Human Trafficking and Human Security

Anna Jonsson

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780415451819
• eBook ISBN: 9781134056668
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Globalisation
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Human trafficking, and the related problems of organised crime and prostitution, has become a serious problem for post-Soviet countries since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Human trafficking has a major impact on the countries of origin, the destination countries and the countries of transit, and is a concern for those studying population and migration, economics, politics, international relations and security studies. This book examines human trafficking from post-Soviet countries, exploring the full extent of the problem and discussing countermeasures, both local and at the global level, and considering the problem in all its aspects. It focuses in particular on the experiences of the Baltic Sea region, setting out the nature of organised crime and the full range of threats against society.

1 Introduction

Human trafficking and human security in the Baltic Sea region

Anna Jonsson

Introduction

This volume sets out to identify and analyze changes in the trade and actors involved in human trafficking globally and in the Baltic Sea region subsequent to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Recognizing that neither trade in humans nor organized crime are new phenomena, it focuses on the changes that the dissolution of the Soviet Union brought with it in terms of the structure, substance, and impact on societies of the trade and the organized crime originating from the former Soviet Union. Its main empirical focus is the northern parts of the Baltic Sea region, but its theoretical ambitions go further. Trafficking in human beings in the Baltic Sea region is analyzed in a global, political, societal, and economical context. The study highlights the impact of the dissolution of the Soviet Union on the supply of victims of the trade on a global level. It also explains the impact of this dissolution on smuggling routes and on the anatomy of the organized crime networks with their origins in the former Soviet Union. This approach allows for conclusions to be drawn concerning the impact of the trade on both state and human security in countries of origin, transit, and destination.

The human-security approach: a framework for conceptualizing human trafficking and its impact on societies

Traditionally, trafficking in human beings has been studied within the framework of migration studies (see, for example, Haynes 2004), international relations and human rights research (Obokata 2007), gender studies, legal studies,¹ and finally in the context of organized crime research (see, for example, Stoecker and Shelley 2005). Recently, and to an increasing extent, human trafficking, as part of illegal migration and organized crime, has also been included in security studies (see Berdal and Serrano 2002). Nevertheless, research on human trafficking is undertheorized and fragmented. Ideological motives and political goals have, to a large extent, influenced the research agenda thus far. The larger chunk of the data and analysis is provided by international and national nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Few academic and theoretically informed studies have been published. Moreover, what these studies have in common is the general lack of explanation of the effect of human trafficking on countries of origin, on the one hand, and transit and destination countries on the other. However, the inclusion of human trafficking in the overall trend towards securitizing migration and organized crime provides a conceptual and theoretical framework with the potential to provide explanations as to how the trade affects states. Still, focusing on state security is a much too narrow approach for analyzing the effect of human trafficking on destination, origin and transit countries. By adding the concept of human security, the analysis level is shifted from the state level to the societal level and to the individuals composing society.

Trafficking does challenge the state in its traditional meaning by undermining the state’s borders, sovereignty, autonomy, and capacities (Adamson 2006). However, the dominating state-security approach is too narrow and therefore fails to provide a satisfying framework for explaining potential consequences of human trafficking on all involved states, especially on their value basis, ability to uphold rule of law, public health, public order, and, hence, their ability to protect their citizens. Therefore, we argue that the understanding of human trafficking as a criminal, social and economic phenomenon and its consequences for both individuals and states benefits from conceptualizing it not only as a state-security issue but also as a human-security issue. Especially if taking into consideration that the supply side of human trafficking can be seen as a result of the lack of human security in sending and transit countries, while the effects of the demand pose a potential threat to state and human security in countries of destination, for example by creating a market and hence incitement for organized crime enterprises. Therefore, by taking its starting point in the human-security discourse, this volume provides a valuable contribution to the ongoing process of securitizing organized crime in general and human trafficking in particular, a process which up till now has mainly focused on state security. The conceptual framework presented here and further elaborated upon by Louise Shelley in her chapter suggests that the lack of human security explains the rise and continuation of human trafficking, and that trafficking in human beings has the potential to contribute to a degeneration of a recognized high degree of human security in destination countries.

Although there is no single definition of human security, the common core of the concept is its starting point in the needs of individuals—it focuses on “the needs of socially embedded individuals” (Gasper and Truong (2005: 377) and the “freedom from pervasive threats to people’s rights, safety and lives” (Paris 2001: 90). Hence, the individual, not the state, which traditionally is the case for most security studies, constitutes the starting point. One of the main purposes of the human-security concept is to provide a framework for highlighting abuses of, or the inability to guarantee, rights and freedoms by nation-states in relation to their own citizens (Gasper and Truong 2005: 372). The main goal of a human-security policy should be to establish a secure-enough environment for individuals to realize their economic, political, and social capabilities. Human-trafficking crimes stand out in this context since they often involve transboundary movements, with the result that, for example, destination states are affected by the sending states’ inability to care for and protect their own citizens. However, one could also argue that it is the demand in the destination country that triggers the trade and that the receiving state therefore has a legal responsibility towards the victims; at the very minimum, it does have a moral responsibility to care for the victims’ needs.

There are at least two policy arguments to be made in favor of the human-security approach to human trafficking:

1 By establishing economic, political, and societal peace and stability for individuals, the playing field for organized crime actors, sex buyers, and others who are willing to exploit other people in order to satisfy their own desires, be they of a sexual or pecuniary character, becomes limited.

2 States that provide a high level of human security for their citizens are often targeted by traffickers inter alia because they provide a good market, which, in turn, is a result of high economic standards and, among other things, an increasing demand for cheap labor. However, organized crime and trafficking have the potential to undermine state functions which are necessary to uphold human security, for example effective law enforcement, strong state finances, trust in political and legal institutions, xenophobia, and public health. Thereby, trafficking potentially poses a threat to stable and democratic welfare states. In addition, human security is a global concept and a global goal. Hence, every state should have a responsibility to strive towards human security for all individuals within its territory, not only its citizens.

The added theoretical value created by adopting a human-security approach to the study of human trafficking as a complement to state security is that focus is shifted from the state to the very fundament of the state, i.e. its inhabitants and the conditions under which they live. By adopting this approach, explanations as to what contributes to the supply side and the facilitation of the trade, on the one hand, and what factors influence the demand and the potential implications of the trade in the destination country both in terms of human and state security, on the other, can be presented, taking into account the economic, social, and political situation in which human trafficking victims have been identified. Although the situation for individuals and the potential effects on individuals of the trade constitute the starting point, states’ responsibility and measures taken to either create or safeguard and uphold an open and functioning society based on humanistic values are clearly recognized. Hence, the subject of analysis is primarily the individual and his or her situation in terms of political, economic, and societal security. Nevertheless, conclusions drawn here also highlight how the state has failed to provide for human security and the consequences thereof. In conclusion, this approach allows for explanations not only of what contributes to human trafficking but also of what the consequences can be for destination and transit countries.

For the purpose of this volume, human security is defined as a situation in which individuals are protected from dangers posing a threat to their lives, freedom, and dignity.² Hence, human security is both a goal and a status quo depending on the situation in question. Necessary requirements for upholding or establishing human security are, for the purpose of this volume, identified as: rule of law, societal peace, and a nondiscriminatory welfare state able to provide both medical and social care as well as education to all its inhabitants. Each of these requirements is subjected to threats and challenges that either undermine them or prevent them from ever being realized. The rule of law can be challenged by corruption, ineffectiveness, distrust and weak institutions. For example, in 2007, Latvia experienced some political turmoil connected to anticorruption measures and the countermeasures that these have provoked in the high echelons of the political elite. In addition, societal peace can be jeopardized by clashes between social or ethnic groups. It is not rare that these groups tend to overlap, something the situation in Estonia’s Narva region is an example of. The welfare state, as such, is depending on responsible and long-term sustainable political decisions, and stable state finances, which, in turn, are a result of the state’s ability to collect taxes and to keep the illegal economic sector under control. Organized-crime structures in the Baltic Sea region are, to a large extent, responsible for the large and growing illegal economic sector. Finally, for a state to be considered democratic and legitimate, it needs to be inclusive. Both Estonia and Latvia do have a large number of noncitizens residing on their territory for several generations. In conclusion, the overall purpose of this volume is to explore trends and patterns in human trafficking and the organized crime that often comes with it, and to discuss whether the trade does pose a threat to human security in the region by challenging rule of law, societal peace, and the welfare state.

Human trafficking: demand and supply in an expanded Europe

As we shall see, the feminization of poverty and the marginalization of certain groups and the sex industry contribute heavily to the supply side. The demand for inexpensive labor and sexual services in the destination countries, and the significant amount of money to be made, stimulate the trade. The dissolution of the Soviet Union altered the already-existing trade in human beings in the sense that to an increasing extent women and minors from central and eastern Europe act as merchandise. The European sex industry is more or less dominated by individuals from central and eastern Europe and several of the former Soviet republics. In comparison, it is interesting to note that women from central and eastern Europe are not, at least as far as we know, that strongly represented amongst victims of human trafficking for labor purposes. There are, however, indications that men from this part of Europe can be found but the area is still significantly underresearched. Trafficking for labor purposes mostly involves individuals from Asia, Africa and Latin America.

The typical victim of human trafficking does not allow him or herself to be easily identified, which is problematic from a law-enforcement perspective. It is certain, however, that the most vulnerable group is composed of socially and economically abused women and minors, who live in an information vacuum without any real options in life. Still, there is also a substantial group of women who travel abroad knowing that they will work in the sex industry. The drastic economic and social changes that the dissolution of the Soviet Union brought with it have contributed to a situation where well-educated and family-providing women see no other solution than to sell their bodies. The same background provides the incentive for men and boys to pack up and venture to become seasonal workers in a black-labor force in other parts of Europe. The existing legislative framework, both international and national, and responsible state agencies are facing challenges of how to protect the group of individuals who migrate knowing what they will do in their destination country, but who later find themselves in working conditions which are very close to or comparable with slavery. Changes are also needed in order to get traffickers who exploit this initial volition tried and convicted for using another person’s economic and social misery for their own personal gain. Even if there is a rather large group of individuals that migrates voluntarily, the degree of volition must be understood in the light of the economic and social situation in which these persons find themselves. Migration as a result of having no other choice should not be confused with voluntary migration as a result of free choice taken in a safe, secure, and stable environment. Clearly, the change of supply subsequent to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the opening up of the borders of the European Union (EU) has had consequences for the demand structure in Europe, and human trafficking for sexual exploitation does constitute a real problem of great concern for all European states. The sex industry in certain parts of Europe—Germany and the Netherlands especially—creates a constant demand for women and girls. In other parts of Europe, for example in the northern parts with a radically different approach to prostitution, women and minors from the former Soviet Union are being trafficked for sexual purposes.

Currently, there are two main approaches of how to counter prostitution and human trafficking in Europe: (1) the criminalization of the purchasing of sexual services, and (2) the legalization of prostitution. Finland and Sweden have adopted laws that prohibit the buying of sexual services. The Finnish law is more narrow than the Swedish in that it only criminalizes the buying of sexual services from minors and victims of human trafficking.³ In Germany, the sex trade has increased after the legalization of prostitution. Among others, women from Romania and Bulgaria work the streets of Berlin, and there are suspicions that their arrival in Berlin has been orchestrated by organized crime networks (Lewenhagen 2007).

Trade in human beings for forced labor or for labor on the black market is also a phenomenon with impacts on destination countries and countries of origin. Obviously, black labor will have an effect on states’ economies and welfare and security systems. Nevertheless, the demand for such labor forces is not declining; rather, the opposite is true. This, in combination with the continuing migration flow to Europe, is likely to have important implications for European migration and labor policies. Thus, not only the supply side has changed subsequent to 1991; the demand side is also subject to change—changes which any state policy trying to improve the situation need to address in a well-informed manner in order to be successful.

Human trafficking and organized crime

Organized-crime networks, both national and transnational, facilitate the trade in humans. The trade is organized to a varying degree, but, ...

Table of contents

• Fornt Cover
• Human Trafficking and Human Security
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Notes on contributors
• Preface
• Foreword
• 1 Introduction: Human trafficking and human security in the Baltic Sea region
• 2 Human security and human trafficking
• 3 Organized crime or crimes organized?: Isolating and identifying actors in the human trafficking chain
• 4 The interaction of drug smuggling, human trafficking, and terrorism
• 5 International countermeasures against human trafficking
• 6 Human trafficking in the Baltic Sea region: Supply, demand, and organized crime
• 7 An assessment of human trafficking in the Kaliningrad oblast: Strategies and responses
• 8 Trade in human beings in Lithuania
• 9 Conclusions and looking ahead
• Index