Only about 5% of the victims of trafficking in the world were treated. Most of the victims were left without a response and assistance
A groundbreaking interdisciplinary research group at Tel Aviv University examines and develops effective ways of dealing with the eradication of human trafficking in Israel and the world. The study reviews the various trends that characterize the global fight against human trafficking, since the entry into force of the American law and the UN Protocol for the Protection, Prevention, Suppression and Punishment of Human Trafficking in the early 2000s. According to the study, only about 5% of the victims of trafficking in the world were identified as such, while most of the victims remained without a response and assistance.
The research was conducted under the leadership of Prof. Hila Shamir, principal researcher at the TrapLab research group at the Buchman Faculty of Law, and was nominated for the ENGAGE award of the European Research Council (ERC), a prestigious award given to researchers whose work has a social impact. Prof. Shamir claims that, contrary to popular belief, human trafficking for the purposes of prostitution is only a small part of the phenomenon, while the bulk of trafficking is characterized by economic exploitation and power gaps in the labor market. Also, although the fight has relatively enjoyed public attention, the main legal tools that the various countries have developed to combat the phenomenon are insufficient and fail to bring about a significant reduction in the number of victims.
"Trafficking in human beings is a serious violation of basic human rights, including the denial of the right to freedom and dignity," says Prof. Shamir. "Unfortunately, however, instead of addressing the structural factors that enable severe exploitation and mass trafficking of human beings in the labor market, the policy makers, in Israel and internationally, choose to focus on trafficking for prostitution purposes and emphasizing the criminalization of human traffickers, tightening border controls and tightening restrictions on immigration. This is an approach that helps few victims of trafficking and prevents the development of an effective policy to combat human trafficking."
Abuse of power gaps in the labor market
Shamir focuses her research on an approach she calls "the work approach". This approach sees the roots of the phenomenon of human trafficking in economic characteristics, which are the abuse of power differences in the labor market. Prof. Shamir explains: "When we think about human trafficking, we tend to think about the exploitation of women in the sex industry, an issue that is important to deal with, but we rarely deal with the phenomena of acute exploitation of immigrants and other migrant workers, such that Israel, and other countries, invite work in sectors such as nursing, construction and agriculture. In relation to these, it is the state that creates the "climate" that encourages severe exploitation in the labor market by chaining the workers to one employer, turning a blind eye to heavy debt regimes that the workers pay, the lack of enforcement of basic human rights, including adequate living conditions, freedom of movement, safety at work and prevention of physical harm , as well as sexual exploitation of facts. All of these are phenomena that Israel's immigration policy at the moment not only does not try to reduce, but actually amplifies."
According to Prof. Shamir, while in Israel enforcement systems have invested a lot of resources in eradicating the phenomenon of human trafficking for the purposes of prostitution, in regards to trafficking according to the "work approach", the number of victims of trafficking treated by the authorities is extremely low. For example, between 2011-2019, 538 victims of human trafficking were recognized, of which only 265 victims received a visa for a year of rehabilitation. Also, only in a few cases did the court convict the defendants of the convictions for possession of migrant workers.
Prof. Shamir concludes: "As part of our social obligation to fight the phenomenon of human trafficking, we are required to change the nature of the fight and adopt effective ways to deal with the "work approach". The focus of the government authorities and enforcement agencies in Israel on the phenomenon of prostitution, a relatively small phenomenon, almost completely ignored, in terms of enforcement resources, prosecution, victim identification and preventive actions, the mass phenomenon of human trafficking for the purposes of exploitation in the labor market. This created the illusion that the state is working against exploitation, while in practice the grim reality has hardly changed."
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