WeeklySA_AdminTREND: Fast-growing crime reveals men and boys accounted for 40 percent of all identified victims of the scourge…
By Monk Nkomo
Teenage boys have been identified as the fastest – growing segment of human trafficking victims worldwide amid the latest shocking revelation that the percentage of boys identified as casualties of this serious crime had increased fivefold between 2004 and 2020.
The latest report on human trafficking released by the United States Secretary of State , Antony Blinken, has also revealed that although males, including men and boys, accounted for forty percent of all identified victims of human trafficking, law enforcement authorities did not perceive them as victims of human trafficking. Women constituted about forty-two percent to twenty-three percent of the victims. The percentage of boys and girls trafficking victims was 17 and 18 percent respectively.
The problem of the growing number of teenage boys becoming targets of trafficking was also compounded by the severe shortage of programmes worldwide to focus on the needs of male victims of trafficking. The vast majority of countries either had inadequate assistance available or lacked services specifically for male victims.
According to the report, the growing awareness of boys being exploited in human trafficking is fairly recent. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has noted that while male trafficking victims were receiving more attention than in years past, ‘’ social and health services as well as legal and advocacy frameworks still predominantly focused on female victims of sexual exploitation’’. The widely held societal belief – as prevalent among policymakers as among the public – that males were perpetrators, not victims, was a significant part of the problem.
‘’ Media and civil society groups alike consistently refer to boys and adolescent male human trafficking victims as unseen, unhelped, a silenced minority, invisible and secret victims. Many cultures cling to traditional views of masculinity and feminity that highlight female vulnerability and male dominance, while failing to contemplate male vulnerability. In short, gender norms and masculine stereotypes hinder identification of male trafficking victims’’, according to the UNODC.
This false perception played out in several ways that were damaging to boys and men who had experienced trafficking. The report also revealed that too often, law enforcement and other authorities did not perceive boys and men as victims.
The United States Department of Justice has however cautioned that there was often a presumption that human trafficking victims were female. This false assumption impeded proper screening and protection for male victims of human trafficking. There was a false perception that male victims were only exploited for labour or that their involvement in commercial sex was always voluntary.
When male survivors of trafficking escaped from their captors, the report noted, they were more likely to be neglected by governments and were at a greater risk of being detained for irregular migration status or arrested for crimes they had committed as a result of being trafficked.
In his personal message, Blinken said every year millions of people were exploited within and across borders. They are forced to work in factories for little or no pay; harvest crops; toil in terrible conditions in mines, construction sites and fishing boats or work in private homes. Many are exploited for commercial sex.
‘’Human trafficking is an affront to our foundational values – that everyone is created equal and has the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It erodes our communities, weakens the rule of law and undermines our national security.’’
According to the latest Trafficking in Persons Report, boys or men who were victims of human trafficking were also less likely than girls or women to self-identify. Research had shown that males were less likely than females to self-identfy as victims of human trafficking, a fact rooted in stereotypical gender roles in which males are supposed to be strong.
’’ Male victims are more likely to view their situation as due to bad luck or even their own gullibility , rather than due to being exploited. Male victims of sex trafficking also may be reluctant to self-identify if they believe they will face a significant risk of stigma. They face multiple societal barriers to self- identifying as trafficking victims, including stigma associated with LGBTQI + status or same-sex conduct, as well as the taboo nature of discussions around sexual violence against males.’’
The report found that evidence at hand had suggested that there were few trafficking-related resources tailored for the needs of male victims. The Human Trafficking Institute reviewed 150 organizations receiving USA federal trafficking – related grants in 2018. Of the total 119 organizations addressing both labour and sex trafficking, only one had a dedicated programme for male victims. The other 31 organizations that only focused on sex trafficking, did not have a programme that solely focused on the needs of male victims.
‘’ Around the globe, including in the United States, there is a severe shortage of programmes to meet the needs of male victims of trafficking’’.
Blinken said tackling a global problem like trafficking required a global coalition that cut across government, business and civil society. He was proud of the progress they had made in the fight against human trafficking although there was more work to be done.
‘’We will continue to improve and adapt our efforts to combat this crime and build stronger partnerships with governments, businesses, survivor leaders and NGOs. We will ensure survivors of trafficking have access to the services they need to rebuild their lives.
By sharing resources and information, we can better equip front-line stakeholders to track and respond to evolving trafficking trends. And by leveraging technology, we can better address the nexus between finance and human trafficking and better detect online exploitation. Together, we can make human trafficking a relic of the past.’’
