Human Trafficking Around the World (57 page)

While the above changes are essential and significant steps, not all recent measures taken by the government have been positive. For instance, the government reduced the budget for the National Program to Prevent and Combat Trafficking to $313,000 from $4.2 million in 2011 because of budgetary issues. Additionally, in September 2011, then-president Calderón established Provictima, a new agency designed to assist victims of all crimes. In order to support the new agency, funding was shifted from other agencies, including FEVIMTRA. The division of responsibilities between Provictima and FEVIMTRA is unclear. Some experts have indicated that Provictima has an inadequate budget and facilities and unqualified personnel (Brundage, 2012; U.S. Department of State, 2012).

The Mexican government, specifically FEVIMTRA, distributes anti-trafficking materials as part of its anti-trafficking campaign (U.S. Department of State, 2009). Such approaches are of doubtful effectiveness in reaching potential victims. “Prevention campaigns need to be targeted to certain sectors,” Kuhner said. “It can be beneficial to inform persons in harvesting camps or prostitutes on their rights and how to identify trafficking, but the information and type of campaign should be specific to each audience.”

Mexico participates in bilateral cooperative anti-trafficking agreements with Guatemala, El Salvador, and the United States. Under these agreements, the nations pledge to exchange information for the purposes of investigating, prosecuting, and extraditing those who have committed trafficking offenses. Mexico is part of the Regional Committee against Trafficking in Persons in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean; the Regional Conference on Migration; and High Level Groups on Border Security with Guatemala and Belize. Mexico cooperates with the United States through the Security and Prosperity Partnership for North America; the Operation against Smugglers (and Traffickers) Initiative on Safety and Security; and the Plenary Group for Law Enforcement and its Subcommittee on Trafficking in Persons (ABA, 2009).

Still, cooperation between Mexico and other nations does not always occur without a hitch. This can be seen in the case of the Carreto family. Propelled by the U.S.-Mexico anti-trafficking partnership, the traffickers Carreto Valencia and Velásquez Reyes were found and arrested by Mexican authorities. Yet the Mexican government released Velásquez Reyes and did not extradite her to the United States. She remains a fugitive, and U.S. officials believe that she remains in Mexico (U.S. Department of Justice, 2006, 2009). An anonymous source states that Velásquez Reyes and Carreto Valencia were arrested in Mexico after the case broke in the media. “However, after a year and a half, the Mexican cases were dismissed or Velásquez Reyes and Carreto Valencia were acquitted,” the source said. “While both women were named in the U.S. indictment, only Consuelo was produced and sent to the U.S., while María was let go.”

There have been some convictions under Mexico’s 2007 federal anti-trafficking law, but judges remain hesitant to allow cases to move forward under federal anti-trafficking law. They prefer that prosecutors press charges utilizing other laws, such as pimping. The result is that traffickers receive lighter sentences. Trying trafficking cases under different crimes also poses a challenge to obtaining accurate trafficking statistics. Judges and prosecutors need to obtain thorough training on the 2012 federal anti-trafficking law so that its use in courts can increase and offenders can be properly prosecuted and sentenced.

The Mexican government and NGOs appear to have established a strong relationship. However, including more NGO representatives in the government’s interagency anti-trafficking committee would help create a more comprehensive perspective on trafficking within the nation and would aid in gathering trafficking statistics. Finally, although the comprehensive reform of the criminal justice system is significant and positive, slow implementation has allowed for continued corruption and inequality.

PART XII

Poverty and Economic Boom

When rapid economic growth moves nations such as Russia and Brazil out of decades of comparative poverty, the inevitable dislocations change the patterns of human trafficking there. As a nation experiences economic development it becomes attractive to migrant workers from other nations and also draws nationals from poorer sections to wealthier ones. By 2020 Russia and Brazil, along with China and India, are expected to be among the world’s six largest economies
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As rapid growth in the Russian economy brings constant increases in the cost of living, the average Russian struggles ever harder to make ends meet. The poverty rate continues to decline, but progress has been slow. Those who are economically marginalized still have incentives to migrate to wealthier areas in Russia or to other nations, and they remain vulnerable to exploitation and human rights abuses, including human trafficking. The large cities are also epicenters of trafficking homeless and orphaned children for prostitution, pornography, begging, and selling drugs or stolen goods. During such times of great economic change, the supply of potential victims seems unlimited. As a result, traffickers have no financial incentive to ensure victims’ well-being or health
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In 2011 Brazil became the world’s sixth-largest economy. The nation has vast natural resources and a growing middle class. Some experts believe that the growing middle class is helping improve the trafficking situation within Brazil, particularly by decreasing the number of child laborers. But income inequality remains high, and the pairing of poverty with a booming economy and a need for inexpensive labor in the burgeoning agricultural sector creates a scenario for potential exploitation and human trafficking. Today Brazil leads the biofuel movement with sugarcane ethanol, and at least half of forced laborers in the country have been found on sugarcane plantations. The average life expectancy of sugarcane cutters—from the time they begin work—is 10 years. Anti-trafficking experts would be among the first to challenge the claim that sugarcane ethanol is a “clean” fuel
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CHAPTER 23

Russia

A woman came up to me at the train station. She offered me part-time work in Germany as a nanny. I said “yes.” When I got there, though, she took away my passport. Then she drove me to a bar on the edge of town.

—NATASHA, SEX-TRAFFICKING VICTIM

The depiction of young Russian women as sex slaves is sensationalized in movies and the media. A decade ago this image was not necessarily false, but recently the number of Russian citizens trafficked abroad appears to have significantly declined. One reason is probably the nation’s economic resilience. Like other nations, Russia was adversely affected by the 1998 and 2008 global economic crises. Yet it maintained consistent economic growth after each crisis, averaging 7 percent economic growth since 1998, 4.1 percent growth in 2010, and 4.8 percent GDP expansion in the third quarter of 2011 over the same quarter in 2010. While growth is projected to continue, Kaspar Richter, the World Bank’s country sector coordinator for economic policy in Russia, projects that the rate of growth will decline from 4.3 percent in 2011 to 3.5 percent in 2012, and stay at 3.6 percent in 2013 (Economy Watch, 2010; Trading Economics, 2011; International Business Times, 2011; World Bank in Russia, 2012). According to Jim O’Neill, chairman of asset management at Goldman Sachs, along with Brazil, India, and China, Russia will soon enter the top five world economies. O’Neill, who coined the acronym BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) to designate the four emerging economies, believes that by 2020 the four economies will be responsible for nearly 50 percent of the increase in global GDP (Inman, 2011; Goldman Sachs, 2011; Reuters, 2011; Polina, 2011). These boosts in economic growth have resulted in a need for affordable labor, making this source and transit nation also a destination for human trafficking (U.S. Department of State, 2010). The Migration Research Center estimates that 1 million people are exposed to exploitative labor conditions characteristic of human trafficking in Russia, such as withholding of documents and pay, physical abuse, and poor living conditions (U.S. Department of State, 2012).

Exact statistics on the amount of trafficking that occurs in Russia are impossible to come by. According to Tatyana Azhakina, chief deputy head of the Criminal Investigation Department of Russia’s Interior Ministry, the number of identified trafficking cases declined by 50 percent from 2010 to 2011. “If we talk figures, 58 cases [of] human trafficking were opened in 2008, 94 in 2009, 103 in 2010, and 48 in the first 11 months of this year,” Azhakina said at a December 2011 international conference on combatting human trafficking (ITAR-TASS, 2011c). Of course, the number of identified cases does not typically reflect the actual number of trafficking cases, and although these data could illustrate a decrease in human trafficking, it may instead reflect a decrease in the proper identification of victims and a lack of data collection of all trafficking-related offenses. Despite specific anti-trafficking laws, traffickers are often charged under lesser offenses. Offenders charged under anti-trafficking Articles 127.1 (used against sex traffickers) and 127.2 (used against forced-labor traffickers) of the Criminal Code face up to 6 years’ imprisonment and up to 5 years’ imprisonment, respectively (U.S. Department of State, 2008, 2010; UNODC, 2009a; McCarthy, 2010). The country lags behind in identifying victims and the post-trafficking experience. Few municipalities in Russia have systems in place to identify trafficking victims. When victims are identified there are minimal resources to aid and address their needs, as the government does not supply adequate funding to local anti-trafficking NGOs.

RUSSIA AS A DESTINATION AND TRANSIT NATION

Russia is a destination and transit country for both forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation (Chance, 2008). There is debate over which form of trafficking, overall, is more prevalent in Russia. For instance, Chief Deputy Azhakina stated in December 2011 that roughly 70 percent of victims in Russia were trafficked for the purpose of sexual slavery, while 24 percent were victims of forced labor (ITAR-TASS, 2011a). On the contrary, the International Labour Organization reported in May 2009 that while the global spotlight has predominantly focused on sex trafficking, forced labor of undocumented and documented workers is the most predominant form of trafficking in Russia (ILO, 2009). Second only to the United States, Russia has one of the largest migration populations in the world (HRW, 2009; Narizhnaya, 2011). “The huge movements of people mean there will always be space for traffickers to exploit the situation,” said Enrico Ponziani, then-Moscow chief of mission for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) (Narizhnaya, 2011). The Ministry of Internal Affairs and border-authority statistics reveal that more than 12 million migrants enter Russia each year. Determining the exact number of migrants who work in Russia is tricky. Official statistics—based on work permits—showed that there were 460,000 labor migrants with work permits in 2004, but of course many migrant workers are illegal and do not have work permits. Experts estimate that labor migrants probably account for between 5 and 7 percent of the workforce in Russia, inhabiting a shadow economy that is estimated to make up between 22.4 and 40 percent of the nation’s GDP. The lack of safe migration channels and legislative protections often leads migrants to take risks that place them in precarious positions (Tiurukanova, 2006).

It is estimated that two-thirds of illegal migrants in Russia are from other member nations of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS); this is likely so because of the transparent borders between member states (Tiurukanova, 2006).
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The high prevalence of human trafficking-related exploitation against CIS migrants working in the shadow economy can be seen in Moscow and Stavropol. Of interviewed CIS workers in Moscow and Stavropol, 25 percent and 47 percent, respectively, had been coerced to work with no payment or vague payment terms; the movements of 31 percent and 26 percent of the workers were restricted; 30 percent and 15 percent of the women interviewed were forced to prostitute; 13 percent and 6 percent experienced physical abuse; 27 percent and 35 percent experienced psychological abuse; passports were confiscated in 23 percent and 24 percent of cases; and debt dependency resulted in 18 percent and 16 percent of cases (Tiurukanova, 2006). Men, women, and children from Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan are subjected to forced labor in Russia—often in the construction industry, in textile shops, and in agriculture (U.S. Department of State, 2010). A 2011 case involved citizens of Uzbekistan who recruited workers there and helped them with the necessary documents. When the workers arrived in Vladivostok, Russia, the traffickers took away their passports and forced the victims to work without pay at construction sites and in the agricultural sector (ITAR-TASS, 2011b). It is not just citizens of CIS countries who experience trafficking; traffickers also subject about 40,000 North Koreans to forced labor conditions in Russia’s Far East logging industry. The Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea (DPRK) regime continues to recruit workers for bilateral contracts with Russia and other foreign governments, providing contract labor for logging camps operated by North Korean companies in the Russian Far East. There are reports that the DPRK government withholds up to 85 percent of the workers’ wages and controls their movements (U.S. Department of State, 2010, 2012). According to a report by E. V. Tiurukanova and the Institute for Urban Economics for the UN/IOM Working Group on Trafficking in Human Beings, trafficking for labor exploitation is the most common type of human trafficking in Russia:

Based on the figure that 10–30 percent of all illegal migrants in Russia, i.e., 3–5 million people, face some form of human trafficking-related or slavery-related exploitation, it is possible to estimate that the number of victims of such exploitation among migrants coming to Russia approaches 1 million. While this assumption does not mean that all these people are permanent victims of trafficking, it does suggest that these individuals do form an at-risk group, whose position may near slavery. (Tiurukanova, 2006: p. 35)