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LIFE&FAMILY
168
November14
a United Nations protocol on trafficking
adopted in 2000, a Taskforce agency
spokesperson says, “We will also study
the feasibility of accession to the UN
Trafficking-in-Persons (TIP) Protocol.”
One key Taskforce priority is to work
with Singapore MP, Mr Christopher de
Souza, on a Private Member’s Bill on the
Prevention of Human Trafficking, which
was tabled in Parliament last month.
The Taskforce spokesperson says, “This
dedicated legislation aims to empower
agencies with the necessary powers
and levers to deal with TIP crimes more
effectively.”
In April, MP de Souza and the
taskforce opened the Bill to public
consultation. While welcoming the
drafting of the Bill, welfare and advocacy
groups including the Humanitarian
Organisation for Migration Economics
(HOME), Transit Worker Counts 2
(TWC2) and the Association of Women
for Action and Research (AWARE)
called for stronger protection of victims
in cases of deceptive recruitment,
exploitation of vulnerability and severe
maltreatment of workers, who may not
be adequately protected by the Bill.
Under our noses
In their role as advocates for women,
including migrant and trafficked
workers, AWARE defines trafficking as
any time any worker is brought across
borders and subjected to any of three
conditions: deceptive recruitment, debt
bondage and loss of liberty.
According to a spokesperson from
AWARE, foreign domestic workers (FDW)
are susceptible to debt bondage; they
must repay recruitment and agency fees
to their employer before they start earning
any money they can send home. “As
common as that is, they are effectively
working for free. It is classified as a
type of debt bondage. If they have the
misfortune to be sacked or cannot find a
new employer, they have to pay agency
fees again, and are indebted again.”
It is not uncommon for unscrupulous
employers to deduct the monthly
government levy out of their salary, while
some are in the habit of illegally docking
the pay of their FDWs if they take the
day off. AWARE points to protections
in place in Hong Kong, which include
a minimum wage, standard contracts
and no FDW levy. But advocates agree
The scale of the problem
• Trafficking is the second-
biggest illegal industry globally
after drugs.
• UNICEF estimates that 1.2
million children are trafficked
every year.
• In May 2014, the International
Labour Organization (ILO)
estimated that illegal profits
from the use of forced labour in
the private economy worldwide
amount to US$150.2 billion
per year.
• In Asia, profits are estimated to
be highest of all, at $51.8 billion
annually.
• More than 20 million people,
a conservative estimate, are
victims of human trafficking (US
State Department).
• The ILO estimates that 68
percent of these people are held
in forced labour exploitation,
22 percent in forced sexual
exploitation and 10 percent in
state-imposed forced labour.
• Globally, 56 percent of trafficked
persons areenslaved ina country
other than their own; 29 percent
are enslaved in the area where
they normally reside; and 15
percent are enslaved elsewhere
within their own country (Global
Freedom Centre).
that campaigning can have results; the
mandatory day off, legislated by the
Singapore Government in 2013, was a
win for FDWs and their right to a weekly
day of rest.
When an employer or agent holds an
FDW’s passport in their own possession,
this amounts to a loss of liberty. “They
end up as disenfranchised people
who can’t leave,” says an AWARE
spokesperson. “It’s common in the sex
industry here. Women are recruited in
Thailand and arrive with a big debt –
money which they are told has been
used to cover airfares, accommodation
and visas, but which is usually a very
inflated figure. They are coerced into