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Switzerland is one of the few western European countries to have a poor tier 2 ranking for human trafficking

Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A new UN report indicates, for the first time, the extent of the problem of re-trafficking of humans, in particular women and children. It closely studied 79 cases of re-trafficking, out of a database of 14,000.

“Not a single one of the 79 people on the IOM database that form the backbone of this research, had been granted either temporary or permanent residency after the first time they were trafficked,” says Sarah Craggs, IOM trafficking research coordinator. “If they had, it would have given them a layer of protection they could never have at home and would probably have prevented their re-trafficking.”

Victims are often re-trafficked within two years of being rescued and are usually trafficked to different destinations or for a different kind of exploitation, according to the report. It is not uncommon for victims trafficked internationally to then be re-trafficked within their own country.

“The Causes and Consequences of Re-Trafficking: Evidence from the IOM Human Trafficking Database”, was published 18 February by the International Organization for Migration. It was funded by the US State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.

Estimates for the number of people trafficked are notoriously unreliable but tend to hover around 30 million globally. The US Department of State, which publishes an annual report on trafficking in 177 countries, lists as the main categories: forced labour, sex trafficking, bonded labour, debt bondage among migrant workers, involuntary domestic servitude, forced child labour,  child soldiers and child sex trafficking.

The UN Global Compact in 2008 issued a report noting that 2.1 million people are in forced labour, but for even the mostly closely involved NGO’s (non-governmental organizations) note that a key problem for all areas of trafficking is that the people registered and reflected in statistics under-represent the extent of the problem.

The new report from the IOM “recommends that as a first instance, alternatives are needed to simply returning victims of international trafficking back to their home countries and invariably to the same situation and dangers that led to their trafficking in the first place.

In some instances, particularly where a victim would be in continued danger from his or her trafficker if they returned, victims should have the option to remain in the country of destination.”

It argues for “tougher penalties to be imposed on state officials who collude with traffickers and for those penalties to be applied vigorously. The IOM database shows that in cases where law enforcers were involved in human trafficking and re-trafficking, victims understandably mistrusted everyone around them and as a result, would refuse the essential rehabilitation and reintegration assistance offered to them by IOM or non-governmental organizations.”

Full report, available for downloading from the IOM

Ratings map, US Dept of State Trafficking in Human Persons Report 2010