Moral Aspects of Migration and Human trafficking

Sarwar Kamal ⃰

Migration and human trafficking have become the issues of global concern in this age of globalization. So complicated have become the issues of human trafficking and refugees that neither the countries nor any international organizations succeeded to develop a framework to tackle the problems in comprehensive manner. Divergence of different sections in domestic laws coupled with poorly defined international laws is blamed for a chaotic situation, so, experts are opting for convergence of laws in a legal framework. It is yet to see the light of hope, for it is political will that precedes legal solution. Though different reasons exist behind different kinds of migration, a common approach is used as a panacea to all forms of migration crisis. Such a deductive line of reasoning dominates every sphere of decision making process. Migration, in a broader sense, is of two kinds, economic and non-economic. Refugee problem is of non economic kind while human trafficking can be set in the fault line of overlapping migration crisis. Refugee problem arises when displacement of peoples occur, due to war, ethnic cleansing, war against terrorism, internecine ethnic conflicts, climate change induced disaster, ill conceived development projects, corporate driven global governance, surrogated terrorism by warmongering hawks etc. Recent phenomena of Burmese ( so called Rohingya ) refugee and floating peoples of both Myanmar (Burma) and Bangladesh origin, drifting and stranded for weeks in the sea have caused severe irritation for the agents of global conscience who look towards everything through the lens of humanism and remain busy with humanitarian issues around the globe. Concurrently discovery of mass graves and recovery of human skeletons from the underneath push a heavy jolt to the world community and rendered shrill to the peoples of Bangladesh. Still there fall short of reasons why reluctance is shown, persistently by the Government of Myanmar to recognize its own countrymen as citizens. Thailand, where the crux of the fulcrum of human trafficking network remains and goons get estuary into, found reluctant to welcome dying victims on boats at its bay. It was Malaysia, the main beneficiary and user of trafficked labour force at the cost of water, to operate its growth engine, showed negligence to the issue, for which it can’t purge its own liability. Even Bangladesh, a nation state that got birth through bloody battle, enduring pain of both influx and exodus of millions of refugees, two times in its history, first in 1947 and next in 1971, failed to feel sufferings of new age refugees. Every episode of the events appeared to be thrilling exposition of plights of the vulnerable peoples, epitome of human miseries, which consequently turned into the albatross in the neck of aforesaid states. Certainly, it will take many years to get rid of the curse, for their negligence, callousness and apathy to the crisis made the situation worse to the worst.

Though belatedly, a conditional overture is observed to give shelter to starved victims, yet moot point of the problem is overlooked[1]. That overture is tangled in domestic laws, regional politics and hardly compatible with each other, so, consequently proved to be abortive as a whole. Here lies the issue of moral concern. Is it right approach to tackle the humanitarian issue? Should we wait for a politico-legal solution while thousands of peoples are about to die and more than that already persecuted and died in the hand of transnational goons, constituted with nexus of sate and non-state actors? Is it justified to eliminate minority group through persecution, depriving them of political rights, citizen’s rights and human rights? Why do we ignore moral aspects when every form of rights and laws cannot be justified apart from moral ground? It is a humble effort to contextualize the crisis of migration, refugees and human trafficking from moral perspective.

It would be better to proceed with a cursory view of overall migration problem. In so doing, I would like to portray burning issues of migration, refugee crisis and of human trafficking.  Human migration is a common phenomenon in the era of globalization. It’s quite instinctive for human being to move for their foods, shelter, security, resources and livelihood. Though they tend to migrate frequently to different corners of the globe, it’s not proved to be blessing conclusively. It has its own folly and curse. Yet migration is taking place at accelerated rate, we may mention from human being to goods, capital, labour, technology to birds and animal in this row. Different kinds of migration are taking place, depending on mode of flow, fleeing and follies while different degrees of sufferings they incur depending on modality of how the problems are addressed, prioritized and tackled. If anything is free in this capitalist world, it is nothing but capital. To support and facilitate capital flow, cheap labour is of huge demand around the world. Bangladesh is a labour surplus country, so she can supply, at least, cheap labour[2]. That our remittance inflow curve is on constant rise is obvious end product of this opportunity of labour migration. Contrarily Bangladesh is still lagging behind due to brain drain, for sterile academia in Bangladesh can do anything but knowledge production and invention of technologies. It’s like two sides of the same coin; we take pride in cheap labour while we are ashamed of labour trap, in the sense, that we are tagged as a labour supplying nation not labour user.

Many workers from Bangladesh migrate to different corners of the world, mainly in search of work. There are pull and push factors behind labour migration. Pull factors are consisted of different global economic and non-economic phenomena, like work opportunity in labour intensive manufacturing operation in industrial countries, job opportunity in service sectors where work force is very few in comparison to demand for services and goods, higher salary, better life, comfort, developed technology, security etc. Contrarily push factors are those for which they tend to flee their country of origin, those are unemployment, poverty, insecurity, corruption, under paid jobs, political harassment, war, ethnic conflict, cultural segregation, communalism, ill conceived development projects etc. Migration from Bangladesh shows different trends. To say broadly, two categories of migration and two categories of trafficking are traced in Bangladesh. Of these, high-skilled labourers migrate to developed country like USA or EU while under skilled or unskilled labourers migrates to Middle East and Malaysia. Here Problems are of different kinds as they face in US/ EU and in the Middle East, high skilled migrants who go to western world are called careerists, they want to develop their career and settle there for better life, equipped with better amenities, opportunities and services. Those unskilled workers who go to Middle East and Eastern Asia have a single motto of adding to family income, enduring curse of transnational split family they return home when they find that they have enough capital to repay their loan and can do something of their own in the country. In US or EU migrants face racism, cultural discrimination, identity crisis and Islamophobia etc. In post-secular society skilled migrants don’t get space as expected previously in secular and multicultural society. Still they are provided with better amenities than those who migrate to Middle East and Eastern Asia. In the Middle East, economic migration happens on contractual basis, for a particular duration. Those unskilled workers, who migrate there, send huge of foreign remittance with bad news. Most of them suffer inhuman treatment abroad. They are quite neglected of their human rights. Female workers are of the worst sufferers of brute punishment and sexual harassment. Major part of the peoples doesn't get due salary, benefits and dignity abroad. They are deprived of their rights both from their host country and their country of origin. In the host country they are deprived of every kind of rights, of getting due salary, foods, habitation, medical services, recreation, family association etc. while in the country of origin they are considered to be outcast. In spite of their remittance, assets, capital investment they are deprived of social integration, social leadership and political rights. They are in danger abroad and so in homeland. They die there untreated and the corpses are unwelcome at home. So, emigrants face two edge swords. They face negligence from the host country and face shrinking space at home. They are migrant workers who build the host country, against whose sweat and pain a developed country run its wheel of the progress. It is labour of us which is often undervalued though the workers add value to their products, services and build their shining infrastructure. Extreme form of exploitation of surplus labour is vividly perceived, yet none is there to oversee the facts. Gross violation of domestic laws and international laws, often draws our attention but right of the migrant labourer has not been ensured yet. This kind of undermining of human right is quite inhuman and morally wrong, so, should be considered as a crime against humanity.   

 As mentioned earlier, refugees originate from non-economic migration and forced migration or displacement. Refugees are of different kinds, such as climate refugee, war refugee, refugee from ethnic cleansing exodus, development refugee, politically induced refugee etc. Every type of refugee has its own genesis, causes, sufferings and destinations. You say any kinds of refugee you may find it in Bangladesh, whether in historical past or in current age. The most persecuted ethnic group in the world, who are of Burmese origin, popularly known as “Rohingya”, comes first when we contemplate on refugee issue. Refugees didn't become what they are, by choice; rather they are forced and compelled to flee from their home. They are not suffering for their own sins. Their suffering is quite unjustified on moral ground. Even moral sentiment of human being and moral postulates become questionable for divergence of crime and sufferings. There is an international organization to look after refugees, namely UNHCR but it can’t settle the problem unless involving countries reach in an agreement as to how refugees would be repatriated. Sometimes, lives of bulk of the refugees depend on the sheer whims of the autocrats or hate-mongering, racist peers. Now a day, Asia is a home to huge of refugees, from Burmese refugees to Afghan refugees to Syrian and Iraqi refugees. What refugees suffer are for collective crime, for which we all are liable.      

 Human trafficking is a kind of migration where human beings are deceived, forced or hijacked by a clandestine ring of gangs and subsequently sole, killed or freed against ransom in different country. The notion of human trafficking is best expressed in UN protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish trafficking in persons, especially women and Children, 2000. 

Trafficking in persons shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor, or services, slavery, servitude, or the removal of organs.[3]    

     

 It is no doubt a transnational organized crime. Trafficking of sex workers especially girls is an age old phenomenon. Main destinations of and route to human trafficking from Bangladesh are India, Thailand, Middle East. As sex trade is integral part of tourism which deemed to be leading economic activity in these countries, demand is of huge for trafficked girls there and obviously Bangladesh and Burma remain in supply side. Human organ business is another trap of human trafficking, in this case, trafficking takes it’s worst form of abduction. In recent years vulnerable climate/ development/ethnic cleansing induced refugees has got into trap and been allured through deceiving brokers, social media, videos, photos and papers to go in search of work. They are allured to work in sub-region of South East Asia, where demands for goods and services increased to operate labour intensive manufacturing activities with low-cost labour. In this trafficking trade clandestine rings are involved who operate camps in deep coastal forest of Thailand and Malaysia. Under their umbrella, same groups work from the source country to destination. They are ruthless. Recklessly they buy, sale and kill trafficked persons. Often brutality and degree of ferocity crossed the tolerable limit. For this reason trafficking has become a massive crime against humanity. So, there is a great necessity for preventive measures as well as remedial technique, and above all a comprehensive strategy should be in the offing.         

No country has any comprehensive plan or legal framework to tackle the issues of migration and human trafficking, though there are different legal measures found scattered in different domestic laws, which hardly compatible with same issues of different countries. So, it is not easy to resolve the crisis among the countries for absence of a legal framework where an international arrangement is possible to shoot the trouble. Even in Bangladesh, existing penal code is based on the philosophy of crime control rather than human right approach. Though there are constitutional protection enshrined in the article 34(1), prohibiting all forms of forced labour and article 18(2), placing a duty upon the state to adopt effective measures to prevent prostitution. It’s only proved to be supplementary to other related laws. In Women and children Repression Prevention Act, 2000, section 5 and 6 are clearly related to trafficking, defining the crime worth to capital punishment[4]. There are few sections in the Penal Code of 1860, such as 366, 366A, 366B, 367, 370-374 and in Extradition Act of 1974, Bangladesh Labour Code 2006, section 20, 21, 23 of Emigration Ordinance 1982, Section 20A of Employment of Women, Young persons and Children Act, 1956 which are important for prevention of trafficking. But application of these laws would have little output unless a workable package of laws is made accordingly. 

What everyone is searching for is nothing but a legal framework. Even politicians and leaders from different countries are lamenting for legal framework. Yet nothing is in the scene to settle it. On the other hand, concern is not of legal alone. It’s of the perspective and philosophy. Till now, what we have done is based on the worldview of humanism and perspective of human rights. We can’t save human being with the single arson of human right propaganda, denying rights of others apart from human being. We can’t ensure human rights with humanism. Human rights should be compatible with natural rights, and these very natural rights should be compatible with universal law. Our claim of human superiority is quite unfounded in terms of natural law, as human existence depends on existence of all other being in the world. Even a massive change in planetary temperature may hamper our existence in the earth. So, we should opt for more sober way of life based on comprehensive and broader perspective of every living being.

From a naturalistic point of view, every individual has right in the resources, reserved in anywhere in the world. Artificial and political boundary cannot bar men from his proclivity to exploit every kind resource to live and to sustain. Migration is a natural necessity, at the same time it can be of mutual benefit for host country and the country of origin. To exploit the resources, to produce the commodity, to earn for living, all should be juxtaposed so that they become mutually supporting. Imposition of legal frame except moral soul, may incur more curse than benefit. Right to live should prevail, so, life of migrants and trafficked peoples or of refugees should be saved. Waiting for laws and lamenting for loss cannot be of humanitarian approach. We should replace so called humanism with humanitarianism to tackle this kind of crisis. To punish the criminal, laws are available but to save the victims, laws are the few. The crisis aggravated to this scale for want of a doable and workable approach. Now what we have to do is to tackle the crisis in different way, investing full compassion and wisdom. Root causes of refugees should be eliminated and to do so, world community should come forward. Safety and rights of the workers should be ensured with proper contracts and laws. Traffickers should be taken to dock and due punishment should be awarded in due process. If these are done, we may hope for better solution to the problems.  

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⃰  Sarwar Kamal, Teacher and Researcher. 

[1] The Daily Star, [ Bangladesh ] dated June 14, 2015, page-6

[2] Rahman, Md Mizanur, Emigration and the family Economy: Bangladeshi Labor migration to Saudi Arabia, Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, Vol.20, Nos 3-4, 2011,pp- 390

[3] Gupta, Ruchira, Human Trafficking in Asia: Trends and Responses, Laipson, Allen and Pandya, Amit (ed) On the Move: Migration Challenges in the Indian Ocean Littoral, STIMSON, Washington, 2010, Pp-  69 

[4] Responses to Human Trafficking in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, Legal and Policy Review, UNODC,  New Delhi, 2011, Pp-11.