Airlines turn modern day slavers

The presence of East Asian human trafficking victims in places as far-removed as Southern Africa and Central and South America confirm the ease with which modern merchants of slavery exploit international air travel. This geographic spread makes East Asian victims stand out when compared with victims from other corners of the planet, according to a report released Friday by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC). ''East Asia was the region of origin of victims trafficked to the widest range of destinations,'' revealed the 'Global Report on Trafficking in Persons', described by the U.N. agency as its first comprehensive report on criminal justice statistics related to human trafficking across the world. ''Victims from West Africa may frequently be detected in a few specific countries but are not found elsewhere, as opposed to East Asian victims that may be detected less frequently but are found in more countries,'' the report states. ''East Asian victims were detected in many regions, including Western and Central Europe, North America, the Middle East, Afghanistan, Southern Africa, and, of course, East Asia and the Pacific,'' the report states. ''East Asian victims were also detected in Central America (El Salvador), South America (Venezuela) and Central Africa (Gabon).'' ''Outside Asia, East Asians represented a significant proportion of the victims detected in South Africa (Thai victims), the United States (41 percent of the victims detected in 2007 were East Asians) and in a few European countries (Chinese victims in Belgium),'' the report states. ''The trafficking routes coming out of East Asia appeared to be the most diverse,'' it adds. In the majority of cases the victims are tricked into travelling voluntarily on airlines, says Christopher Lowenstein-Lom, spokesperson for the Asia-Pacific regional office of the International Organisation of Migration (IOM). ''The traffickers promise them non-existent jobs in the foreign countries, secure the tickets, passports and the travel documents for the journey.'' ''It is only on arrival that the victims realise that they've been trafficked into a coercive situation of gross exploitation, slavery,'' he explained in an interview. ''And (they) can't escape because of the threat of violence, isolation, no common language, no papers and no money.'' Identifying such victims at airports or on airlines is difficult, ''because they still believe that they were going to legitimate, well paid jobs,'' adds the official of the U.N. agency that has been trying to raise awareness of this scourge through information campaigns that focus on transport hubs, including airports. Compounding that challenge is the weakness within the airline sector, where some international carriers from poorer Asian and African countries are known to be lax in scrutinising the passengers , says an airline industry source who spoke on condition of anonymity. ''The traffickers know which airlines are not that strict and can be used to ferry their human cargo without many problems.'' Airports across the region also offer openings as a supply route for this modern form of slavery, the source added. ''Easy visa regulations to fly into some airports have made them transit points. In some airports, the guard is down when people check-in as a group.'' ''The loopholes are so amazing; they are unstoppable,'' adds Imtiaz Muqbil, executive editor of the 'Travel Impact News Wire,' a regional travel-industry media outlet. ''You need to examine the whole chain from departure to where the victims end to realise the gaps that make trafficking possible.'' Yet Muqbil confirmed in an interview that this disturbing side of air travel is being addressed by the industry. ''The airlines are aware about the problem. They know what is going on and it is being discussed at internal meetings. Some airlines have more rigorous checks of passengers.'' According to the UNODC report, most of the human trafficking victims from East Asia are women and girls, and often ''for the purpose of sexual exploitation''. Cases of human trafficking for forced labour were also detected. Consequently, ''trafficking for sexual exploitation has been a prominent focus of legislation (in East Asia and the Pacific,'' states the 292-page report. ''As of November 2008, the Republic of South Korea, Singapore and Vietnam had specific provisions on trafficking in persons solely addressing sexual exploitation.'' But regional efforts have still been unable to curb another feature of the human-trafficking chain where the region stands out - there are a growing number of women, identified as offenders, who draw their compatriots and trap them into a life of misery abroad. ''The role of female offenders appears to be predominant in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region and very significant in other regions of the world, such as East Asia and the Pacific, and Central America and the Caribbean,'' adds the report. ''Airlines can help stop this trade,'' says Lowenstein-Lom of IOM. ''They are now expected to look at people's documents more closely. It wouldn't do any harm if they looked for potential victims.'' But ultimately, ''the gatekeepers are the immigration officers at all airports where the victims pass through,'' he added. ''(There is a) training focus on immigration and law enforcement officials, who can ask to see employment contracts, ask questions and hopefully identify potential victims.''