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
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 |
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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, 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, At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 11
September 2011] In the 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 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 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] 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. 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 – |
