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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/SolomonIslands.htm

Solomon Islands

The bulk of the population depends on agriculture, fishing, and forestry for at least part of its livelihood. Most manufactured goods and petroleum products must be imported. The islands are rich in undeveloped mineral resources such as lead, zinc, nickel, and gold. Prior to the arrival of Ramsi, severe ethnic violence, the closing of key businesses, and an empty government treasury culminated in economic collapse. Ramsi's efforts to restore law and order and economic stability have led to modest growth as the economy rebuilds.  [The World Factbook, U.S.C.I.A. 2009]

Description: Description: Description: SolomonIslands

Scope and Magnitude. [June 2008]  There is anecdotal evidence that young women from Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, the People’s Republic of China, the Philippines, and Malaysia are trafficked to the Solomon Islands for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation. Reports also indicate that girls and women are trafficked within the Solomon Islands for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation to logging camps. Child sex tourism appears to be a small problem with some visiting nationals of the United Kingdom, Australia, and France sexually exploiting local children. There are reports that boys and girls are taken out to foreign and local fishing vessels by their parents for commercial sexual exploitation with fishermen in exchange for fish. Children are occasionally sold into commercial sexual exploitation to pay bills or to earn school fees. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2008  Check out a later country report here and possibly a full TIP Report here

 

CAUTION:  The following links have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in the Solomon Islands.  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 ARTICLE ***

Lure of Logging Creates Another Headache

Alfred Sasako, Islands Business International IBI

www.islandsbusiness.com/islands_business/index_dynamic/containerNameToReplace

     =MiddleMiddle/focusModuleID=18500/overideSkinName=issueArticle-full.tpl

[accessed 11 September 2011]

www.livelearn.org/sites/default/files/docs/HRD%20mediaguide%20SCREEN.pdf

[accessed 16 February 2018] – page 48

As if this is not enough, the lure of logging has created another problem. It is new and growing and is proving to be a headache for the country’s policymakers.   In logging camps dotted across the nation, a new generation of children fathered by foreign loggers is growing. Mothers are often under-age girls with little or no education at all.   A girl’s marriage to foreign loggers was often pre-arranged by parents who knew the foreigners had families back in Malaysia or in the Philippines and that one day they would leave.   Other young girls were often “trafficked” into logging camps often by operators of prostitution rings.

What many parents do not realise is that the number of children being born and left behind in the Solomon Islands by loggers is on the rise.   “These children simply have no one to look after them in terms of clothing, feeding and schooling them,” I was told in Honiara recently.   “It’s a generation of fatherless children left behind by loggers who have gone back to their countries after they’ve destroyed our forests.

 

*** ARCHIVES ***

2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Solomon Islands

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/solomon-islands/

[accessed 24 June 2021]

PROHIBITION OF FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR

There were reports of children and adults forced to work in logging camps, on plantations, and of children in domestic servitude or service industries. Local and foreign fishermen reported situations indicative of labor trafficking, including nonpayment of wages, severe living conditions, violence, and limited food supply on Taiwan-flagged fishing vessels in the country’s territorial waters and ports.

PROHIBITION OF CHILD LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT

Children worked in agriculture, fishing, alluvial mining, as domestic servants, cooks, and in logging camps where conditions often were poor. For example, young girls worked long hours and in isolation as domestic workers in mining camps. In some cases these conditions could amount to forced labor (see section 7.b.). There were reports of commercial sexual exploitation of children (see section 6, Children). Children also assisted in cultivating, distributing, and selling local drugs such as betel nut or marijuana. They were at risk of physical abuse, mental illness, addiction, sexual abuse, and robbery.

According to the Solomon Islands Demographic and Health Survey, 2 percent of children age five to 11 years and 12 percent of children age 12 to 14 were engaged in paid labor. Paid child labor was more common among female children in urban areas and all children living in rural areas.

Freedom House Country Report

2020 Edition

freedomhouse.org/country/solomon-islands/freedom-world/2020

[accessed 8 July 2020]

G4. DO INDIVIDUALS ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION?

Legal protections against exploitative working conditions are not consistently enforced, though authorities have made efforts to update and implement laws against human trafficking in recent years. Local and foreign women and children are vulnerable to sex trafficking and domestic servitude, including through forced marriages or “adoptions” to pay off debts. Migrant workers sometimes face forced labor in the mining, logging, and fishing industries.

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 5 May 2020]

Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL Worst Forms of Child Labor

[page 890]

In the Solomon Islands, the commercial sexual exploitation of both boys and girls is prevalent near logging camps, near or aboard fishing vessels, and at hotels, casinos, and entertainment establishments. (2; 5; 6; 11; 14) There are no nationally representative data available on the prevalence and nature of child labor in the Solomon Islands.

Delegates agree to strengthen efforts to reduce demand for CSEC

Joint Media Release: ECPAT International, UNESCAP, UNICEF - 11 November 2004, Bangkok

At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]

[accessed 11 September 2011]

In the Pacific Islands, ongoing research is revealing growing problems of commercial sexual exploitation. In the Solomon Islands, for example, girls are still forced into early marriages and recent violence has led to a surge in child rapes and in boys and girls being forced into prostitution for economic survival. Child marriage is also a major problem in Papua New Guinea, and is a basis of demand for internal trafficking of children.

Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC)

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 6 June 2003

sim.law.uu.nl/SIM/CaseLaw/uncom.nsf/fe005fcb50d8277cc12569d5003e4aaa/73d1b40db7ea072a41256d42003b2016?OpenDocument

[accessed 3 September 2012]

[52] The Committee is concerned that:(a) Many children under 15 are working, often in very poor conditions and for long hours;  (b) In order to overcome extreme poverty, many parents and families require children to work, as illustrated by the prevalence of young girls working as domestics, sometimes within the extended family;  (c) The prevalence of child labour prevents many children from attending school.

The Protection Project – Solomon Islands [PDF]

The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), The Johns Hopkins University

www.protectionproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Solomon-Islands.pdf

[accessed 11 September 2014]

FORMS OF TRAFFICKING - Commercial sexual exploitation of children in the Solomon Islands is common around the various foreign logging camps. There are many reports of Malaysian loggers engaging in sexual acts with, and even marrying, 13- and 14-year-old local girls.

Long-standing customs and traditions in the Solomon Islands still play a part in the daily lives of residents. For example, the practice of a “bride price” was traditionally used as way to build relationships between families, as well as to ensure the well-being of the bride. Unfortunately, today these institutions are often distorted. Under the guise of “bride price,” families have begun selling young girls into arranged marriages.

*** EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE ***

Human Rights Reports » 2006 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, March 6, 2007

2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78791.htm

[accessed 11 February 2020]

TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS – Although the law does not prohibit trafficking in persons, there were no reports that persons were trafficked to, from, or within the country.

The Department of Labor’s 2005 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor [PDF]

U.S. Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs, 2006

www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2005/tda2005.pdf

[accessed 22 December 2010]

Note:: Also check out this country’s report in the more recent edition DOL Worst Forms of Child Labor

CHILD LABOR LAWS AND ENFORCEMENT - The worst forms of child labor may be prosecuted under different statutes in the Solomon Islands. The Constitution prohibits slavery and forced labor. The procurement of girls under 18 years of age for the purposes of prostitution is prohibited under the Penal Code (“Offences Against Morality”). The Penal Code provides sanctions for the abduction of children.

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Cite this webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery – Solomon Islands", http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/SolomonIslands.htm, [accessed <date>]