ASEAN Member States and the Problem with Human Trafficking

Despite having been signed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states in 2015, The ASEAN Convention Against Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children (ACTIP), has not been able to curb human trafficking cases in the region. Human trafficking remains a regional issue that requires collective effort. In the 42nd ASEAN Summit held in May 2023, ASEAN countries issued a declaration that specifically highlights the way technology facilitates human trafficking today.

Human trafficking takes up many different forms. In Myanmar, due to the ongoing Rohingya conflict, approximately 1.2 million people have been victims of forced migration in 2021 alone. Given their statelessness status and the need to flee a conflict zone, during the journey, women are prone to being recruited for forced marriages and sold at sex markets. Meanwhile in Indonesia, migrant fishery workers are among the most vulnerable. As fishermen, they have to live for months onboard ships where they experience inhumane treatment from their employers, ranging from being denied access to food, to being forced to work overtime, to withholding of salary. 
There are two main reasons why human trafficking is flourishing. The first reason is the fact that human trafficking is a lucrative business. Accommodation is required as a place to stay or transit for the victims and transportation is needed to commute either between cities or countries. This means that hotels and transportation providers actually benefit from human trafficking. According to the International Labour Organization, worldwide, human trafficking generates about $150 billion a year in illegal profit. The second reason is that there has been a notable involvement of authorities who are supposedly responsible to tackle the issue. Authorities' involvement includes documents forgery and providing sanctuary for the victims. This involvement of authority figures worsens the effort to address the issue as victims of trafficking become afraid to report to the authorities. This makes it difficult for government institutions to acquire first-hand accounts and information about the traffickers’ network.

In today’s world, technology plays a role in facilitating recruitment. Trafficking is advertised as jobs through Facebook and WhatsApp. Cryptocurrency and informal payment systems are now used, which makes it harder for the authorities to detect and trace the trafficking network. Having observed the advancement of technology in human trafficking, the ASEAN Declaration encourages, inter alia, the setting of a minimum standard of protection, promotes the enhancement of each member state’s law enforcement, and advocates for joint investigation and exercises.

To address human trafficking is to address everything as problems stretch from prevention to law enforcement. Education and poverty are among the root causes of human trafficking. People who come from a financially weak background are often at times the same people who lack access to proper education. Motivated by the need to provide for their family and being ill-informed about suspicious job offers found online, they are the group that is most likely to take part in human trafficking. However, this is not to say that the responsibility of prevention lies only on the society. The prevention phase should incorporate several actors; (1) the sites in which fraud job offers are advertised should take down fraudulent advertisements and work together with the authorities to crack down the network; (2) working together with the authorities can be done by identifying phone lines, WhatsApp lines, and online account that have been used to conduct scams, which has been done by the Anti-Scam Centre of the Singapore Police Force; (3) governments to strengthen economic empowerment especially for those living in rural areas lacking in access to job markets. The idea is to increase economic independence so that people’s vulnerability is reduced.

In each of the Southeast Asian countries, different government agencies are involved in addressing the human trafficking issue. In the Philippines, there are at least seven agencies involved from the Department of Justice to the Philippine Centre on Transnational Crime. Meanwhile, in Cambodia, there are four agencies dealing with trafficking issues which include the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the Ministry of the Interior. Given the different mandates of each of the agencies, communication and coordination among agencies is essential. Unfortunately, communication and coordination have been one of the issues, as, for example, Tanjung Priok port in Jakarta provides a “one stop center” for migrant workers who have experienced any problems. In that center, each relevant agency is represented to expedite the process. However, each agency, despite being physically adjacent to each other, has been working independently in the data collection process. In addition, not only the lack of coordination among agencies within a country, law enforcement is also hampered by the lack of cooperation among neighboring countries. For instance, the lack of trust between Cambodia and Thailand which is partly due to a past conflict, has complicated the cooperation process. 

In conclusion, ASEAN member states need to work collectively in addressing human trafficking issues. The legal instruments are already well-established, but it requires more effort in daily practice, such as fostering coordination and cooperation. Empowering the community can also prevent human trafficking especially women and children who are more vulnerable. In addition, ASEAN needs to respond to the adaptivity of the traffickers. The use of technology to facilitate recruitment means that traffickers can reach wider potential victims in a nick of time, putting even more people at risk.