Campaign

Every year thousands of young women and children are being trafficked and forced into prostitution and forced labour. Business travellers can be a part of the problem buying sexual services from those held as slaves, or part of the solution reporting suspicious activities and showing hotels and businesses that they will not be associated with those who are complicit in this crime. The campaign “Business Travellers against Human Trafficking” exists to give you the opportunity to help change the situation for good.

What is trafficking in human beings?

Trafficking in human beings happens when a woman, child or man is deceived, coerced or forced into going with a trafficker who sells them into a situation of unwilling prostitution or forced labour. They find themselves in a position of servitude and slavery. Sometimes they are taken to a place in their own country. Often they are trafficked across national borders.

For example, a young woman living in Eastern Europe may have little money and few education or job prospects. A trafficker approaches her or puts an advertisement in a local paper offering a job in the west as a waitress or a model. The young woman jumps at the chance and agrees to go with the trafficker. He arranges for a passport, often false, and the woman is taken across the boarder. Once she arrives in the west everything changes for her. She is told that she owes the trafficker a large amount of money for the passport and for the transport to the west. She is forced to work as a prostitute until the debt is paid, but as most of the money she makes is taken from her she never can repay the debt. Her passport has been removed from her. She has become a slave. She is afraid to go to the police because she is thinks that they might simply deport her. If she runs away then the organised crime gangs which trafficked her might harm her or her family.
This scenario is not confined to Europe, it is repeated around the world.

How big is the problem?

Trafficking and the slavery that results from it is a huge problem around the world. The UN estimates that between 600,000 and 800,000 women and children are trafficked across boarders every year. If you include those trafficked internally the figure could be as high as between two and four million people being trafficked every year. They are forced to work as prostitutes, or as forced labourers in fields and factories. In some countries women are sold as brides in forced marriages, in others children are forced to work as jockeys in camel races.

There are more slaves in the twenty first century than in all the years of the transatlantic slave trade in previous centuries. It is also cheaper now to buy a slave than ever before. Trafficking affects every country in the world.

How could trafficking effect business travellers like me?

Business travel and tourism are not responsible for trafficking for sexual exploitation, but the presence of foreigners in large numbers does create the opportunity for organised criminals to try to capitalise on the influx of money that business travellers bring. One way they do this is to traffic women and children for travellers to use as prostitutes.
Men who travel abroad may consider buying sexual services from a woman, man or child when they would never have considered it in their own country. The fear of HIV/AIDS has lead to a search for virgins for men to have sex with. This has caused a great increase in the numbers of children being trafficked.

Business travellers are one of the targets that traffickers are aiming at when they deceive or force young women and children in to becoming sex slaves. Perhaps some men from the west may come from countries where prostitution is legal and they might assume that commercial sex workers they encounter are accorded the same protection and rights that sex workers have in their home country. Nothing could be further from the truth.

When you travel as a business person you may encounter women and children who have been trafficked. There may be links between your hotel and this criminal activity. It may be part of the culture of doing business in the country you are visiting that men are offered sexual services as part of business entertainment. It may be that others you meet who are based longer term in the country you are visiting are involved in trafficking, buy women or regularly visit brothels known to hold trafficked women. Not only should you avoid getting involved, but you should report any activity either to the local authorities or, if that is difficult, to us via our web site so we can take up the matter with the appropriate authorities.

What penalties are there for those who are involved with the victims of trafficking?

The penalties for being involved with trafficking vary from country to country, but they are becoming increasingly severe. Whether you are liable to prosecution under your host country’s laws or under the laws of the country you live in, it is better not to get involved with trafficking. Many countries now make it a crime to seek sex with a minor abroad.

What can I do to be an influence for good in this situation?

When a person travels abroad on business they can fuel the problem of trafficking, or they can become part of the force to end it. If business travellers make it plain that they do not want to purchase sexual services from people who might have been trafficked or do business with those who promote it then they send a strong message to the local economy.

Whether you are only visiting a country briefly for a conference or are connected through a long-term contract, you can make a difference.

If you join the campaign “Business Travellers against Human Trafficking” you will be able to help in the following ways;

• You can report anything you see which may be related to human trafficking by going to our “Contact” page. If you are in the US and wish to report suspected incidents of child sex tourism involving American citizens call the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement tipline at: 1-866-DHS-2ICE (press 1). If overseas, to report suspected incidents of child sex tourism involving American citizens, contact the regional security officer at the local American embassy or consulate.

• Members of Business Travellers Against Human Trafficking agree, that if they see what they suspect is under age prostitution, or young women or boys who may have been trafficked, either in the hotel where they are staying or in the immediate vicinity of the hotel with hotel guests, then they will inform the campaign via a web site or by email.
• The campaign will then contact the appropriate authorities. We will also contact that hotel and express the concerns of our members. The campaign would also ask an local Non Government Organisation (NGO) to make further investigations into the situation in that area.

• The travel and tourism community has agreed a code of conduct for hotels and airlines regarding the sex trafficking problem.
• Members of this scheme would ask if the hotel where they are staying is complying with this code - which includes supplying information to their guests warning them against becoming involved with minors or with women who might be trafficked.
• Members could also ask airlines that they often use to display information against child sex tourism.
• The code of conduct can be found by going to www.thecode.org

• There would be an opportunity for members to express the desire to donate money towards projects which might be working for the benefit of children local to the area of hotels where they have stayed. The campaign would then supply details of such projects, facilitate the donation and arrange for a possible visit if that was desired.
• The project, on behalf of its members could approach hotels and enquire whether their corporate citizenship department would consider sponsoring a project which protected those vulnerable to trafficking.