ASSIGNEMENT 2

BUSINESS ETHICS

Submitted to: Prof. Bindi Mehta

Submitted by : Rashi Modi
Roll No.: 201438
Section: D

MBA FT ’22 batch

Submitted on : 7th October 2020
Human Trafficking is the trade of human beings in the form of a commodity. Humans are traded for various reasons of
which forced labor, sexual exploitation, sexual slavery, drug peddling and begging are the most common reasons.
Generally poor and backward class people are most vulnerable to this practice. A United States report on human
trafficking index in world mentions third world and poverty hit countries like south Sudan, Afghanistan, Syria,
Turkmenistan, Eritrea, Nigeria, Columbia, Cambodia and Venezuela more prone to be a victim of such practice. Also
India was once the most unsafe country in terms of human trafficking for women. In 2018 National crime records bureau
reported around 5264 cases of human trafficking out of which 64% were women and 48% were children below 18 years.
People below poverty line or the ones with some kind of disability are more susceptible to fall prey to traffickers.

Regions which are unstable which don’t have political and economic stability are generally prone to be a target of forced
labor and sexual slavery. Trafficking volume increased by more than 50% during the five year period from 1995-2000.
Fresh data released by US government states that 600000-800000 were trafficked across by various means thorough
seaways, roadways and airways. Even United Nations crime and justice information network (UNCJIN) backed the US
government data. European council states a mind boggling number of 4 million women being trafficked into the Europe
in a single year. The organization for security and cooperation (OSCE) states that 50000 young Russian women are
trafficked for forced prostitution. On global level sexual exploitation has approximately 58% of the total reported cases
of human trafficking followed by forced labor which contributes to 36% of the total cases. Also the question that arises
every time is that, are prostitution and sexual exploitation same? Well some countries have legalized prostitution, which
comes with its own merits and demerits. In a study it was found that countries having legalized prostitution were more
prone to sexual exploitation as well but legalizing prostitution benefited the working conditions of prostitutes and other
legally employed in their industry.

As a result of human trafficking, victims suffer both mental and physical problems. Mental problems such as post-
traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression and Physical problems such as HUV, TB and STD. These activities possess a
serious challenge to humanity affecting millions of lives. Addressing this issue is the priority of government and
international agencies with agreements to bring policies and programs to eliminate trafficking in persons. Human
trafficking also violate the victim’s fundamental rights & freedom and national and international laws and traffickers
generate a huge amount of revenue through illegal means. Many articles, reporting and media coverage have been done
on trafficking, especially on sexual exploitation and child labor. However, the collection of comparable data, preparation
of meaningful statistics and compilation of reliable evidence on the basic dimensions and characteristics of human
trafficking becomes difficult. In addition to this there are uncountable cases of human trafficking that don’t even come
in notice to the authorities or cases are under reported to government authorities due to corrupt officers, human
trafficking in many cases include various foreign jurisdictions and violates a large number of laws related to different
government agencies like immigration, servitude, slavery, marriage, labor, health and medicine, child abuse, sexual
exploitation and prostitution. It is also known that the numbers of victims reported to the government authorities
represent a small fraction of what the actual numbers of people are trafficked. While the officially reported data on
human trafficking is limited, it cannot be used to attain a exact no of trafficked persons as they vary greatly in the
reporting coverage, the information that is available to us can be used as a indicative of the patterns, sectors, flows and
occurrences of human trafficking, as well as how the government authorities, police, prosecutors and courts are
responding to the human trafficking cases.

So who are these people called “Traffickers”? It has a variety of people involved from international criminal gangs, Fake
Employment agencies, and tours and travels agencies, local brothels, illicit massage parlors, night clubs, and bars. All
these agencies involve a number of middlemen, agents, pimps, kidnappers etc. There are several instances in history
also where human trafficking was practiced to bring in slave labor. To name a few, great pyramids of Egypt, massive
walls of city of Baghdad, not to forget the buildings of roman and Greek empires, and among the wonders of the world
TAJ MAHAL was also built by having slave labors. This practice of slavery was prominent in Colonial era also. British,
French, Dutch, Portuguese followed this practice. It took 85 years of civil war to abandon this practice of slavery.

So why are these people abducted and put in forced servitude? The answer for this question is forced military service,
organ harvesting and suicide bombings (approx. 1%). But the more heinous and dark reason is sexual exploitation
(approx. 80%) and labour exploitation (approx. 19%). Those placed in labour are generally employed at domestic work,
construction sites (18%), industrial labour (15%), and farm labour (11%), food services as waiters and dish washers
(10%), and begging (1%). Many victims of labour slavery are forced to provide sexual privileges also. As of 5 million who
are currently working as prostitutes over 50% are teenagers and children. The main reason for traffickers doing this is
due to worldwide demand for cheap and accommodating labour and for the high profits made by them from human
trafficking. Trafficked people are constant victims of exploitation and mistreatment, including debt bondage, physical
and mental torture, rape, threats and violence against them, their families and close ones. Also increasing human
smuggling is the major reason of illegal migration and increased cases of human marketing since the supply of migrants
willing to go foreign increases as to compare to the demand for migrants in immigrant receiving countries. Each and
every year countries continue to receive millions of immigrants whom they choose according to their requirements,
there are a lot numbers of potential immigrants many who don’t have enough access to resources and documents so
due to this they are not able to get legal immigration permissions and then only option left is getting immigration by
illegal means. Although there is a huge difference between human trafficking and human smuggling. Results of both on
victims are dangerous and degrading, however smuggling happens with the consent of the person being smuggled
whereas that is not the case in human trafficking, trafficked person are forced in this business against their will or they
are provided with false information and promises so that they agree initially. Smuggling is done majorly on transnational
level whereas trafficking is widely present at every level be it city, state, national or transnational level. In smuggling a
person being smuggled may or may not be exploited whereas in trafficking the person being trafficked face continuous
exploitation. Profits sources also vary in them, In smuggling profits are generally derived by not paying for transportation
and facilities in other country whereas in trafficking profits are majorly extracted by exploiting the trafficked person.

UNODC (United nations convention against transnational organized crime) which has made certain protocols to help
affected nations to PREVENT, PUNISH and SUPPRESS human trafficking.

CRIMINALIZATION PROTOCOLS BY UNODC ARE AS FOLLOWS:

The definition contained in article 3 of the Trafficking in Persons Protocol is meant to provide consistency and consensus
around the world on the phenomenon of trafficking in persons. Article 5 therefore requires that the conduct set out in
article 3 be criminalized in domestic legislation. Domestic legislation does not need to follow the language of the
Trafficking in Persons Protocol precisely, but should be adapted in accordance with domestic legal systems to give effect
to the concepts contained in the Protocol. “In addition to the criminalization of trafficking, the Trafficking in Persons
Protocol requires criminalization also of:

 Attempts to commit a trafficking offence.

 Organizing or directing others to commit trafficking.
 Participation as an accomplice in such an offence.

National legislation should adopt the broad definition of trafficking prescribed in the Protocol. The legislative definition
should be dynamic and flexible so as to empower the legislative framework to respond effectively to trafficking which:

 Occurs both across borders and within a country (not just cross-border)
 Is for a range of exploitative purposes (not just sexual exploitation)
 Victimizes children, women and men (Not just women, or adults, but also men and children)
 Takes place with or without the involvement of organized crime groups.

In addition to this in India the government has applied THE CRIMINAL LAW ACT 2013 from 3 February 2013 , as well as
Section 37- and 370A IPC that define human trafficking and provides precise punishment for human trafficking, sexual
exploitation, servitude, slavery or trafficking of their organs or any other kind of child exploitation. Also a Regional Task
Force that implements SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) traditional ways of prevention of
trafficking in Women and Children who in majority are victims to this. The Anti Human Trafficking Portal, a government
operated web portal was launched by Shri R.P.N. Singh, India's Minister of State for Home Affairs on 20 February 2014.
The official statement by the government stated the objective of the on-line resource that it is designed for the
transparent sharing of information across all stakeholders, States/Union Territory and civil society organizations for
effective and efficient implementation of Anti Human Trafficking measures." The portal was designed to serve basic
purposes such as to help in tracking of cases with interstate problems. Provide comprehensive and correct information
on laws, statistics, court judgements, Conventions of United Nations, details of trafficked people and traffickers and
their rescue success stories. To provide link to TRACKCHILD, that is the dedicated National Portal on Missing Children
that is completely operational in many states in India.

Moving towards our neighbouring countries of the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) they also face the
same problem of human trafficking and Indonesia tops the chart. The ACTIP (Asean convention of trafficking in person)
helped to fight human trafficking and also increased cooperation and coordination among the members. The United
Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) estimated that around 100000 children and women are
falling prey top trafficking every year. As per Indonesian police report in 2017 1451 victims were rescued. Still ACTIP has
not made the Impact which was expected.

ASEAN members had signed 5 different agreements to combat human trafficking as below:

 ASEAN declaration against trafficking in persons specially mentioning women and children – 2004
 ASEAN practitioners guidelines – 2007
 ASEAN Leader’s Joint Statement in Enhancing Cooperation against trafficking in persons – 2011
 ASEAN Convention in trafficking in persons – 2015
 ASEAN Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in person – 2017

CONSEQUENCES OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Human trafficking has been spreading its jaws over the past few years and cases have been increasing exponentially with
only limited success in preventing it. Trafficked victims face fear or threat from many things for example customers,
people to whom they are sold, brothel owners, traffickers, corrupt officials who are there for rescue and many more.
Due to living in such circumstances in which they are not even provided with basic necessities, no proper food or
clothing and above all this continuously being exploited and also they are not provided with proper living facility, all this
has a disastrous effect on them both in mental and physical health and can be effected with these problems even after
being rescued. In order to cope up with traumatic experiences, these trafficked victims also face discrimination in their
society or even in worst cases their families also makes them feel unworthy. Social exclusion, frustration for being
labelled by society and intolerance makes it difficult for trafficked victims to again gel up in the society or to even
meeting people they prefer staying alone. Therefore, one of the main aim of protection assistance being provided to
victims is that they get same amount of respect in their lives as they had before. Whereas, many governments, ngo and
large institutional donors offer good amount of funds to support them revive their normal lifestyle until they are
mentally and physically fit and can lead a normal life. Some victims are also forced to intake drugs, which can also lead
to many underlying health conditions and that can have long lasting impact on their health. In attempt to uplift these
victims in their society many organizations of China, Egypt, India and Mesopotamia as well as in Greek and Roman
empires, gave employment to trafficked victims so as they help them in developing their economy and expand their
name and power and in this both are benefited. Even after these measures for upliftment of these victims in our society
there are certain cases in which the damage is done beyond repair and in extreme cases victims are subjected to death.
HIV/AIDS and STD mainly due to sexual exploitation, which has mainly affected larger portion of women and girls
irrespective of their age and it has long lasting effects on their lives, in some cases this becomes incurable and in
extreme cases it even leads to death.

ECONOMIC IMPACTS
In 2018, profits generated globally from human trafficking were about US$150 billion for that year making it as one of
the most profitable transnational criminal activity. This is the main reason traffickers do this even after this being
punishable crime is the huge amount of profit they generate from this business. The following profit when divided in
various forms of trafficking are as follows: “$99 billion alone was from sexual exploitation of all gender, $34 billion from
illegal construction, manufacturing, mining, $9 billion in agriculture, including forestry and fishing; $8 billion is saved
annually by private households that employ domestic workers under conditions of forced labour. Although only 19% of
victims are trafficked for sexual exploitation, it makes up 66% of the global earnings of human trafficking. The average
annual profits generated by each woman in forced sexual servitude ($100,000) is estimated to be six times more than
the average profits generated by each trafficking victim worldwide ($21,800)’’

The sole purpose of traffickers is to generate a big amount of money by exploiting others and yet they want no legal
action to be taken against them. They even bribe many officials so that they can traffic humans without any hindrance.
Involvement of corrupt top officials who are assigned for prevention of human trafficking and punishing traffickers, but
in turn they are encouraging these activities.

CURRENT SCENARIO

If we see through the current scenario where attention of Center government, state government, police department and
media was mainly on the pandemic. This served as the best time for traffickers to their business on larger scale.
Although transnational human trafficking was not possible but it happened on a large scale within regional and state
level in form of sex exploitation and human organ trafficking majorly. As a result of this pandemic, there are huge job
losses and financial hardship and majorly for poor people and daily wage workers. This makes them more vulnerable to
become a victim human trafficking. As many migrant labourers returned to their hometowns they faced deprivation and
hunger after they reached their hometowns across several states. They will be forced into debt interest rates even for
their daily survival. This will trigger huge amount of them being prone to bondage and wage-less labour. Hundreds of
thousands of children will be pushed to slavery, sexual exploitation and organ trafficking. A trailer of which can be seen
with increased amount sexual harassment and illegal organ trafficking cases being registered and victims mainly
belonging to poorer and economically unstable section of our society. To prevent such cases in future concerned
governments should look through this problem and find solutions to curb it’s spread. Center and state governments
should build more anti-human-trafficking units (AHTU) and upgrade the infrastructure and functioning of the existing
ones so as they can the victims on time and prevent human trafficking in future. Regular steps should be taken to stop
this illegal business and prevent innocent people becoming victims to this.

Even after successful implementation of ACTIP in 2017 regional cooperation in law, victim protection and data sharing
Indonesia has failed to combat human trafficking. A report from government of United States still placed Indonesia at
potential high risk of human trafficking. Main reason for Indonesia in not successfully tackling this issue is corrupt police
and government officers. Post 2018 Indonesia has made some strict rules and passed several laws for eradicating human
trafficking. Also it made several revision to its already existing laws to strengthen them. They also renewed their national
action plan and assigned a task force to look into matters of human trafficking, health rehabilitation of victims, social
rehabilitation, immigrations and law enforcement.

Then there’s Thailand who was in tier 3 watch list of US government for human trafficking in 2013 moved to tier 2 in
2017 and within a year it moved to tier 1 where there is minimum risk of human trafficking. All this was possible because
Thailand wanted to eradicate human trafficking and their government was working tirelessly in this direction. They
adopted the 5C model to tackle this i.e. Community engagement, change agents, communications, collaboration and
continuity. Another major difference between Indonesia and Thailand was Indonesia followed ASEAN directives and
Thailand followed US directives and implemented those directives to the fullest.
REFERENCES
 Evans, S. T. (2020). Human Trafficking: Extreme Profitability Leading to Shocking Growth. Journal of Leadership,
Accountability & Ethics, 17(2), 104–108. https://doi.org/10.33423/jlae.v17i2.2871
 Vlachová, M. (2005). Trafficking in Humans: The Slavery of Our Age. Connections, 4(4), 1-16. Retrieved August
30, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/26323192
 http://www.jstor.com/stable/44214796
 http://www.jstor.com/stable/30048506