BY ZEKARIAS WOLDEMARIAM
Human trafficking is one of the most challenging socio-economic problems of our time in the world. It is among the alarming agenda of governments around the world as it is as such carried out in a form of organized crime.
Though human trafficking exists throughout the world, developing countries are the hardest hit as poor and desperate people are the most vulnerable targets. While government and non-governmental organizations have exerted due effort in the prevention of this activity, the problem still thrives to be a challenge.
Today’s Herald Guest is Julius Lutalo Kiyingi, Ugandan who is Regional Coordinator of an international NGO called Love Justice International. Headquartered in the US, LJI has presence in over 26 countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America as well. It is mainly engaged in fighting human trafficking, through a model called transit monitoring.
After studying undergraduate degree in International Law at University of Toronto, Kiyingi pursued master’s degree at University of Peace in Costa Rica. He is now LJI Regional Coordinator for East Africa and Malawi, based in Kampala, Uganda. The regional office has also been working in the prevention of trafficking in Ethiopia, through which, Kiyingi states that they have managed to expose traffickers and rescue victims in collaboration with stakeholders.
The Ethiopian Herald had a brief stay with Kiyingi to discuss about the effectiveness of transit monitoring of trafficking, the importance of awareness raising, sensitization and prosecution in fighting human trafficking. Enjoy reading!
Can you tell us about how severe is the problem of human trafficking in the developing world at the moment?
Human trafficking is one of the biggest vices of our modern day. Statistics show around 1.2 to 1.5 million people are trafficked each day. So, the work is there to be done. The money that comes out of human trafficking is in billions. And it also lays the foundation for other things such as Human smuggling, drug smuggling, drug trafficking. And so fighting this vice is really important. And of course, traffickers, target vulnerable people, women and children, especially.
Trafficking exposes itself in different ways. For instance, sex trafficking is one of the most predominant in Asia and Eastern Europe. You have internal trafficking through which young children are exploited. Let’s not forget human trafficking is bringing someone into slavery through means of deception and other forms.
How much do you think would taking legal measures be effective in the fight against trafficking?
Prosecution is important because it is a form of deterrent. There are countries where you find the human trafficking is not prosecuted, or is not understood. It’s a threat because traffickers know that well. Others turned a blind eye to it. So what government needs to do is to put a greater effort into combating it, they need to acknowledge its existence. Number one, they need to acknowledge its complications because human trafficking hides itself, in every industry. It means there are countries that do not even recognize that it exists.
I would not say countries don’t recognize it, because it’s a global human trafficking is a global issue. I mean, any country that’s particularly signatory to the UN Charter, United Nations they are aware of what human trafficking is. It’s spoken about at the General Assembly and other world gatherings and meetings, whether in the African Union or United Nations. But I think the biggest thing is just not understanding it. In some countries, the idea of trafficking is still new. In the laws, it’s still new.
First of all, as I said, it’s important to establish laws and have acts to put legal instruments into place that prosecute human trafficking. That’s the most important thing. You have to have laws to prevent it, and then working closely with NGOs, with civil society groups. To combat human trafficking is another way government can be at the forefront of it. And most importantly, acknowledging and understanding the dynamics of external trafficking, human beings that are trafficked outside the borders of Ethiopia, outside the country, outside the continent of Africa.
And then you have internal trafficking, whereby, victims are trafficked inside their own country, right from Northern Ethiopia to southern, east to west. So you have vulnerable communities, it’s not just an external issue, it’s an internal issue. And a lot of our governments, sadly enough will only look at the external aspect of it. And I think part of the reason is, we’ve made it so international, that when it happens within our country within our borders, we either say, No, it doesn’t happen. Or we say things like, “well, children are helping to bring food to the table in poor families”
And we can’t think like that, as a society. If we’re to combat this, we can think like that, this could be your child, who you’re living in the village. You tell them all, you deceive their parents “I’m going to take your child to school. They want to go to school, maybe when their vacation, they’re going to make more money, and would be sent back to them” And this doesn’t happen. The child never sees school. The child maybe never sees their parent, this is the reality of internal trafficking in Africa.
What kind of intervention are you applying to curb human trafficking?
Our work is to prevent before exploitation. We do not want to see exploitation has happened. And then because they were trying to prevent a child or a young adult going into an exploitative situation. And that is the work we do. We do it through transit monitoring, through sensitization within community. And so within communities and churches, we do it through capacity building, with police, immigration, other government ministries that are interested in the fight against human trafficking.
And also we try and do attend Mass sensitization. Sensitization is very hard to measure its impact. So that’s why it’s easy things like capacity building, we tend to be more favored, because there you are teaching someone the skills to combat something.
Can you tell us a bit detail about how you are applying transit monitoring as a method to prevent trafficking?
In transit monitoring we station our monitors, usually groups of two, three or four people at various strategic locations in Addis where trafficking might occur. These could be places like immigration, or cases like for bus terminals, taxi parks, places where an individual will transit. Remember, the act of trafficking begins somewhere. It begins with deception. The broker comes and lays and then the trafficker transports. That is where we are trying to intervene in the transportation phase, we cannot be there at the phase of disruption. But we can be there in the transportation phase and intercept the victim before they finally were saved.
In Ethiopia right now we’re running a pilot project, meaning we come in, we assess almost local ground assessment. Our team was able to intercept about over 100 potential victims of trafficking, able to educate them, able to repatriate them back to their homes and save them from potential form of enslavement.
What we do is we train them on how to identify someone who might be trafficked. We identify it based on years of research, years of experience. And we put it into a document. And this is a document that the monitors, the field managers base their assessments on. So we almost assess a potential victim. You can tell a potential victim, just by certain looks.
Someone traveling alone, someone traveling with someone who they don’t know, they don’t seem comfortable with someone who has arrived in Addis Ababa station, they have no luggage, they are looking confused. Those are the potential victims. And those are the ones that we sit down with interview. we have a practice interview process that helps us identify certain red flags. A passport is with a broker, the mobile phone was taken away by a broker. I suspect, sometimes we intercept someone, and they walk in with a suspect. So that’s how we approach our transit monitoring.
Has it ever garnered the desired outcome in countries where you applied it?
Absolutely. It’s shown to work; it’s proven to work in countries. It’s even led to arrests, countries like Uganda, you have this transit monitoring, border monitoring, we work closely with police. And we’ve heard it has led to arrest; it has led to cases being brought before the court of law. And that’s what we want to see. We want to see not only a potential victim saved, but a criminal case open. A case makes it to court and a conviction. Because once we complete that cycle, it’s a warning to other people that maybe let me find another line of business.
What are the challenges that you faced in conducting transit monitoring?
One of the challenges is the understanding of what we do. Another is the lack of understanding of human trafficking amongst the community amongst government institutions as well. That brings a challenge because now there are other priorities. We bring a case for a local police station, and they have other things to do and they’re not going to deal with this case. They found a young boy sometimes they dismiss it. you understand that these are not street children.
These are vulnerable people who if we do not help will end up in a slavery; they will end up in exploitation. So the challenges are lack of sensitization and community lack of Understanding at the government level and government institutions and also the victims themselves. The youth, who want to leave the country don’t understand, there is a good way to go about it. And there’s a wrong way to go about it. Not every broker is a trafficker. There are some brokers who just want money. They want to help you to your passport.
That’s it, they give you a passport, and you go wherever you want. But then there are some brokers, and this is the trick. Brokers are not going to look for people who are 28 or 29. No, they’re going to look for these young ones, these ones who they can forge identity documents for a 16 year old, who now is 18. And those are the ones that brokers or the traffickers will talk to the group and say “I want these young girls” And so the challenge is very big. But I hope that in time with sensitization engagement, community capacity building, that it will reduce the incidences of human trafficking.
As your organization is working in different African countries what do you think is the challenge that is exacerbating external trafficking?
One of the biggest challenges is the idea that a Ugandan will go to Kenya and make more money. So , then you already have your problem, your children, your people or your citizens are leaving the country and going to other countries, and being deceived, so I think the work that needs to be done for cross border trafficking is the capacity building. the capacity of Immigration and Border Police to identify, to find, to arrest and to prevent.
And sometimes, sadly, what can all too often happens is someone is trafficked into a country, and then they arrested on the other side of the border for things they can do through legal entry. So the capacity building is really the best way, the best approach that we’re going to have, in order to combat cross border, and international trafficking, you know, and even at the airports, you know, involving stakeholders like Ethiopian Airlines, the Civil Aviation Authority, Federal Police, immigration, if we give them the capacity to understand, I really like to believe in my years of experience, no one wants to see anyone trafficked. But it’s just that there’s not enough noise to make someone really prioritize. So you have to make web ad campaign, an Active Campaign.
Do you think the government’s have given due attention to it?
Every community faces issues that government knows how to address it. It’s not just for human trafficking property. In general, these needs to be addressed, where you have children who don’t finish school, you have children, you have generation of broken families, you have generations of communities that don’t care about the value of a child.
These are the issues that we have to tackle, the value of a child the rights of a child, because it all starts with our children, if we educate our children to understand that as they grow older, the dangers in this world that they need to understand that they need to face, you are going to have generation of children who are more educated more aware, and whom trafficker or broker cannot easily connive. But it starts with addressing poverty. Poverty will always be there. But the education is really one of the key factors. Educating our youth to understand that there are dangers out there, and we need to ensure that we do not use poverty as an excuse for a better life.
And the other thing is education. How much have you done on that duty? And what do you think governments and institutions should do in this regard?
Yes, as I said, it really comes down to how prevent trafficking is in a country and how the government wants to address it. Because if a government really does understand that trafficking is a problem, it just needs mass sensitization, mass educational campaigns, in schools, in churches, you know, on the radio or on the TV, the same efforts that our governments have put towards combating AIDS and other epidemics and other major issues. The same effort should be put into human trafficking, but sadly enough in a lot of the countries isn’t, and that’s why we find it is up to NGOs and civil society organizations to step in and fill this gap.
What do you think should governments do in the future to effectively curb human trafficking?
My advice to governments is to create legal instruments, legal policies that protect the citizen and ensure that when we’re signing memorandums of understanding with other countries that we’re taking into effect where we’re worried that we’re putting a human fence on our people as well. And sometimes I think that is forgotten. And that is why you have so many people going into the Middle East, through these memorandums of understanding.
And when they get there, their passports are confiscated and they have to work for two years. I mean, these are things that in our countries, you would not be allowed to do it. But because of your memorandum of understanding, it is okay. That’s a problem. And that’s something that we need to address, we need to look at ourselves as a country as government, to do what we can. And that’s the best that governments can do. And governments have the capacity to do it. They really do. I’ve seen government put an effort, but the effort is not important. Of course, government will say there are other issues pressing issue, which is true. But if you do not address human trafficking now, it’s going to become bigger.
Thank you very much for your time!
You’re most welcome
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SATURDAY 1 APRIL 2023
