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SIDE EVENT AT UN NEW YORK HEADQUARTERS — HUMAN TRAFFICKING PREVENTIVE STRATEGIES AND CARE OF VICTIMS
On Thursday, January 11th, an event on “Human Trafficking: Preventative Strategies and Care of Victims” took place. The event was scheduled in the ECOSOC Chamber at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 10 AM to 1 PM.
H.E. Michel veuthey, Ambassador of the Sovereign Order of Malta to monitor and combat trafficking in persons, was the keynote speaker for the event.
PAUL BERESFORD HILL: Ladies and gentlemen, firstly, I’d like to welcome all of you to this morning’s special event, which is going to focus on issues involving human trafficking. Human trafficking, preventative measures, and the care of victims. I am extremely appreciative of the Republic of Mexico, which has done so much in this field
And which has agreed to be our co–sponsor for this event, and through whose good offices we were able to secure the use of this conference room for our meeting today. My thanks also to the governments of France, Nigeria, the Philippines, who will be contributing today,
And in particular to Ambassador Lagdameo of the Philippines, who will be delivering one of our keynote addresses. The Sovereign Order of Malta, in providing medical and humanitarian assistance, across 120 countries, and through our diplomatic network with 113 nations here at the United Nations is acutely aware of the growing evil
That is evidenced through human trafficking and modern forms of slavery. As you will hear from our speakers today, the statistics are mind–blowing and the issue pervasive, but sadly, not always at the top of governments’ agendas. The growing number of global conflicts, the displacement of millions of people as a consequence of climate change,
As well as the sometimes deliberate and destabilising actions of rogue and failed states, has contributed to a global crisis that shows no sign of diminishing and which some observers consider is actually out of control. We have subtitled this event a call to action, a cry for States and governments to reaffirm their commitment
On behalf of the most vulnerable among us, and as a call for civil society and faith–based groups to join together in this common cause. At the onset of the Ukraine conflict, I travelled to Warsaw and I met there with women and children who had fled the fighting,
And who had sought a safe haven in Poland. They told me about human traffickers disguised as aid workers walking through the crowded trains with promises of jobs and homes. They told me about how desperate they and their friends were to find and seek normalcy, and how easily they were duped and tricked
Into the endless cycle of captivity, that is, human trafficking. Last month, I spoke before the Security Council on the topic of transnational criminal organisations, and I gave a warning to those present about the current conditions in Gaza. Let me just repeat what I said then.
“There is a potential for a major human trafficking harvest when hostilities cease in Gaza. Unconfirmed reports indicate that between 10 and 14,000 children have been left parentless as a consequence of this conflict. Efforts must be made through UN agencies and NGOs operating in the region
To prevent a surge in the commercialisation of these children by unscrupulous transnational operators who probably even now are planning ways to gain access to these children and profit from their helplessness and their abandonment. The Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pizzaballa, has already voiced concerns that unless the needs of these children
Are taken into account by those responsible for reconstruction and healing, a whole other generation will be further destroyed and will be mired in untold suffering.” We have four distinguished keynote speakers today. Ambassador Michel Veuthey, is the Order of Malta’s Ambassador to combat human trafficking in persons. Deborah O’Hara Rusckowski
Is our special advisor at our mission here in New York on human trafficking and is responsible for initiating this event. Kevin Hyland, former police commissioner in the UK, is now CEO and leading the Santa Marta Group, an anti trafficking organisation founded by Pope Francis. Our last keynote speaker will be Ambassador Antonio Lagdameo,
The permanent representative of the Philippines to the United Nations. Ambassador Veuthey. MICHEL VEUTHEY: Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, dear friends. First I would like to express my gratitude to Ambassador Beresford–Hill for inviting me to this important event. To express also my gratitude to his team, for their efficient and friendly support.
Human trafficking, a form of contemporary slavery, affects all countries. It’s an ever–growing plague that cannot leave us indifferent. If slavery were an American State, it would have a greater population than that of California, and the economic output of the District of Columbia. If slavery were a country,
It would have the third largest CO₂ emissions on the planet, after China and the US. Today, 50 million people worldwide are victims of contemporary slavery. We are here, as Ambassador Beresford–Hill said, here to reflect and act together. Contemporary slavery affects millions of people in different forms.
Forced labour, sexual slavery, sale and abduction of children. Actually, the example of Gaza is, yes, very much not only the unique example, we could also mention other conflicts. Child pornography, organ theft, forced crime, from begging to terrorism. Now I think we have to pay tribute to the important efforts
Made to codify treaties which could prevent human trafficking and protect victims and survivors. Indeed, we should make full use of all those legal instruments and implementation mechanisms to prevent and combat human trafficking. Among those, of course, first, human rights, labor law, international humanitarian law, international criminal law. As you know, under specific circumstances,
Human trafficking could be prosecuted as a war crime or as a crime against humanity. International maritime law. People are not so much aware about this. Refugee and migrant law, and of course, the Palermo Convention and its protocols. Without forgetting something which is quite important, at least in Christian religions, the restorative justice,
Rehabilitating victims and offenders through reconciliation. According to legal experts, and one of them is with us. Thank you. That’s Kevin Hyland. Implementation is failing both at the domestic and international level. Allow me first to quote Valiant Richey. Valiant Richey is a former us prosecutor who until April of last year was the OSCE,
Organisation for Security Incorporation in Europe, Special Representative Coordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings. I quote, “Some 20 years ago, in 2000, the Palermo Protocol provided us with the first international definition of trafficking and highlighted the three pillars of our response: protection, prosecution and prevention. But sadly, more than two decades later,
Trafficking is worse than ever and no country has defeated it. I think we will need states to implement their international legal obligations.” Another expert, Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR’s Special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean situation, during a side event to the Global Refugee Forum in Geneva one month ago, said, I quote,
“I would like to share my frustration at the growing gap between the renewed political calls suggesting that more is being done against human traffickers and the reality I know. My concern also relates to the growing gap between capacity building efforts and victims assistance in the field.
A recent report from the UN system in March 2023 documented that most of the funding related to human trafficking goes towards data collection, research, soft capacity building activities.” Then lastly, I would like to quote Msgr. Robert Vitillo, Secretary General of the International Catholic Migration Commission,
Who declared that in order to fully implement legal instruments, we need to better understand the nature of human trafficking. I quote, “Human trafficking certainly represents one of the greatest human rights failures of past and present eras. Such failure may be rooted in our limited focus on the legal and technical aspects.
With all due respect to the lawyers here and promotion of human rights, whilst such elements are fundamental to our efforts, they are not at all sufficient. Given the complex phenomenon of human trafficking and forced unsafe migration, I am fully aware,” I’m quoting Msgr. Vitillo,
“of the impossibility to capture all the root causes in a short period of time. Among the root causes are the obsession of business almost exclusively on amassing more money and profit, which easily leads to the commodification and exploitation of people with the consequences of extreme poverty
And unequal access to enjoy basic human rights and the demand side.” Then he goes on, “consumers constitute a huge mass who seem largely unaware of the exploitation, yet enjoy the benefits of the services provided by trafficked persons.” What can we do? The Sovereign Order of Malta would like to highlight
The important role of religious leaders in advocacy, and religious congregation in care, in the protection and assistance to victims and survivors of human trafficking. Allow me to mention the Santa Marta Group, of course, represented here by Kevin Hyland, Global Strategy Director of Santa Marta, and the Santa Marta Group,
A global partnership with representatives of the Catholic Church, police agencies, international organisations from 30 countries. Second, the International Catholic Migration Commission, which protects and serves uprooted people, including refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced person, victims of human trafficking and migrants, regardless of faith, race, ethnicity or nationality.
Third, the Talita Kum Network, an international network of consecrated life against human trafficking with members from 92 countries. Fourth, I could quote more, but allow me to quote this one, Australian Anti–Slavery Network, ACAN, facilitated by the Anti–Slavery Taskforce of the Archdiocese of Sydney, which was established by a Knight of Malta,
Former ambassador of Australia to the Holy See, John McCarthy. Again, I could give you other examples, but now I would like to highlight the Catholic Church social doctrine. Indeed, in addition to positive law, international instruments, we need to see ethical moral values, and the Catholic Church social doctrine
Makes possible to identify and tackle the root causes of the resurgence of slavery, the first of which is the loss of ethical reference protecting the fundamental rights of the human person and his or her family, social and natural environment. I’d just like to mention two key documents.
The first is Laudato si’ encyclical letter. The second are the Pastoral Orientations on Human Trafficking. I would like to add also that shared universal fundamental values and prayers based on an interreligious dialogue respecting the life and dignity of every human person could also be an important contribution. Then the Order of Malta.
The Order of Malta contributes to the fight against human trafficking by first, advocating through its bilateral diplomatic network and multilateral diplomatic network, through statements at each session of the Human Rights Council, UN General Assembly, and even as Ambassador Beresford mentioned, at the Security Council, last month, Ambassador Beresford–Hill
Made a statement before Security Council on human trafficking as a threat to international peace and security. It’s not only a humanitarian or a moral issue. Then second, the Order of Malta also assists victims through its medical and social programmes, through its national associations, including the American Association.
I’m very happy to see that we have also the president of the American Association here, Ken Craig, and also through its worldwide humanitarian organisation. Thank you, Sarah, for being with us. Malteser International, often in cooperation with local catholic bishops, among others, in Boston, Mass. Thanks, Debbie.
In Salzburg, Austria, in Sydney, Australia, as I mentioned, and Tangier, Morocco. I must say, thank you for all those initiatives. I would like to, of course, mention a special initiative that the Sisters of Saint Louis, in Lagos, Nigeria, for the Bakhita House a shelter for survivors. Third, offering a free online training course
For helpers in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish as well as Portuguese. It’s freely available. Fourth, cooperating with universities. Implementing a memorandum of understanding the Sovereign of Malta signed last year with the University of Peace, with the cooperation of UNHCR and IOM, we shall organise training course on human trafficking online and in–person.
Second, last December, the Order of Malta signed a memorandum of understanding with the Pontifical Gregorian University and for the protection of minors and vulnerable persons, to prevent abuse of minors and vulnerable persons, encouraging the implementation of good practices, raising awareness around safeguarding issues. Present for the Order of Malta
Was the grant hospital or Ministry of Health, Fra’ Alessandro de Franciscis’ who said, I quote, “The agreement signed today is the starting point of a comprehensive programme of initiatives, of listening to and of training our members, volunteers and employees to safeguard those who assist all minors and vulnerable people.” Fifth, organising 37 webinars
On best practices to prevent and combat human trafficking with subtitles in seven languages, with leading international specialists, including Kevin Hyland, and we’d like to thank him for his repeated contribution. Six, collecting best practices on the website christusliberat.org to assist survivors to empower themselves through a platform to share their stories and insight
And engage themselves in support of other survivors. Seven, last but not least, praying for potential victims, survivors, and helpers, and for the conversion of traffickers. The next public opportunity shall be the World Day of Prayer against Human Trafficking. The 8th of February, the feast of Saint Bakhita, patron saint of modern slaves.
As you know, that’s a witness of it. Actually, I’m happy to greet the ambassador of Morocco, the permanent representative, because actually, we work together in Geneva, and we shall work also certain in the future in New York. But thank you very much for being here.
The Order of Malta needs to cooperate with governments, including the US government, of course, and international organisations. In addition to today, one month ago in Geneva, we organised an event on refugee protection and human trafficking in the framework of Global Refugee Forum with Caritas Internationalis, UNHCR, the special reporter on human trafficking,
Alongside with the co–sponsorship of the Permanent Mission of Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, France, the Holy See and Switzerland. We definitely need to acknowledge and learn from what others are doing. Allow me to quote the conclusion of a recently published report of the World Health Organisation European region
Entitled, Addressing Human Trafficking Through Health Systems. I quote, “Member states and their health systems can play a crucial role in responding to and preventing labour and sex trafficking. Health systems are uniquely situated to identify, treat, and protect trafficked persons and those most at risk of future trafficking.
They are also in a position to provide thoughtful leadership in intersectoral anti–trafficking programmes.” End of quote. In conclusion, it is cooperation between all stakeholders that it needed to effectively prevent, protect, and rehabilitate victims and survivors. Training is essential if governments, civil society, and all stakeholders
Are to become aware of and able to implement the legal, political, economic, and social instruments needed to combat the scores of human trafficking and, for the second time in history, undertake to eradicate slavery. We need more resources, more materials, and more people,
So that we may be able to effectively eradicate modern slavery from our world. I would like to thank you in advance for your support and remain at your disposal to answer any questions you may have. Feel free to approach me at the conclusion of this event
So that we may be able to collaborate in the future. Thank you for your attention. PAUL BERESFORD-HILL: Thank you very much, Ambassador Veuthey. Now I’d like to give the floor to Deborah O’Hara Rusckowski. DEBORAH O’HARA RUSCKOWSKI: Good morning, everyone, and thank you, Ambassadors Beresford–Hill and Veuthey, and excellencies and distinguished colleagues.
It’s a pleasure to speak with you this morning at the UN on this National Human Trafficking Day, and it’s so nice to see many familiar faces, and it’s very encouraging to see new faces joining in this fight to end human trafficking. Thank you all for being here.
As mentioned, my name is Deb O’Hara Rusckowski, and I’m the Special Advisor on Human Trafficking for the Order of Malta Mission to the United Nations here in New York. I’ve been working in this area of human trafficking for 12 years now, and sadly, as much gain as we’ve made in some areas,
We continue to see the numbers of trafficking victims soar. The problem is human trafficking is extremely complex. The work is daunting and overwhelming. We know the stats. You can see and hear them everywhere. Fifty million people worldwide if you count forced marriages, which we do. Hundred and fifty plus billion.
Lucrative business, according to the ILO. A majority of 72% women and children in sex trafficking, 16 million. Probably much higher being labour trafficked. Average age of entry being trafficked, 11–14, and getting younger every day, with the preferred commodity often young boys. Besides the number of victims rising and the ages of victims decreasing,
And pimps and johns not getting prosecuted, or if they are, only short sentences, not much has changed over the years. It is a bit discouraging, isn’t it? But we’re here, and we keep forging ahead. I used to say we’re shovelling against the tide, but now that tide has turned into a tsunami,
So really, what are we doing? I know there is a group of extremely talented people among us. The expertise present here in this… Well, I was going to say ECOSOC chamber, but the Trusteeship room is off the charts.
I dare say, if there’s ever a group that should be able to tackle this problem, it should be right here. We know the root cause. It’s constant. It’s demand. If there were no demand, there’d be no trafficking. It’s really that simple. Unfortunately, the solutions are not that simple.
Otherwise, it would have been eradicated by now. How do we really tackle this monster problem? What can we do collectively in the future to help reach our common goal of eradication? Allow me to share with you where I’ve been involved for the last several years to the present
Under the umbrella of the Order of Malta Mission to the UN. I’ve been very fortunate to have met and worked with many experts in this field of anti–human trafficking. Initially, a team of us, myself, a survivor, and a homeland security agent, went everywhere to speak as much as we could to increase awareness.
Now it’s time for action. It was early on I learned first-hand what survivors went through from being trafficked, and also had the privilege to meet many who, on the other side, managed to find healing from the heinous lifestyles they were forced to live. I promised myself never to forget the victims I met.
They should always be the reason why we do the work we do. But it sure felt like we weren’t getting very far very fast, given the enormity of the problem. But then more doors were opened with law enforcement agencies, businesses, policymakers, congressmen and women,
Those at the UNODC, the UN Office of Drugs and Crime, and the Holy See Mission, and the Santa Marta Group, all who taught me and helped me grow in areas which proved invaluable. One such relationship, to whom I owe a debt of gratitude,
Is my friend and colleague you’ll hear from shortly, Kevin Hyland, the former Anti–Slavery Commissioner under Theresa May in the UK. Sorry to embarrass you, Kevin, but have to do it. Thankfully, Kevin befriended me and kept encouraging me to focus on policy. After many discussions,
Kevin and I convened a high–level meeting in November of 2018 of multidisciplinary leaders, and stakeholders from the political, business, healthcare, law enforcement, as well as many leaders of member states here at the United Nations. That resulted in the formation of Global Strategic Operatives, or GSO.
I know several of you were here at that time. GSO was formed to focus on human trafficking training to the healthcare sector, both domestically and internationally. This was decided among many other options. As many of you already know, because of studies and data show that 88%–92% of all survivors seek out medical care
While being trafficked. 68% of those go to emergency departments. This puts healthcare providers directly on the front line. If we ignore training this population, victims will continue to be misdiagnosed, fall through the cracks, and be forced to stay in the life. Therefore, GSO conducted a research study in 2019 and 2020—
We know what was going on there with COVID— training 10 healthcare systems, five of the largest US integrated delivery healthcare systems, and five international healthcare sites of similar size. All the results prove very positive, showing a marked increase in confidence levels post–training as compared to pre–training in areas of identification of victims,
Responding in a trauma–informed care manner to victims, and taking appropriate actions. Actual numbers of identifications of victims increased over 500% post training. These findings are currently being published in a medical peer review journal by our clinical research team. I’m very proud to state, because of the train the trainer methodology,
We have trained close to 800,000 healthcare personnel worldwide, not counting new hires who will enter the healthcare systems in the future, because they kept the training as part of new orientation plans. However, after four years of hard work, we have learned what the most valuable contribution of this study may be
Is the creation of the universal policy and protocol on human trafficking for healthcare providers, a culmination of all the various policies GSO helped establish with each of the healthcare sites during their trainings. All policies from every site were synthesised and normalised for cultural differences,
And used to create this universal policy which we are currently reviewing and which we anticipate several UN member states will present to the World Health Organisation on our behalf for endorsement. I have copies here. I just want to show you what it looks like. It’s this.
There’s several copies down at the table after this is over that I hope that some of you will take and review it. Interestingly, nearly all the study sites, both nationally and internationally, currently continue to use this in the field. Because we continue to train healthcare facilities,
The policy has become the value added that GSO brings. It differentiates GSO from other trainings because no other trainings offer this. GSO is the only one that does. You may wonder why. Because they do try to help with the contents and the pieces of a policy.
But as a critical care nurse for decades, I can tell you it takes many months of meetings, if not years, to bring together all the needed healthcare professionals to establish a policy, agree on it, and then implement it. GSO has done all that work for them.
Healthcare providers are thrilled that we have this to offer them, because it’s a template. If you look at it, it can be adapted to any local, national, or international state and country. We don’t try to tell people who your law enforcement is to contact. You have to fill that blank in.
That’s what I mean by a template. It has truly changed the paradigm of treatment of care of human trafficking victims, and caused it to move toward a more trauma–informed care approach, which is critical in the care of human trafficking victims. If you’re wondering what trauma–informed care is,
Let me just give you a quick sentence. It’s an approach that assumes that an individual is more likely than not to have a history of trauma. In trauma–informed approach, you build a connection and seek to understand what life experience that person has had and what’s happened to them.
Instead of “What’s wrong with you?” It’s, “What happened to you?” type of questioning. It’s a non–judgmental approach with the goal of not retraumatising the victim. GSO and the Order of Malta view this policy and protocol as a major contribution in the fight against human trafficking. It’s a unique gift to those we train.
GSO’s mission is simply to help train healthcare providers around the globe in the effort to eradicate all forms of human trafficking, hopefully as the SDG goals state by 2030. But time is closing in, and there is still a lot more work to do to reach that goal.
You often hear about the four P’s in human trafficking: prevention, protection, prosecution, and partnerships. The last one added, because no one entity can solve this horrendous problem alone. We’re thrilled many healthcare systems and organisations have decided to partner alongside us. But how much more can we do?
We all seem to be in our lanes of expertise and don’t have much more bandwidth. Well, we quickly learned from our friends at Homeland Security, Hillary. The more we train, the more victims are identified. Thus the numbers increase. It just makes sense. This increases the need for beds.
If you ask anyone, “What more do you need?” Beds, bed, and more beds. Not just any shelter beds though, but those that are equipped and trained to deal with this population suffering from complex trauma. Homeless shelters, etc, those types are very useful, but they do not have the resources
To serve and help heal victims of trafficking. It really is a speciality area all its own. All of us working in this area already know there’s a severe shortage of beds worldwide to place a victim to help them on the road to becoming a survivor.
If the trafficked person is identified and ready to accept help, and there’s no bed available, they remain in the life of trafficking. We’ve just missed a huge opportunity. You may not realise this. For example, in the United States, there’s only 850 or so beds dedicated to the care for trafficked victims.
There’s more beds for animal shelters. Now, I’m a huge animal lover, but this questions our priority of where we have put it for these poor human victims. One might ask what more can Malta or any of us really do to help?
I asked this question, and I didn’t have long to wait for the answer. A former 15–bed church rectory was offered to me several years ago to renovate and repurpose into a safe home for sex trafficking victims who may be pregnant and/or have small children. It’s called the O’Connell House, and it recently opened.
It’s emulated after a juvenile home in Louisiana started by two priests, which is called Metanoia Manor. It’s been in operation for six years, and has excellent results. The two homes together serve a continuum of ages zero to adulthood. We have joined together to help consult with others
On how to open a safe home with this successful model. What makes these homes sustainable is having trained religious sisters reside in each safe home, not to take on administrative roles, but rather be the loving, nurturing presence that nearly all human trafficking victims sorely need. We call it the sister care model.
We recently trained 25 sisters from Nigeria, and the new O’Connell House safe home has four from that group of sisters recently trained. It’s incredibly difficult work, and typical attrition rates are higher when sisters are not involved. The trained sisters will provide love to both women and their babies,
And help them receive the care they need until they are ready to move on to more independent living, helping the process from being a victim to becoming a survivor. I just have to interject here a piece of exciting news hot off the press. The O’Connell House welcomed our first guest resident yesterday,
A 27–year–old with a six–month–old baby who has been trafficked for 10 years up and down the East Coast. Our policy was implemented by the local healthcare system that we trained in law enforcement, and all went smoothly. I got word this morning she was placed in a nice warm bed
And love poured on her by all the sisters, just after midnight. How appropriate, and what a gift on National Human Trafficking Day. That’s pretty exciting to me. Pope Francis encourages his entire flock to be concerned with this crime against humanity. The Order of Malta, together with faith–based groups throughout the world,
Can potentially make a big dent in this scourge of evil by helping human trafficking victims heal and by restoring their stolen dignity. I hope and pray we can figure out ways to carve into each other’s lanes and play a part to make the efforts more effective and timely,
Because that’s what victims don’t have. Time is not on their side. Often, people ask what they can do. If I may make a specific request. If you are a government representative, I would ask you to share our draft universal policy
With colleagues at home and see if you can support us in our efforts to have this policy endorsed at the highest international levels. Copies are here as mentioned, and we’d be happy to send it to you electronically as well if you leave us your contact information.
I believe we are all being pulled together at this time for a purpose, to really do something that will speed up ending this horror. Thank you for your time. PAUL BERESFORD-HILL: Thank you very much indeed, Debbie. I now give the floor to Kevin Hyland. KEVIN HYLAND: Your excellencies, distinguished guests,
It’s a pleasure to be here in New York and here at the United Nations, albeit we’re talking about a subject that should be into the history books by now. I would like to particularly thank Ambassador Beresford of the Sovereign Order of Malta, and Mexico for convening this very important and timely event.
Our collective global efforts to end human trafficking and forced labour in all its forms, owes much of its development to the international instruments of the United Nations and the efforts of diplomats here in New York and in Geneva. The many UN agencies that work to end human trafficking
And the issues include looking at development, rule of law, environment, equality and equity, child development and democracy. Of course, there needs to be a special recognition of those who work on the front line, identifying, supporting and reconstructing the damaged lives of victims of those crimes all over the world,
Many of whom are religious sisters, many of whom are women who are putting themselves at risk to protect others. But next year, 2025 will mark a quarter of a century since the introduction of the UN Palermo Protocol to suppress human trafficking. The record on interventions at the international level
Go right back to 1930 and the UN Forerunner, the League of Nations, when it committed to address crimes and human rights violations that fall under the human trafficking umbrella. Of course, since those days and since 2000, with the UN Palermo Protocol over 170 countries have outlawed human trafficking,
And multilateral establishments such as the EU, the Council of Europe and others have introduced binding conventions or protocols. Furthermore, other multilateral bodies such as the OSE, the ICMPD, the African Union, Europol, Interpol and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and others have committed to eradicate human trafficking. Of course, all UN member states
Have agreed to the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015, launched in this very building by Pope Francis. Within those goals is a target to end human trafficking as a priority. However, as we reach this 25–year anniversary and we reach ten years into the 15 years duration of the Sustainable Development Goals,
We have to ask ourselves, have we made progress over the last quarter of a century commensurate to the seriousness of the issue and the risks it creates for children, women and men and entire communities and national security? Since that same time 2000, technology has advanced beyond our imagination.
Our fear of the collapse of IT systems as the new millennium began were unfounded. Look at now how AI and IT have moved in that same time frame. Also global trade and the movement of people, medical science, financial flows, air travel and many other phenomena have increased
Beyond our imaginations and very often beyond our expectations. Yet, by comparison, approaches to human trafficking have remained stagnant. The absence of proper intelligence gathering by countries, monitoring of cash flows, use of data and identifying choke points where human trafficking can be prevented are contributors to the position,
As highlighted by the US State Department in 2022, where it revealed only 5600 convictions of trafficking worldwide. Evaluating this data against the ILO–endorsed estimates of there being 50 million people across the world in exploitation, this means that there is a 99.98% chance of impunity, almost the perfect crime.
With only 115,000 victims identified globally in 2022, this supports the UNODC’s assertion that less than 1% of victims are identified each year. What could be done to change the vacuum of effective measures to drive the suppression and prevention of human trafficking and place responses systemically into the heart of country strategic plans
And operational implementation? Of course, we’ve heard excellent examples of that from Deb O’Hara. But to guide this aim, the Santa Marta group has introduced and is promoting a six–point strategic plan. These six points start with government procurement and businesses. Government procurement should not have any trafficking in it whatsoever. That is taxpayers money.
No government has been authorised to give money to criminals. There are measures they can implement to actually make sure that government money does not end up in the hands of traffickers. Businesses. Businesses around the world benefit from human trafficking.
This may be because they turn a blind eye, but it will always be when it happens, because they haven’t got effective measures. We need to turn that so that businesses are held responsible for what happens in their supply chain. We have the luxury of being privileged people,
And if we buy an item and it’s defective, we can get a refund. If my plane was late coming to the United States from a European country, I get compensation of €600. If you’re a traffic victim, and you’re identified, you’re not entitled to either of those, and nothing like it.
But also, there are countries that have started to look at government procurement and supply chains. The UK, Australia, France, Germany, Canada and the EU. Of course, Germany is the first country to add a sanction to those who breach the rules and have human trafficking in their business.
The second point Santa Marta wants to see introduced is this notion of tainted money, removing the benefits, which are currently estimated at over $150 billion every year. Tainted money is more than criminal assets and criminal benefit. It’s the profit that is made by trafficking,
The profit of the things that are sold in supermarkets, the things that are sold across the world in government procurement, the use of flats for brothels, all of these things where there’s profits being made by someone in that chain should be up for grabs, and that money should then be used as reparation,
Victim support, and in the fight against human trafficking. People say, this is really difficult. We already do it for counterterrorism, so we can do it for human trafficking. Technology platforms must be regulated and governed by law. An example is the European data protection laws bring sanctions if you breach the data protection,
Even if nobody’s put at risk. For example, in Ireland, under the GDPR rules, a major platform was fined €1.4 billion for breaching data rules. Ireland has just introduced new legislation and a commissioner who will actually monitor these platforms to make sure there are no things on there,
Like children being abused, like crime being supported, and thankfully, that will include human trafficking. We need to see that worldwide, not just one small European country. Also, international instruments, as we heard from Ambassador Vufi, need to be better understood and implemented. The many instruments that are there
That have been agreed by countries but are not being implemented. As our fourth priority, Santa Marta want to see them put into place. Also we want to see international institutions, the UN, the EU, the Council of Europe, the World Bank, OECD, ILO, the World Health Organisation
All start to play their role at a strategic level, talking about prevention. We can do it, as we saw during the recent Covid crisis. The 6th one, and this is very much something that the Cardinal who is the president of Santa Marta, Cardinal Vincent Nichols,
Always says, we cannot achieve the other five unless we acknowledge this one. We have to show proper moral leadership as individuals, but also as decision–makers, because none of this will be delivered without leadership that becomes transparent and thinks about people at the heart of what they’re doing.
We’ve come up with a plan as Santa Marta, but how are we going to ask for this to be delivered? We are working very closely with the G20 and partake in what’s called the G20 Interfaith alliance, which feeds into the leaders recommendations. What we want to see is by 2030,
At the time when the SDGs come to their end, collectively, the G20 countries are spending on infrastructure 30 billion each year in the fight against human trafficking to achieve sustainable development goal 8.7 and others. That may seem like a big ask, but the United States spends
Somewhere in the region of 100 billion a year on the fight against drugs. This is still a small ask. When I speak to people at different governments and people at senior positions, including politicians, they accept that 30 billion globally being spent on this by G20 countries,
The richest countries in the world, which includes the EU and now the African Union, is the minimum that should be spent. Currently, it’s hard to get to a collective 1 billion being spent by governments. Why must we do this? Well, the 50 million people,
And of course, it happens in our developed nations as well as the global south. But people like the girl I met in Sicily from Eritrea, 15 years of age. When she arrived into Italy, she was seen as a migrant, another person, landing in Europe, looking for an opportunity. Until you hear her story
That she’d been repeatedly raped whilst in Libya and been sold at markets and was kept in what’s called connecting houses. It was only when she had worked off her value and there was a seat on a boat that she was then discarded by the criminals. That’s one of the 50 million.
We can talk about those all the time, but we need to make sure that we have a systemic approach, that by the time we hit the end of the sustainable development goals, that we can say it’s starting to be effective and we can stand in front of that girl
Who comes from Eritrea and say, we really did our part. That then we get to the point where we don’t see these girls coming from Eritrea, because we support them and we take the accountability to those who are allowing and encouraging and benefiting from this phenomenon of human trafficking and modern slavery.
Santa Marta Group is committed to doing this. We’re very lucky to be able to work with the order of Malta and many other organisations across the world and countries. From the cardinal and from the patron of Santa Marta, Pope Francis, this is something that we are determined to drive home.
We hope that we can perhaps stand here in 2030 and say, yes, we’re making a difference. Thank you very much. PAUL BERESFORD-HILL: I now give the floor to his Excellency, Ambassador Antonio Lagdameo, who is the permanent representative of the Republic of the Philippines at the United Nations. Your Excellency.
ANTONIO MANUEL REVILLA LAGDAMEO: Thank you. Excellencies, it is my great pleasure to participate in this very important event. Combating human trafficking is an important priority for the Philippines. Guided by our obligations under the Palermo protocol and our commitments under the Global Plan of Action to combat trafficking in persons,
The Philippines has established comprehensive laws and policies aimed at ending human trafficking. The 4P’s of anti–trafficking, namely prevention, prosecution, protection and partnership, have been integrated into the Philippine Anti Trafficking in Persons Act and its implementing rules and regulations. Our anti–trafficking efforts are led by the Interagency Council Against Trafficking in Persons,
Which is composed of 25 government agencies led by the Department of Justice and the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and includes civil society organisations representing the sectors of women and then children and overseas Filipinos also sit in the council. Human trafficking is a serious crime
That needs a multidimensional response using a whole–of–society approach, taking into account the volume of Filipino migrants and the reality of human trafficking that occurs in migration contexts. The Department of Foreign affairs as well as the Department of Migrant workers are tasked to ensure that Filipino victims of trafficking get access to justice,
Provided with needed physical and mental health services, and are reintegrated into society. In countries where there is a concentration of Filipino workers, the Philippine embassies and consulates have established shelters for victims of human trafficking and other forms of violence. Social service attaches are deployed to these embassies and consulates
To provide victim–centred and trauma–informed care to trafficking victims. As the old adage says, prevention is better than cure. The Philippines invests in preventative strategies to combat human trafficking. The Interagency Council Against Trafficking in Persons operate at the grassroots level, involving community organisations, faith–based groups and village associations.
Community education programmes and webinars are conducted to reach the farthest possible places to raise awareness on the manifestations and risks of human trafficking. The project Cybersafe PH was created to raise awareness on the risks of trafficking and child sexual exploitation through the use of technology. Partnerships with parents, educators, and the private sector
Is a crucial component of efforts to keep children and young people from being victimised by traffickers in online spaces. Through the 1343 action line, the general public can report incidents that are suspected to be human trafficking. This hotline has been instrumental in rescuing victims and in facilitating the prosecution and punishment of perpetrators.
Every year, thousands of government officials, security officers, healthcare professionals, and educators attend seminars and orientations to familiarise themselves with incidents of trafficking and how to identify and care for victims. International cooperation is very important in preventing human trafficking and providing protection for victims. The Philippines signed a number of cooperation agreements with countries
Where there are huge concentrations of Filipino migrant workers. Our cooperative efforts with some countries in the Middle East led to reforms of the visa system that allowed for better labour mobility and pathways for regular migration for migrants. These agreements also facilitated a more efficient access to justice for victims of human trafficking.
The Manila International Dialogue on human trafficking was held in Manila on December 13, 2023 in cooperation with the Embassy of the Netherlands in Manila. This dialogue served as a platform for sharing best practices and lessons learned, as well as challenges in combating human trafficking. It was also used as an opportunity
To analyse new trends and patterns of human trafficking, ways to detect the flow of trafficking proceeds, and innovative approaches to uncover trafficking networks. Border control is another area that can be strengthened in order to prevent human trafficking cases. The Interagency Council against trafficking in Persons in the Philippines regularly releases resolutions and guidelines
On departure of international–bound Filipino passengers with the overarching role of detecting and preventing human trafficking situations. Excellencies, colleagues, the economic, social and health costs of human trafficking is too great. It is a crime that defiles human dignity and robs our children of their future. Human trafficking shames us all,
And we have to do our utmost to eradicate it. Thank you. PAUL BERESFORD-HILL: Thank you, your Excellency. We now move to the second section of our conference this morning, and I’m going to now hand over to Deborah O’Hara Rusckowski, who will now moderate some additional presentations
From our guests, as well as hosting a question and answer session. Debbie? DEBORAH O’HARA RUSCKOWSKI: Yes. Thanks so much, Ambassador, and thank you again, all of our distinguished guests and keynotes. I know you have to leave Ambassador Ligdamo, don’t worry. We really thank you for coming and appreciate your presence.
Okay, we move into a different segment, and at this point, I’d like to introduce a few people and then have a Q&A at the end. I want you to really listen carefully and maybe jot down a few things that you might want to ask afterwards
And maybe get a little bit livelier and keep you awake here. Okay? We have Mr. Mauricio Reza Bautista, and he’s an attaché and human rights expert from permanent mission of Mexico, our dear friends there. He is the delegate responsible for Mexico’s co–chairing of the group of friends
On the Committee on Rights of Persons with Disabilities in New York. He’s previously covered the Security Council and second committee at the permanent mission. Welcome, Mr. Bautista. The floor is yours. MAURICIO REZA BAUTISTA: Debbie, Excellencies, dear colleagues, I’m honoured to speak today on behalf of Mexico regarding this important topic.
As a country of origin, transit and destination, Mexico has been deeply affected by the wide–reaching effects of trafficking in persons, making its elimination and prevention a national priority. Trafficking in persons is not an isolated phenomenon. It is a symptom of deeper systemic issues that corrode the very fabric of our societies.
Poverty, discrimination, inequality, corruption and social exclusion. These are the catalysts that fuel this illicit activity. The shadows of this crime fall heaviest on those who are often in situations of vulnerability, our children, women, indigenous persons, persons with disabilities, migrants, refugees and the LGBTQI community. This underlines the multifaceted nature of the problem,
Which calls for a systemic and intersectional approach to dismantle it. The complexities of human trafficking call for an integrated strategy, one that balance prevention, protection, victim assistance and criminal justice interventions. Otherwise, as prior experience exposes, policies are insufficient and ineffective. With this in mind, Mexico has worked to consolidate this shift
In its legislative framework during the last decade. The first step toward this was issuing a general law against trafficking in persons in 2012, which paved the way for the Mexican state apparatus to act uniformly to prevent and sanction trafficking in persons. This led to the creation of an inter–secretarial commission against human trafficking.
Which marked a decisive step in the institutionalisation of our battle against this crime. This commission is responsible for defining and coordinating the implementation of a holistic state policy, ensuring active involvement of local governments, civil society, international organisations, academia and the private sector. Understanding the need for collective efforts, we have fostered greater engagement
With civil society and academia in the commission’s work. These have been crucial in enhancing our policymaking processes with diverse perspectives and expertise, leading to a more robust and effective strategies. The Mexican National programme to prevent, sanction and eradicate crimes in matters of trafficking in persons, and for the protection and assistance
Of the victims of these crimes, launched in December ’22, and in effect until December of 2024, sets forth ambitious objectives which may be useful and transferable to strengthened responses elsewhere. Among those are, to strengthen the coordination across federal state, and local levels, ensuring synergistic efforts with media and private sectors
To prevent exploitation and protect survivors’ rights, to foster knowledge generation on trafficking that influence public policy and action, and to implement standard operation procedures for identifying trafficking at all governmental levels. In this regard, immigration demands a special lens here, since migrants stand at a particular vulnerable position.
Widening and deepening mandates across all governmental bodies to identify trafficking in persons is crucial, accompanied by clear, standard operating procedures that systematise the practice and avoid detachment or delegation of responsibilities. To promote the human rights of potential victims of survivors with a gender lens and intersectional approach is another important aspect.
Assistant protection and social reintegration services for those affected are essential to regenerate our social fabric. This commitment extends through providing resources for shelters to institutionalise good practices, ensuring that individual needs and circumstances are met with tailored support. An intersectional perspective is required to best apply this with sensibility to the specific discrimination
That may overlap in the life of survivors, imparting from the recognition that not two cases are the same. The financial and economic structures that fill trafficking networks cannot be ignored either. We prioritise financial analysis and intervention to dismantle the criminal organisations profiting from these heinous crimes. Our national efforts align with international commitments.
Mexico has always taken a proactive stance on the international stage in this matter. Being early signatures and ratifiers of the UN Convention against Transnational Crime and the Palermo Protocol. Another important tool is the strict adherence to the 2030 agenda, which provides a framework to address the structural conditions
That facilitate trafficking, such as extreme poverty, social exclusion, discrimination, and lack of opportunities. Regionally, Mexico has participated actively in the various initiatives undertaken by the Organisation of American States. Most notably, Mexico has been heavily involved in the crafting of the OAS work plans on trafficking in persons.
These work plans aims to coordinate prevention strategies, ensure comprehensive assistance and protection to victims, enhance legal frameworks and law enforcement capacities, share best practices between stakeholders, and provide technical assistance in anti–trafficking efforts. In closing, dear colleagues, Mexico stands firm in its commitment to combat trafficking in persons.
We recognise that to eradicate this crime, a comprehensive approach is essential. An approach that incorporates prevention, protection, justice, and coordination across various sectors and layers of government. Throughout these initiatives outlined in the National Action Plan and ongoing legislative reforms, Mexico remains dedicated to involving its response, ensuring a clear legal framework,
Fostering intergovernmental coordination, enhancing identification protocols, addressing root causes and most importantly, providing the necessary support and resources for the social reintegration of victims and survivors. Thank you. DEBORAH O’HARA RUSKOWSKI: Thank you very much, Mr. Bautista. Next, we have a representative from Nigeria. Which we’ve talked about Nigeria quite a bit
With our sisters that are involved very much who we love. Minister Bola Asaju, is a Yoruban Nigerian. She was deputy director for the Ministry of Foreign affairs in Abuja, before coming to New York. She also served as head of chancery and deputy Chief of Mission in Ottawa,
And as a foreign service officer in Canberra. She hails from Kawawa State, which was the centre of the Oyo empire. She now represents the Federal Republic on the third committee. Welcome Minister Bola Asaju. BOLA AYOKA ASAJU: Thank you Madam moderator. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank the permanent observer mission
Of Sovereign Order of Malta, to the United Nations for organising this important event on the topic titled Human Trafficking Preventive Strategies and Care of Victims. As we may all be aware, human trafficking is a violation of human rights of the victims and a crime against humanity. It is an epidemic that transcends
All races, social classes, demographics and sex. The victim of this nefarious practice experience economic exploitation, sexual abuse including physical and emotional abuse, threats to life, isolation from family as well as slavery. It is high time for us to renew both our resolve and commitment to protect those who are vulnerable
From continuing being victims of human trafficking. Human trafficking, being a modern–day slavery, deprives millions of people worldwide of their dignity and freedom. It undermines national security, enriches transnational crime and terrorists, and it is an affront to our universal values. It is a grave risk to vulnerable population who face deceitful recruitment practices
By those bent on exploiting them for labour or commercial sex. In this regard, there is need for meaningful, effective partnership between public and private sectors and civil society to create awareness, to leverage on expertise and facilitate creative solutions to demeanours. Woman trafficking is a complex issue with intricate factors
That escalate vulnerability of people into trafficking, including global crisis, conflict and climate emergency, displacement, poverty and limited access to education and employment, which are impacting millions of people worldwide, thereby leaving them vulnerable to exploitation by traffickers. Furthermore, cyber technology has added another dimension to this problem.
An Internet now being used to recruit, advertise and exploit victims. However, lack of effective legal protection or enforcement mechanism in some regions create an environment where traffickers face minimal consequences. It is imperative to know that human traffickers are doing it for money with an estimated annual global profit of over $150 billion dollars
With an estimated 40.3 million people forced into modern–day slavery. 5.4 victims per every thousand people worldwide, 29 million were women and girls. Unfortunately, 80% of the total, almost five million were victims of forced sexual exploitation globally, with children making up for more than 20% of that number, according to International Labour Organisation.
This is very, very unfortunate. The impact of human trafficking is a global head concern also due to damages done to victims psychological and physical well–being. This is a global health problem that requires a multidisciplinary approach by individuals, organisations, communities and national government. Healthcare professionals are other important partners in the fight against trafficking
Due to their frequent contact with victims. Survivors of trafficking interact with the healthcare professionals during and after experiences of trafficking. According to International Labour Organisation, once again, 80% of victims meet with the healthcare providers, but because of providers’ lack of training in identification and response, many victims go unrecognised and unaided.
Often times, trafficking victims were prevented from disclosing their status to healthcare providers due to fear of judgment, fear of retribution by traffickers and law enforcement agencies, shame, language barriers and limited interaction with medical personnel, among other obstacles. It is imperative to train healthcare providers
On trauma–informed care to be able to detect trauma signs in patients to reduce missing opportunity of identifying trafficking victims. It is equally important for providers to deliver effective care to improve patient engagement, recognising verbal and non–verbal cues, assessing the victim’s response and referring victims to appropriate medical team members,
Which are key components of effective trauma–informed care. Furthermore, missed opportunities to identify, inform and empower victims perpetuate this physically and psychologically deliberating trauma. Meanwhile, lack of funding is the major impediment to acquire requisite knowledge by healthcare professionals in identified trafficking victims. This funding problem transcends national capacity.
It requires synergy between the United Nations, regional and donor partners to generate funds for this purpose. Then, survivors of human trafficking deserved care and support to overcome the trauma they suffered in the hands of traffickers. The empowerment of victims requires providing them with resources and opportunities to regain their lives.
They should be given opportunities to tell their story which will help in legislative policy formulation for the protection of victims. I want to at this juncture just highlight what the Nigerian government has done and is also doing just to address this coach. Nigerian government has been actively involved in various efforts
To curb human trafficking through the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP. Through legislation and policy advocacy, NAPTIP has played a pivotal role in advocating for the enforcing anti–trafficking legislation in Nigeria, such as the trafficking in Persons, Prohibition Enforcement and Administration Act 2015 to address the scourge of human trafficking.
Then there is law enforcement and prosecution in place, too. NAPTIP works closely with law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute individuals involved in human trafficking. It conducts operations to rescue victims and apprehend traffickers. There is awareness and prevention, too. NAPTIP conducts public awareness campaign to educate communities
About the dangers of human trafficking and how to prevent it. There is capacity building, victim support and rehabilitation. NAPTIP operates shelters and safe houses for victims, offering them a place of refuge. Provide psychological counselling, medical care and vocational training to survivors to facilitate their reintegration into the society. We also collaborate internationally.
They engage in partnership with international organisations, foreign government, neighbouring countries and NGOs to strengthen the global fight against human trafficking. There is legal advocacy and protection support too. This works to ensure that victims have access to legal aid and support prosecution against traffickers. In the same vein, effective implementation
Of the global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration is the leading way to achieve the 2030 agendas principle to leave no one behind. On this juncture, we call on member state to consider inclusion of migration challenges and needs of present and future generations
In the preparatory discussions to develop a pact of future and the World Social Summit slated for 2025. On this note, I also like to commend the UNODC for the good work they are doing on capacity breeding of law enforcement and criminal justice officials in the region, which are better equipped to detect, intercept
And investigate cases of human trafficking, as well as to assist, protect and support trafficking victims. In conclusion, Madam moderator, I would like to reiterate Nigeria’s commitment to the fight against human trafficking and to stress that migration problem transcend all nations and is multifaceted in nature,
Thereby requiring comprehensive approach to tackle the root causes as well as to find a lasting solution to these challenges. It requires international cooperation through multilateral platform like the UN, which focuses on prevention, protection and prosecution efforts. I thank you. DEBORAH O’HARA RUSKOWSKI: Thank you, Minister Bola Asaju. Very much appreciate your comments.
I noticed that some of these are very much in line with Kevin Hyland. Kevin, I know you’re on the list next to speak, if you want to say more, you’re welcome to, or you can stay and hold off until the Q&A. Totally up to you. You’ll hold off. Great. Okay, that’s fine.
Next in line is Hilary Chester. Dr. Hilary Chester is formerly with the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and she is now with the Department of Homeland Security dealing with human trafficking victims. Dr. Chester leads the US Conference of Catholic Bishops anti–trafficking programme and oversees initiatives such as the National Education Campaign
For Immigrant Communities, a specialised employment service for trafficking survivors, and a global coalition addressing trafficking in the fishing and maritime industries. With over 12 years of experience, Dr. Chester specialises in working with vulnerable migrants, including unaccompanied children and trafficking victims, offering expert consultations on child trafficking cases to the US government.
She holds a doctorate in anthropology from Southern Methodist University, and actively participates in multidisciplinary working groups on human trafficking, particularly at the intersections of trafficking, migration, and technology. So wonderful to have you here, Hilary. The floor is yours. HILARY CHESTER: Thank you, Deb, and thank you all of you.
I’m honoured to be here speaking with all of you and sharing what wisdom I’ve learned over the years working much more directly with human trafficking victims and survivors, both at a direct client programme interaction level, and then also to my bio–administering programmes where we delivered services through national networks of faith–based,
Primarily catholic, but also other community based organisations. My two interventions are going to be from that much more interpersonal perspective, that much more interpersonal individual lens, and I hope can share some compelling examples. It’s my belief that faith–based organisations are key partners in the efforts to combat human trafficking
And respond to victims and survivors in particular. We’ve talked a lot about the importance of partnerships, interdisciplinary approaches, and the integrated efforts where there’s all actors that are necessary. I think what faith–based organisations and community–based organisations bring to the table, though, is that personal connection with a victim or a survivor.
Victims of human trafficking have often been some of the most disturbing. Some of the most severe ways that people are exploited and controlled, is through taking away their autonomy, taking away their ability to make choices, taking away their ability to control their own movements, leaving situations where they’re being harmed.
Then certainly, the fear that they have that their families and family members may also be under duress or in harm’s way. Those are considerations that when we are developing programmes, we need to keep forefront in our minds. For many years, in the service delivery world,
As we were developing what are called individual service plans, we, as the experts, thought about, what are the priorities? What does it take to stabilise a victim? What does it take to build someone back up? Our intentions were quite positive. Our intentions were good, but we were coming from a very top–down approach.
Deb mentioned the trauma–informed approach. There also now is a victim–centred approach, which is quite aligned with catholic teaching on the dignity of the human person and that holistic, person–centric approach to serving an individual. Really what we’re doing is putting them not just at the forefront of our attention,
But really treating them as much more of an equal, collaborative partner. We had a programme at my last organisation that was providing employment services, specifically job readiness. Preparing survivors to get back into the legitimate workforce. Some of them getting back into a legitimate workforce,
Some of them entering a legitimate workforce for the first time. These were individuals who had been out of their trafficking situation, usually for nine months to a year, so they were quite stabilised, relatively speaking. I think it’s always important for us to remember that true restoration
From trafficking takes a really long time and people can backslide. But this programme of job–readiness, what we did is we created tools so that we could help the individuals measure what are their skills, what are their interests, what are their talents. I think all of us have probably, in our professional careers,
Had been to some kind of work retreat where you take a survey and figure out, what is your work style? What are your work preferences? Are you good at interpersonal? Are you a details person? Are you a big picture, visionary person? You get a report from those kind of surveys,
And that helps you better understand your work style. The participants in our programme had never had that kind of an inventory, had never had that luxury of a self–reflection of what are their skills, what are they good at, what are their gifts and talents that they would bring to any employment setting?
We had them go through those surveys, gave them their results, and then worked with them to find opportunities in the community, whether it was a job, or a certificate programme, or a vocational programme. Then we laid out some short–term goals, intermediate goals, talked to them about budgeting
And how we could use the client budget that we had to pay for courses, certificate programmes. Some of them needed specialised equipment for a particular job. We had someone that wanted to be a welder, for example. But we really let them direct their own trajectory. Obviously, we were being realistic,
But sharing with them the budget, letting them know, this is how much we have to spend, this is the time frame of the programme. I don’t think we realised until that programme, how much we didn’t include the client in our programme planning, in their service planning, in our other programmes,
Until that very moment. Then we began incorporating those kind of practices into our general case management programme, where we were focused much more on stabilising individuals, people coming right out of a trafficking situation, but recognising that even people in that crisis, that very early stabilising period, could contribute,
Could be a collaborative partner in developing their own service plan, helping to set their own priorities. I know for many years, the practice for us was to, let’s get the person stabilised before we even think about bringing maybe their children or family members
Over to then live with them because we didn’t want to overburden them. In retrospect, I realise it’s very difficult for someone to stabilise and focus on their own recovery, their own healing, if in the back of their mind they’re always worried about their child, if they’re always worried about their spouse or family.
Recognising that if having a child come over is a real priority, we need to move that up in the process of what we’re going to work on. Then they can also be in therapy, working on English, or other interventions that they need, but that we would, as a good partner,
Be actively working to get their child over, for example. We really thought about these service plans much more as contracts and agreements between us and the individual we were serving, where we were also committing to taking part, committing to do activities to try to fulfil our end of an agreement.
I think that that’s something that can be integrated into most service programmes designed for human trafficking victims and survivors. I think that as member states or as funding organisations at the state and government level, to definitely encourage that, encourage that programmes have that level of flexibility, that level of individualism,
And that level of elevating the participants to much more of a collaborative partner. I will also say that the principle of subsidiarity, which is a catholic principle, where you’re solving a problem at the most local level, you’re solving a problem with the people who have the problem, recognising that at the local level,
At the level where people are experiencing whatever problem you’re trying to tackle, are the most informed on what their needs are, what is going to work, what outcome they’re visioning for themselves. Thinking as member states, when you’re crafting legislation, when you’re crafting protective regulations in different industries,
You need to have at the table in a really meaningful, significant way, people with lived experiences, survivors. You need their expertise. What does wage theft look like in a particular industry? We were quite humbled. Again, we had a grant to go and build the capacity of seafarers
And port chaplains around the fishing industry. We were working with ILO, working with other organisations, and we thought we had some great ideas of how to improve working conditions. Yet, when we spoke with fishermen, when we spoke with seafarers themselves, there were considerations that never would have crossed our minds.
Learning terminology, a share of catch. How do you make sure that having a share of catch doesn’t become wage theft? These are terms that meant nothing to me before this project, and it really took speaking with and listening to individuals with that lived experience, survivors of wage theft,
Survivors of forced labour at sea in the fishing industry, to really describe what are the risks, how are these industries manipulated, how are workers manipulated, what are the dangers, and what are the protections that would be most meaningful to them? It’s critical to incorporate them into any language codification of regulations
That are meant to be protective. In the US, we have a Survivor Advisory Board that reports directly to the President of the United States. They’ve been incorporated now for about eight years. Each year they convene a couple of times in person. When they’re not convening, they are meeting with other survivor coalitions
And survivor groups, trying to get what are their concerns, what are their priorities, what are their recommendations? Then they make recommendations to the US government, and that informs our programming and our funding of programmes and some legislation. They’ve only been compensated for their time working in this capacity in the last two years.
I’ll let that sink in. We’ve only been compensating them for all the time that they would spend meeting with other survivors in their community, travelling to Washington, D.C. and meeting with lawmakers and other NGOs and government officials, in the last two years. If you do, and I encourage you to please use survivors
And use people with lived experience as advisors, but you need to compensate them, and you need to compensate them to the same degree that you would compensate any other professional consultant. We find that critical, and on reflection, really unseemly, to take individuals who had been exploited,
Particularly around work, and then not adequately compensate them. Those are my two interventions. Thank you, again, for this opportunity to share these. DEBORAH O’HARA RUSKOWSKI: Hilary, thank you so much. Leave it to a faith–based organisation to really bring out some of the importance of the humanness of what we’re talking about.
I’m happy to say, the Survivor Advisory Board, we have some of them on our GSO leaders and our teams, which is so important to have their voice at the table. I find it fascinating what you learned from the fishing industry and the lived experience just absolutely correlates right over.
Thank you also for bringing up the victim–centred approach along with the trauma–informed care, because that is really the whole person centric. I failed to mention that in my talk, so thank you for reminding me that. That was great. Next, we have, finally, our last panellist, and this is Ms. Alice Eckstein,
Project director for Finance Against Slavery and Trafficking, FAST. I love your acronym, FAST. That’s really good. She was previously a programme manager for the Modern Slavery Delta 8.7 programme at United Nations University– Centre for Policy Research. Previously, Ms. Eckstein was the executive director at New York University’s School of Professional Studies
Centre for Global affairs. There she managed external relations, public events, and special programmes to complement the centre’s graduate and non–credit education in global affairs. Before joining NYU, she was the manager of regional alumni programmes for Bernard College. Before that, she was the coordinator for professional development programmes
For teachers at the Newbury Library in Chicago, Illinois. It’s a pleasure to have you. The floor is yours. Thank you. ALICE ECKSTEIN: Thank you so much, excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for including me in such a significant conversation and on a very meaningful day to hold it.
As you just heard, I’m director of the Finance Against Slavery and Trafficking Initiative, also called FAST. We’re a programme of the United Nations University– Centre for Policy Research, which is part of the global think tank for the UN system. We deliver insights within that system
To member states and other actors who create and implement policies in support of the sustainable development agenda. FAST began with the Liechtenstein Financial Sector Commission on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking. We focus on the role of the financial sector in ending these exploitative practices in line with the Sustainable Development Goals.
This focus is based on what the commission identified as three primary points of intersection between modern slavery risk and the financial sector. First, that profits from modern slavery flow into the financial sector, are laundered there, and enter the formal economy. Second, the sector offers financial services to businesses that profit from modern slavery
And can apply leverage as investors, bankers and creditors, to end such practices. Third, importantly, financial inclusion can increase the resilience of individuals and communities to shocks, and thus reduce their vulnerability to exploitation. Today, I’d like to focus on that point and its significance in the context of prevention, remedy, and survivor support.
The lack of access to financial services and products. Financial exclusion is a risk multiplier for people to experience modern slavery, especially when financial exclusion is accompanied by experiences of crisis, conflict, or displacement, as is so frequently the case. People who lack formal documentation, including refugees, asylum seekers, and other involuntarily displaced people,
Are at risk and are more easily targeted by predatory lenders or traffickers. So are people living in unbanked or underbanked communities. Exclusion from financial services can go hand–in–hand with a lack of access to social services or protections, including education and healthcare. Survivors of human trafficking and other forms of modern slavery
Frequently experience financial abuse, including identity theft and credit abuse, in tandem with labour or sexual exploitation, so they, too, face the risk of exclusion post–exit. A survivor of modern slavery who is unable to open a checking account or line of credit, is subjected to a continued loss of autonomy,
A protraction of their exploitation, and they may find themselves forced to return to risky work and traffickers, simply because they have no other financial options. In partnership with financial service providers, support organisations, and survivor leaders who input into our work, FAST has identified some promising practices
To close these gaps and foster greater resilience and empowerment for people at risk. One intervention we recommend is promising is to focus on asset recovery and restitution. As noted earlier, some US$150 billion flows into the financial sector annually as proceeds of forced labour. That’s a 10–year–old statistic.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it was much higher today. Even more profits are generated from companies with forced labour within their value chains. FAST proposes that knowingly profiting from modern slavery be made a predicate offence to money laundering as part of the global AML regime. This would go far to close the gap
Between the generation of billions in profits and the scant restitution offered to survivors of forced labour when it is offered at all. In order to do this, we will have to leverage forced labour import bans, and AML measures, and strengthen inter–agency and multi–stakeholder cooperation for investigation of companies and individuals,
For effective asset seizure. Such measures would substantially increase restitution for victims of human trafficking and forced labour, and would serve as a powerful deterrent measure against companies and individuals who might otherwise seek to profit from it. But real remedy and prevention must go beyond offering compensation to survivors. As I noted earlier,
Many people who are highly vulnerable to modern slavery, including survivors, are not able to access formal financial services, even if they qualify for restitution. A FAST flagship project sought to address that through our Survivor Inclusion initiative. Working with survivors and survivor support organisations, FAST developed a process to secure access to financial services
For people exiting trafficking, in partnership with financial institutions, using simplified know–your–customer due diligence procedures. We’ve worked in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and to date, some 3,000 survivors of modern slavery have been able to access bank accounts and other services as a result.
But this work has also offered some valuable insights for expansion of financial access, particularly to people who might require alternative methods to verify their identity when lacking standard documentation, or when their financial identity has been compromised. We have seen these lessons successfully applied in the context of the flow of Ukrainian refugees
Through Europe in 2022 and last year. In many cases, people leaving Ukraine, like refugees worldwide, lacked identity documents or regular addresses and receiving countries, which might have prevented their access to bank accounts or other financial services. The European Banking Authority, noting the risk of trafficking for these refugees,
Offered guidance to banks on providing no fee bank accounts and other services through simplified know your customer processes. As a result, Ukrainian refugees were able to access financial services through European banks. One bank alone, which also participates in the Survivor Inclusion Initiative, applied practices developed there
For modified due diligence to open 8000 new accounts for Ukrainian refugees. In short, the work of FAST Survivor Inclusion Initiative demonstrates that action can be taken to expand financial access for survivors of modern slavery and not compromise action on financial compliance. The case of Ukrainian refugees shows that the financial sector,
In partnership with humanitarian missions, civil society, and governments, can reduce vulnerability through financial inclusion for people at risk. The successes in providing these necessary services for people displaced by conflict and crisis in Europe should similarly be applied globally in partnership with humanitarian agencies, local governments, and financial institutions.
There are far too many people living in conditions of modern slavery and still more people who are vulnerable to exploitation. We all know the grim statistics that indicate the number of people who are experiencing modern slavery have risen. But these alarming figures are not insurmountable,
Provided we build strong partnerships to end these exploitative practices. Based on the connections to modern slavery I described, FAST has seen that effective partnerships with the financial sector can indeed support recovery for survivors and prevent trafficking or re–trafficking of vulnerable people.
I’m not here to claim that the financial sector alone will end modern slavery, but I do believe that without its participation, we will miss the target. Thank you. DEBORAH O’HARA RUSKOWSKI: Thank you, Alice, very much. That’s… Kevin, I imagine that that’s music to your ears. All the financial.
Yeah, with the rise in immigration, given the exclusion of financial resources, it goes hand in hand and with all the people’s fear, I think with lack of identity documents, it just piles up and culminates in a huge problem. But I’m very encouraged with your Survivor Inclusion Initiative.
Wow, that sounds terrific. I want to open it up. That’s our last panellist. I want to open it up to anyone that may have some questions for any of them. Certainly they all have different focus on the different types of trafficking
And areas of their trafficking, of how they’re trying to help the problem. Okay, I’ll start off because I’m going to dive right in, while some of you. Please think about it. Oh, wait a second. Yes. Okay. Yes. Just please state your name and where you’re from.
QUESTION 1 – PM OF HOLY SEE: Hello, my name is Max, and I’m with the Holy See Mission. Excellent, Max. First of all, thank you very much for organising this fantastic event on a very critical issue today. I also wanted to congratulate Sovereign Order of Malta on the opening
Of the O’Connell House, which is a very exciting news and also the success of the GSO Human Trafficking and Protocol Policy. Thank you. My question regards to impunity, especially we heard today 99.98% impunity. That’s quite concerning number, and it was also mentioned by Ms. Bola, delegate from Nigeria,
Also a good friend of mine, that gaps in enforcement measures play a role on this statistic. I was wondering, I was interested, I’m not sure who would best answer this question, but about your thoughts on fighting impunity and how member states and the international community can better address this issue in this regard.
Thank you. DEBORAH O’HARA RUSKOWSKI: Thank you, Max, for that question. I have a thought, but I think I’d like to throw it over to our friend, Kevin Hyland here because he has so much experience in that area. Kevin? KEVIN HYLAND: Yes.
The issue with the low rates of conviction and the low rates of identification are fundamental to this particular issue in the fact that this is where there is enormous failing. I think that when you look at the whole agenda very much, it’s designed to respond after the event.
There’s not enough in prevention and in many areas of criminal justice. The prevention, the legislation allows for intervention at very early stages of when a crime is hatched. For example, when it involves drugs, conspiracies, when it involves terrorism, when it involves gun crime and all those things.
But that takes a certain way of approaching those crimes by the agencies like national security, law enforcement, and the way that that is coordinated with the public and the public’s perception of what that is. We don’t want everybody walking around terrified that there’s going to be another
Terrorist attack, but we want them to know what to do if they see something that they think may be connected to something that’s terrorist–related or any other crime. Many of the things that would normally sit under the jurisdiction of statutory agencies and law enforcement
And many of the international protocols that should enact governments and government agencies to do certain things have in many ways been outsourced, and they never get into the system. As I said in my presentation, 25 years on, we’re talking about very low numbers of statutory agencies having training. We’ve got very poor policies.
Even in countries like the United Kingdom, that’s got a very good piece of legislation around human trafficking. Most law enforcement agencies, health services, local authorities don’t have policies that look at crime prevention, crime responses and the care of victims. A proof of that is the fact that last year in the United Kingdom
There was almost 17,000 victims, potential victims identified. It’s taking on average two years for somebody to be formally recognised because it’s outsourced to the home office, as opposed to where every other crime would sit, which would be in policing, working with NGOs to provide the care.
I think we need to look at the policy approach and then start to accept actually, things that we say may not help the agenda. I’ve been to Nigeria a number of occasions and worked on investigations in Nigeria with NAPTIP of victims who have ended up in the UK.
When I went to Nigeria, what I found was this perception that victims would never talk to the authorities. It was not true in every case. It was how they were spoken to and who was engaged in it. Building the trust, as we did with religious sisters,
And then the victims felt happy and safe to either give us information or intelligence, or actually as it was, to come back to the UK and give evidence in court. I think we need to really look at these policies and work out that if we are always saying,
“Well, victims will never engage with the state,” then that’s what will happen. They won’t engage with the state. We maybe have perceptions that we need to revisit, particularly when we see the progress that is being made on legislation like we heard from Mexico and the financial.
That’s the other thing, the way that you would approach another crime, you would look at all the other opportunities. Where are the opportunities to get evidence that aren’t reliant on a victim? I think that it’s that policy approach and when we get to that point
Where we are looking at it, at the most serious level, we will see an increase in prosecutions, convictions and confidence on the entire issue. DEBORAH O’HARA RUSKOWSKI: Thank you, Kevin. Minister Asaju, would you like to comment? BOLA AYOKA ASAJU: Victims sometimes is the concealed nature in which they are trafficked.
Sometimes their traffickers create fear in them that they must not say, they must not disclose. That fear, sometimes it overwhelms them and they won’t be able to, even if when they are trafficked, they will not be able to even say that, “Oh, I’m being trafficked.”
But I think with what the Nigerian government has done, it’s just to create awareness, awareness, awareness and more awareness, so that to allay the fear from them that if you have been trafficked, it is better for you to talk and to say it so that
The trafficker will not even gain an upper hand over you. That’s where the issue of collaboration also comes in. We have to collaborate with… Because it’s not something that can be done, even in Nigeria alone, in the country alone. We have to collaborate with other partners
So that even if there is a sense of trafficking, the people at the other end will be able to help. I think collaboration is the key. Thank you. DEBORAH O’HARA RUSKOWSKI: Thank you very much. Go ahead, Michel. MICHEL VEUTHEY: No, thank you for mentioning collaboration, because in October 2019,
The Order of Malta with the French Association organised a conference in Paris on Nigerian women, victims of prostitution in Europe. Actually, we had not only Nicolas Le Coz, who was in charge of combating criminal networks in France, but also we had the Ambassador of Nigeria and Paris,
But more important, we had judges from the EDO State. I don’t have to tell you those people, they know perfectly well what’s happening. For us, it was a golden opportunity to put those people together, not so much on a panel, but around dinners, informal exchanges,
So that they would actually be able to cooperate. I think, yes, we should try to organise more such informal and formal meetings with not only diplomats, excuse me, but to say, also with people who know what’s happening in the field and who are able to implement effectively those programmes
And those procedures and access to justice. Thank you very much. DEBORAH O’HARA RUSKOWSKI: Thank you Ambassador Veuthey. We have a question over here. There you go. Thank you Madam Moderator, this is Hanaa Bouchikh, Counsellor– Could you just speak again? We missed that. Oh, okay. Thank you for giving me the floor.
QUESTION 2 – PM of MOROCCO: I’m Hanaa Bouchikh, Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of Morocco. First of all, I’d like to pass the greetings of Ambassador Hilale, who attended the first hour and heard many esteemed panellists. But unfortunately, he had to leave us to attend another engagement
And to chair meeting. At the outset, I would like, of course, to welcome the convening of this timely meeting and to commend all the panellists and keynote speakers for their intended patience and for their insightful briefing. Would like to seize this opportunity to express our appreciation, of course,
To Ambassador Bursfeld, and all esteemed panellists for, of course, presenting remarks on the reach of human trafficking to multiple areas, mostly labour, workforce, migration, and the list goes on. Given time constraint, I will not elaborate on Morocco’s ongoing efforts on combating all types of human trafficking nationwide.
But I will seize this opportunity to present two questions, if you allow me. First one, what are the recommendations you could have to better understand the link between migration and trafficking in persons to develop more effective responses and to eliminate the risk of trafficking in the migration process, especially to protect migrant workers
From all forms of violence and discrimination? The second question, as we all recall, at the high level meeting of the General Assembly in 2021, we adopted a political declaration on trafficking, on combating human trafficking. In that political declaration, member state committed to taking immediate and effective measure to eradicate forced labour
And to secure the prohibition and elimination of forms of child labour, including the recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by the 2025 to end child labour in all its forms. My question is, is this objective still achievable by 2025? What are the needs to be done to counter the exploitation exercise
By armed groups to force children to act as combatant? –Thank you. –Thank you. DEBORAH O’HARA RUSKOWSKI: Thank you for your comments and also excellent questions. Appreciate it. At this point, we could start with the second one about child labour and forced labour and our goal of 2025. It seems pretty certain aggressive goal,
And who would like to take that question? Kevin or Michel Veuthey? KEVIN HYLAND: Well, I think the political declaration which reiterates the SDG 8.7 and the ambition, and I think by 2025, are we going to achieve what was anticipated in 2015?
Probably not, because the progress hasn’t been at the stage that it should be. We know that child labour is still an enormous problem, and the use of children and people for forced labour is defined in military situations, is a serious problem.
But I think when we look at things that can happen and are developing, like involvement of the private sector and involvement of governments and the commitments that we’re seeing, the African Union becoming part of the G20 is an enormous step forward.
I think that’s what we need to place our hope with and to inform those bodies. Do we have the chance of reaching 2030 when trafficking is no longer here? We certainly can get to the point where the model is broken and that everybody sees it as something that has to be prevented.
Of course, criminals will be criminals because trafficking is a crime. It’s a deliberate act. I think that we can achieve by 2030 the breaking down of this model. Then as we lead into the next iteration of global goals that will obviously be launched in 2031, we need to be far more committed
And have the plan in place so that the following ten or 15 years does actually see the eradication. DEBORAH O’HARA RUSKOWSKI: Thank you, Kevin. It is an ambitious, ambitious goal. But I do remember a great presentation that was here during that 2021 time frame,
And it was from an African nation that shared with much of the child soldiers that were doing the mining. I remember there was just a few prosecutions that were less than five years, but they said at least it was something. The punitive behaviour that was exhibited for if they didn’t reach their quota,
Was to cut off the hands and go up the arm of the children. Some of you may remember this incredible presentation that we had, but they’ve seen at least a movement in less of that activity and more of prosecutions. But to have it end by 2025, like Kevin said,
Let’s hope for the 2030 goal that the model will be changed. Ambassador Veuthey you want to take that migration and trafficking as well. MICHEL VEUTHEY: Thank you very much for your very interesting question. Because, as you know, traffickers welcome the absence of legal opportunities for migration. Because then, it gives them golden opportunities
To trap people into trafficking. That’s a fact. The solution is not easy, but still, we have to be aware of this. Second, for the problem, when we organised in Geneva one month ago, this side event to the global forum on refugees,
I can tell you that we had to insist for a few months until UNHCR agreed to let us organise this side event because they wanted to keep that away. Those are two hot issues. People tend to keep them away from their main concerns.
But thank you very much, and we can still discuss what we could possibly do. Thank you. I have a question here and then there. Okay, thank you. QUESTION 3: I would like to thank the Sovereign Order of Malta. Questions on monitoring and interdiction, I think we’ll all agree
Mapping, and metrics, and shared intelligence are key. Is an overall picture emerging of trafficking origins, routes, and modes of transportation? If so, can this clarity continue as trafficking morphs and changes over the years? DEBORAH O’HARA RUSKOWSKI: Okay, I’m wondering, do you like to take that? Somebody want to take that?
KEVIN HYLAND: Yes, there is a global slavery index produced by a charity in Australia, and it’s accepted by the UN. It does show those trends. One of the things it shows as well in it, the most recent is the relationship to trade and business. It shows where the opportunities of intervention are.
But we need to move to that point of the intervention. That should be where we’re looking at policy. I just wanted to talk about the issue that was mentioned earlier about migration. Of course, Ambassador Veuthey is absolutely right. It is a tool of the traffickers, and it’s a wonderful thing
When they have the whole place that’s disorganised and they can go in and get their fruits. But I was very lucky recently to go to Brazil last year and see the work of the Stella Maris, of the Scalabrinis, and to see how they were dealing with it, having this incredible centre,
The heart of one of the things that was so important was to give people status to stay there and to give them jobs. Through the Scalabrinis or the Stella Maris, they had a whole network of opportunities for work for people. Once people felt valued and were giving something back to community
But doing something for themselves, all of this suspicion around these migrants, like we might be in Europe, disappeared. I just saw what was probably one of the best models I’ve ever seen for dealing with vulnerable people who arrive looking for protection. Certainly from the work of Stella Maris, they were getting it.
DEBORAH O’HARA RUSKOWSKI: I want to just do a follow–up with that, because Alice made me think of something. With the Survivor Inclusion Initiative, it seems to be mostly in Europe. I could have that wrong. Please correct me if I am. But also, with the survivors,
Getting the model of getting them work in these areas of after the migration and quickly getting them into work and even starting up their own companies. I’ve seen various areas start that up, and it’s been successful. Just a quick comment, please. ALICE ECKSTEIN: That is correct.
For the Survivor Inclusion Initiative, the jurisdictions we’ve worked in to date have been Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom, although some of the lessons on financial access have been applied in other contexts, such as in Europe for Ukrainian refugees. We’re currently exploring actually a collaboration with the government of Mexico
And survivor support organisations and financial institutions there, a public–private partnership model for survivors to identify the sort of financial services they need in Mexico as a jurisdiction, and also applying that to a scoping of migrants in Mexico. I think our current focus is primarily Haitian migrants in Mexico, and their financial needs.
With a special focus actually on the financial inclusion needs of diverse men in context of crisis and conflict. Again, looking at the Haitian migration in Mexico. We would like to see the lessons from Survivor Inclusion be applied in wider jurisdictions, and we think it can be.
Now, to the question that was just asked about how trafficking methods can be better identified, how we can increase knowledge. I think there’s a two–part way of looking at this. One is that we can never become complacent about the typologies of trafficking because they do change.
They change according to new technologies, new models of industry, new production models, and of course, in response to crisis and conflict erupting in different areas. Climate change is going to be a really major part of this as you think about communities that have to move very quickly as a result of climate change,
Either because of a sudden onset climate disaster, or because of a long–term loss of livelihoods. I think that you always have to stay one step ahead of traffickers. There certainly have been new typologies of trafficking witnessed. It’s of online scamming, which has developed an entirely new demographic of people
Who are liable to be victimised as exploited in scamming centres. But I would also say that the typologies of vulnerability do not change, that the types of social marginalisation that people experience, financial marginalisation, a lack of education, of access to health care, of access to social services,
And displacement are all things that we know render people vulnerable to trafficking. From a humanitarian assistance lens, a lot can be done for people in contexts that we know render them likely to experience this type of crisis. DEBORAH O’HARA RUSKOWSKI: Thanks very much, Alice. Appreciate it.
Mr. Bautista, before I go to the next question, would you like to add anything to that conversation or not? I just want to give you an opportunity since we mentioned Mexico. MAURICIO REZA BAUTISTA: Thank you, Deb. I heard about the programme, but I don’t have any particular information.
I think that it’s important and I welcome it, but I don’t have additional comments on that. It’s okay, you two connect maybe after this. That’s what it’s all about, right? We had a question right here. Yes. QUESTION 4: sorry, my name is Hunter Severini and I live in New York City.
I appreciate your giving me a chance to participate in this discussion, and I hope attendance continues to grow in these meetings. I think it’s a very important topic. It’s nice to see people taking the time from their day to be here. My question is basically how we can be better advocates
To local, state, national, and international governments to compel them to address trafficking problems that they have already acknowledged. I’ll give some specific examples just to be a little clear about what I’m talking about. The reason I’m bringing it up is because I think so much trafficking is not visible.
The fact that we apparently can’t even succeed in a lot of cases in addressing some of the most blatant examples, makes me really question a lot of the current approaches that are being made towards trafficking, and the fact that it makes me think that we could be doing a lot better.
The first example I’ll give is here in New York City. I’m not sure exactly for how long, but I know for quite some time, Roosevelt Avenue in Corona, Queens, has become a sex tourism, prostitution, and presumably sex trafficking hotbed. It’s gone viral on the Internet.
There are now tour videos you can watch which explain the neighbourhood to people, what the prices are like, how to approach girls there. Eric Adams has acknowledged this. He mentioned a bit ago that he took a drive to this neighbourhood,
And that he’s a former subway cop, and the guy has been around a bit. He’s acknowledged that there is definitely a big prostitution problem there. Yet, in spite of this, I can pretty much promise, even though I haven’t seen it myself maybe for a couple of months,
It’s not an area I’m around a lot, but I can pretty much promise that this is operating right now. It’s a basically 24/7 market. People that are interested can definitely find a lot of information about this in the media and on YouTube.
It just disheartens me a bit, because I feel like if we have these… So much trafficking is not visible. Yet when we have these examples that are so obvious and so acknowledged, I don’t know how much more attention it necessarily is going to take to get something done about this.
But I believe that there really does need to be a little bit more attention on this. I’ll give another example, which is a little more international. I think it’s a nice contrasting example because it’s also a big problem, but it’s also much further away from us.
In Germany right now, you have this big expansion of what’s called these mega brothels. A lot of them offer things like unlimited service that seem particularly morally outrageous to me. I think that the government has done a lot, whether actively or passively, to encourage sex tourism.
I think that Germany has significantly overtaken the Netherlands now. I think it’s becoming one of the world sex tourism destinations, probably because of that sex trafficking. I can only assume what the articles that I’ve read are telling me, that basically Germany is getting completely flooded
With more sex workers than people even know what to do with, and the government seems to be just encouraging this more and more. I guess with these two examples in mind, I’d just be curious to know what we can do to call this out a little more.
Because it’s not like this is going on in secret, but they’re putting an argument out in public which justifies this, when in reality, I see a huge potential for harm as part of all the things that I’ve mentioned. I would just be curious to hear from some of the panellists,
If they have any ideas particularly to these kinds of situations, and what we can do to help advocate for the countless victims that are surely part of all this. DEBORAH O’HARA RUSKOWSKI: Thank you very much, Mr. Severini. That is just a poignant question right now in today’s situation,
And how do we address it? I think this requires some law enforcement with some European… I’m sorry to lean on you again, Kevin, but it does seem right in your alley. KEVIN HYLAND:Yes. You hit on a very important point that we know where this is,
We see it there, we haven’t got to go and look for it that hard, and it’s there and nothing happens. That demoralises– All of us. –the issue, but it also enables another enabler for the criminals, that it’s good business to be in. But what we have done at Santa Marta,
With our community work that we are doing with parishes and dioceses, and not just from the Catholic Church, but from communities, is we’ve changed the approach of what we’re asking people to do. What we’ve done is created a training manual which they can take and use themselves as well.
But it’s about them asking their community leaders— their elected officials, their members of parliament, their police chiefs, their police and crime commissioners, who are like mayors in the UK, and local officials— “What are you doing? How are you implementing the Modern Slavery Act in the UK?
How are you implementing the sections that say there’s got to be support for victims? What is your prevention plan?” Asking those questions and getting serious answers. When we started doing this, which was only quite recent, the communities felt, actually,
We are really getting involved in this, and we feel that we’ve got a part to play. Of course, when we were doing it, particularly with the Catholic Church, the bishops and the parish priests said actually, this is really good, because it’s not saying that we should bring another centre,
Which could be very expensive, lots of risk. We’re actually making and asking and requesting and creating the accountability in local communities. We’ve started that, and we’re pushing that across the UK this year, and into Ireland. We’ve had lots of buy–in from law enforcement, from government officials and police and crime commissioners.
But to your point around street prostitution, when the 2012 Olympics was happening in the UK, there was this fear that street prostitution was going to make London look nasty. Some were approaching it with, “We’ll go out and we’ll arrest all the prostitutes, the women in prostitution,”
Or we’ll do this, do that, curb crawling operations and all that. But what I did was I got a team together which consisted of religious sisters, mainly from the Mercy Sisters and others, and the National Health Service, local authorities, and we put in a prevention plan.
The women that were working were then directed into a centre where they were given pathways. This model is very much copied and promoted now by an organisation called Arise, which I’m very pleased to be part of now. The vice–chair is here as well.
They use that model about how you can educate communities to, in effect, take away the interest of this or make it something that doesn’t exist. But also, Scandinavian countries in particular, have introduced laws of the buyer pays, which is about people who buy sex, then can be arrested and fined.
In Sweden, for example, the penalties are quite high. There’s a number of ways of suppressing. The one thing you can never do and must never do is to target the women who are working in prostitution. They need to be dealt with as victims and people that need pathways.
Doesn’t mean they’re always going to be easy to work with, but we need to give them opportunities. In Germany, I’m really pleased to say there is a bit of a shift in the government there, and they’re starting to look at the believe it or not, the Scandinavian models.
There is a real push from certain members of parliament, certain ministers, and they do realise now that what they’ve got of this commercialisation of these mega brothels has really destabilised certain communities and attracted other forms of crime, which is exactly what’s happened in Amsterdam as well, that this kind of model.
Also, we’re always pushing, quite rightly, equality, women’s rights. Does that mean we want to see women on sale in high streets? Is that what we want our young boys and men to actually view women as? Of course it can’t be. I think there are models that are around the world
That could be incorporated, could be learned from and then actually implemented into policy, deliverable policy that’s actually happening on the ground, and there are ways to do that. But unfortunately, at the moment, they’re not happening on any scale whatsoever. DEBORAH O’HARA RUSKOWSKI: Thank you, Kevin.
I have a follow–up myself on this one, because I feel that… I’ve been going from Utah, Boston, New York, and seeing some things that have bothered me, and I wanted to ask you about it in two things. Sentencing and release of names. I’d like to know what your thoughts are on that,
Because in Boston, we recently had a sting. The FBI and Homeland Security, I think, worked together. It was a very large sting. Prominent individuals, politicians, executives, CEOs, healthcare, it was all over the national news. In fact, the former Ed Davis police commissioner got interviewed, and they said, “Everyone’s wondering to release the names.”
He said, “They probably won’t.” Now, of course, this is on the heels of the Epstein situation, but they probably won’t hear the names. I go back to our old Nordic model in Sweden, when years ago, they embarked on that public awareness campaign, and they changed the charges to the johns and the pimps,
And saw prostitutes as the real victims. It was a real game changer. But what they added was a wall of shame. Somehow, it seems to be effective. I came, I flew here from Utah, I grabbed this paper, and on the front page is a prominent attorney, unfortunately, and the outcry is,
Got charged for 364 days for sexual abuse against his daughter, which we all know familial is very common. 44%, I believe, lend itself to trafficking. But here’s a man that is obviously in shame. However, it was a plea bargain, and that’s why he got 364 days.
I bring this before you because it’s not just… It is in Europe, it’s all over, we know that. New York City, of course, has a lot. We’ve even talked about how it was called after the UNGA, the hooker convention, because they got high–level prostitutes, or—I hate to say that word because they’re victims—
But high–level escorts into the city with impunity. I ask you, is this… This wall of shame and the sentencing, these two issues seem to be pretty big issues around the world. What are your thoughts on that? You’ve been in law enforcement, and you’ve been doing this so long.
KEVIN HYLAND: It was something that was highlighted when we were doing the work around the Olympics, around creating a wall of shame. There was this suggestion that names were going to be put on the sides of buses and things like that. Of course, in our jurisdictions, in our democracies, justice is in public.
What goes on in the courts can be reported unless there’s particular reasons of risks to children or individuals, but the circumstances can still be reported. I was the one who actually stopped them doing the names on the buses and the wall of shame. My reasoning was,
That may be a father who’s out with a woman who’s providing sexual services and paying for it, which, there is a justice solution to that. But that father could also have a 12–year–old daughter at school, a 9–year–old son, and they go into school the next day
And they become the victim of their parents. What we did was we amended the legislation so that particularly if it was done from a car, if somebody goes out in their car to pick up women who are providing sexual services,
We got the power to take the car away that became involved in criminality. Then the guy might have gone home and tried to keep it from his wife or his partner or his family, keep the charge sheets hidden away and hope and hold their breath.
But actually, to go home and not have your car really hurt them. That could be a brand–new car. I mean, I know on one occasion it was a very expensive car that was taken to the value of £100,000. I think there’s other ways of doing it. Name and shame, I get it.
Anything that happens in the courts generally can be public. But I think about the bigger damage it could do to young girls and young boys and people who are completely innocent in any way, shape, or form. It also shows that we’re being a little bit vengeful
As opposed to following a rule of law. DEBORAH O’HARA RUSKOWSKI:Thank you. Thank you so much. Okay, yes. This will be the last question, because I’m looking at the time. Thank you. It’ll come on. There you go. QUESTION 5 – PM OF AFRICAN UNION: Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
My name is Agnès Tshimbombo from the African Union Mission. Little disclaimer. I’m asking my question not in an official capacity, but just as a citizen from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I would like to start by highlighting an important point that you made, Mrs. Deb, in your statement,
That in order to fight human trafficking, we need to tackle the root causes, and the root cause is very simple, it is demand. My question today is, how can we effectively address the issue of human trafficking, particularly focusing on the eradication of demand and the provision of adequate resources for judicial reforms,
Particularly in African countries in the global south? Thank you. DEBORAH O’HARA RUSKOWSKI: Thank you so much for bringing that up. I can quickly say that I know that we are working, and the Order of Malta is working with partnering people that have prevention curricula. One is for k through 12 school age,
And also parish–based, age–appropriate, of course, if it’s k through 12 and dealing with teaching, just like we did with drugs, say no to drugs. They need to know… I think everyone here knows there was a spike after Covid and a child sex trafficking skyrocketed.
It’s because the kids were at home and they were online, they were lonely, they were out of school and things of that nature. When somebody pretended to be a 14–year–old with a video game, “Can you meet me?” It turned out not to be so. Child sex trafficking did skyrocket.
We need to take an active approach. When there’s the four P’s, that’s the prevention. Then, of course, we have to deal with the 50 million people that are already in complex trauma. But I would open this up to any of the… Hillary, if you have thoughts on that, you haven’t had a chance.
Love to hear from you. HILARY CHESTER: Thank you. Not quite so related to sex trafficking, but in my last role, we worked very hard on a consumer campaign around forced labour in the fishing industry. We educated consumers, we educated people about just top level,
Some of the larger patterns and trends in forced labour and fishing industries. We identified a couple of what we thought were actually good actors making pretty good efforts and then just asked them to go farther in looking down through their supply chains,
Monitoring their own supply chains and making efforts to clean that up. I think that there are a lot of products that we may not realise have forced labour in their supply chains. I think as consumers, we may have a lot more influence than we realise if we educate ourselves
About where things are breaking down in these supply chains in order to really put pressure on either the high–level brands in particular, who have a lot at stake to be responsible for their supply chains down. Then certainly for any regulatory bodies, whether that’s federal government entities or intergovernmental entities,
But also as consumers, putting pressure on them to do more, to regulate and to enforce when there are problems. We did quite a bit around the fishing, looking at, there’s a regulatory body that looks at safety equipment on boats and ships, and they quite honestly
Felt that it wasn’t in their mandate to look at crew conditions. Someone could be horrifically injured, someone could be dead in a fish locker or missing. They could look at a manifest and see that a crew member was missing, but that wasn’t in their purview.
They were just looking at how many fire extinguishers, life jackets, life preservers, lifeboats. There’s just a concern that there aren’t enough regulations, and then what regulations we have are really just not being enforced enough. I think there’s a lot of work that could be done in supply chains. Thanks so much.
DEBORAH O’HARA RUSKOWSKI: I understand there’s one final question that the representative from the USA Mission would like to ask. I apologise. I know I met you coming in, I forget your name, so if you could introduce yourself. QUESTION 6 – PM OF USA:That’s fine. Thank you for taking the time.
My name is Kara Eyrich. I’m part of our human rights team here, Third Committee at the US Mission. I had noted, and I wanted to thank the team here for going forward with a very practical approach in the discussion, trying to take this out of the general context
Of how we normally discuss this at the UN. I noted in some of the discussions you talked a lot about, the framework exists already, we have the legal remedies, we have the tools, but we haven’t implemented them well. We maybe have organisations that do a lot of data collection
And maybe even wonderful training to get us partway to the implementation part of it. But at the back end, as was said, prosecutions are under 6,000 a year, where we have 27–50 million victims at any given time. I wanted to bring it back to the UN a little bit
In talking about how and what is being done in various UN agencies that we might not already be aware of. Obviously, we know UNODC is a key partner. Everyone’s mentioned that. Most of the people who are delegates in the room have worked with them in some capacity.
But what other agencies within the UN context might have programming or involved in this and integrating it into their other work? Be they UNICEF, UN Women, UNFP, or maybe something that is not as traditional. There was a mention in the conversations about ILO and other groups maybe using tools.
I’d love to hear what we don’t know that is going on in that context. Ambassador. MICHEL VEUTHEY: Thank you very much for this question, because actually, as you know, there is one ICAT, that’s a group of not only UN agencies, but also other agencies trying to coordinate.
Then, as was mentioned, you had ILO, UNICEF, UNDP working together to publish a report on child labour. I think it’s quite useful because indeed, if you have only one approach of one agency, you are missing a few key points. I would say definitely not only in New York, but also in Geneva,
We have interesting cooperation between various agencies. At times, you have also those special reporters to the Human Rights Council. I was mentioning Subhan Mulali. She’s a professor of Public International Law in Ireland, and she is an excellent special reporter. Same we had Professor Obokata. Obokata also was a special reporter.
Those special reporters quite often go beyond human rights, and they try to reach out to various organisations, but also to reach out to field activities. That’s what we are missing. We should pay more attention to those reports published for the Human Rights Council. For example, there was one judge, she’s still alive.
She’s Judge [inaudible 02:28:06]. She published a report on the sale of children. I can tell you the first time I’ve seen that, I was completely amazed. How can it exist? But still, she documented very well as a good judge and this report is still available.
I would strongly say that we need possibly at the UN to give more publicity to those excellent reports. This great literature could be useful for governments, but also useful for academia, useful for raising awareness in general. That’s what the UN is here for, precisely to promote international cooperation and to bring together experts.
I think, yes, the UN does this and we should help them. Then I would just like to add a footnote. You were mentioning consumers, but we should also mention public procurement, because definitely public procurement is not only an individual consumer, but it’s a government having a lot of, I must say, business
And having also the means possibly to go and to check the producers, including the kids in Africa or elsewhere, working in slave–like conditions. Public procurements could be a very effective way to prevent human trafficking. It’s not only to have a good law, for example, in Switzerland,
If in France, Italy, or in the US, you don’t have also a similar effective law and implementation mechanism. That’s why clearly, we have to have a more global look. But we have to use also those platforms, those UN platforms, to try to have this cooperation
And to try to have guidelines, not necessarily binding treaties, but guidelines which could be useful for everyone to combat human trafficking. DEBORAH O’HARA RUSKOWSKI: Thank you, ambassador. I’m going to give the last words to my Ambassador, Beresford–Hill. But before, I just want to mention,
You said very practical things that we’ve mentioned here today. Something that we recently did, was have an event that honoured Delta Air Lines. These are various groups that, I mean, they were the first of 12 to form the Global Business Group and Coalition.
They just don’t focus on putting films on in the air or training their entire fleet of personnel, but they’re very involved in the fight against human trafficking and not to be discounted and pull them in to many of our UN neighbours that can work together.
I appreciate you all very much being so patient. Again, I’ll ask you to consider cosponsoring our universal healthcare policy against human trafficking for healthcare providers available there on the desk before you walk out or just leave us a card, and we can get it to you electronically. Now, Ambassador. Thank you very much.
PAUL BERESFORD-HILL: Thank you very much indeed, Debbie. Health care, halfway houses, financial regulation, survivor inclusion, approaches from governments, from the Americas, from Europe, from Asia, we’ve seen an awful lot and heard an awful lot this morning. We’ve covered a lot of ground, but I think all of us very much are aware
That we’ve also only been scratching at the surface, and we knew that that would be the case. But what a surface and what a way to begin our own journey of awareness, knowledge, and hopefully, advocacy on behalf of the victims of this awful, awful phenomenon that afflicts our world.
We set out to raise awareness, to engage in dialogue, and, yes, to make a call for action. I thank all of you for helping us do that this morning. In particular, I thank our panellists, Ambassador Butte, Kevin Hyland. I thank our distinguished representatives from the Philippines, from Mexico, from Nigeria.
I thank all of you who have attended and who have given your time this morning. I hope that you will leave here not with a sense of knowing everything, but at least with an idea at the back of your mind that this is something that you need to find out more about.
You, and your friends, and your families, your governments need to be much, much more aware of not only the problems of human trafficking, but also of the solutions and the ways in which we can achieve the eradication of something which is just so awful and so horrendous.
I thank Dr. Chester and I thank Alice Eckstein. But most importantly, I want to thank my colleague, Debbie Ohara Roskowski. Because, Debbie, your vision, your energy and your faith has contributed and continues to inspire all of us in pursuing the vision of a world
That is free of a scourge, which, unfortunately, is here. Fortunately, we now have ideas, we have thoughts, we have plans, we have strategies, we have the will. What we need now is just more of the energy and the engine to drive that will and hopefully to make the world a better place.
On this day of remembrance of National Human Trafficking Day, it may be inappropriate to close this meeting with a prayer, but I do think that all of us in our own hearts and in our own minds, should just give some thought before we leave this chamber today
Of those victims, those millions of human beings who have been unfortunately sold into slavery and whose lives have been ruined as a consequence. Just a thought, a care, and at the same time, something that you’ll take away and that you will continue to consider and hopefully help us improve.
Thank you all very, very much indeed. Thank you.