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/Pakistan.htm
Pakistan is a
source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children
trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation. The
country's largest human trafficking problem is that of bonded labor, which is
concentrated in Sindh and Punjab provinces, particularly in brick kilns,
carpet-making, agriculture, fishing, mining, leather tanning, and production
of glass bangles; estimates of Pakistani victims of bonded labor, including men,
women, and children, vary widely but are likely over one million. Parents
sell their daughters into domestic servitude, prostitution, or forced
marriages, and women are traded between tribal groups to settle disputes or
as payment for debts. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report,
June, 2009 Check out a later country report here and possibly a full TIP Report here |
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CAUTION:
The following links have been culled from the web to
illuminate the situation in Pakistan. Some of these links may lead to
websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No
attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their
content. 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 precursors of trafficking such as poverty and hunger. 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 *** Slavery in the 21st
century Alan McCombes, Scottish Socialist Voice, November 2001 www.scottishsocialistvoice.net/2001/12/slavery-in-the-21st-century/959 [accessed 21
December 2011] Bonded labour otherwise known as debt slavery is rampant in
Pakistan. The system works as follows. Desperately poor families go to a feudal
employer usually a brick kiln owner or a carpet manufacturer and ask them for
a loan, perhaps to pay for medical treatment for a sick child. In return for the
loan, the entire family is turned into the private property of the employer.
They are forced to work long hours for pitiful wage and half of these wages
are kept by the factory owner as payment towards the loan. The loan may take
a generation or more to pay off. But until it is paid, the family
are held in slavery. Iqbal had been sold
by his mother to a carpet manufacturer at the age of four. For years he spent
twelve hours a day, seven days a week working in carpet factories for a
pittance. He eventually rebelled against his conditions and became a major
figure in the BLLF. At the age of 12 he was traveling Pakistan addressing
mass meetings and leading demos of thousands of children against industrial
slavery. To this day, his murder has never been satisfactorily explained. Contemporary Forms
of Slavery in Pakistan Human Rights
Watch/Asia, Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 95-77876, ISBN
1-56432-154-1, July 1995 www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/1995/Pakistan.htm [accessed 15
December 2010] SUMMARY - Millions of
workers in Pakistan are held in contemporary forms of slavery. Throughout the
country employers forcibly extract labor from adults and children, restrict
their freedom of movement, and deny them the right to negotiate the terms of
their employment. Employers coerce such workers into servitude through
physical abuse, forced confinement, and debt-bondage. The state offers these
workers no effective protection from this exploitation. Although slavery is
unconstitutional in Pakistan and violates various national and international
laws, state practices support its existence. The state rarely prosecutes or
punishes employers who hold workers in servitude. Moreover, workers who
contest their exploitation are invariably confronted with police harassment,
often leading to imprisonment under false charges. Third Anniversary
of the Murder of Iqbal Masih, Pakistani Child
Activist (1983-1995) Child Labor
Coalition, Washington DC, April 15, 1998 killarneyaboutchildlabour.blogspot.com/2008/11/americans-honor-iqbal-masih.html [accessed 28 August
2011] Iqbal Masih made a difference. His was the voice of a child pointing out to adults the horrible costs and injustices of child slavery. Twelve years old and one of the mightiest voices in Pakistan against child labor, Iqbal was a compelling survivor of slavery in Pakistan's carpet industry. For half of his
life, Iqbal was bonded in the hand-knotted carpet industry. Enslaved at the
age of four, for an advance of less than $16 to his parents, he was chained
to his loom, tying tiny knots for twelve hours a day, every day. Six years
later, when he confronted his boss demanding his freedom, the debt he owed
had risen to $419. Woman jailed for
forcing child into sex trade Independent Online
(IOL) News, Dushanbe, November 5 2004 www.iol.co.za/news/world/woman-jailed-for-forcing-child-into-sex-trade-1.226224 [accessed 15
December 2010] Last week a non-governmental organisation said there was a growing trend in the abduction and sale of Tajik boys for sexual exploitation abroad. The Modar organisation said groups in the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Pakistan and other countries were prepared to pay as much as $70 000 for a Tajik boy between the ages of 10 and 12. ***
ARCHIVES *** Pakistan religious
discrimination is enabling human trafficking Travis Weber &
Arielle Del Turco, Washington Examiner, 3 February 2020 [accessed 3 February
2020] The forced marriage
pipeline from Pakistan to China was recently highlighted by a newly uncovered
list of 629 Pakistani women and girls sold as brides to Chinese men and taken
to China. Pakistani investigators painstakingly gathered this information,
which points to an alarming trend in the lucrative crime of human trafficking
— the targeting of Christians in Pakistan. For Pakistan, ending this barbaric
trade means protecting religious freedom and ceasing the marginalization of
Christian communities, which makes them easy targets for foreign traffickers. Chinese traffickers
are targeting these marginalized religious minorities. Traffickers approach
impoverished families and offer to pay parents to marry their daughters off
to Chinese husbands who will take them to a new life in China. The burden of
poverty and social marginalization felt by some Christians drives them to
accept this offer out of desperation. Brokers who arrange these marriages
have even paid pastors to encourage their congregants to marry their
daughters off to Chinese men. What happens to
these brides in China is tragic. Some are abused and isolated. Others are
forced into prostitution. In one case, a Pakistani woman escaped back to
Pakistan after only two months of marriage in China. She returned
malnourished, weak, and unrecognizable. A few weeks later, she was dead. Pakistani officials
claim women trafficked into prostitution in China after marriage CBS News,
Faisalabad, 17 June 2019 [accessed 18 June
2019] With waves of
arrests, Pakistani investigators are trying to unravel trafficking networks
that convince impoverished Pakistanis to marry off their daughters to Chinese
men for cash and they say evidence is growing that many of the women and
girls are sold into prostitution once in China. 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Pakistan 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/pakistan/
[accessed 21 June
2021] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR The use of forced and
bonded labor was widespread and common in several industries across the
country. NGOs estimated that nearly two million persons were in bondage,
primarily in Sindh and Punjab, but also in Balochistan
and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. A large proportion of bonded laborers were low-caste
Hindus as well as Christians and Muslims with lower socioeconomic
backgrounds. Bonded labor was reportedly present in the agricultural sector,
including the cotton, sugarcane, and wheat industries, and in the brick,
coal, and carpet industries. Bonded laborers often were unable to determine
when their debts were paid in full, in part, because contracts were rare, and
employers could take advantage of bonded laborers’ illiteracy to alter debt
amounts or the price laborers paid for goods they acquired from their
employers. In some cases landowners restricted laborers’ movements with armed
guards or sold laborers to other employers for the price of the laborers’
debts. PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT Boys and girls were
bought, sold, rented, or kidnapped to work in illegal begging rings, as
domestic servants, or as bonded laborers in agriculture and brickmaking (see
section 7.c.). Illegal labor agents charged high fees to parents with false
promises of decent work for their children and later exploited them by
subjecting the children to forced labor in domestic servitude, unskilled
labor, small shops, and other sectors. Child labor
remained pervasive, with many children working in agriculture and domestic
work. There were also reports that small workshops employed a large number of
child laborers, which complicated efforts to enforce child labor laws. Poor
rural families sometimes sold their children into domestic servitude or other
types of work, or they paid agents to arrange for such work, often believing
their children would work under decent conditions. Some children sent to work
for relatives or acquaintances in exchange for education or other
opportunities ended in exploitative conditions or forced labor. Children also
were kidnapped or sold into organized begging rings, domestic servitude,
militant groups and gangs, and child sex trafficking. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/pakistan/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 8 July
2020] G4. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? Bonded labor was formally
abolished in 1992, and there have been long-standing efforts to enforce the
ban and related laws against child labor. For example, in one example from
May 2019, 63 brick kiln workers filed a complaint with the Human Rights
Commission of Pakistan (HCRP) that they had been sold along with the kiln
where they worked. They were formally released from bondage by a court order
in June. Gradual social change has also eroded the power of wealthy
landowning families involved in such exploitation. Nevertheless, extreme
forms of labor exploitation remain common. Employers continue to use chronic
indebtedness to restrict laborers’ rights and hold actual earnings well below
prescribed levels, particularly among sharecroppers and in the brick-kiln
industry. 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 22 April
2019] www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ILAB/child_labor_reports/tda2017/ChildLaborReportBook.pdf [accessed 4 May
2020] Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL
Worst Forms of Child Labor [page 773] A national child
labor survey has not been conducted since 1996, and the lack of recent data
hampers the ability of the federal and provincial governments to accurately
assess the scope and prevalence of child labor. (12) Many child domestic
workers are working under conditions of forced labor, including debt bondage,
sexual assault, and extreme physical abuse. (1; 41; 42) Some children work
with their families as bonded laborers in the production of bricks. (12; 61;
55) Non-state militant
groups forced children to engage in suicide attacks. (58; 59; 60) There are
reports that religious schools are used for recruitment of children for armed
groups. (62) Additionally, the Taliban recruited and forced children to
attend madrassas, or religious schools, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where
they received religious and military training. Some families received cash
payments in exchange for sending their children to the Taliban-run schools.
(63). In 2014, slavery
still exists… Umar Riaz, The Express Tribune Blogs, June 15, 2014 blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/20961/in-2014-slavery-still-exists/ [accessed 15 June
2014] Iram, 10, was an orphan
and one of five siblings. She was sent from a small village in Okara to work in a posh locality of Lahore. There, she
was beaten for days with iron rods and gas pipes over a false allegation of
theft. She succumbed to the torture and fainted after vomiting blood. When
her oppressors brought her to the hospital, she was already dead. However,
the family responsible for her murder was more concerned about the upcoming
marriage in their house than the fact that they had brutally killed an
innocent child. Fizza, 15, was working
for an educated family in Defence, Lahore. She
started working at the age of nine with her mother and later on, she was left
there, all alone. Her landlord made her an object of punishment and penance.
She was beaten on a routine basis and was denied medical treatment, even when
her bones and joints were broken. She used to be tied by her wrists and
ankles by a tight rope, as punishment. She was unconscious when they finally
brought her to the hospital, and remained in a coma for two days. After that,
her lungs stopped working and her brain ruptured, causing her death. Azra, 17, had been
working since her childhood. At her last employment, she was sexually
assaulted by the son of her landlord. Later, when the family found about the
rape, fearing that she might report it against their son, she was
strangulated and killed by the landlord's family. Saudi Religious
Leader Calls for Slavery's Legalization Daniel Pipes, Lion's
Den (Daniel Pipes Blog), November 7, 2003 www.danielpipes.org/blog/2003/11/saudi-religious-leader-calls-for-slaverys [accessed 15
December 2010] Muslims, in contrast, still think the old way. Slavery still exists in a host of majority-Muslim countries (especially Sudan and Mauritania, also Saudi Arabia and Pakistan) and it is a taboo subject. To enable pious Muslims to avoid interest, an Islamic financial industry worth an estimated $150 billion has developed. The challenge ahead
is clear: Muslims must emulate their fellow monotheists by modernizing their religion
with regard to slavery, interest and much else. No more fighting jihad to
impose Muslim rule. No more endorsement of suicide terrorism. No more
second-class citizenship for non-Muslims. Pakistan court
frees five alleged attackers in gang rape Saeed Shah in
Lahore, The Guardian, 21 April 2011 www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/21/pakistan-gang-rape-mukhtaran-mai [accessed 22 April
2011] Mai's ordeal began
after her 13-year-old brother was accused by a more powerful clan of having
sex with one of their young women. He was then sodomised
in a sugar cane field by the woman's brother, Abdul Khaliq, and two other
men. There appears to be no basis for the original accusation. A tribal council
was assembled from Khaliq's clan, which ordered that Mai be punished for her
brother's illicit sex by being raped, on the basis of eye-for-an-eye justice.
Mai was forced at gunpoint by Khaliq into a stable, where he and other clan
members raped her. She was then paraded naked around the village. Tradition
dictated that Mai commit suicide, as the shame supposedly fell on her, but
she decided to fight her tormentors. The cruelty of
Mai's case is repeated in the treatment of women across the country, with
tribal councils regularly ordering young girls to be handed over in
compensation for crimes committed by other family members, and women to be
killed for "honour". Human trafficking
gang busted, girl recovered The News International,
Peshawar, 25 May 2009 www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=179371&Cat=7&dt=5/23/2009 [accessed 19 August
2014] indianexpress.com/article/india/gang-of-human-traffickers-busted-girl-recovered-in-badaun-4775483/ [accessed 11
February 2018] The Federal
Investigation Agency (FIA) Sunday busted an international human trafficking
gang and recovered a girl sold to an Arab Sheikh for Rs2 million. The
officials of the FIA Peshawar were tipped off that a gang would smuggle a
young girl of Lala Killay
to Dubai where she had been sold to … Human trafficking
victim narrates her ordeal The News
International, 01/07/2009 www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=156687&Cat=4&dt=1/12/2009 [accessed 19 August
2014] [scroll down] Shabana was lured with a
nice job and kidnapped along with her three daughters and one son on July 20,
2008 and taken to the 'katcha area' of Kashmore on the Sindh-Balochistan
border area. "A man called Rasheed Shar said I
was like his sister. He offered me a nice job in interior Sindh," Shabana told The News on Tuesday. "He took me to a 'katchi area' near Kashmore
along with my four kids - seven-year-old Sana, four-year-old Roshi, six-year-old Aisha, and eight-year-old Suleman." "He kept us there for three days and
then disappeared. My elder daughter Sana became ill and I tried to escape but
Rasheed's younger brother, Shabeeb, threatened to
kill us," she said with tears in her eyes. "Then they shifted me to
a place near the river and threatened to throw me in the water after killing
me. However, Rasheed's son-in-law Lalu became a
blessing in disguise and helped us." After two or three
weeks, one of Rasheed's brothers came to Shabana
and said that they were dacoits. "Rasheed called us up on his brother's
cell phone, and said he was waiting for us on the other bank of the river. He
told us to get on a boat which was waiting there. He promised he would take
us back to Karachi," Shabana said. "After
about two hours we were shifted to the 'katcha
area' across the river. However, the moment we arrived there, we were
surrounded by many people and I came to know that I was being sold. I told
them I was already married but I was sold to an elderly man, Ali Mohammad
Kurd. I remained with him for about two months and was often beaten severely.
In the meantime, several other people offered to purchase me. I was sold
thrice. However, on a lucky day, I along with my kids managed to escape to Kashmore." 'Rat people' forced
to beg on Agence France-Presse AFP, news.smh.com.au/world/rat-people-forced-to-beg-on-pakistans-streets-20080802-3oqf.html [accessed 19 August
2014] www.smh.com.au/world/rat-people-forced-to-beg-on-pakistans-streets-20080802-3oqf.html [accessed 13 August
2020] Outside a Muslim
shrine in this dusty Pakistani city, a "rat woman" with a tiny head
sits on a filthy mattress and takes money from worshippers who cling to an
ancient fertility rite. Nadia, 25, is one of hundreds of young microcephalics -- people born with small skulls and
protruding noses and ears because of a genetic mutation -- who can be found
on the streets of Gujrat, in central Punjab province. Officials say many of
them have been sold off by their families to begging mafias, who exploit a
tradition that the "rat children" are sacred offerings to Shah Daula, the shrine's 17th century Sufi saint. According to local
legend, infertile women who pray at Shah Daula's
shrine will be granted children, but at a terrible price. The first child
will be born microcephalic and must be given to the
shrine, or else any further children will have the same deformity. Hussain
said Nadia was just a young child when she was dumped at the shrine 20 years
ago in the dead of the night. Her parents were never traced, he says. "Some of these
children, the handicapped ones especially, are accompanied by
relatives," he told AFP. "But begging gangs also look for poor
parents who will sell them because they are a burden to feed and
shelter." Sohail said his department had
busted more than 30 gangs across the province involved in exploiting street children, some of which had
broken the limbs of children so that they would earn more as beggars. - htsc HRCP terms 2007
'multi-crisis year' Daily Times, Lahore,
March 30, 2008 streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/category/1/asia-streetkid-news/pakistan-streetkid-news/ [accessed 19 August
2014] streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2008/03/30/p1307/ [accessed 11
February 2018] HRCP Director IA Rehman told reporters at the launch of the organisation's annual report - 'State of Human Rights in
2007' - at the Lahore Press Club that many reports had been received from
various parts of Balochistan in 2007, claiming that
parents or children had been left with no option but to sell their kidneys in
order to feed their families, due to the ongoing crisis of armed conflict
there. Organ trafficking:
a fast-expanding black market IHS Jane's, 05 March
2008 www.traffickingproject.org/2008/03/organ-trafficking-fast-expanding-black.html [accessed 26 June
2013] China, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Brazil, the
Philippines, Moldova, and Romania are among the world's leading providers of
trafficked organs. If China is known for harvesting and selling organs from
executed prisoners, the other countries have been dealing essentially with
living donors, becoming stakeholders in the fast-growing human trafficking
web. Pakistan: poverty
forces trafficking of children on the rise UN Integrated
Regional Information Networks IRIN, Lahore, 21 January 2008 www.irinnews.org/PrintReport.aspx?ReportID=76109 [accessed 10
September 2011] While boys in
impoverished parts of rural Pakistan, particularly towns in the southern
Punjab, are more likely to be trafficked overseas, girls are trafficked more
often within the country, and sometimes sold into what amounts to little more
than sexual slavery, says the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP). HRCP has reported
that in most cases, they are given away for amounts of money ranging from
US$1,300 to $5,000 by impoverished parents, sometimes in
"marriage"; and sometimes to agents who promise lucrative jobs as
domestic servants in large cities. Many of these
girls, according to child rights groups, end up as sex workers. Some are no
older than 10 at the time of the "sale". "Hundreds of
girls are trafficked within the country each year. There are markets in the
North West Frontier Province where these victims are sold like cattle,"
I.A. Rehman, director of the Human Rights
Commission of Pakistan, said. - htcp International day
to eliminate violence against women on 25th Nadia Usman, Daily
Times, Lahore, November 24, 2007 archives.dailytimes.com.pk/national/24-Nov-2007/international-day-to-eliminate-violence-against-women-on-25th [accessed 19 August
2014] www.un.org/en/events/endviolenceday/ [accessed 19 August
2014] According to the
data compiled by Madadgaar Helpline, 4,624 women
were victimised in Pakistan from January to August.
Of them, 935 women were killed, 104 murdered after rape, 416 raped, 160 gang
raped, 809 tortured, 485 became victims of karo-kari,
166 burnt, 642 kidnapped, 129 reported as victim of police torture, 576
committed suicide, 127 fell victim of human trafficking and 75 were arrested
under the Hudood Ordinance. SPARC condemns
human trafficking The News, Karachi,
February 28, 2007 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 10
September 2011] Some tribal elders
from Balochistan also attended the meeting in which
the girl's family was told to give her as per their customs. This trading,
which in many cases is done under the name of loan settling, is contingent
upon the power, might and money of the lenders, who provide loans to the
needy and later impose heavy interest in order to get away with their innocent
minor daughters. "Child trafficking can be facilitated by local
practices and customs because of the economic problems a family faces that
forces them to sell their daughters to marriage. Horrific fate
awaits children spurned by society Aroosa Masroor
Khan, The News, Karachi, February 22, 2007 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 10
September 2011] "Saddar is the
hub of street children from all areas of Karachi," says Aqsa Zainab of
Azad Foundation, adding that child abusers are mostly found near shrines
where 'langar' is distributed or near railway
stations where they arrive from other cities. It is from here the young boys
are kidnapped and sold as commercial sex workers. - htsccp Govt committed to
eliminate problems of human trafficking: Shaukat
Aziz The News, Islamabad,
February 05, 2008 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 10
September 2011] The Prime Minister
was informed that there has been a significant increase in the arrest of
human traffickers and smugglers. Whereas only 300 human smugglers were
arrested in 2004. The number of arrested smugglers increased to 874 in 2006
while the number of deportees has been decreased. UN report regarding
Pakistan in human trafficking baseless, Senate told Pak Tribune,
Islamabad, September 14, 2006 [accessed 15
December 2010] Meanwhile, Federal
Health Minister Nasser Khan told Upper House a particular lobby is working
against Pakistan and several Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and
European Countries are trying to defame Pakistan. Pak one of the key
sources of women trafficking in world: UN report Bureau Report, Zee
News, September 12, 2006 www.zeenews.com/news322023.html [accessed 15
December 2010] A UN report has
described Pakistan as the "one of the key sources of women
trafficking" in the world. It said that India had also lately emerged as
a key destination and transit point for global trafficking of women and
girls. Pakistani minister
for community involvement in eliminating human trafficking Xinhua News Agency,
June 20 2006 english.people.com.cn/200606/20/eng20060620_275489.html [accessed 15
December 2010] Pakistani Interior
Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao
on Monday stressed the need for involvement of the whole community in the
efforts to eliminate human trafficking. "We believe that most effective
way of eliminating human trafficking is by empowering people at risk,"
he said, adding that "empowerment of people is possible through
education, employment and provision of security," Crackdown on human
trafficking Islamabad, 2006 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 10
September 2011] ISLAMABAD - About 150 were
taken into custody from Islamabad International Airport on account of human trafficking,
blacklist passports and illegal travelling by the Federal Investigation
Agency in the last five months. Human trafficking
allegations involve Swiss diplomatic missions in Pakistan Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation CBC News, May 19, 2006 www.cbc.ca/world/story/2006/05/19/swiss05192006.html [accessed 15
December 2010] Switzerland has
announced it is replacing all its embassy and consular
staff in Pakistan after accusations some employees were involved in a human
trafficking racket. Switzerland shut
the visa section at its Islamabad embassy earlier this month, following a
Pakistani investigation into the illegal issuing of Swiss visas that has
led to a number of arrests. Swiss Envoys in
Pakistan Embroiled in Human Trafficking IdslamOnline.net,
Islamabad, May 8, 2006 [accessed 15
December 2010] The issue came to the
surface after local media started highlighting the plight of Pakistani visa
applicants who complained of sexual harassment by Swiss embassy officials. FIA has curbed
human trafficking Javed Afridi, Daily
Times, Peshawar, May 07, 2006 archives.dailytimes.com.pk/national/07-May-2006/fia-has-curbed-human-trafficking-sherpao [accessed 19 August
2014] The Federal
Investigation Agency's (FIA) work over the last year and a half has brought
down human trafficking by "200 percent" over the period, Sherpao told reporters at Peshawar International Airport. Indo-Pak girls
forced into prostitution Hindustan Times,
Asian News International, Lahore, February 6, 2006 fleshploitation.blogspot.com/2006/02/young-indo-pak-girls-sold-into-mid.html [accessed 15 December
2010] www.hindustantimes.com/india/indo-pak-girls-forced-in-sex-trade/story-gVq1vPDAMPo3Wr7Fo6sDhP.html [accessed 4 May
2020] In a startling case
of organised women trafficking that has come to
light, Pakistani and Indian girls aged between 11 and 13 are being smuggled
to the Middle East countries for being forced into prostitution there. The
girls, who are shown as aged between 20 and 22 on their passports, are
brought to these countries on the pretext of getting them attracting jobs. - htcp Quake Orphans Being
Sold into Prostitution The Australian News,
10/30/2005 www.shortnews.com/start.cfm?id=50943 [accessed 15
December 2010] Aisha loves the
clothes her new guardian has bought for her, what she doesn't realize is this
woman just bought her for $1500 and intends to make her into a prostitute.
Other children in the area are being bought up by pimps who will pay twice
that. Slavery Survives,
Despite Universal Abolition Ron Synovitz, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty RFE/RL, August
22, 2005 www.rferl.org/content/article/1060833.html [accessed 15
December 2010] Nadeem has spent
most of his life hunched over a carpet loom in Lahore, Pakistan, trying to
pay off a loan given to his parents years ago.
"I'm 12 years old and I've been working since I was 4," Nadeem
says. Nadeem is one of thousands of children who work as bonded laborers in
Pakistan's carpet industry. As in most countries, bonded child labor is
illegal in Pakistan. But enforcement of that law is sporadic. US Report Lauds Pak
Steps Against Human Trafficking Pakistan Link,
Islamabad, Jan 11, 2005 At one time this article
had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 10
September 2011] The US State
Department has praised Pakistan's efforts in combating human trafficking and
that the Pakistan government is moving in the right direction to tackle the
menace. Girls In Iran Being
Sold In Pakistan On Daily Basis Iran Focus, Tehran,
02 Mar 2005 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 10
September 2011] At least 54 Iranian
girls and young women, between the ages of 16 and 25, are sold on the streets
of Karachi in Pakistan on a daily basis, according to report outlining the
latest statistics. The report also revealed that there are at present at
least 300,000 runaway girls in Iran, adding that the estimated number of
women under the absolute poverty line was more than
eight million. Forced Marriage -
Pakistanis Order Betrothal of 2-Year-Old Khalid Tanveer, Associated Press AP, Multan, Pakistan, Feb 21,
2005 www.nbcnews.com/id/7007895/ns/world_news/t/two-year-old-betrothed-man-pakistan/#.U_Olb6NuVCM [accessed 19 August
2014] A tribal council in
Pakistan has ordered the betrothal of a 2-year-old girl to a man 40 years
older to punish her uncle for an alleged affair with the man's wife, police
said Monday. The council decreed the girl must marry 42-year-old Mohammed Altaf, her uncle's cousin, when she turns 18, police
said. In
2002, another village council near Multan ordered a woman gang-raped as punishment for her
brother's sexual relations with another woman. Man Sells Two Minor
Daughters The Dawn Media
Group, Sukkur, Aug 25, 2004 archives.dawn.com/2004/08/25/local43.htm [accessed 10
September 2011] [accessed 11
February 2018] A
man allegedly sold his two minor daughters in the Allah Warrayo
Mallah village, near Bozdar
Wada, Khairpur, on Tuesday morning. Seven-year-old Fauzia and five-year-old Aasia
were sold by their father , Lal Bux
alias Laloo Shaikh, for Rs80,000 and an acre of
agricultural land. She
said their father without their consent had engaged them to Sikiladho and Allah Warrayo,
both sons of Sono Pasayo.
She said when they resisted this decision, their
father started beating them after which she came to the house of her uncle. Judge Orders
Inquiry Into Sale Of Seven-Year-Old Girl Qurban Ali Khushik, Dadu, April 6, 2004 [accessed 11
February 2018] A
judge directed police to conduct an inquiry into the sale of a seven-year-old
girl to a 35-year-old man for marriage. His wife complained that he had sold
the girl for Rs18,000 to a resident of Mazdoorabad Mohalla in Dadu for marriage but the girl managed to escape. Girl Rescued From
Gamblers The Dawn Media
Group, Okara, Jul 21, 2004 archives.dawn.com/2004/07/21/local34.htm [accessed 10
September 2011] [accessed 11
February 2018] Villagers came to
the rescue of a girl who was being handed over to some gamblers by her father
on Tuesday at Phokarwan Kamboh village, Deepalpur. Reports said Allah Ditta of 20/GD lost Rs160,000 in
gambling a month ago. After some time
when Allah Ditta could not pay the amount, the
winners sought custody of his daughter Child camel jockeys
find hope Lucy Williamson, BBC
News, Dubai, 4 February 2005 newswww.bbc.net.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4236123.stm [accessed 15
December 2010] Children from
Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sudan are still being smuggled to the United Arab
Emirates to work as camel jockeys, despite a law passed two years ago banning
their use. It is not uncommon for child jockeys to fall off and be injured
while racing, and their illegal status means race track owners are often
reluctant to take them to hospital. Instead, says Ansar
Burney, the boys often arrive with broken hands or broken legs. And many, he
says, have been sodomized. Pakistan's slave
trade Andrew Bushell, Jamrud, Pakistan, The
Boston Phoenix, Issue Date: February 14-21, 2002 www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/top/features/documents/02161800.htm [accessed 15 December
2010] www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/634061/posts [accessed 11
February 2018] Servitude exists in
many forms in Pakistan. Over the past two decades, hundreds of thousands of
Afghan families - eager to flee 20 years of war and three years of drought -
have sought safe haven in Pakistan, only to spend the rest of their lives
working to pay off the debts they accumulated to get there. They do so by
becoming indentured laborers, often at brick factories, and by sending their
children to carpet factories that crave small fingers. Indentured servitude
is not only legal but ubiquitous in Pakistan, and servant culture thrives:
the wealthy can have a driver, three maids, a cook, and a night watchman for
less than $75 a month. Pakistan Womens Issues www.paralumun.com/issuespak.htm [access date
unavailable] [accessed 11
February 2018] Women are being
sold like animals in Pakistani markets. The trade is being encouraged by
corrupt officials and politicians in the Sindh province of the country. Anti
human practices are taking place in markets of Thar and other parts of Sindh
under protection of influential politicians. The buyers of these unfortunate
women fix their prices after examining and scanning their bodies. They
humiliate and sexually harass these women in public. Modern Day Slavery
Fact Sheet Meg, Anti-Slavery,
Sep 29, 2004 www.angelfire.com/psy/150/Slave_abolish.htm [accessed 2
September 2012] The most common
form of slavery is debt bondage, in which a human being becomes collateral
against a loan. With a massive population boom in regions of staggering
poverty, some families have nothing to pledge for a loan but their own labor.
With inflated interest rates, debts are often inherited, ensnaring
generations. 15 to 20 million slaves are in debt bondage in Bangladesh,
India, Nepal, and Pakistan. Facts & Figures A Rapid Assessment
of Bonded Labour in the Carpet Industry of Pakistan, International Labour
Office, March 2004 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 10
September 2011] PAKISTAN - • Young children
whose parents take money in advance for their work on carpet looms are
victims of the "peshgi" or debt-bondage
system in Pakistan. They are paid half the wages of older workers and are not
allowed to leave the premises until the debt is fully paid. Older workers
sexually abuse these children. (A Rapid Assessment of Bonded Labour in the
Carpet Industry of Pakistan, International Labour Office, March 2004). Nike Shoes and
Child Labor in Pakistan TED Case Studies www1.american.edu/TED/nike.htm [accessed 15
December 2010] www.chinalaborwatch.org/newscast/66 [accessed 14 June
2017] NIKE AS A HELPER OR
EXPLOITER TO IIIRD WORLD - A columnist 'Stephen Chapman'
from Libertarian newspaper argues that "But why is it
unconscionable for a poor country to allow child labor? Pakistan has a
per-capita income of $1,900 per year - meaning that the typical person
subsists on barely $5 per day. Is it a a revelation - or a crime - that some parents willingly
send their children off to work in a factory to survive? Is it cruel for Nike
to give them the chance?" (source:
http://www.raincity.com/~williamf/words96.html) Stephen argues that
the best way to end child-labor is to buy more of the products that children
produce. This would increase their demand, and as they will produce more,
they will earn more, hence giving themselves chane
to rise above poverty level and thus also benefiting the families of the
children and as well as the nation. However, the issue
is not that simple. Increasing the demand of the products produced by child
labor means encouraging more child labor, encouraging more birth rates, more
slavery, increasing sweatshops and discouraging education - as parents of the
children working in factories would want them to work more and earn more. If
this happened to be the case, then more and more children will be bought and
sold on the black market, leading no end to this problem. By encouraging more
child labor, you are not only taking away those innocent years from them but
also the right to be educated and the right to be free. In Pakistan,
'slavery' persists Owais Tohid,
Hyderabad, Pakistan, The Christian Science Monitor, December 15, 2003 www.csmonitor.com/2003/1215/p08s01-wosc.html [accessed 15
December 2010] "Once the hari [peasant] is caught in debt then he and his family
becomes virtual prisoners of the feudal lord," says Nasreen
Pathan with Pakistan-based Human Rights Commission.
"Peasants are illiterate and cannot keep account,
and the interest on the loan increases on the whims and wishes of feudal
lords and their men." People are either
born into bondage, sold into it by family members, or enter through loans
they cannot repay. "I was born on the fields, married there, but did not
want to die there," says Sanwal Kohli, who was released three years ago by the human
rights activists during a police-led raid. Showing scars on his back and
legs, he says, "They used to beat us up for slightest mistakes and kept
us chained at nights. Armed men guarded the fields so nobody would run
away." IOM launches
initiative to combat human trafficking UN Integrated
Regional Information Networks IRIN, Islamabad, 16 March 2004 www.irinnews.org/report/23869/pakistan-iom-launches-initiative-to-combat-human-trafficking [accessed 25
February 2015] In 2002, police
recovered 11 infants - the oldest barely 18 months - from a middle-class
Karachi suburb where the kidnappers were making preparations to smuggle the
babies to Malaysia for a reported price tag of US $20,000 each. Such
children, according to social workers and law-enforcement officials, often
end up being sold into prostitution or crime rings; or end up as
camel-jockeys in the Middle East. Killing for carpets
-- slavery and death in Pakistan's carpet industry Third World Traveler www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Life_Death_ThirdWorld/Carpets.html [accessed 15
December 2010] "Oriental"
carpets are valued throughout the world. They are found in the homes of the
well-to-do, on the floors of corporate boardrooms, and in marbled palaces of
sheiks and kings. They come from Asia and the Middle East -- Iran, Kashmir,
China, and the Central Asian Republics of the former Soviet Union. They are
also made in Pakistan, in factories in which children as young as four years
of age, often chained to their looms, squat shoulders hunched, for 14 hours a
day, six days a week, making beautifully intricate carpets by tying thousands
of knots with fingers gnarled and callused from years of back-breaking labor.
In Pakistan, between 500,000 and 1,000,000 children between the ages of four
and fourteen work full-time as carpet weavers. Stop Child Slave
Auctions in Pakistan Andrew Bushell, "Sale of Children Thrives in
Pakistan", Washington Times At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 10
September 2011] [scroll down to
BACKGROUND INFORMATION] As the war in
Afghanistan continues, many children fleeing into Pakistan face a life worse
than one under the Taliban: slavery. Desperate and starving, these Afghan
child refugees are sold to or abuducted by
middlemen. They are then sold
again in bustling slave auctions to the highest bidder. The boys are used as
domestic or manual laborers; some are shipped to the Persian Gulf, where they
are used as camel jockeys. The price for the girls is euphemized as a dowry.
But they never marry; instead, the girls are used for sex - in a brothel, as
a concubine, or in a harem. The Enslavement of
Dalit and Indigenous Communities in India, Nepal and Pakistan through Debt
Bondage
[PDF] UN Sub-Commission on
the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, February 2001 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 10
September 2011] SUMMARY: This paper describes the gross and
continuing violation of the rights of millions of people in India, Pakistan
and Nepal, who are trapped in debt bondage and forced to work to repay loans.
Their designation as persons belonging outside the Hindu caste system is a
major determining factor of their enslavement. Evidence from all three
countries shows that the vast majority (80%-98%) of bonded labourers are from communities designated as
"untouchable", to whom certain occupations are assigned, or from
indigenous communities. In the same way that caste status is inherited, so
debts are passed on to the succeeding generations. Modern Slavery -
Human bondage in Africa, Asia, and the Dominican Republic Ricco Villanueva Siasoco, infoplease, April 18,
2001 www.infoplease.com/spot/slavery1.html [accessed 15
December 2010] SHACKLED LABORERS IN
PAKISTAN
- Many of the bonded laborers are shackled in leg-irons in Pakistan. Though
much of the debt these cane-harvesters have incurred is real, the practice of
exchanging human labor for landowners' loans is illegal. In a 1992 law
passed by the Pakistani government, landlords are barred from offering loans
in exchange for work or to hold workers hostage to their debts. The Human
Rights Commission of Pakistan has freed approximately 7,500 bonded laborers
since 1995. By the commission's
estimates, there are still roughly 50,000 bonded laborers in southern Singh.
Many of those freed now reside in the city of Hyderabad in makeshift camps.
Most are afraid to return to their homeland,
however, for fear they will be recaptured and enslaved again. Bonded Child Labour
in Pakistan Child Workers in
Asia CWA Newsletter, Vol. 13 , no. 4 (Oct.-Dec. 1997) At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 10
September 2011] Sakina* is 12 years
old and works with her family as a bonded labourer
for a landlord in Umerkot district in Sindh
Province, Pakistan. Her family needed money and accepted wages in advance
from a landlord. Over time they became trapped, and now work just to pay a
debt that grows each year. I pluck cotton and chillies, harvest wheat
and other crops and do whatever is asked by the landlord...They beat me and
keep us hungry. They say they will not give us food if we do not work... I
can't leave or my parents will be beaten and where will I go?" The New Slavery: An
Interview with Kevin Bales The Sun, October
2001 news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=02/04/25/4221208 [accessed 15
December 2010] www.derrickjensen.org/2001/10/new-slavery-interview-kevin-bales/ [accessed 11 February
2018] Bales: Debt bondage is the most common form of
slavery in the world today, particularly in Pakistan and India. It's also
illegal, but tends to be a little more adaptable to modern economics. Here's
how it works: A person borrows some money and pledges his or her labor as
collateral against that loan. The length and nature of the service are not
defined, and the profits from the slave's labor don't reduce the original
debt: that money automatically belongs to the person who made the loan in the
first place. Jensen: So if you're a debt-bonded slave, you're
not working to pay back the loan? Bales: No, because you and all of your labor
have become collateral. The money to pay back the loan has to come from
somewhere else. That's the way it is with most debt bondage. In some debt
bondage, the work is supposedly paying back what's been borrowed, but in
reality it's almost impossible to pay back the debt. I've met families in
India who've been bonded for four generations on one debt: Great-grandfather
borrowed thirty dollars, and Great-grandson is still working to pay it off.
In a sense, this resembles chattel slavery, because it's passed down through
generations, except the rationale for the slavery is the debt. Modern Day Slavery
Around The World home.earthlink.net/~ynot/slave1.html [accessed 15
December 2010] Slavery takes
different forms in different lands. In Pakistan and India there is debt
bondage. Poor people are tricked with promises of good jobs, but they are isolated
and must deal with their employer in every way. The food they buy and other
required things are sold only by their employers, with very high prices. The
workers are forced to stay and work until the debt is paid off. But the deck
is stacked so the debt keeps getting bigger. The "employee" is a
slave for life. And, even beyond
life. The children are kept working until the debt is paid, which never
happens. Generations are forced to work without ever seeing a day of freedom.
Like other slaveries, force is used to keep the worker in his place.
Beatings, threats and killings are commonplace. Bonded Labour in
Pakistan United Nations
Economic and Social Council Commission on Human Rights, Sub-Commission on
Prevention of Discrimination and protection of Minorities, Working Group on
Contemporary Forms of Slavery, Geneva, 23 June - 2 July 1999 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 10
September 2011] However, in 1999 we
are obliged to conclude that, despite temporary progress following the
Supreme Court's judgment, debt bondage remains both widespread and virtually
unchallenged by the Government of Pakistan. Indeed, it is both remarkable and
tragic how little government officials have been willing to do to enforce the
country's laws and to bring an end to debt bondage, and how willingly they
appear to tolerate its persistence. Child Labour Persists Around The World: More Than 13 Percent Of
Children 10-14 Are Employed International Labour
Organisation (ILO) News, Geneva, 10 June 1996 www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/press-and-media-centre/news/WCMS_008058/lang--en/index.htm [accessed 9
September 2011] www.scribd.com/document/366840945/Child-Labour-Persists-Around-the-World [accessed 11
February 2018] "Today's child
worker will be tomorrow's uneducated and untrained adult, forever trapped in
grinding poverty. No effort should be spared to break that vicious
circle", says ILO Director-General Michel Hansenne. Among the countries
with a high percentage of their children from 10-14 years in the work force
are: Mali, 54.5 percent; Burkina Faso, 51; Niger and Uganda, both 45; Kenya,
41.3; Senegal, 31.4; Bangladesh, 30.1; Nigeria, 25.8; Haiti, 25; Turkey, 24;
Côte d'Ivoire, 20.5; Pakistan, 17.7;
Brazil, 16.1; India, 14.4; China, 11.6; and Egypt, 11.2. Concluding Observations
of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 3 October 2003 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/pakistan2003.html [accessed 15
December 2010] [76] While noting
the serious efforts undertaken by the State party to prevent child
trafficking, the Committee is deeply concerned at the very high incidence of
trafficking in children for the purposes of sexual exploitation, bonded labor
and use as camel jockeys. Human Rights
Overview Human Rights Watch [accessed 15
December 2010] Factbook on Global
Sexual Exploitation - Pakistan Coalition Against
Trafficking in Women www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/pakistan.htm [accessed 15
December 2010] Auctions of girls
are arranged for three kinds of buyers: rich visiting Arabs (sheiks,
businessmen, visitors, state-financed medical and university students), the
rich local gentry, and rural farmers. (CATW - Asia Pacific "Trafficking
in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific". ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, March 8, 2006 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61710.htm [accessed 10
February 2020] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
- Although no accurate statistics on trafficking existed, the country was a
source, transit, and destination country for trafficked persons. Women and
girls were trafficked from Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Iran, Burma, Nepal, and
Central Asia for forced commercial sexual exploitation and bonded labor in
the country based on erroneous promises of legitimate jobs. In a similar
fashion, men and women were trafficked from the country to the Middle East to
work as bonded laborers or in domestic servitude. Upon arrival, both groups
had passports confiscated and were forced to work to pay off their
transportation debt. Families continued to sell young boys between ages 3 and
10 for use as camel jockeys in Middle Eastern countries, and authorities
estimated that there were between two to three thousand child citizens in the
UAE being used as camel jockeys. Women and children from rural areas were
trafficked to urban centers for commercial sexual exploitation and labor. In
some cases families sold these victims into servitude, while in other cases
they were kidnapped. Women were trafficked from East Asian countries and
Bangladesh to the Middle East via the country. Traffickers bribed police and
immigration officials to facilitate passage. During the year authorities prosecuted
governmental officers and arrested FIA inspectors. A complete tally of such
actions was not available. The Department of Labor's 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor U.S. Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs, 2005 www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/pakistan.htm [accessed 15
December 2010] 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 - Pakistan is a source, transit, and destination
country for child trafficking victims. Girls are trafficked into Pakistan,
primarily from Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Iran, Burma, Nepal, and Central Asia,
for the purposes of sexual exploitation and bonded labor. Girls are also
trafficked internally for commercial sexual exploitation and other types of
exploitative labor. Boys studying at local madrassas (Islamic theological
schools) are recruited, often forcibly, as child soldiers to fight with
Islamic militants in Afghanistan and Kashmir. Bangladeshi boys trafficked to
Pakistan often work in manufacturing and sweatshops. Although boys continue
to be trafficked from Pakistan to Gulf countries to serves as camel jockeys,
more stringent enforcement efforts by authorities in both regions appear to
have reduced the numbers 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 - Pakistan",
http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Pakistan.htm, [accessed <date>] |
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