within the borders of the state and, if present in sufficient numbers, lead to changing identities of the nation itself. Not one Asian country today operates an active immigration policy; all seek to control access to their territory tightly. With sharp fertility declines and resultant slowing growth in labour supply but a context of rapid rates of development and increased labour demand in several parts of the region, traffickers have fertile ground indeed for their operations. An awareness among the governments in Asia that the issue of trafficking and illegal migration can be approached only through some form of regional cooperation led to the establishment of several mechanisms to allow dialogue and the sharing of information. These mechanisms date from 1996 when two separate groups were initiated: the Inter-governmental Asia-Pacific Consultations on Refugees, Displaced Persons and Migrants, the “APC”; and the Regional Seminar on Irregular Migration and Migrant Trafficking in East and South Asia, the “Manila Process”. The objectives of the former, which has UNHCR and IOM as full partners, is to promote dialogue and explore opportunities for greater regional cooperation on matters relating to population movements, including refugees, displaced persons and migrants. The objectives of the Manila Process, with IOM as secretariat, are less formal and are to discuss specific issues of concern to governments in the region. At the third seminar, held in Bangkok in September 1998, for example, country delegates considered the two issues of “return of irregular migrants” and “labour migration and trafficking”. The result of these discussions, and the increasing perception that illegal migration was indeed becoming a security concern throughout the region, brought countries together in a formal declaration to deal with the issue, the “Bangkok Declaration on Irregular Migration” of April 1999. This declaration,

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while long on intentions and short on specifics, was the first occasion when countries in the region had come together with the intention of beginning to work towards some form of joint action in the area of migration. Clearly, some countries were more concerned than others and there were very different priorities among countries of origin, destination and transit of population movement. However, the elimination of trafficking through better management of migration in the region and the protection of migrant rights were strong themes in the declaration. The need for a comprehensive strategy in which regular (legal) and irregular (illegal) migration had to be considered together was stressed. Thus, the difficulty of identifying trafficking as a completely separate form of population movement, an initial concern in this article, is reflected in policy in the Asian region.

CONCLUSION Any attempts to control migration in the Asia region are now almost certainly destined to fail, if by “control” we mean limit. All the more developed economies in the region are moving, de facto if not de jure, towards some form of greater public participation in their political systems – we need not necessarily term this process “democratization”. Those who are elected to positions of power are likely to include many entrepreneurs who are likely to benefit from migrant labour or at least who depend for their position on those who are successful businessmen or women. Any restrictions on the entry of labour, legal or illegal, is not likely to be in their interests and trafficking is very much a business. While some sort of management of population flows is indeed desirable, the top priority must be to ensure that migrants are accorded the rights and protection laid down in international conventions and declarations. As long as countries in the region maintain their policies of restrictive immigration, trafficking can be expected to continue and almost certainly increase. It will increase as accelerating development creates demand for labour at various skill levels. It will increase even in times of recession as migrants, and brokers, seek to side-step attempts to expel immigrants and restrict access to contracting labour markets. The elimination of trafficking, no matter how desirable, is unlikely to be realistically achieved through legislation and declarations of intent. Rather, the improvement in the socio-economic status of the population, particularly through the education of girls, is likely to lead to reductions in its worst forms. While strategies to achieve such goals can be successful only over the long term, options remain for more short-term action. This article has attempted to highlight the complexity and changing nature of trafficking in Asia. Blanket policies to eliminate all forms are hardly realistic or even appropriate. It is important to target the injustices created by criminal groups on the one hand

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while at the same time regularizing or “managing” those forms of trafficking that benefit local populations and even those trafficked on the other. Thus, strategies to deal with the phenomenon of trafficking will have to have multiple objectives from increasing penalties on traffickers and targeting their profits at one level, to protecting those trafficked at another. Trafficking is but one dimension of the trade in labour that is an integral part of development. Once its role in development is understood and the sheer range and complexity of its forms appreciated, then a more coherent policy response will be possible. The elimination of the worst forms, such as the exploitation of children, the management of other forms, such as the movement of labour to jobs, and even the acceptance of yet other forms, such as the facilitation of local cross-border movements, will all be part of any realistic government response to the issue of trafficking.

NOTES 1. These data are from a 1999 survey of Thai migrant workers overseas coordinated by the Asian Research Center for Migration, Chulalongkorn University. 2. The literature on the sex sector in South-East Asia is extensive. Key contributions include the early seminal work of Pasuk Phongpaichit (1982), and the more recent essays in Lin Lean Lim (Ed.) (1998). See also the useful review article by Marc Askew (1997). For a global reinterpretation, see Kamala Kempadoo and Jo Doezema (Eds) (1998), and the insightful review of that book by Karen Johnson in Human Rights Quarterly, vol. 21, 1999: 839-844. For a more traditional view of women as trafficked victims, even if their own data do not entirely support that point of view, see Siriporn Skrobanek et al., 1997. 3. I am indebted to Simon Baker who, in personal discussions and seminars during 1999 and 2000, convinced me of the validity of this argument. We await the publication of his research findings with great interest.

REFERENCES Archavanitkul, A. 1998 Trafficking in Children for Labour Exploitation Including Child Prostitution in the Mekong Subregion: A Research Report, ILO-IPEC, Bangkok. Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 1998 Special issue on “The impact of the crisis on migration in Asia”, 7(2-3). Asian Migration News 2000a 1-15 February. 2000b 16-31 March.

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Askew, M. 1997 “The business of love: writings on the socio-cultural dynamics of Thailand’s sex industry”, Journal of South-East Asian Studies, 28(2): 396-406. 1998 “City of women, city of foreign men: working spaces and re-working identities among female sex workers in Bangkok’s tourist zone”, Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 19(2): 130-150. Atipas, P. 1999 “Thai workers in Singapore”, paper presented at the Second International Workshop on Thai Migrant Workers in South-East and East Asia, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, November. Bales, K. 1999 Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy, University of California Press, Berkeley. Battistella, G., and R. Skeldon 1999 “Toward regional cooperation on irregular/undocumented migration”, paper presented at the International Symposium on Migration, Bangkok: 21-23 April. Boonchalaksi, W., and P. Guest 1998 “Prostitution in Thailand”, in Lin Lean Lim (Ed.), The Sex Sector: The Economic and Social Bases of Prostitution in South-East Asia, International Labour Organization (ILO), Geneva. Caouette, T.M. 1998 Needs Assessment on Cross-border Trafficking in Women and Children: The Mekong Subregion, draft report prepared for the UN Working Group on Trafficking in the Mekong Subregion, Bangkok. Caouette, T.M., and Y. Saito 1999 To Japan and Back: Thai Women Recount Their Experiences, International Organization for Migration (IOM), Geneva. Chantavanich, S., S.R. Paul, P. Wangsiripaisal, P. Suwannachot 2000 Cross-border Migration and HIV Vulnerability in the Thai-Myanmar Border: Sangkhlaburi and Ranong, Asian Research Center for Migration, Bangkok. Derks, A. 1999 [Chapters on the trafficking of Cambodian women and children to Thailand, and of Vietnamese women and children to Cambodia], in Paths of Exploitation: Studies of the Trafficking of Women and Children between Cambodia, Thailand and Viet Nam, International Organization for Migration, Geneva. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) 2000 Sexually Abused and Sexually Exploited Children and Youth in South Asia: A Qualitative Assessment of their Health Needs and Available Services, Bangkok. Gunatilleke, G. 1998 “The role of networks and community structures in international migration from Sri Lanka”, in Reginald Appleyard (Ed.), Emigration Dynamics in Developing Countries, volume II: South Asia, Ashgate, Aldershot, UK. Hardie, E.T.L. 1994 “Recruitment and release: migration advisers and the creation of exile”, in Ronald Skeldon (Ed.), Reluctant Exiles? Migration from Hong Kong and the New Overseas Chinese, M.E. Sharpe, New York: 52-67.

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Hood, M. 1997 “Sourcing the problem: why Fuzhou?”, in Paul J. Smith (Ed.), Human Smuggling: Chinese Migrant Trafficking and the Challenge to America’s Immigration Tradition, The Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Washington: 76-92. Hugo, G. 1999 “Undocumented International Migration in South-East Asia”, in YenFen Tseng, C. Bulbeck, Lan-Hung Nora Chiang and Jung-Chung Hsu (Eds), Asian Migration: Pacific Rim Dynamics, National Taiwan University, Interdisciplinary Group for Australian Studies, Monograph no. 1, Taipei. International Labour Office (ILO) 1998 The Social Impact of the Asian Financial Crisis, ILO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok. Kassim, A. 1998 “International migration and its impact on Malaysia”, in M.J. Hassan (Ed.), In a Pacific Peace: Issues and Responses, ISIS, Kuala Lumpur. Jones, G.W., E. Sulistyaningsih, and T.H. Hull 1998 “Prostitution in Indonesia”, in Lin Lean Lim (Ed.), The Sex Sector: The Economic and Social Basis of Prostitution in South-East Asia, International Labour Office (ILO), Geneva: 29-66. Kempadoo, K. et al. (Eds) 1998 Global Sex Workers: Rights, Resistance and Redefinition, Routledge, New York, [reviewed by Karen Johnson in Human Rights Quarterly, vol. 21, 1999: 839-844]. Kwong, P. 1994 “New York is not Hong Kong: the little Hong Kong that never was”, in Ronald Skeldon (Ed.), Reluctant Exiles? Migration from Hong Kong and the New Overseas Chinese, M.E. Sharpe, New York: 256-268. Lean Lim, L. (Ed.) 1998 The Sex Sector: The Economic and Social Bases of Prostitution in South-East Asia, International Labour Organization (ILO), Geneva. Mahatdhanobol, V. 1998 Chinese Women in the Thai Sex Trade, Chinese Studies Center, Asian Research Center for Migration, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok. Mahmood, R.A. 1998 “Bangladeshi clandestine foreign workers”, in Reginald Appleyard (Ed.), Emigration Dynamics in Developing Countries, volume II: South Asia, Ashgate, Aldershot, UK: 176-213. Phongpaichit, P. 1982 From Peasant Girls to Bangkok Masseuses, International Labour Organization (ILO), Geneva. Redden, M. 1995 The Experience of Vietnamese Women Asylum Seekers in Hong Kong: Marriage, Risk and Public Health, unpublished M.A. dissertation, University of Adelaide. Sanghera, J. 1999 “The battle between economics and ethics: awareness-raising on trafficking in a border community in Bangladesh”, GAATW Newsletter, January, 6-8.

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Skeldon, R. 1994 “East Asian migration and the changing world order”, in W.T.S. Gould and A.M. Findlay (Eds), Population Migration and the Changing World Order, Wiley, London: 173-193. Skrobanek, S., N. Boonpakdi, and C. Janthakeero 1997 The Traffic in Women: Realities of the International Sex Trade, Zed Books, London. Tumlin, K.C. 2000 Trafficking in Children and Women in Asia: A Regional Overview”, ILO-IPEC, Bangkok, (draft only). UNAIDS 1998 Relationships of HIV and STD Declines in Thailand to Behavioural Change, Geneva. Watenabe, S. 1998 “From Thailand to Japan: migrant sex workers as autonomous subjects”, in Kamala Kempadoo and Jo Doezema (Eds), Global Sex Workers: Rights, Resistance, and Redefinition, Routledge, New York: 114-123. Wijers, M., and L. Lap-Chew 1997 Trafficking in Women: Forced Labour and Slavery-like Practices in Marriage, Domestic Labour and Prostitution, Foundation Against Trafficking in Women (STV), Utrecht, Netherlands.

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TABLE 1 ESTIMATED NUMBER OF FOREIGN WORKERS IN ASIAN LABOUR-IMPORTING COUNTRIES AND AREAS, LATEST YEAR AVAILABLE Total foreign workers

Number of workers (in thousands) by country of origin (estimates of illegal migrants in parentheses) Indonesia

Philippines

Thailand

China

Other Asia

Malaysia

2,500

755 + (1,000)

100 + (400)

79 + (33)

n/a

305

Thailand

1,260

n/a

5

n/a

60

944

450

100

60

60

46

n/a

1,354

n/a

84 + (43)

18 + (39)

234 + (38)

680 + (88)

n/a

50

120

18

n/a

39

Taiwan Province of China

297

9

84

138

21

n/a

Republic of Korea

210

15

23 + (15)

9+ (6)

28 + (49)

56 + (20)

Singapore Japan Hong Kong

a

b

China

a. Mostly migrants from Myanmar; b. There were some 680,000 registered Koreans in Japan. Source: ILO (1998): 28.

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TABLE 2 ESTIMATES OF IRREGULAR MIGRANTS IN SELECTED ASIAN ECONOMIES 1

Japan

Bangladesh

5,864

Republic 2 of Korea

Taiwan Province 3 of China

6,939

4

Malaysia

81,000 38,957

53,429 1,013

Indonesia

2,498

475,200

Republic of Korea

52,854

Malaysia

10,926

Myanmar

5,957

Pakistan

4,766

3,350

42,627

6,302

4,772

9,6006

5,595

8,000

Philippines

5

246,400

Cambodia China

Thailand

396 25,600

810,000

12,000

Taiwan Province of China

9,403

Thailand

38,191

2,528

72,242

18,285

5,326

23,200

109,000

281,157

95,627

18,587

800,000

1,000,000

3,181

Viet Nam Others Total 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Overstayers end of 1997; Overstayers June 1998; Overstayers and illegal workers; Estimate based on 1996 regularization; Estimate based on 1996 regularization; Add approximately 150,000 Filipinos still irregular in Sabah.

Sources: Data cited in Graziano Battistella and Ronald Skeldon (1999). The sources used for the original table can be found mainly in the papers published in the special issue of the Asian and Pacific Migration Journal (1998). See also A. Kassim (1998).

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TRAITE D’ETRES HUMAINS: UNE PERSPECTIVE ASIATIQUE Le thème principal de cet article est le développement du marché et la traite en tant que commerce. Il touche à la plupart des aspects du phénomène que l’on a pu rencontrer ailleurs et les transpose dans le contexte relativement peu familier de bon nombre de pays d’Asie et d’Asie du Sud-Est. De même, la littérature citée est probablement peu familière. Les thèmes abordés comprennent la démocratisation, les relations entre Etats, les droits de l’homme, et les notions d’échelle et de perspective, mais aussi les problèmes de définition, de théorie et de fiabilité des données. L’auteur envisage également les orientations et les caractéristiques des flux de trafic, de même que les itinéraires et les contrôles exercés aux frontières. Des réactions officielles concertées à la criminalité et aux filières criminelles commencent à se dessiner, ainsi que des mesures visant les personnes victimes de trafiquants. L’article comprend une mise en garde à propos des conditions culturelles ambiantes, notamment en ce qui concerne les professionnelles du sexe, l’auteur estimant qu’elles doivent être examinées sous un angle quelque peu différent des conditions existant dans les sociétés occidentales. L’auteur conclut qu’aussi longtemps que les pays d’Asie maintiendront leur politique restrictive d’immigration, on peut s’attendre que la traite d’êtres humains se poursuivra et même s’accentuera, presque certainement. Cela s’explique par le fait que l’accélération du développement crée une demande de main-d’œuvre à divers niveaux de qualification et que, même en temps de récession, les migrants et les entremetteurs s’efforcent de trouver la parade aux mesures d’expulsion et de restriction d’accès aux marchés du travail. Il est irréaliste de vouloir éradiquer la traite des êtres humains par des textes de loi et des déclarations d’intention. Mieux vaudrait pour cela améliorer les conditions socio-économiques dans les pays exportateurs de main-d’œuvre.

TRÁFICO DE PERSONAS: UNA PERSPECTIVA DE ASIA El principal tema de este artículo es el desarrollo del mercado y el tráfico de personas como un negocio. En él se aborda la mayoría de los aspectos del fenómeno, existentes en otras partes, y se los traduce en un contexto relativamente desconocido de muchas de las economías asiáticas y del sudeste asiático. También se citan artículos que probablemente no son muy conocidos. Los temas de que trata incluyen la democratización, las relaciones entre Estados, los derechos humanos y la magnitud y perspectivas, junto con problemas de definiciones, teoría y la exactitud de los datos. También se aborda

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en este artículo las direcciones y características de las corrientes del tráfico de personas, junto con los itinerarios y controles fronterizos. Poco a poco van surgiendo respuestas oficiales coordinadas ante la criminalidad y las organizaciones del crimen, y ante los individuos objeto de tráfico. No obstante, se sugiere cautela en las perspectivas contextuales y culturales, particularmente en lo que atañe a los trabajadores del mercado del sexo, que deben ser considerados de manera diferente a los de las sociedades occidentales. Este artículo concluye que mientras los países asiáticos mantengan políticas inmigratorias restrictivas, el tráfico habrá de continuar y muy probablemente aumentará. Y ello porque si se acelera el desarrollo se crea una demanda de mano de obra en diversos niveles de competencias y porque incluso en épocas de recesión los migrantes e intermediarios intentarán pasar por alto la tendencia a expulsar a los inmigrantes y restringir el acceso a los mercados laborales. El artículo concluye que no se eliminará el tráfico de personas de manera realista a través de una legislación o de declaraciones de intenciones, sino más bien a través de un mejoramiento de la situación socioeconómica de la población.