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Trafficking victims typically are recruited using coercion, deception, fraud, the abuse of power, or outright abduction.

An action plan to end human trafficking

24 September 2008

Representatives from international organisations and criminal justice agencies met at the Commonwealth’s headquarters for a consultative meeting to look at ways in which the Secretariat can help countries to combat this phenomenon

Ways to combat human trafficking were discussed at a Commonwealth consultative meeting at Marlborough House, London, on 23 September 2008, which brought together a cross-section of around 30 senior practitioners from criminal justice agencies.

The group considered national and international strategies to help address all forms of human trafficking under the three main pillars of prevention, prosecution and protection. They also examined measures that could be taken for the recovery of proceeds of crime of human traffickers.

Human trafficking

Human trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring, or receipt of people, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, or abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.

Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour (including bonded labour or debt bondage) or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.

Trafficking victims typically are recruited using coercion, deception, fraud, the abuse of power, or outright abduction. The total annual revenue for trafficking in persons is estimated to be between US$5 billion and US$9 billion.

Protection and support of witnesses and victims of trafficking; prevention and raising awareness of human trafficking; and international co-operation to unite efforts between source, transit and destination countries, were addressed by the experts.

This meeting is the result of a mandate given by Commonwealth law ministers when they met in Edinburgh, Scotland, earlier this year, for a Plan of Action which will guide the Commonwealth Secretariat’s efforts to help member countries target human trafficking.

“We have made considerable progress today,” said Betty Mould-Iddrisu, Director of Legal and Constitutional Affairs at the Secretariat. “It is very important for us to be able to get what you, the practitioners, have actually been doing to combat human trafficking across Commonwealth jurisdictions. You have enabled us to understand the phenomenon better and produce points which can be translated into a Plan of Action.”

Efforts such as specialist training for investigators, prosecutors and judicial officers and developing anti-trafficking units in prosecution offices were also mentioned, as well as strengthening borders with the increased help of Interpol and Europol. The criminal justice experts also addressed the importance of creating alternative jobs for victims once they have been repatriated, and giving them compensation.

Source, transit and destination

- A source country is the country from which victims of human trafficking come from.

- A transit country is a country through which victims of human trafficking are transported to the destination country.

- A destination country is the country where victims of human trafficking are sent.

The process to come up with a Plan of Action will now continue with further consultations in regions across the Commonwealth.

Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Trafficking, said: “Human trafficking violates human rights – the right to liberty, not be held in slavery or involuntary servitude. Also, experiences from around the world show that trafficking violates the right to be free from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, the right to be free from violence and the right to health.”

Pam Bowen, Senior Policy Adviser at the UK's Crown Prosecution Service, outlined some key prosecution strategies for combating human trafficking.

A representative of the Serious Organised Crime Agency said that human trafficking continues to grow because of the profits to be made. As the fastest growing criminal activity today, an estimated 800,000 humans are traded across borders each year.

The criminal justice agencies represented at the meeting are government organisations within the criminal justice system consisting of law enforcement officers, prosecutors and policy advisers. Apart from the criminal justice agencies, there were international organisations represented at the meeting.