Human trafficking

Human Trafficking in Myanmar
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Human Trafficking in Myanmar: A specific focus on Labour Exploitation among the People of Myanmar.
Abstract
Human Trafficking is the modest form of slavery in the society today, and they are of various types. However, more studies have concentrated on Sexual exploitation among women resulting from the transnational sale of people leaving a majority of the population not enlightened and vulnerable to other forms of trafficking. Very few research has been done to demonstrate or give reasons for the vulnerability of some part of the world’s population to human trafficking than the rest of the world’s population. Some of the susceptibility is due to behaviors, practices and attitudes of the communities, while some of the factors breeding Human Trafficking arise within the government due to the various forms of government corruption networks built by the transnational criminal syndicates to enable them to perpetrate these serious crimes against Humanity. The research topic focuses on labor exploitation among the marginalized communities living in Myanmar resulting from human trafficking. The general objective of the research is to explain the factors that enhance Human Trafficking in Myanmar. The study also aims; to establish the number of Human Trafficking victims in Myanmar, to investigate the cultural, economic, social and political factors making the people of Myanmar more susceptible to Human Trafficking, and to identify the role of the Myanmar government regarding the vulnerability of the people of Myanmar to Human Trafficking.

Human Trafficking in Myanmar: A specific focus on Labour Exploitation among the People of Myanmar.
Introduction
Myanmar is a nation located in the south-east of Asia, and it borders Thailand, China, Laos, India, and Bangladesh. Its location makes it a source for people being trafficked. The United Nations defines Human Trafficking as “the illegal act of recruiting, transporting, transferring, harboring or receiving people using illegal methods like abduction, coercion, fraud, or force for involuntary servitude,” which normally includes sexual exploitation or forced labor. Human trafficking is similar to Human smuggling. However, human smuggling is a different crime in that the person being smuggled gives the consent to be normally smuggled by paying a significant amount of money to be moved across international borders. Human smuggling only becomes human trafficking on the introduction of coercion or force. Human trafficking is the modern-day form of slavery, and it is a threat to each single person or relatives in any nation in the world. It is a gross violation of human rights and denies millions of men, women, and young children freedom. Myanmar is among countries affected most by Human trafficking; Human Trafficking it Myanmar enhances community and family breakdown, increases organized crimes, denies many countries their Human Capital, imposes massive economic costs, gives the leeway for subversion and extortion of several government officials, and undermines public health. Human Trafficking is a hidden crime that in the recent years attracted interest from advocates of Human Rights and Law enforcement units, and policy makers. The Research will cover Human Trafficking within Myanmar and across its borders. Furthermore, the study will explain the extent of human trafficking vulnerability faced by the people of Myanmar elaborating the specific number of reported victims and the response of the national government of Myanmar to Trafficking of its people; the legal, international, and labor policies directed towards labor exploitation through Human Trafficking.
Review of Literature
Human Trafficking is ranked among the most profitable illegal transnational business today. The sale of people is worth several billion dollar industries and is approximated to contribute to be worth $7-$12 billion, ranking third after the drug trafficking and smuggling of arms as the most profitable illegal transnational business. Human trafficking is increasingly becoming a topic of interest within several governments distributed all over the world, information relating to the magnitude of this crime against humanity is still very limited. Several research bodies and agencies have been given the mandate to investigate and combat Human Trafficking. The agencies responsible for fighting human trafficking have not been able to come up with solid data about the problem. These agencies do not conduct a systematic collection and analysis of data that would enable them to identify whether their operations promotes the intended effect of reducing and preventing Human Trafficking, punishing offenders and protecting victims of Human Trafficking. Human Trafficking ranks among the most deplorable crimes of the 21st century. The exploitation of people including moving people from Africa to America in the 18th century has a long history in the US. Even though slavery was illegalized in the US in 1865, the activity of selling and exploiting human beings against their will is still ongoing. The United States is among the top five nations where illegal sale of human beings for sexual or labor purposes still occurs. In 2000, legislation was enacted to curb Human Trafficking. The law “Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000” prohibits both sex and labor exploitation (“Human Trafficking – Criminal Justice – IResearchNet,” n.d.).
Sex Trafficking involves the transportation, harboring, transportation, provision and recruitment of a human being for commercial sex activities induced forcefully, fraudulently, or through coercion; illegal commercial sex also involves forceful illegal prostitution on individuals aged below 18. Labor trafficking is the transportation, harboring, provision, transportation, and recruitment of people for forceful, fraudulent, or coerced labor services, involuntary subjection to servitude, debt bondage, peonage, or slavery. Sex trafficking involves forced prostitution of women, men, or children while labor trafficking includes scenarios where women, men, or children are forcefully induced into servitude in any occupation type like restaurant work, domestic service, factory work or sweatshop, janitorial work, and agricultural work. Therefore, human trafficking is the selling of human beings into enslavement, the buying and selling can happen for multiple numbers of times before victims are forced into servitude (Data And Research On Human Trafficking: A Global Survey, 2005).
Myanmar is a country enriched with resources and combated with pervasive government policies and control, rural poverty, and ineffective economic policies. Despite the increase in gas and oil revenue, the socio-economic conditions are detrimental to human rights mainly due to economic mismanagement by the political regime. Myanmar is a Human Trafficking source country for several men, children, and women. The main purposes of trafficking these people are for commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor. Most people are trafficked from Myanmar to China, Thailand, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, South Korea, India, and Malaysia for sexual exploitation commercially, forced labor, and domestic servitude. They move abroad for better economic opportunities and end up in circumstances of bonded or forced labor, or being forced into commercial sex workers.
The Kachin Women’s Association of Thailand (KWAT) reported that; Economic poverty and hardship has driven several Myanmar women in their youths, especially those in ethnic minority regions, to be preyed on easily into Human Trafficking. Several women coming from North of Myanmar; in a state called Kachin several women in their youth including children are sold to Chinese men, and are forcibly married to them or use them for household slavery. The report titled ‘Eastward Bound’ that was carried out through interviewing 163 victims of human trafficking in the period between 2004-2007. The report indicated that up to 37% of the women being trafficked found themselves as wives of Chinese men, on the other hand, close to 4% became housemaids or went into prostitution (Phanida, 2008).
An exiled Myanmar rights group claimed that; the extent of Economic instability in Myanmar is forcing many children from the country to begging, hard labor, and commercial sex. Furthermore, the effect of children trafficking has hugely impacted on the education of children of Myanmar immigrants. Therefore forcing children to work in factories as slaves in sweatshops, factories and prostitution. According to Education groups of immigrants in Myanmar, a majority of the children below 18yrs have ended up as street beggars or prostitutes instead of going to school, says the chairman of Burmese Migrant Women Education Committee (BMWEC) (Naing, 2007).
The Myanmar people are an example of repression or poverty at home and then the susceptibility in South East Asia. With a cruel political environment, severe poverty, and the possibility of being forced into labor in their countries of origin; many Myanmar people are in exile. Some of these immigrants like women and girls from ethnic minorities in Myanmar; who are also the most vulnerable. Cases of Rape are many in areas of Karen, Shan, Chin, Burma, Mon among other ethnic minority girls face a daily fear of being violated sexually by militants oppressing them. After doing their best to escape from the bondage in Myanmar, these young women, men, and children fall prey to Human Traffickers and employers who are exploitative. They make their way into prostitution or into sectors that are risk prone to Traffickers in the neighboring countries. After Escaping from being enslaved at home; these refugees face extreme forms of exploitation in the bordering countries; these migrants and refugees including men, children and women are mostly dehumanized ( Lagon, 2007).
Worldwide, an approximated 4 million individuals are Human Trafficking victims each year. Research on the regional distribution of Human Trafficking indicated that; Europe has the highest number of Trafficking cases at 44%, Asia-Pacific 35%, Africa 13%, America 7%, and the Middle East has the least percentage of all the number of cases at 1%. The US state Department estimates that about 600,000-800,000 individuals are trafficked into the US each year. The scope and size of this illegal transnational sale of people are almost impossible to approximate. It is a criminal activity that remains hidden law enforcement authorities. Therefore researchers, take the stand that the number of victims estimated through research and studies is less than the actual figure. However, the information gained on Human Trafficking in several parts of the world is enough to confirm that women, men, and children become vulnerable Human Trafficking victims daily. There are many reasons why Human Trafficking thrives in such a civilized society, and they include; political and economic instability, extreme poverty among most people, and deprived societies including the population of Myanmar who is also among the most affected people. (Data and research on human trafficking: A global survey, 2005)
Scope of the study
The current empirical study has several weaknesses and gaps on Huma Trafficking; they focus more on women trafficking for sexual exploitation with less focus on servitude in Myanmar, there are also no empirical research studies done on labor exploitation of people trafficked from Myanmar. The existing empirical research also does not contain the opinion of direct victims of humans trafficking in Myanmar, and most of the current studies are conducted over a short period with small, inadequate samples of human Trafficking victims in Myanmar. These limitations raise the questions on the extent of Human Trafficking activities in Myanmar, and this research proposal will put more emphasis on the number of labor exploitation victims in Myanmar including, children, young women, and men. The research will also identify the reasons why people living in Myanmar are more exposed to labor exploitations resulting from human trafficking and the responsibilities and roles that the Myanmar government is taking regarding these Human Trafficking activities within and outside Myanmar that lead to labor exploitations.
Research Questions
Based on the scope of current research, this proposal aims at filling the research gaps presented by the scope of current study by answering the following research questions on human trafficking in Myanmar.
i. How many people are victims of Human Trafficking in Myanmar?
ii. Why are People living in Myanmar more susceptible to Human Trafficking?
iii. How has the government of Myanmar reacted to Human Trafficking? Research Methods
Research Methodology
Data Collection
The study will collect data by interviewing victims of labor exploitation due to human trafficking from Myanmar, convicts of crimes against human trafficking from Myanmar both imprisoned and those still in trial. Interviews will also be done on the government officials working in anti-trafficking agencies and various heads of non-governmental organizations devoted to helping human trafficking victims in Myanmar. An open-ended questionnaire to be administered during the interview will be drafted and will have three sections touching firstly on population demographics (age, sex, and number ) of human trafficking victims in Myanmar. Secondly, factors causing vulnerability of the people of Myanmar; and finally the roles and responsibility of the government of Myanmar in human trafficking activities. The interviews will be carried out through the telephone. The questionnaire will have questions on the number of victims each interviewee has encountered; the respondents will be grouped into victims, government officials, workers in NGOs, and convicts who will be divided into those in jail and those facing trial. The data collected and grouped according to the various categories of respondents.
The questionnaire will also include structured questions on factors that make the people of Myanmar more susceptible to human trafficking; this data will be collected and coded according to the structure of these questions. Finally, the questionnaire will also include questions on the involvement of government in human trafficking activities in Myanmar. All these questions will be administered to all respondents through telephone interviews and filling of questionnaires where applicable. All the data collected and recorded will be compared with studies done by other researchers on human trafficking in Myanmar to test their credibility. The research will also collect secondary data on the number of labor exploitation victims, the factors making Myanmar vulnerable to human trafficking, and the actions of the government. Part of the secondary data will be obtained by reviewing government publications, journals and research done by other researchers. Finally, the collection of secondary data will include a review of video interview conducted by the media on human trafficking victims including documentaries; this will help during the structuring of the research questionnaires.
Research Design
The general research approach employed in this research is exploratory research design. A total of 50 people will be interviewed, and they will be divided into groups of 25 victims and 10 convicts of which 5 will be in prison, and the other 5 will be convicts still in trial for human trafficking crimes. Furthermore, 10 workers from non-governmental organizations involved in human trafficking issues and 5 government officials involved in human trafficking will also be interviewed. The independent variable in this study will be labor exploitation as a result of human trafficking. There will be three variable conditions regarding human trafficking; they’ll include the number of victims, the factors that make Myanmar more vulnerable to labor exploitation resulting from human trafficking, and the influence of involvement of Myanmar government in labor exploitation. The results will be computed based on the response from the four groups (victims, convicts, employees from government and NGOs involved in human trafficking). The research will take a case study approach focusing on labor exploitation cases resulting from Human Trafficking within and outside Myanmar.
Sampling Techniques
The targeted population in this research will be victims of labor exploration, convicts facing trial and those jailed for human trafficking cases, employees from NGOs and the government of Myanmar involved in human trafficking cases. A random method of selection will be used to select study population; the study will also specifically target senior employees working in five non-governmental organizations and government institutions involved in human trafficking. The study population from these groups will be selected based on convenience of interview schedules in cases where senior management will not be available. The study population will be selected irrespective of race, gender, and ethnicity. The research subjects will be analyzed to verify if they represent the sample groups.
Data Analysis
The information collected will be grouped, edited, and analyzed to establish how labor exploration is influenced by the various factors. The data collected will be grouped into three groups according to the three sections of the questionnaire separated by the categories of respondents. The grouped data will be analyzed using a descriptive technique of analyzing data will be used to analyze the data. The data will be presented using tables, pie charts, and graphs to diagrammatically show the estimated number of people trafficked and enhance reader’s understanding of the research results. The information gathered on government responses will also be critically analyzed and maps drawn to present the different regions in Myanmar that are most affected and the main reasons why these areas are more vulnerable to human Trafficking. (Kothari 1-55).
Conclusion
The research is on Human Trafficking; a case of labor exploitation among the people of Myanmar. The research data is collected through interviewing of human trafficking convicts and victims to establish the approximate number of human trafficking victims. Moreover, data is also collected among employees from non-governmental organizations and government institutions to come up with the ways in which government is involved in human trafficking activities. The research will explore labor exploitation resulting from human trafficking in Myanmar. The research topic is very crucial for the establishment of methods that should be used to reduce the rate of transnational sale of people. The topic will also highlight the various testimonies of the groups of people who experience human trafficking first hand. The research is instrumental in describing the labor exploration demographics resulting from human trafficking in Myanmar and the destination countries around Myanmar.
References
Data and research on human trafficking: A global survey. (2005) (1st ed., pp. 7-20). 17 route des Morillons 1211 Geneva 19 Switzerland. Retrieved from http://publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/global_survey.pdfHuman Trafficking – Criminal Justice – IResearchNet. Criminal Justice. Retrieved 13 November 2016, from http://criminal-justice.iresearchnet.com/crime/human-trafficking/Kothari, C. (2003). Research Methodology: Methods and Techniques. (2nd ed., pp. 1-55). New Delhi: New Age International (P) Limited, Publishers. Retrieved from http://www2.hcmuaf.edu.vn/data/quoctuan/Research%20Methodology%20-%20Methods%20and%20Techniques%202004.pdf
Mark P. Lagon, Director, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, U.S. Dept of State, Remarks at the Freedom House-SAIS “Human Trafficking and Freedom” Event, Washington DC, December 3, 2007
2001-2009.state.gov/g/tip/rls/rm/07/96171.htm Saw Yan Naing, The Irrawaddy, December 18, 2007, www2.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=9627
Phanida, Mizzima News, Mai, 05 August 2008 reliefweb.int/report/myanmar/myanmar-kwat-women-enslaved-due-economic-hardships