Human trafficking,
especially women and children trafficking, has been a serious issue in
Madagascar. According to U.S. Embassy Madagascar, Madagascar is a source
country for women and children subjected to sex trafficking. After the
political crisis that Madagascar went through in March 2009, the decline in the
rule of law and weak economic growth caused an increase in sex and labor trafficking
of Malagasy citizens during recent years. Study shows that “an estimated 4,000
Malagasy women are employed as domestic workers in Lebanon and, since July
2012, an estimated 3,000 Malagasy female domestic workers have migrated to
Kuwait; a smaller number of workers have also departed from Saudi Arabia,
Jordan, Mauritius, and Seychelles in search of jobs.” Majority of sex trafficking
victims in Madagascar are single mothers who come from rural areas and are
undereducated, most of them returning from Lebanon, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia
reported physical torture, psychology abuse, sexual harassment, harsh working conditions
and so on.
“Malagasy children,
mostly from rural areas, are subjected to domestic servitude, prostitution,
forced begging, and forced labor in mining, fishing, and agriculture within the
country.” Child sex trafficking is the most common; it usually occurs with the involvement
of family members. In Madagascar, many parents force their children into prostitution
to earn money and support their families; they even directly negotiate price
with clients of their prostituted children. In addition, friends, transport
operators, tour guides and hotel workers also play a role in children sex trafficking.
According to the article
Born Free: How to Prevent Human
Trafficking written by Dr. Sarah E. Mendelson, who’s the Deputy Assistant
Administrator at United States Agency for International Development (USAID),
this organization is making great efforts to combat human trafficking through fulfilling
the upcoming Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which is an updated version
of their Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) after it expires. Dr. Mendelson
said in her article that, they advocated, “integrated programming” for
combating trafficking in their new policy. The idea was to include an
anti-trafficking component in each other sectors such as health, education and
agriculture. For example, a girl’s education program can integrate lessons on
trafficking awareness. Furthermore, there are goals that explicitly calls for
ending human trafficking. According to Mendelson, “Under proposed goal five—‘Achieve
gender equality and empower all women and girls’ -- the drafters call for the
end of trafficking of women and girls. Under proposed goal eight – ‘Promote
sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment
and decent work for all’ -- the document urges the end of the trafficking of
children, including child soldiers, by 2025. Finally, under proposed goal 16 – ‘Promote
peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to
justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at
all levels’-- the Outcome Document references bringing the trafficking of
children to an end.’” It is comforting to see that organizations are making
clear goals to eliminate human trafficking, however, to better achieve these
goals and combat human trafficking, the public must be more educated about this
issue and be aware of how severe it is. I also believe that more funding should
be devoted into supporting human trafficking elimination, and more promotional
efforts within the general public might help with fundraising.
References:
Sarah E. Mendelson Born Free: How to Prevent Human Trafficking, Sep. 22, 2014
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