vision and background

Vision and Background

Vision

SRTV and its co-workers look at trafficking in women from a religious standpoint.
The SRTV field workers are also concerned that the dignity of others should not be violated. The biblical vision of man calls on us to protect each other and to live rich lives. People cannot stand alone, but they are – like brothers and sisters – given to each other. This vision leads to an ethic whereby care for others assumes an important place. From that stance, self-determination has a high value.
The history of Christianity teaches us that the wish to protect others does not always have favourable effects. With the best of intentions, in the past those being protected because of their (perceived) need for help have often been viewed as incapable of expressing their real needs themselves.
SRTV is aware that it is important that women have the means and tools to shape their own lives and decrease their vulnerability within society. Therefore SRTV recognises the right to self-determination as an important starting point for their view of trafficking in women.
We find support for this standpoint and are listened to by national and international partner organisations that undertake research, developing frameworks to bring to the surface the twilight area of trafficking in women.
For SRTV co-operation at home and abroad is necessary, which is why we work together with other organisations, and to expand this co-operation every year. At the same time we keep our own mission and objectives intact. By that SRTV means working, inspired by ecumenical Christian principles, to fight against trafficking in women and girls by means of information and prevention within and outside The Netherlands.
The fact that we work on prevention means that it is impossible to demonstrate results in terms of concrete numbers. The twilight area in which SRTV has to move is not directed towards such results.
Nonetheless we can point to successes, where the results of our work become obvious. For example, an ecumenical women’s group reported that SRTV folders were distributed via the embassy in Lithuania. SRTV received a letter from the chairwoman of the National Kenyan Women’s Organisation stating that that they were able to prevent women from going to Western Europe by giving them information about trafficking in women provided by the SRTV leaflet. The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sent to Dutch embassies several hundred SRTV leaflets in different languages with the request to hand them to women asking for visas.

From figures published by the Bureau National Rapporteur Mensenhandel (the Dutch office which reports about trafficking in people) over the past two years, it appears that a very small number of trafficked women are prepared to report the fact. There are indications that this is because of fear of the power of the traffickers, the stigma that would attach to them when their situation becomes known, and their fear of returning empty-handed to their own countries. Therefore SRTV tries to broaden its contacts with organisations in other countries working locally on accommodation and support for these women – for example, organisations offering education that will enable them to retake control of their own their own lives.

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What is trafficking in women?

Trafficking in women is a broad concept. In The Netherlands – in fact as well as in people’s minds – it is mostly connected with (forced) prostitution. That brings with it the risk that organisations like SRTV may fall into the morality trap, precisely because the public expects a moral judgement from religious people. In fact, then the SRTV is caught between two fires: on the one hand there is a danger that people will turn away from precisely those women who need help, on the other is the danger that SRTV might lose support and understanding.
From national and international research it becomes more and more evident that there are women who choose to be trafficked because that is the only way they can get work and earn money in the wealthy west. The political, economic and social situation in many countries is such that there are always people searching for a “land of milk and honey” (see ‘Causes of trafficking in women’). Alongside this is the fact that trafficking in women is very profitable. There is more money to be made than by trafficking in weapons or drugs. That’s why – in destination countries as well as countries of origin – there are many to be found (men and women) who cannot resist grasping at the opportunity.
Even though, for many people with a bible-based view of mankind, it is truly difficult to imagine that prostitution can go hand in hand with human dignity, SRTV’s starting point is that the choice of whether or not to work in that way can only be made by the woman herself. SRTV does not want to make any judgement about the reasons why any woman makes such a choice. That it could ever be a completely free choice is a fiction: human beings live in specific circumstances and within them there are certain (im)possibilities and responsibilities. When no realistic alternatives can be offered, our wish to support women can mean that, in the first place, they have to be supported by an improvement in their working circumstances.
In order to let the women who find themselves involved in this trade know what situation they could find themselves in, what is the reality of this life here, and in order to warn the really unknowing, prevention is necessary in the countries they come from.
That is why the SRTV will keep devoting itself to warning the women in their own country and their own language about the consequences of trafficking in women. For that purpose a folder has been written and translated into 45 languages, and every year new translations are available.
It remains important to inform networks of religious people, women’s organisations, parish workers, councillors and others about trafficking in women and its consequences.
Together with others SRTV tries to get this issue on the political agenda.

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Causes of trafficking in women

It is becoming more evident, amongst other ways through thorough scientific research amongst victims, that the main cause of trafficking in women is poverty.

In large parts of the world people live in poor economic circumstances. From UN figures it appears that a great percentage of women have to struggle against great poverty and the problems that follow from it. This feminisation of poverty means that women have to think about ways to survive. An additional factor is that in many countries the daughters of the family carry the burden of responsibility for the financial care of parents and children. These women and girls, who are acquainted with the wealth of the West from TV, tourists and stories, see an offer to come and work in the West as a great chance to earn a lot of money in a short time. Once they arrive in western Europe it appears that contracts and promises are worth nothing.

Often these women end up in a forced labour situation whereby they are told that they will have to repay the costs. The ‘pressgang’ organisation has had a lot of costs, that is always the story; for her passport, ticket, clothes. That money has to be repaid by work, whilst at the same time a room has to be hired for part of the day, and costs of work clothes, toilet articles and, for example, cigarettes, are withheld from her income. Only then, penniless and physically and spiritually broken, can they return to their country.

Again and again women who have been the victims of trafficking in women tell that when they see no other possibility to survive; when there is nothing left to be sold, they sell their own bodies to be able to feed their families and children.

Because the great poverty in a large part of the world is an important cause of trafficking in women. Wherever possible SRTV promotes fair trade in order to attain a more equitable distribution of wealth.

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Laws and Regulations

Brothel ban lifted
On October 1st, 2000, the Dutch ban on brothels, which had existed since 1911 was lifted. The exploitation of voluntary prostitution is no longer considered a crime. Any form of forced prostitution, pimping and trafficking will remain in the Penal Code, the maximum penalty will go up to 6 years imprisonment.

The prohibition of brothels meant that it was forbidden to run a brothel. Prostitution itself was never prohibited in The Netherlands. In effect it was tolerated for many years.

According to many it is a good thing that an end has been put to a strange situation that existed in The Netherlands. On one hand it was officially forbidden to run a brothel, but on the other hand local authorities provided necessary facilities. Soliciting areas were set up; sometimes even complete ‘eros centres’ were built (whilst in actual fact this was forbidden).

After the repeal of this law the police are obliged to check up on all the brothels in their own local authority area, the women must carry their passports, the brothels must be hygienic and meet fire regulations etc. This will certainly improve the working conditions of (Dutch and legal) prostitutes. But herein lays the great problem with this regulation. Currently it is being researched whether the situation for illegal sex workers has, as is feared, worsened. Many people fear that traffickers in women who earn such a lot of money using these women will not give up their incomes just like that. There remain women working illegally in Dutch prostitution, and these women will only sink deeper into illegality. In this position it is then impossible for individuals, organisations and the police who want to help these women to reach them.

From the stories told by contacts it is known that many women have disappeared from the legal circuit. Despite that the number of clients has not diminished. The traffickers make women work for escort agencies that exist only as a (frequently changed) telephone number, or as illegal prostitutes in a back room.

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Victim or sex worker

In national and international laws and regulations, until recently trafficking in women has not been looked at from the point of view of the women themselves. Neither was it taken into account that women were trafficked for purposes other than prostitution and were made to work and exploited against their will.

The 1949 UN Convention bundled trafficking in women and their exploitation in prostitution by third parties together, so that the difference between the two has almost disappeared. The Convention even declared that, even with the agreement of the person in question, their exploitation in prostitution was a criminal act.

Despite the fact that there exist different opinions about prostitution and its exploitation, the fact cannot be avoided that such regulation fails to acknowledge the right of women to decide for themselves, and at the same time implies that everybody working in the sex industry is a victim.

Many organisations are appealing against such stereotyping, which only too often leads to laws against prostitution that stigmatise the women in question, isolate them and make them more vulnerable. Against this form of discrimination there is opposition from the human rights lobby: people have the right to freedom of movement and choice of work, as well as the right to decent working conditions.

Internationally there are different views of trafficking in women. Some countries equate it only with prostitution. Others see it above all as a form of organised crime, as a problem to do with migration or work-opportunity. According to the view, the strategy for combating the problem takes different forms. What they have in common is that they do not take much account of the interests of the women themselves. An important motive for women to allow themselves be exploited in the sex industry lies, indeed, in the hope that by doing so they will achieve a better life. And who may or can judge whether that really is a better life?

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Definition of trafficking in women

During the UN conference in Palermo in November 2000, for the first time a generally acceptable definition of trafficking in women was given, the so-called Palermo Protocol:

“Trafficking in persons” shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring 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 purposes of exploitation.

Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.

The document mentions explicitly ‘the exploitation of the prostitution of others’. In international law ‘sexual exploitation’ is not defined, and also during the debates about the protocol the delegates could not reach agreement on a definition of ‘sexual exploitation of others’. Because in international law terms such as ‘forced labour’, ‘practices of slavery’ and suchlike are very familiar, it was enough to leave it in these terms, all the more because it could not be precisely stated what is understood by such terms.

Both nationally and internationally a distinction is made between trafficking in persons (trafficking in women) and smuggling of people. Smuggling of people is only bringing people over the border without them having the required papers. Trafficking in people, however, involves a much more comprehensive process; from recruitment to setting to work under force, and all the steps in between.

SRTV chooses to go on using the legally incorrect term ‘trafficking in women’ because from the figures it appears that 98% of trafficked people are women.

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Perceptions

In order to reduce trafficking in women their must be economic alternatives that prevent people trying their luck elsewhere. Also the terms we use have an influence on the way in which we see the world, and accordingly an influence on the position of women.

In its information SRTV makes it clear that the perceptions about women play a role in the origins of the existence of trafficking in women, certainly where what we call sexual exploitation is concerned. On the other hand this perception, certainly when we speak of women who work in the sex industry, has two sides to it.

Indeed, one can view these sex workers as the victims of the perception that associates (exotic) women with sex, but also as people who exploit this perception to improve their own circumstances.

Those people who see the women in question purely as victims, offered like innocent lambs to others, would have little faith in the ability of these (adult) women to fend for themselves.

This does not take away from the fact that, legally speaking, the women who find themselves involved in trafficking in women should still be seen as victims.

For SRTV these views mean that sometimes a very thin tightrope must be walked, especially when the term ‘victim is used.

The human rights framework keeps us on the right track; to us trafficking in women is about the abuse of the right to human dignity, and not abuse of the dignity of the women themselves.

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