4 Sen, A., The Idea of Justice (London: Allen Lane, 2009).
5 Van Reisen, M., Estefanos, M., and Rijken, C., Human Trafficking in the Sinai: Refugees Between Life and Death (Oisterwijk, the Netherlands: Wolf Publications, 2012). Van Reisen, M., Estefanos, M., and Rijken, C., The Human Trafficking Cycle: Sinai and Beyond (Oisterwijk, the Netherlands: Wolf Publications, 2014).
6 See (n.2), van Reisen and Rijken (2015), pp. 113–124.
7 Brhane, M.O., “Trafficking in Persons for Ransom and the Need to Expand the Interpretation of Article 3 of the UN Trafficking Protocol” (2015) No. 4 Anti-Trafficking Review, Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW). Also see (n.2, n.5) (2014).
8 See (n.5), van Reisen et al. (2012), pp. 75–77. Van Reisen, M. et al. ‘The Trauma of Survivors of Sinai Trafficking’ in: Van Reisen, M. and Maware, M., Human Trafficking and Trauma in the Digital Era (Bamenda: Langaa, 2017), pp. 271–317.
9 Ibid., pp. 63–67.
10 United Nations General Assembly, Report of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in Eritrea: Report of Detailed Findings (Geneva: Commission of Inquiry, 2015). See (n.5) van Reisen et al. (2014). Van Reisen, M. et al. ‘Human Trafficking in the Sinai: Mapping the Routes and Facilitators’ in: Van Reisen, M. and Maware, M., Human Trafficking and Trauma in the Digital Era (Bamenda: Langaa, 2017), pp. 19–95.
11 In the UN Report of the Monitoring Group (2011, p. 51) a witness was quoted in relation to accusations of involvement in trafficking and arms trade in 2008: “I don’t know how the process works exactly but I know that one of the senior military officials in Eritrea, Teklai Manjus, gathered all the Rashaida together and told them that wherever they are in the world, they will be Eritreans. The Rashaida have very good contacts with the military but they don’t care about nationality or patriotism. They only care about making money”. Testimonies in the research by Van Reisen et al. (2012, 2014; and Van Reisen & Rijken, 2015) also reported the connection between General Manjus and the Rashaida. In subsequent interviews conducted by Van Reisen and Kidane in 2015 and 2016 with one resource person, a link with the office of General Manjus in Kassala (Sudan) and collaboration with the Rashaida was also explained in detailed recorded testimonies (unpublished). The United Nations Monitoring Report on Eritrea (2011) describes the cross-border smuggling of humans and weapons. The report estimates the value of proceeds as at least US$ 3.6 million per year. Van Reisen, M. & Estefanos, M. ‘The Exodus from Eritrea and Who is Benefiting’ in: Van Reisen, M. and Maware, M., Human Trafficking and Trauma in the Digital Era (Bamenda: Langaa, 2017), pp. 85–158.
12 United Nations Security Council, Report of the Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 2002 (2011) (New York: Subsidiary Organs, 2011); United Nations Security Council, Report of the Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 2002 (2011) (New York: Subsidiary Organs, 2012); United Nations Security Council, Report of the Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1916 (2010) (New York: Subsidiary Organs, 2013); United Nations Security Council, Report of the Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 2111 (2013) (New York: Subsidiary Organs, 2014). See (n.5) (2012) (2014).
13 Report referred to in (n.10).
14 International Crisis Group, Africa Briefing No. 100: Eritrea: Ending the Exodus? (Nairobi/Brussels: ICG, 2014), p. 7.
15 Reports referred to in (n.12).
16 Hotline for Migrants Workers, “The Dead of the Wilderness”: Testimonies From Sinai Desert, 2010 (Tel Aviv: Hotline for Migrant Workers, 2010). ARDC, Report: Slavery, Torture and Rape (African Refugee Development Centre, 2011), http://ardc-israel.org/en/article/report-slavery-torture-and-rape.
17 See (n.16), ARDC (2011). Weldehaimot, S., Kidnapping, Hostage-Taking and Ransoming of Eritrean Asylum Seekers in the Sinai Desert (2011). Available at SSRN 1932457; Humphris, R., Refugees and the Rashaida: Human Smuggling and Trafficking From Eritrea to Sudan and Egypt. Research Paper No. 254, New Research in Refugee Research (Oxford: University of Oxford, 2013). Amnesty International, Egypt/Sudan Refugees and Asylum Seekers Face Brutal Treatment, Kidnapping for Ransom, and Human Trafficking. Report by Amnesty International (London: Amnesty International, 2013), www.amnestyusa.org/sites/default/files/afr040012013en.pdf.; Jacobsen, K., Robinson, S., and Lijnders, L., Ransom, Collaborators, Corruption: Sinai Trafficking and Trans-national Networks: A Case Study of the Eritrean Migration System From Eritrea to Israel. (Somerville: Feinstein International Centre, 2013); Human Rights Watch, Traffickers Who Torture (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2014).
18 Lijnders, L. and Robinson, S., “From the Horn of Africa to the Middle East: Human Trafficking of Eritrean Asylum Seekers Across Borders” (2013) 2 Anti-Trafficking Review 137–154, www.antitraffickingreview. See (n.12) HRW (2014); (n.5), van Reisen et al. (2014).
19 Human Rights Watch, I Wanted to Lie Down and Die (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2013). See (n.5), Van Reisen et al. (2012) (2014).
20 See (n.17), Weldehaimot (2011).
21 See (n.5), van Reisen et al. (2012).
22 McLaughlin, D., “Eritreans Risk Deadly Odyssey to Reach Europe” Aljazeera America (8 November 2015), http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/11/8/eritreans-risk-deadly-odyssey-to-reach-europe.html; (n. 18), Lijnders and Robinson (2013).
23 See (n.17), Amnesty International (2013).
24 See (n.17), Weldehaimot (2011).
25 See (n.2), van Reisen and Rijken (2015) and (n.5), van Reisen et al. (2014).
26 See (n.2), van Reisen and Rijken (2015).
27 ‘Punishment by Association’ is the term used in the UN Commission of Inquiry Report on Eritrea to refer to punishment of family members for alleged deeds considered punishable by the Eritrean authorities. See (n.10), and UN Commission of Inquiry on Eritrea, Detailed Findings of Commission of Inquiry on Eritrea (A/HRC/32/CRP.1., 8 June 2016).
28 Committee on Foreign Relations, The Merida Initiative: Guns, Drugs, and Friends (United States Senate, 2009), pp. 3–4.
29 Szep, J. and Marshall, A.R.C. (2013) “Special Report: Thailand Secretly Dumps Myanmar Refugees into Trafficking Rings” Reuters (5 December 2013), http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-thailand-rohingya-special-report-idUKBRE9B400920131205.
30 Amnesty International, Invisible Victims: Migrants on the Move (London: Amnesty International, 2010), www.amnestyusa.org/sites/default/files/amr410142010eng.pdf.
31 Skype interview T 14/6/2016, by SK – Edited for readability, MvR.
32 Personal experience of one of the authors; also recorded in Skype interview 09/06/2016, with SK.
33 Zeeman, D.A., “Mobiele Mensenhandel uit Eritrea” Brandpunt (19 April 2016), http://brandpunt.kroncrv.nl/brandpunt/mobiele-mensenhandel-uit-eritrea/(accessed 28 June 2016).
34 Personal experience of one of the authors, who received phone numbers from refugees whose relatives were extorted by traffickers in Libya who demanded ransom for their release. Van Reisen, M. & Estefanos, M. ‘Human Trafficking connecting to Terrorism and Organ Trafficking: Libya and Egypt’ in: Van Reisen, M. and Maware, M., Human Trafficking and Trauma in the Digital Era (Bamenda: Langaa, 2017), pp. 159–192.
35 Van Reisen, M., The Involvement of Unaccompanied Minors From Eritrea in Human Trafficking (Tilburg University/Leiden University. Unpublished, 2016), www.researchgate.net/publication/303768095_The_Involvement_of_Unaccompanied_Minors_from_Eritrea_in_Human_Trafficking.
36 Ibid.
37 See (n.4), Sen (2009).
38 Gladwell, M., The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (New York: Back Bay Books, 2002).
39 Wansink, K., Budde, P., Evans, P., and Lancaster, H., Global Mobile Communications and Mobile Broadband – Analyses and Statistics (Bucketty: BuddeComm, 2016).
40 http://adwords.blogspot.com/2015/05/building-for-next-moment.html.
41 https://next.ft.com/content/c6d6edce-3792-11df-88c6-00144feabdc0.
42 Mobil
e phones were introduced in Sudan in 1997 and in Kenya in 1999.
43 Government of Egypt, www.egyptictindicators.gov.eg/.
44 Techtarget (undated), Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO), http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/mobile-virtual-network-operator-MVNO (accessed 16 July 2016).
45 Pitt, A. and Granger, B. (eds.) Measuring the Information Society Report 2014 (Geneva: International Telecommunication Union, 2014).
46 Nyamnjoh, F.B., “C’est l’homme qui fait l’Homme”: Cul-de-Sac Ubuntu-ism in Cote d’Ivoire (Bamenda: Langaa, 2015).
47 Ibid.
48 Telegraph (2016) “British Sim Cards Are a Vital Part of Life in the Calais Jungle” Telegraph (29 January 2016), www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/01/29/british-sim-cards-are-a-vital-part-of-life-in-the-calais-jungle/.
49 Brooking, G.D., Hapanyengwi, G., Kembo, S.H., and Van Stam, G., “Progressing Services in African Mobile Networks Utilizing Big Data Research”, in Fifth International IEEE EAI Conference on e-Infrastructure and e-Services for Developing Countries (Africomm 2013) (Malawi: Blantyre, 2013).
50 Reed, D.P., “That Sneaky Exponential – Beyond Metcalfe’s Law to the Power of Community Building” Context Magazine (1999), pp. 1–6, www.reed.com/dpr/locus/Papers/Context GFN article.doc (accessed 1 March 2016). Van Stam, G. Reflections. A Narrative on Displacement of Technology in an African Place, PhD Thesis, 2017, Forthcoming.
51 Shamai, M., Systemic Interventions for Collective and National Trauma: Theory, Practice, and Evaluation (New York: Routledge, 2015).
52 Boss, P., Ambiguous Loss: Learning to Live With Unresolved Grief (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999).
53 Possick, C., Sadeh, R.A., and Shamai, M., “Parents’ Experience and Meaning Construction of the Loss of a Child in a National Terror Attack” (2008) 78(1) American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 93–102. Kidane, S. & Van Reisen, M., ‘Collective Trauma from Sinai Trafficking: A Blow to the Fabric of Eritrean Society’ in: Van Reisen, M. and Maware, M., Human Trafficking and Trauma in the Digital Era (Bamenda: Langaa, 2017), pp. 317–346.
54 Janoff-Bulman, R., The Aftermath of Victimization: Rebuilding Shattered Assumptions: Trauma and Its Wake: The Study and Treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (New York: Brunner/Mazel, 1985). Janoff-Bulman, R., “Assumptive Worlds and the Stress of Traumatic Events: Applications of the Schema Construct” (1989) 7 Social Cognition 113–136 (Special Issue: Social Cognition and Stress). Janoff-Bulman, R., Shattered Assumption: Towards a New Psychology of Trauma (New York: Free Press, 1992).
55 See (n.2), van Reisen and Rijken (2015), pp. 113–124.
56 See (n.4), Sen (2009).
13
Exploitation through begging as a form of trafficking in human beings – over-estimated or under-reported?
Claire Healy
Introduction
Situations of exploitation through begging have been reported in recent years in various corners of the globe – some of which involve elements of trafficking in human beings – affecting both children and adults. The identification of exploitation through begging as a form of trafficking by the relevant authorities, however, remains minimal. It is not clear whether this is indicative of a lack of active identification and investigation, or of a relatively low incidence of this form of trafficking.
Indeed, according to the UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2014, which covers data for 2010–2012, the identification of trafficking for exploitation through begging was relatively rare at an international level. UNODC classifies exploitation through begging under the broader category of “forms of exploitation other than forced labour, sexual exploitation or organ removal”, which accounts for 10% of identified and reported cases in Africa, the Middle East, East Asia, South Asia and the Pacific; 8% in Europe and Central Asia; and just 4% in the Americas. The report clarifies further that, in Europe and Central Asia, this category mainly includes exploitation through begging and petty crime.1 Similarly, across the countries covered, the previous UNODC Global Report pointed to just 1.5% of trafficking cases detected as involving the exploitation of begging.2
This is why exploitation through begging is often referred to as a ‘new’ form of trafficking: it has only recently begun to be identified and investigated under the rubric of trafficking in human beings. Nevertheless, research in certain countries showed that there are a significant number of children on the streets begging, and engaged in other related income-generating activities, some being exploited and trafficked but not identified as such.3 Trafficking for the purposes of exploitation through begging has also been identified in Belgium, particularly in Brussels. A report on trafficking identified networks of Romanians and Moldovans of Roma ethnicity as active in begging in Belgium, as well as in prostitution.4 However, cases of trafficking for begging rarely lead to prosecutions, according to the same report:
In practice, various cases of begging were abandoned because they were highly time-consuming and the likelihood was very slim of effectively establishing proof and therefore obtaining a meaningful judgement in court.5
A limited corpus of research now exists on begging as a form of exploitation, covering European countries, West African countries and India.6 A seminal work on forced child begging, published in 2009 by Anti-Slavery International,7 compares begging situations in Senegal, India and Greece/Albania, and is accompanied by a Forced Child Begging Toolkit for Researchers.8 This was followed by a report by the Mario Project on Bulgarians in Greece,9 and the publication, in late 2011, by Save the Children, of a regional report on child begging in South Eastern Europe.10
Another 2011 report, on Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, looked specifically at trafficking among certain European Roma communities, but uncovered no reliable statistics on the proportion of Roma trafficking cases that involve trafficking for ‘forced begging/petty crime’, though it was considered present in all countries under study.11 Also in 2011, Cherneva self-published the e-book Trafficking for Begging: Old Game, New Name, which examines international legal frameworks and cites a number of cases of this form of trafficking. An innovative aspect is that it also examines the demand side of begging, yet it is marred by misinterpretations of international trafficking instruments, particularly the Palermo Protocol.12
In 2011, the European Commission commissioned the Study on a Typology and Policy Responses to Child Begging in the EU –which covered the phenomenon of children begging in 13 EU Member States, as well as Kosovo and Albania. Six distinct indicative typologies of child begging were identified through an ideal-typical exercise in the 15 countries under study, with reference to age groups and nationalities/ethnicities, modes of begging and breaches of rights under the international and European human rights framework.13 The Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) Child Centre’s Expert Group for Cooperation on Children at Risk in Lithuania, Poland, Norway and Sweden produced a report in 2013 on trafficking of children for exploitation in begging and criminality. The report provides a number of examples of the experiences of practitioners engaged in combating child trafficking for the purposes of exploitation through begging and petty crime, examining existing legislation, policy and structures and listing some good practices.14
One limitation of the research conducted so far is that, with a few exceptions, it largely focuses on European countries. However, the findings of the various research reports concur in pointing to child begging as always constituting a violation of child rights – if not always child trafficking. In European countries, existing gaps in the definitions, procedures and division of responsibilities for child begging have led to the shifting of responsibility or simply inaction and, very often, even child begging cases that are identified are not taken to court. In the more severe cases, this may be due to the apparent difficulty in gathering sufficient evidence to initiate a prosecution for trafficking: with many law enforcement agencies and prosecutors opting to prosecute other, invariably lesser, offences instead. Therefore, de
spite various research projects undertaken on trafficking for exploitation through begging since 2009, it continues to be a form of trafficking that rarely appears in official national statistics on identified trafficking cases. This chapter examines the characteristics of this form of trafficking and the factors influencing low levels of identification of begging cases that constitute trafficking in human beings.
Begging and the exploitation of begging
In order to begin to look into and respond to this form of trafficking, it is necessary to define the scope of what is considered exploitation through begging and, indeed, what is considered begging itself. There is no internationally agreed legal definition, and begging is only defined in national legislation in some national contexts. Nevertheless, while there is no clear consensus on the definition of begging or exploitation through begging, some key features can be identified. Save the Children’s report on Southeast Europe found that stakeholders mostly defined begging as “a way to secure material benefit, whether it is a child who entreats or directly seeks or secures material benefit by provoking pity … or another person who exploits a child for this purpose”.15 At first glance, begging therefore involves asking for money from someone who is neither a relative nor an acquaintance, without offering anything in return. This can be termed ‘classic begging’.
Certain countries have established a legal definition of ‘classic begging’ –particularly in jurisdictions where the practice is banned. However, in order to adequately address exploitation through begging, it is necessary to broaden the definition to include what can be termed ‘auxiliary begging activities’. The sale of token items such as flowers and sweets at traffic lights, the price of which is not in accordance with the value of the product, may also be considered as an act of begging. Offering small services, such as washing car windscreens, providing assistance with parking cars, helping with shopping at the supermarket, circus tricks and playing musical instruments on the streets may also be considered as forms of begging.16
Routledge Handbook of Human Trafficking Page 34
