To stop the spread of the coronavirus, governments enforced mandatory quarantine measures, curfews, lockdowns, limited movement and social gatherings. This resulted in an increased police presence at borders and on the streets. On the surface level, it appeared these actions would dissuade crime. However, it just drove it further underground. This "new normal" created by the pandemic has led traffickers to adjust their business model—leading to the further exploitation of individuals through social media platforms.
Human trafficking (also known as modern-day slavery) is comprised of three core components: 1) the act, 2) the means, and 3) the purpose. The act involves the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of people. The means looks at the way in which traffickers are keeping their victims (e.g. through force, fraud or deception). And the purpose answers the question why people are trafficked — to exploit them for profit.
Trafficking crimes occur in every region of the world, affecting men, women and children of all ages and from all backgrounds. A person can be exploited in their home country, during migration or in a foreign country. The industry earns approximately $150 billion dollars a year, with about $99 billion dollars coming from commercial sexual exploitation alone. Human trafficking takes on many forms — as exploitation in the sex, entertainment and hospitality industries, as domestic workers or in forced marriages. Victims can be forced to work in factories, on construction sites or in the agricultural sector without pay or with an inadequate salary. The trafficked often live in fear of violence and in inhumane conditions.
To raise awaress for this global issue and the U.N. World Day Against Trafficking In Persons, Photographers Without Borders (PWB) is highlighting four community partners who do the work day-in and day-out to combat human trafficking.
HAART (Awareness Against Human Trafficking) is a non-governmental organization located in Nairobi, Kenya working to end human trafficking. HAART started the campaign Hope, Healing, Resilience to give survivors the opportunity, platform and space to share their stories — emphasizing that every story matters. To date, they have assisted 585 survivors, with a model based on prevention, protection, prosecution and partnerships.
Photo by: Matilde Simas
HAART continues to educate communities on how trafficking can happen to anyone. During the COVID-19 pandemic, HAART implemented a Youth Vulnerability Scale. This measurement tool looks at the economic, social, education and health status of the individual in order to assess where the need is greatest. For youth who may be living in conditions that make them susceptible to being trafficked, HAART enrols them in their TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) program.
The pandemic has made it challenging to go out into the communities and help reduce the susceptibility of youths entering into or accepting deceptive job opportunities. However, HAART continues to provide the youth with local livelihood options, in hope the skills acquired through the TVET program will increase the youth's skill level and provide them with the opportunity and resources they need to start and sustain their own businesses.
SASANE (Samrakshak Samuha Nepal) is a survivor-led organization founded on the notion that each and every individual has their own inherent worth. It began as a way to protect and empower female survivors of human trafficking, and quickly turned into a movement against child marriage, violence against women and oppression.
SASANE advocates on behalf of the survivors and works to bring them justice by investigating their cases. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been challenging to travel to remote places in Nepal. But the team is doing the best they can to continue to spread awareness on the consequences of human trafficking. They continue to challenge cultural assumptions that have been ingrained within communities and identify social injustice wherever it is present. They work closely with government based agencies to uphold the rights of women and to ensure the protection and assistance in the reintegration process of female survivors within their communities. Social change begins with legal change, so they have used the power of advocacy to create equality for trafficking survivors.
Photo by: Kim Annand
The team at SASANE are known as the “team of protectors”. They conduct emergency rescues and lead community empowerment and awareness programs designed to educate and prevent human trafficking. They also started a project-based residence in Kathmandu and Pokhara called the “SFJ House” (School for Justice) that is a safe haven for survivors and their families.
Damnok Toek strives to help vulnerable, at-risk children and youth in Cambodia to ensure that their basic needs and rights are met. Each year, this NGO assists approximately 3,500 children within Phnom Penh, Poipet and Neak Loeung. "When we talk about vulnerable children here, we talk about a lot of different cases such as street-living children, street-working children, trafficked children, substance abuse children and children with disabilities," said Nathalie Nguyen, a representative from Damnok Toek.
Photo by: Kathleen Hertel
Damnok Toek's recovery shelters and transitional care centres help children and youth who were victims of trafficking and child labour, or who were living on the streets. They provide children with counselling, trauma rehabilitation and family tracing. With multiple school closures occurring due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the staff at Damnok Toek has developed resources and tips on how to keep kids active, learning and safe while searching the internet. Teams from Damnok Toek have also been travelling to rural communities to teach kids how to keep themselves safe and how to prevent themselves from contracting COVID-19. This includes providing masks, demonstrating the proper usage of masks and teaching kids how to apply hand sanitizer.
Mongolian Women's Fund was created to help eliminate discrimination against women and girls, and to increase the number of women in leadership positions. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the team's work has shifted online. They have been donating computers to organizations so they can continue to provide their training on the prevention of sexual harassment and violence in the workplace. This program is designed to increase the knowledge and understanding of employee rights and the employer's responsibilities to create a workplace free of sexual harassment and violence.
Photo by: Anna Chrul
To learn more about these organizations and find out how you can help, visit their websites at HAART Kenya, SASANE, Damnok Toek and MONES.
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