Could Climate Change Create a Human Trafficking Epidemic?
I’ve been looking at places where Environmentalism and Feminism intersect. One really shocking issue is that Climate Change could cause more people to fall victim to human trafficking, sex trafficking in particular. This is a horrifying outcome so I thought it was worth bringing awareness to this outcome and look at what could be done to prevent it.
How does climate change connect to human trafficking? As we release more greenhouse gases (GHG) into the atmosphere, more heat is trapped causing the average temperature to rise known as ‘global warming’. This affects the climate, the average weather over a long period of time. One outcome of global warming is that ice will melt – mostly land ice- and cause sea levels to rise. This threatens to sink islands and flatter countries like Sri Lanka. Another outcome is more extreme weather and natural disasters, like stronger typhoons, flooding, and droughts. More information on global warming here.
This could make some areas uninhabitable and cause a lot of people to evacuate to other countries as climate refugees. There are two types of immigration in this case that may make people vulnerable to trafficking. Firstly, in some places there may be droughts or other environmental problems that get worse over times which might make people decide to leave their community. The problem is that it is sometimes very difficult to immigrate, and that’s where human traffickers come in. Someone may promise to get you passports or transport to another country, only to force you to work for free to pay off your debt or sell you as a labour or sex slave (see common scams here). It complicates things when a person immigrates illegally and becomes a human trafficking victim, as they’re nervous to go to the police and be prosecuted for entering the country illegally. It is often difficult to obtain asylum particularly as an adult.
The second option is becoming a climate refugee as a result of a natural disaster, like a tsunami. This is sudden, with no preparation, and might be with the help of international aid groups like the Red Cross. It’s also more devastating, people may have lost their homes, they may not be able to contact any friends or families, and most resources like police, ambulances, shelter, will be overwhelmed. This leaves people physically, emotionally, and financially vulnerable and unable to protect themselves or lobby for organisations to do so. Studies have already shown that trafficking increases in the aftermath of a natural disaster like cyclones, flooding, earthquakes, or tsunamis (Dutta, 2017). In a natural disaster, enforcing laws like the ones against trafficking are often the last priority as attention is needed elsewhere. With more of these predicted by current climate change models, this problem is only going to get worse.
It’s horrifying to find out that currently there are the most people in slavery that there have ever been – approximately 40.3 million. Modern slavery is defined as the recruitment, movement, harbouring or receiving of children, women or men through the use of force, coercion, abuse of vulnerability, deception or other means for the purpose of exploitation. This includes sex trafficking, forced labour, debt bondage, domestic servitude, and child soldiers. It happens all over the world – even in the UK. Human trafficking is a form of modern slavery – it is the unlawful act of transporting or coercing people in order to benefit from their work or service, typically in the form of forced labour or sexual exploitation. The difference is that Human trafficking normally involves moving people around, mostly for the purpose of evading detection. When you take someone to an unfamiliar environment, they are more vulnerable and have less opportunities to ask for help due to lack of friends in the area, not knowing the area, or not speaking the language. When someone is displaced as a climate refugee, they are vulnerable in the same way.
I do want to make it clear that although I’ve said this is caused by climate change and the victims are climate refugees, the responsibility is completely on the human traffickers. We should have robust systems for detection and prosecution, and we should have long sentences for anyone involved as a perpetrator. That’s one side of the problem. The other side is how to we prevent this from getting worse due to climate chance.
There are some things we can do to prevent it. Firstly, is to raise awareness of human trafficking and common scams, like sneaking people into countries on produce trucks, and the possible outcome of slavery. We also need to raise awareness of the signs of human trafficking. Most people don’t believe it could happen in their neighbourhood and so miss the signs of an adult intimidating a child in public, or people who sleep where they work. For this to be effective, we must also build community relations so that these signs aren’t missed. This is particularly important for child sex trafficking or child forced labour. The children most vulnerable to this are those who don’t have families or who have troubled home lives. We need to fill the gap for these kids through after school programs, mentorship, robust foster care, free counselling, free school meals, and other programs for disadvantaged kids. If you notice that at your local school there aren’t many of these opportunities, starting some can save kids’ lives.
The second thing is planning. Knowing that this is a risk during a natural disaster and during the aftermath we can take the steps to prevent it. While planning for a potential emergency refugee camp, we should plan procedures for reporting trafficking, sexual assault, suspicious offers of transport, etc. We should make sure to train responders to notice the signs. We should plan for security in these camps, and for a robust communication and bulletin system so that people are informed about the safe process of rebuilding their lives and aren’t tempted by traffickers. This is something that you should check with your local government or national branch of the Red Cross. Also, it would be helpful to volunteer if a natural disaster strikes near you – not being stretched so thin means that people have time to notice the signs of this happening.
The third thing is preventing climate disasters by preventing climate change. Prevention is always better than cure, and the best way to prevent people from becoming victims of traffickers is to make sure they’re not vulnerable in the first step. The obvious solution is planting more trees, protecting the ocean, and releasing less GHG, but that is very hard to implement. What you can do to prevent this is to pay attention to the laws that are being passed, to contact your representatives and let them know that you want carbon emissions lowered. You can support plant-based food and sustainable fashion so that these industries grow. You can invest in Index funds rather than bitcoin. You can volunteer at climate organisations and go to marches. Together, we can make our planet sustainable and safe for the people who live here.
I want to shout out this article by Wudan Yan that inspired me to look into this, and point readers towards some other resources if you’re interested in working on this issue:
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