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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/Tonga.htm

Kingdom of Tonga

Tonga has a small, open, South Pacific island economy. It has a narrow export base in agricultural goods. Squash, vanilla beans, and yams are the main crops. Agricultural exports, including fish, make up two-thirds of total exports.

Tonga has a reasonably sound basic infrastructure and well developed social services. High unemployment among the young, a continuing upturn in inflation, pressures for democratic reform, and rising civil service expenditures are major issues facing the government.  [The World Factbook, U.S.C.I.A. 2009]

Description: Description: Tonga

Scope and Magnitude.[2008] There were no confirmed reports that persons were trafficked to, from, or within the country. However, a public health facility identified 14 minors engaged in commercial sexual exploitation during the year and there were other isolated reports of women and underage girls in commercial sexual exploitation. There were reports that members of foreign fishing vessel crews solicited Tongan underage girls for commercial sex. There were unsubstantiated reports of employers holding travel documents or salaries as a means to compel labor and restrain Philippine nationals working in Tonga. There were also unconfirmed reports that some nationals from the People’s Republic of China working legally and illegally in Tonga may have been coerced into prostitution or forced labor.   - 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 Tonga.  Some of these links may lead to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false.  No attempt has been made to verify their authenticity or to validate 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.

*** ARCHIVES ***

2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Tonga

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/tonga/

[accessed 28 June 2021]

PROHIBITION OF FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR

No data was available on government efforts specifically to address forced labor. There were unconfirmed, anecdotal reports of forced labor among women and children in domestic service (see section 7.c.).

PROHIBITION OF CHILD LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT

According to the National Center for Women and Children and other NGOs, some school-age children worked in the informal sector in traditional family activities such as subsistence farming and fishing which exposed them to hazardous conditions.

Freedom House Country Report

2020 Edition

freedomhouse.org/country/tonga/freedom-world/2020

[accessed 23 July 2020]

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

The population generally has access to economic opportunities and protection from abusive working conditions, though enforcement of labor laws is affected by resource limitations, and some employers have violated workers’ rights. While there is no law specifically regulating child labor, any such work typically entails informal participation in family agriculture and fishing.

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 7 May 2020]

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

[page 968]

In 2017, Tonga made no advancement in efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labor. Children in Tonga perform dangerous tasks in agriculture and fishing. Gaps in the legal framework remain; the country has no laws specifying a minimum age for work or defining hazardous forms of work for children under age 18, leaving children unprotected from labor exploitation. In addition, the government has not established a policy or program to address child labor, including its worst forms.

Former Human Trafficking Victim Speaks Out

KGMB CBS 9 News - May 3rd 2008

www.antitraf.net/home.php?mode=more&id=70&lang=en

[accessed 11 June 2013]

HAWAII - This young Tongan named Francis came here in 2001, Lueleni Maka promised him $240 a week. He was paid only $20.  "I ask him about the rest of my money. Said he sent em back to my family, so I called my parents and they said they never get nothing from him," said former victim Francis.

Maka told Francis he would turn him into immigration if he tried to escape the pig farm he stayed at.  "He make me afraid of him. He hit me a couple of times. yeah. metal frames, I get scars on my back from him. Get guys they worse than me. He beat 'em up till blood coming out their mouth and nose. it's very sad. We cannot do nothing. we so scared of him," Francis said.

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

Freedom House Country Report

2018 Edition

freedomhouse.org/country/tonga/freedom-world/2018

[accessed 7 May 2020]

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

While much of the population has access to economic opportunities and protection from abusive working conditions, foreign household workers—many of them from Fiji—are vulnerable to exploitation and practices like passport confiscation, and East Asian women have been trafficked to the country for forced prostitution.

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/2006/78793.htm

[accessed 11 February 2020]

TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS – While the law does not specifically address trafficking in persons, violators could be prosecuted under antislavery statutes. There were no reports that persons were trafficked to, from, or within the country.

The Department of Labor’s 2006 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor [PDF]

U.S. Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs, 2007

www.dol.gov/ilab/programs/ocft/PDF/2006OCFTreport.pdf

[accessed 31 December 2010]

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

[page 420]  INCIDENCE AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - There are no reports of child labor existing in the formal or informal economy. During 2006, there were increased reports of workers on foreign fishing vessels soliciting underage girls for prostitution.

CHILD LABOR LAWS AND ENFORCEMENT - Tonga does not have legislation setting the minimum age for work. The law prohibits slavery, which can be interpreted to include forced or bonded labor. The owning and/or operating of a brothel, pimping, and soliciting in a public place are all prohibited by the law. Penalties for offenses range from imprisonment from 6 months to 2 years. The law also prohibits any person from assaulting a child in an indecent manner, abducting girls, and procuring or attempting to procure any girl under the age of 21 for trafficking for prostitution. The maximum punishment for these offenses is imprisonment for up to 5 years. There is no military conscription in Tonga.

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