Human Trafficking Around the World (20 page)

The primary and underlying issue of Colombia’s trafficking status is the nation’s civil unrest. As Cepeda and González emphasized, it is not only the armed wings of paramilitary groups that need to be stopped but also the economic and political powers behind them. As the eight imprisoned AUC leaders noted, a number of high-level and powerful people continue to collude in trafficking. If the underlying powers of these organizations are not dismantled, paramilitary and guerrilla groups will continue to create instability in the nation and displace citizens. In addition to Colombia’s internal efforts, it is essential that Colombia obtains support from neighboring Venezuelan and Ecuadoran authorities to aid in the capture of FARC and ELN leaders who cross the border into their domain. Without their help, there is little possibility that Colombia’s trafficking situation will improve. For those persons already displaced, Colombia needs to properly address the registration of IDPs and restitution in the form of social and economic benefits. If these steps are not taken, IDPs will continue to be a population vulnerable to human trafficking and child labor.

CHAPTER 7

Iraq

We wanted to make sure our military, civilians, and contractors were protected from Iraqi law.

—FORMER AIDE OF PAUL BREMER

Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, an ongoing question has been “Who’s in charge?” Investigative journalist Nir Rosen says that although the United States remained the occupying power, it claimed to no longer be responsible as the occupying authority after Iraq gained sovereignty in June 2004. “It’s kind of an absurd claim, because they’ve [the United States], since 2004, handed sovereignty back to Iraq several times, most recently just in September of this year [2010],” Rosen told
Democracy Now
. “But they remain the occupying power. They were the ones training and funding and appointing and firing. They were the ones who controlled the country and ruled the country” (Democracy Now, 2010). Despite its claim to not be in charge, the U.S. government instituted policies creating immunity from Iraqi law and the Iraqi legal process for U.S. contractors and Iraqi military personnel. This step has left marginalized persons, including those groups most vulnerable to human trafficking, with little to no recourse against offenders that fit this criterion. In 2004, two days before he left Iraq, Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) administrator Paul Bremer signed into effect CPA Order No. 17. The order made the Multi-National Force–Iraq (MNF–I), the CPA, foreign liaison missions, their personnel, property, funds and assets, and all international consultants immune from the Iraqi legal process. In June 2004 the U.S. government also imposed a formal policy to ignore human rights abuses committed by the Iraqi military. Revealed by WikiLeaks, an order known as “Frago 242” barred coalition troops from investigating any violations committed by Iraqi troops against other Iraqis (Democracy Now, 2010).

Aside from the obvious waiver of culpability for the U.S. military, the CPA order made contractors (under Section 4) not subject to Iraqi law or the Iraqi legal process in matters relating to the terms and conditions of their contract or subcontract (CPA, 2004). When explaining why the order was issued, one of Bremer’s former aides told
Newsweek
, “We wanted to make sure our military, civilians, and contractors were protected from Iraqi law” (Hirsh, 2007). The transitional administration maintained CPA rules and regulations when in March 2004 it adopted Article 26 of the Transitional Administrative Law of Iraq, which states: “[T]he laws, regulations, orders, and directives issued by the Coalition Provisional Authority pursuant to its authority under international law shall remain in force until rescinded or amended by legislation duly enacted and having the force of law” (Mason, 2009). In December 2008 the Iraqi government did pass legislation to rescind CPA Order 17, but the legislation does not specifically address how past incidents will be addressed (HRW, 2008; Risen, 2008).

Before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, in 2002, President George W. Bush instituted a policy that called for the prosecution of government contractors and employees who engaged in human trafficking, and for the suspension or disqualification of companies that participated in such practices. Still in force, the policy has proved to be nearly impossible to put into effect in Iraq. Experts say that this state of affairs exists not only because of limited investigative resources and judicial hurdles but also because authorities are ignoring the evidence. “Zero prosecutions [suggest] zero effort to enforce the law,” Martina Vandenberg, a lawyer and former Human Rights Watch investigator, told the
Washington Post
(Schwellenbach & Leonnig, 2010).

Those persons not under the protection of immunity who committed crimes in Iraq were and are subject to the Iraqi constitution, penal code, and labor code. The Iraqi constitution prohibits slavery, forced labor, trafficking of women and children, and the sex trade. In February 2012 the Iraqi parliament passed a comprehensive anti-trafficking law, which establishes trafficking as a separate offense and prescribes punishments for sex trafficking and labor trafficking (Lavender, 2012). Before the new law was passed, there was no specific law to address human trafficking, so attorneys primarily turned to trafficking-related articles under the penal code such as rape, forcible sexual assault, kidnapping, detention, and unlawful seizure. Maximum sentences range from 7 to 15 years’ imprisonment, which can be increased to life imprisonment if the offense results in the victim’s death (IILHR, 2010; Republic of Iraq, 2010). The labor code prohibits slavery and similar practices, including forced labor, child trafficking, and compulsory recruitment of minors for use in armed conflict; child prostitution; illicit activities such as drug trafficking; and work likely to harm the health, safety, or morals of children. Those who violate the labor code provisions pertaining to work performed by children may be penalized by imprisonment for 10 days to 3 months or fines (U.S. Department of Labor, 2009). Despite this assortment of somewhat applicable laws, trafficking offenders rarely faced prosecution, and victims of trafficking continued to be arrested and punished for crimes associated with their trafficking experience such as prostitution and document/passport fraud. The new law establishes sentences of up to 15 years’ imprisonment, which can be increased to life imprisonment if the offense results in the victim’s death (Lavender, 2012). The exact language of Article 1 of the law uses terms similar to those used in the Palermo Protocol in defining human trafficking:

First: For purposes of this law, the term “Human Trafficking” shall indicate recruiting, transporting, housing, or receiving individuals by force, threat to use force, or other means, including by coercion, kidnapping, fraud, deception, misuse of power, exchange of money, or privileges to an influential person in order to sell and exploit the trafficked individuals by means of prostitution, sexual abuse, unpaid labor, forced labor, enslavement, beggary, trading of human organs, medical experimentation, or by other means. (Presidency Council, 2012)

The government then defines trafficking victims to be “the person who suffered from material or moral damage caused by one of the crimes stipulated in this law.” This means that attorneys will have to prove “material” or “moral” damage in order to succeed under the law. The law would be much more enforceable had this second portion been left out. Of positive significance is that consent is irrelevant, meaning that consent cannot be used as a defense (Presidency Council, 2012).

INTERNAL TRAFFICKING

As in many other nations, child labor is a serious issue in Iraq. In fact, 12.4 percent of children between the ages of 5 and 14 work. Boys account for a larger share than girls—15.1 percent compared to 9.6 percent, respectively. Most working children in Iraq are employed in a family business, and rural children are employed at a higher rate than children living in urban areas. Children also work on the streets selling items or begging, and in hazardous conditions in automobile shops and on construction sites. They are also used by Iraqi insurgent groups to plant improvised explosive devices, as suicide bombers, and as spies or scouts (U.S. Department of Labor, 2009). “We have evidence that the phenomenon of criminal gangs and terrorist groups recruiting juveniles—either by threatening them or luring them with money—has increased recently,” Hamza Kamil, a spokesman for the Iraqi Human Rights Ministry, told IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. “We urge the government, NGOs, and international organizations working in Iraq to run comprehensive programs for these children to distance them from any militant influence” (IRIN, 2008).

Under Iraq’s labor law, the minimum age for employment is 15. The law prohibits the employment of anyone under the age of 18 in areas that are detrimental to the worker’s health, safety, or morals. Specifically, young workers are not supposed to work underground, underwater, or with dangerous or hazardous substances or equipment. The legal requirements surrounding employment of young workers are a pre-employment medical examination and a maximum workday of seven hours. Workers must obtain a break after four hours and a daily break of one hour. One caveat is that youths (ages 15 and older) who work for their family are excluded from the daily maximum of work hours and the medical examination (U.S. Department of Labor, 2009).

Children in Iraq have suffered tremendously from the ongoing violence. Students and teachers were the targets of violent crimes and sectarian killings, particularly in Baghdad and Mosul. The killings, closures of schools, and fear of child abduction resulted in a dramatic decrease in student attendance. “Most of the available information is extracted from a wide range of different sources but can rarely be sufficiently verified,” stated the UN secretary-general in a report to the UN Security Council. “It remains clear, however, that Iraqi children suffer most in the ongoing violence. Statistics from United Nations partners and Iraqi authorities suggest that approximately half of all Iraqi refugees are children, as are as many as 38 to 40 percent of internally displaced persons” (United Nations Security Council, 2007).

Militants also use children to advance their agendas. For instance, in March 2007, militants used two children to facilitate passing a car through an MNF–I checkpoint in Baghdad. The car was blown up, killing five persons, including the two children (United Nations Security Council, 2007). In July 2008 more than 1,000 juveniles were in the custody of Iraqi and U.S. forces. “Most of these juveniles [currently held in prisons] were being used [by the militants] either for transporting bombs to areas the militants can’t enter due to security cordons, or to daub walls with anti-government graffiti,” Hamza Kamil told IRIN (IRIN, 2008). It has been reported that such youths have faced abuse in both MNF–I and Iraqi-run facilities (Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, 2008; United Nations Security Council, 2007). Of additional concern is that the United States identified a significant number of Iraqi children—even those as young as 13—as “enemy combatants.” The United States captured and detained roughly 2,400 persons under the age of 18 in Iraq between 2003 and 2008 (Pincus, 2008). The use of children as spies or informants by insurgent groups is a direct violation of basic human rights. The status of children as enemy combatants is troubling because as a result child victims are not only exploited by insurgent groups but then face punishment for being exploited (Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, 2008). “Juveniles and former child soldiers should be treated first and foremost as candidates for rehabilitation and reintegration into society, not subjected to further victimization,” Jamil Dakwar, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) human rights program, said in a statement (Pincus, 2008).

Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq, there has also been an increase in prostitution rings, human trafficking, and the number of exploited women, girls, and boys in the commercial sex industry and the drug trade. With social upheaval and rising unemployment, the number of persons vulnerable to trafficking, such as orphans and separated children, has increased. Children placed in orphanages are not always safe. Some staff members of orphanages and charitable organizations have trafficked young children for the purposes of prostitution (U.S. Department of State, 2003; Global Policy Forum, 2005; Bennett, 2006; U.S. Department of Labor, 2009). Traffickers often prey on families that are financially destitute. They encourage parents to prostitute their children. One mother stated that the prostitution of her young sons, ages 13 and 14, provided an income for the family: “We are a poor family and my husband cannot work because he has serious epilepsy. Three months ago, Abu Weled [the leader of a commercial sex ring] came to our house offering us money if we let our two teenage boys work with them. Thanks to him, today we have a good income. People may find it surprising, but at least we can eat now and I’m proud of them” (Global Policy Forum, 2005). Weled’s gang also exploited girls under the age of 16. While boys received roughly $10 per trick, the ring reportedly charged roughly $50 per sexual encounter (Global Policy Forum, 2005).

When the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) interviewed Iraqi females detained for prostitution in Baghdad’s Kadhimiya prison, it was discovered that most were runaways (often trying to escape sexual abuse) or sold into prostitution by their families, and/or destitute. Sixty-five percent of the 72 persons interviewed were under the age of 18. Some of the victims had been recruited and prostituted by Iraqi brothel owners; others had been trafficked to brothels by taxi drivers and even police. A number of the victims had been forced into fake and temporary marriages so as to be trafficked within Iraq or to other countries. When determining the overall picture of prostitution and sex trafficking in Iraq, OWFI’s 2010 report stated that it “looked like an octopus with its head in Baghdad while the limbs reached out to Damascus, Dubai, Jordan, and the Emirates” (OWFI, 2010).