World Day against Trafficking in Persons |30 July 2019

‘Arid will continue to advocate for victims of human trafficking’

The Association for Rights Information and Democracy (Arid) has called on the government to intensify its effort especially in detecting and prosecuting cases of human trafficking and other gross human rights violation.

The appeal comes in a message from Arid on the occasion of the World Day against Trafficking in Persons being celebrated today, July 30.

The full text of the message reads:

“World Day against Trafficking in Persons is an annual commemoration held on July 30. People trafficking and modern day slavery is a great concern worldwide.  Thousands of men, women and children end up in the hands of traffickers every year, often through being tricked and misled to believe that they are being taken to work that will make their family better off, or through force, kidnap, or even through very poor families selling children in order to survive.

“There are many ways that people get caught up in trafficking, but the result is the same, they lose their rights and identity and are used and abused, and it is a global problem, an industry not far behind drugs and arms in terms of profit for traffickers.

“Since 2003 the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has collected information on about 225,000 victims of trafficking detected worldwide. Globally countries are detecting and reporting more victims, and are convicting more traffickers. This can be the result of increased capacity to identify victims and/or an increased number of trafficked victims. Sadly, Seychelles has not been spared with a first conviction of trafficking in persons recorded last year.   

“On the occasion of the World Day against Trafficking in Persons, the Association for Rights Information and Democracy (Arid) is calling on the government to intensify its effort especially in detecting and prosecuting cases of human trafficking and other gross human rights violation.

“Arid has over the past months noticed a significant increase in the number of violation and abuse of expatriate workers. Foreign workers are not doing jobs as per their Gainful Occupational Permit (GOP) and they are being ill-treated, physically and psychologically abused and even deprived of their basic human rights. In most of these cases, the department of Employment has been slow to react and ineffective. Recently a Bangladeshi expatriate worker was kept in police custody for more than 40 days without due process and the Immigration department was once again in violation of the established regulations. We have received numerous reports and complaints of alleged cases of trafficking in persons happening on some outer islands mostly in luxurious resorts. The alleged reported cases include young females being hired under the pretext of dancers or entertainers but in actual fact they were being used as sex workers and in other related unlawful activities. There are also suspected cases occurring in our territorial waters. It is a huge challenge for law enforcing authorities to detect or intervene because in most of these cases the cover-up plans are very good and the victims are scared to talk or are well paid to perform these illegal activities.

“As we commemorate the day against trafficking in persons, Arid is calling on partners involved in curbing trafficking in persons to be more proactive in undertaking awareness programmes on this scourge affecting our country. We call on the government to review the existing laws and legal framework in order to address the gaps and grey areas in our laws to make it robust to deal with the current threats of trafficking in persons and to have appropriate services and facilities for victims of human trafficking.  Arid will continue to monitor the situation and advocate for the victims.