Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery Poverty drives the unsuspecting poor into the
hands of traffickers Published reports & articles from 2000 to 2025 gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Afghanistan.htm
Afghanistan is a
source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children
trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and commercial sexual
exploitation. Afghan boys and girls are trafficked within the country for
commercial sexual exploitation, forced marriage to settle debts or disputes,
forced begging, as well as forced labor or debt bondage in brick kilns,
carpet-making factories, and domestic service. Afghan children are also
trafficked to Iran and Pakistan for forced labor, particularly in Pakistan’s
carpet factories, and forced marriage.
- U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons
Report, June, 2009 Check out a later country report here or a full TIP Report here |
|||||||||||
|
CAUTION:
The following links have been culled from the web to
illuminate the situation in HOW TO USE THIS WEB-PAGE Students If you are looking for
material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on this
page and others to see which aspects of Human Trafficking are of particular
interest to you. Would you like to
write about Forced-Labor? Debt
Bondage? Prostitution? Forced Begging? Child Soldiers? Sale of Organs? etc. On the other
hand, you might choose to include possible precursors of trafficking such as poverty. There is a lot to the
subject of Trafficking. Scan other
countries as well. Draw comparisons
between activity in adjacent countries and/or regions. Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. ***
FEATURED ARTICLES *** Out Of Money? Sell
Your Daughter Haytullah Gaheez,
Jewish World Review, February 16, 2005 www.jewishworldreview.com/0205/selling_daughters.php3?printer_friendly [accessed 18 January
2011] Zeva's eyes filled with
tears as the 10-year-old's father took her by the arm and handed her over to
the man from whom he had borrowed 50,000 afghanis,
or about $1,000. "I cannot pay
you in any other way. Take my daughter," said Gul Miran,
42, a farmer in Nangarhar province. Like many other
farmers in "I accepted the
girl in return for my loan," said Haji Naqibullah,
who had advanced Gul Miran the money. "We had
an agreement. He would (pay me back) regardless of whether his crops were
wiped out by the weather or by the government. "In a year or
18 months I will marry her off to my youngest son," he said. "He is
19 years old and has been married to his first wife for two years but has not
had a child yet." Afghan carpet
weavers are unpaid slaves, rights activist says Syrian Arab News
Agency [accessed 18 January
2011] Women choose death
over marriage James Astill in womenfreedomforum.org/news-en/othernews/afghanwomenchoosedeath.htm [accessed 22 April
2020] www.theguardian.com/world/2004/apr/24/afghanistan.jamesastill [accessed 10 May
2021] At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] "Every minute
of every day, she was fetching water, growing crops, looking after animals
and children, cleaning the house. She was patient, but it was too much for
her: she was educated and sensitive. She found it hard to live like a
slave." She was not alone
in her suffering, nor in the agonising way she
chose to die. Anecdotal evidence suggests several hundred young women are
burning themselves to death in western A government
mission sent to investigate the problem in ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Afghanistan U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/afghanistan/
[accessed 10 May 10,
2021] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR The labor law
narrowly defines forced labor and does not sufficiently criminalize forced
labor and debt bondage. Men, women, and children were exploited in bonded
labor, where an initial debt assumed by a worker as part of the terms of
employment was exploited, ultimately entrapping other family members,
sometimes for multiple generations. This type of debt bondage was common in
the brickworks industry. Some families knowingly sold their children into sex
trafficking, including for bacha bazi (see section
7.c.). Government
enforcement of the labor law was ineffective; resources, inspections, and
remediation were inadequate; and the government made minimal efforts to
prevent and eliminate forced labor. Penalties were not commensurate with
analogous crimes, such as kidnapping. PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT Child labor
remained a pervasive problem. Most victims of forced labor were children.
Child laborers worked as domestic servants, street vendors, peddlers, and
shopkeepers. There was child labor in the carpet industry, brick kilns, coal
mines, and poppy fields. Children were also heavily engaged in the worst
forms of child labor in mining, including mining salt; commercial sexual
exploitation including bacha bazi (see section 6,
Children); transnational drug smuggling; and organized begging rings. Some
forms of child labor exposed children to land mines. Children faced numerous
health and safety risks at work. There were reports of recruitment of
children by the ANDSF during the year (see section 1.g.). Taliban forces
pressed children to take part in hostile acts (see section 6, Children). Some
children were forced by their families into labor with physical violence.
Particularly in opium farming, families sold their children into forced
labor, begging, or sex trafficking to settle debts with opium traffickers.
Some Afghan parents forcibly sent boys to Iran to work to pay for their dowry
in an arranged marriage. Children were also subject to forced labor in
orphanages run by NGOs and overseen by the government. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/afghanistan/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 22 April
2020] G3. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY PERSONAL SOCIAL FREEDOMS, INCLUDING CHOICE OF MARRIAGE PARTNER AND SIZE
OF FAMILY, PROTECTION FROM DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, AND CONTROL OVER APPEARANCE? Women’s choices
regarding marriage and divorce remain restricted by custom and discriminatory
laws. The forced marriage of young girls to older men or widows to their
husbands’ male relations is a problem, and many girls continue to be married
before the legal age of 16. The courts and the detention system have been
used to enforce social control of women, for example by jailing those who
defy their families’ wishes regarding marriage. G4. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? The constitution
bans forced labor and gives all citizens the right to work. However, debt
bondage remains a problem, as does child labor, which is particularly
prevalent in the carpet industry. Most human trafficking victims in
Afghanistan are children trafficked internally to work in various industries,
become domestic servants, settle debts, or be subjected to sexual
exploitation. Children are also vulnerable to recruitment by armed militant
groups, and to a lesser extent by government security forces. 2017 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor Office of Child Labor,
Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking, Bureau of International Labor Affairs,
US Dept of Labor, 2018 www.dol.gov/sites/default/files/documents/ilab/ChildLaborReport_Book.pdf [accessed 15 April
2019] www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ILAB/child_labor_reports/tda2018/ChildLaborReportBook.pdf [accessed 22 April
2020] Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor [page 102 Children are
subject to commercial sexual exploitation throughout the country. A remaining
concern is the practice of bacha bazi, or boy play,
in which men–including police commanders, tribal leaders, warlords, and mafia
heads–force boys to provide social and sexual entertainment. (46; 51; 52) In
many cases, these boys are dressed in female clothing, used as dancers at
parties and ceremonies, and sexually exploited. (46) According to the
Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, the practice exists in all
provinces of the country. (53) Research has found specific cases in the provinces
of Baghlan, Balkh, Faryab,
Helmand, Konduz, Takhar,
and Uruzgan. (49; 52; 46) A national inquiry
conducted in 2014 found that most boys were between the ages of 13 and 16,
and that 60 percent of them had been subjected to physical violence, confinement,
and threats of death. (46) Some government officials, including members of
the Afghan National Police, the Afghan Local Police, and the Afghan Border
Police, exploit boysfor bacha bazi
as well as for work as tea servers or cooks in police camps. (54; 46; 48; 49;
51; 53; 44; 55) A few such cases took place and were documented in 2017. (4;
56; 57) Some local police commanders abduct boys and use them for bacha bazi. (48; 49) Afghan children are
trafficked both domestically and internationally. Afghan boys are used for
forced labor in agriculture and construction abroad, and girls tend to be
used for commercial sexual exploitation and domestic work in destination
countries, primarily Iran and Pakistan. (44) Children were trafficked to
settle their family’s debt, including in the production of bricks and illicit
drugs. (2; 8; 44) Some Afghan girls are subjected to forced marriage in
exchange for money for their families. (56) Reports indicate that girls from
Iran, Pakistan, and China are trafficked to Afghanistan for commercial sexual
exploitation. (56) Some child laborers are subjected to sexual violence. (20;
35) According to an international organization, there is an emerging trend of
forced recruitment of trafficked children into non-state armed groups. (32). AFGHANISTAN: Lack
of institutional mechanisms to tackle human trafficking UN Integrated Regional Information Networks IRIN, www.irinnews.org/report/73300/afghanistan-lack-of-institutional-mechanisms-to-tackle-human-trafficking [accessed 8 March 2015] www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news/2007/07/19/lack-institutional-mechanisms-tackle-human-trafficking [accessed 2 January 2, 2023] According to Paktiawal, among trafficking victims were tens of Afghan
children, boys and girls, who had been taken to neighbouring
countries for forced servitude, sexual exploitation and other illegal
purposes. Inside Human trafficking
in World War 4 Report, November 18, 2006 [accessed 18 January 2011] Also it is reported
that selling of women has become very common in Faryab
province in north of Opium Trade in
Afghanistan Linked to Human Trafficking Lisa Schlein Report, Voice of www.voanews.com/articleprintview/399735.html [accessed 11 June
2013] payvand.com/news/06/sep/1048.html [accessed 22 April
2020] The IOM says
children are trafficked within the country to work as beggars or as bonded
labor in the brick kiln and carpet making industries. It says women and girls
are kidnapped or sold for forced marriages. They are pushed into prostitution
and sometimes used to settle debts or to resolve conflicts. Internationally, IOM says Afghan women and
girls are being trafficked primarily to Love Afghan Style:
Women Are Still Being Used As Currency
In The Marriage Market Parwin Mohmand, The
Women’s Reporting & Dialogue Programme,
Institute for War & Peace Reporting, WPR Issue 2, Kabul, 17 Nov 2005 iwpr.net/report-news/love-afghan-style [accessed 18 January
2011] iwpr.net/global-voices/love-afghan-style [accessed 26 May
2017] Zakira was given away in
marriage to stop a blood feud. Her uncle had murdered a man and, rather than
start a round of revenge killings between the families, 20-year-old Zakira was bestowed on the murdered man's brother who
happened to be three times her age.
Forced marriages have long been a custom in Freedom Or
Theocracy?: Constitutionalism in scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1015&context=njihr [accessed 23 July
2013] ¶ 69 The authorities in New rights, but
Afghan women still may face forced
marriages Associated Press,
Kabul, March 14, 2005 billingsgazette.com/news/world/forced-marriages-common/article_0c3f3e9e-929f-5eae-a056-004a1e651a90.html [accessed 28 August
2014] Fourteen year-old
Bibi has never seen the father who wants to sell her into marriage with a
stranger. She hid when he sent police
to her village home in northern A Shared Suffering Anara Tabyshalieva - The Women’s Reporting & Dialogue Programme, Institute for War & Peace Reporting, WPR
Issue 1, November 17, 2005 iwpr.net/report-news/shared-suffering-0 [accessed 18 January
2011] iwpr.net/global-voices/shared-suffering-0 [accessed 26 May
2017] The custom of bride
kidnapping still ruins the life of both women and men in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakstan, and polygamy is on the rise across the region.
The practice, which is legal in Watchlist
Country Reports | Watchlist on Children and
Armed Conflict www.watchlist.org/reports/files/afghanistan.report.php [accessed 18 January
2011] TRAFFICKING AND
EXPLOITATION
- Female trafficking for sexual purposes is a thriving business in We will have our
say Duncan Campbell, The Guardian, www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/jul/16/afghanistan.duncancampbell [accessed 18 January
2011] "But civil
rights for women?" she says. "Light years off." The major
problems for women remain a lack of opportunity and fear for their personal
safety at home, says Le Duc. She points out that
the mistreatment of women flourished under the mujahideen.
Now, she says,
women who work can still be dismissed by men as "whores".
"Women say that men don't know how to behave towards them," says Le
Duc. "Not a week goes by without a report of a
gang rape by a warlord, or a woman beaten almost to death by her husband.
Women are still valued for their reproductive rather than their productive
role." 2,000 former Afghan
child soldiers to be demobilized and rehabilitated UNICEF Press Centre,
www.unicef.org/media/media_19165.html [accessed 18 January
2011] UNICEF estimates that
there a total of 8,000 former child soldiers in Free the Refugees Joy Goodsell, Refugee Advocate & Sandy McCutcheon,
Presenter, Radio National - Perspective, 22 March 2004 www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/perspective/joy-goodsell/3376668 [accessed 18 April
2012] The family I stayed
with showed me how they all huddled in a corner, praying that they would be spared,
during three months of rocket attacks. Rape, abduction of women and children,
kidnappings and home invasions or forced land acquisitions are still
commonplace. Forced marriages
contributing to women suicides in Afghanistan Reuters, www.afghanmania.com/en/news/0,news,3488,00.html [accessed 28 August
2014] Forced marriages
and a lack of education were contributing to a recent spate of suicide
attempts among women in “Among the rest
there could be more suicides but you know, according to Afghan tradition,
people are not ready to talk about suicide, it is taboo and they try to hide
it.” She said neither the police nor a government delegation sent to Jeffrey Donovan,
Radio Free Europe – Radio www.rferl.org/content/article/1051818.html [accessed 18 April
2012] [accessed 22 April
2020] "A great deal
is better for the Afghan woman. She can go outside without the Taliban in
tow, but she's harassed by a lot of armed men. She can go if she wants a job,
but there are not jobs available for her to do. She wants to be healthy, but
there's not a health care system there. The worst part is that she does not
have the right to choose who she wants to marry," Shorish-Shamley
said. The issue of forced
Afghan marriages is making headlines in the Western press. Several newspapers
and broadcasters have recently carried stories about a recent string of self-immolations
by Afghan women in despair over forced marriages, domestic violence and a
lack of respect for their rights. Forced Marriages,
Beatings, Suicides Persist Despite Taliban's Fall Anna Badkhen, San Francisco Chronicle, April 16, 2004 www.sfgate.com/news/article/Liberation-eludes-Afghan-women-Forced-2792215.php [accessed 28 August
2014] For four months,
the 21-year-old civil liberties activist has been teaching 120 local women
and girls to read, write, take care of their health and not be afraid to
stand up for their rights. But two months ago, her work at the Afghan Center,
a humanitarian organization that provides general and vocational education
for women in Kabul, was undercut by her own family. They made clear to
her that because she is an Afghan woman, she has no rights. In February, Ghazal's parents informed her
that they had engaged her to marry her cousin, Rafi, 28, an unemployed
carpenter in the tiny Campaign under way
to raise awareness of child trafficking UN Integrated
Regional Information Networks IRIN, www.irinnews.org/report/23128/afghanistan-campaign-under-way-to-raise-awareness-of-child-trafficking [accessed 24
February 2015] According to the
Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), human trafficking -
particularly child kidnapping and abduction - were identified as one of the
most serious rights violations in recent months in AIHRC said that
although exact figures were hard to come by, in the last five months of 2003
over 300 complaints had been received from the families of children who had
disappeared. "The commission is aware that many children are flown to
Gulf countries, in particular Still an important
source for human trafficking - IOM report UN Integrated
Regional Information Networks IRIN, www.irinnews.org/report/22827/afghanistan-still-an-important-source-for-human-trafficking-iom-report [accessed 8 March
2015] A new report by the
International Organization for Migration (IOM) argues that IOM said it had
learnt that there were many forms of trafficking practiced in Post-Taleban, post-war - justice for women in Amnesty
International, October 6 2003 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 3
September 2011] Two years after the
beginning of the military action against the Taleban,
the women of Afghanistan are still subject to horrific abuses, from honour killings to forced and underage marriage,
virginity testing, and prosecution and imprisonment for adultery, said
Amnesty International in a major new report published today (6 October 2003). 'No one listens to
us and no one treats us as human beings: Afghanistan - Justice denied to
women is based on interviews with women in many parts of Afghanistan and
finds that the day-to-day lives of many Afghan women are little changed from
the oppression they endured under the Taleban. Afghan Women Fight
for Citizenship Jodi Enda, Women's eNews, At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 3
September 2011] FEW GUARANTEES FOR
WOMEN
- Afghan women who attended the September conference "felt that because of
the recent history of abuses, it was very important to very specifically list
rights of women. That really hasn't happened in this document," Sultan
said. "It doesn't outlaw discrimination based on gender. It doesn't talk
about the rights of inheritance and property. It doesn't address the exchange
of women in terms of disputes between families." Although members of
a constitutional commission reviewed a women's bill of rights composed at the
Millions Suffer in
Sex Slavery United Press
International UPI, Chicago, April 24, 2001 trafficksigns.com/?page_id=36 [accessed 23 July
2013] www.newsmax.com/Pre-2008/Millions-Suffer-Sex-Slavery/2001/04/23/id/661571/ [accessed 26 May
2017] AMONG THE OTHER
FINDINGS: ·
Afghani women are sold into prostitution in Human Rights
Overview
by
Human Rights Watch – Defending Human Rights Worldwide [accessed 18 January
2011] ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** 2017 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 20 April 2018 www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2017/sca/277275.htm
[accessed 12 March
2019] www.state.gov/reports/2017-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/afghanistan/ [accessed 24 June
2019] SECTION 7. WORKER
RIGHTS -- PROHIBITION OF FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR Forced labor
occurred. Men, women, and children were forced into poppy cultivation,
domestic work, carpet weaving, brick kiln work, organized begging, and drug
trafficking. NGO reports documented the practice of bonded labor, whereby
customs allow families to force men, women, and children to work as a means
to pay off debt or to settle grievances. The debt can continue from
generation to generation, with children forced to work to pay off their
parents’ debt (see section 7.c.). Labor violations against migrant workers
were common, especially the widespread practice of bonded labor in brick kiln
facilities. PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT Child labor
remained a pervasive problem. The Ministry of Labor declined to estimate the
number of working children, citing a lack of data and deficiencies in birth
registrations. Child laborers worked as domestic servants, street vendors,
peddlers, and shopkeepers. There was child labor in the carpet industry,
brick kilns, coalmines, and poppy fields. Children were also heavily engaged
in the worst forms of child labor in mining (especially family-owned gem
mines), commercial sexual exploitation (see section 6, Children),
transnational drug smuggling, and organized begging rings. Some forms of
child labor exposed children to land mines. Children faced numerous health
and safety risks at work, and there were reports of sexual abuse of children
by adult workers. There were reports of recruitment of juveniles by the ANDSF
during the year. Taliban forces pressed children to take part in hostile acts
(see section 6, Children). Human
Rights Reports » 2006 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78868.htm [accessed 17 March
2020] WOMEN – Forced marriages
continued to be a widespread problem. Previous AIHRC reporting estimated that
60 to 80 percent of all marriages were forced. The AIHRC estimated that
approximately 40 percent of marriages were forced, and distinguished this
category from another 20 percent of marriages that were "arranged,"
in which the woman was not allowed to choose her own spouse but may opt not
to marry the man chosen for her by her family. During the year the AIHRC
recorded 213 cases of forced marriages. There were 106 reported cases of
self-immolation, several of which were women protesting a forced marriage. Exchanging or
selling women or girls remained a customary method of resolving disputes or
satisfying debts, even though it was outlawed by presidential decree. For
example, according to the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), Rosina, 18,
was sold into marriage by her father to a man in his fifties. When she
refused she was beaten. During the year the
AIHRC recorded 41 cases of women being given to another family to settle
disputes; however, the AIHRC believes the number of actual cases to be much
higher. In the early part of the year, there was a very high-profile case
involving a 13-year-old who was engaged to the son of an influential
politician in Badakhshan province. She refused to marry the man and was
threatened with stoning by residents of her village. The case eventually went
to the Supreme Court; however, quiet negotiations involving local and central
government led the case to be dropped and mediated informally. The girl did
not have to marry the politician's son. Honor killings also
continued to be a problem. The AIHRC documented a total of 50 cases
throughout the year. During the year the AIHRC reported a case in which a
girl was raped by her brother. A resulting pregnancy forced the girl to
reveal the incident to her parents. In order to save the family's reputation
the parents set the girl on fire. She died three days later. At year's end
authorities had not investigated this case. There were no further
developments in the December 2005 case of an honor killing in the Watapour District of Konar
Province. Human
Rights Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61704.htm [accessed 4 February
2020] TRAFFICKING IN
PERSONS
– The law does not prohibit trafficking in persons; however, traffickers
could be prosecuted under other laws. The country was a source and transit
point for trafficked persons. A 2003 IOM report noted qualitative and
anecdotal evidence of increased trafficking in girls and children to There were
continued reports of poor families promising young girls in marriage to
satisfy family debts. There were a number of reports that children,
particularly from the south and southeast, were trafficked to The Department of
Labor’s 2004 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/afghanistan.htm [accessed 18 January
2011] Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Afghanistan is a country of origin and transit for
children trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation, forced marriage,
labor, domestic servitude, slavery, crime, and the removal of body
organs. Since early 2003, there have
been increasing reports of children reported as missing throughout the
country. It is also reported that
impoverished Afghan families have sold their children into forced sexual
exploitation, marriage, and labor. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt,
Prof. Martin, "Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery - |
