12 January
By Naing Ye Win
TODAY, human trafficking has become the most important and challenging issue after violence and drug trafficking. Countries around the world are implementing anti-trafficking initiatives individually and unilaterally. Myanmar has also reached to a certain point in anti-trafficking actions enthusiastically within regionally and internationally. Myanmar has taken human trafficking issue as national mandate and implementing measures for protecting people against human trafficking since 1997. Human trafficking which links with a whole mankind is more than just a crime against person, it’s also an exploitation as human trading and violation of human rights where each case is full of complications. Therefore, this could not be solved solely at the case but needs to take up broader aspects to tackle the issue.
Human trafficking is thought to be one of the fastest-growing crimes and the worst violation of human rights around the world, thus, no country is tolerating this and countries have been fighting against human trafficking in many ways and working in a combined manner Under UN Charter’s Article (1) and Article (3), it is stated that human rights are to be respected and it is every country and its citizen’s obligation to fight against human trafficking, which is contradictory with Universal Declaration of Human Rights – UDHR on 10 December 1948.
Myanmar becomes one of the members of Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, TIP Protocol and SOM Protocol adopted by the United Nations in the year 2000 in Palermo, Italy. On 13 September 2005, Law on prevention of human trafficking was enacted. Union Minister for Ministry of Home Affairs has founded a committee to prevent human trafficking and taken a lead role as Chairman to fight these crimes enthusiastically. Similarly, committees on the fight against trafficking in human beings were formed in regions/states, district/ townships and community-based human trafficking monitoring groups were organized to carry out these missions.
In addition to this, Myanmar was a member of Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative against Human Trafficking (COMMIT) in Mekong region in 2004 and was a host of 2nd Senior Officials meeting and 1st Inter-Ministerial Meeting in 2004, 7th Senior Official meeting in 2010, 12th Inter-Ministerial Meeting in 2017. Formal diplomatic notes on anti-human trafficking has been signed with neighboring countries such as Thailand and China and together have been coordinating actions against human trafficking along the border. Myanmar-Thai diplomatic notes on anti-trafficking were signed on 24 April 2009 and the notes were re-evaluated. Myanmar is also an active member of ASEAN Convention against Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children – ACTIP). Standard Operation Procedure was signed between Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement in Myanmar and Ministry of Social Development and Human Security in Thailand for repatriation, social re-inclusive and rehabilitations of the victims of human trafficking.
The law enacted upon human trafficking in 2005 is being revised to bring into line with present circumstances and efforts are made to be confirmed in Hluttaw. In order to have more effective actions against human trafficking, booklets of guidelines for government lawyers, coordination guideline booklets for anti-trafficking police and local police officers, booklets of procedures for anti-trafficking police officers, booklets of coordinated prosecution guideline for local police officers and law enforcement officers, planning of internationally recognized social re-inclusion and rehabilitation, proactive implementation of prevention measurements and more effective judgment programs are being carried out.
Furthermore after taking legal actions against offender, it is also important to balance the social re-inclusion of the victims. So as to tackle human trafficking crimes, campaign to enhance awareness and educational programmes have been conducting across towns, villages and schools. Hotline numbers are established and short messages or texts can be sent via telecommunication network which is being beneficial to anti-trafficking actions.
Statistics observed over human trafficking in Myanmar showed that there are five categories for human trafficking -- forced labor, forced marriage, sex exploitation, forced adoption and debt bondage – and that there are five kinds of human trafficking -- forced labor, forced marriage, sexual exploitation, forced adoption, and debt bondage – and a new form of human trafficking discovered in 2018 -- commercial surrogacy. After enacting human trafficking law in 2005, a total of 1609 human trafficking case and 4556 exploiters were persecuted and estimated 3850 victims were being prevented from being trafficked. Myanmar like any other developing countries in the world, faces rare job opportunities, minimum earned wages and natural disasters which results in local and international migration which in turns supports trafficking to continue. At the same time, the fact that victims misjudging exploiters as benefactor and unwilling to cooperate in anti-trafficking also gives exploiters a good chance to take advantage. That’s why it is important to penetrate the unforeseen strings attached from the era’s policy is also one of the fact to consider in anti-trafficking sectors.
Finally, in line with the motto “Fight against human trafficking for humanitarian purpose”, we need to commit to combat human trafficking as our social obligation while cooperating hand to hand with international community to build equitable and secure human society. (Transtated by HYME)
