Pakistan’s long fight against human trafficking has seen a new development with the introduction of a hotline for the reporting of human trafficking crimes, with one official saying that the mechanism would ensure prompt response to complaints.
On Dec. 14, the country's Federal Investigation Agency launched a national Trafficking In Persons (TIP) Hotline in partnership with the Australian High Commission through the International Labour Organization.
The hotline is designed to
quickly forward complaints from callers to police stations across the country. Whether the mechanism would be enough to help Pakistan
fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking remains to be seen.
According to the
latest monitoring of the U.S. State Department on the trafficking situation in Pakistan, the Pakistani government’s
criminalization of labor trafficking in 2018 and its increasing identification of trafficking victims remain inadequate at eliminating the problem.
The report noted that while the national anti-trafficking law imposes hefty penalties of up to ten years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to 1 million PKR (US$4,420) for traffickers, the absence of provincial-level laws that criminalize trafficking also disempowers law enforcement.
In 2022, Pakistan identified at least 35,309 trafficking victims, up from 21,253 in 2021. But there were also reports of victims being re-victimized soon after rescue, according to the U.S. State Department report, with some police allegedly colluding with employers to kidnap bonded laborers that authorities had already rescued.
But despite Pakistan’s efforts to prosecute traffickers, the U.S. State Department noted in its report that victims of trafficking often do not trust law enforcers and refuse to join investigations, as some blame the victims for their situations.
Described by the
Asian Human Rights Commission as a “source, transit, and destination” for human trafficking, Pakistan saw the tragic consequence of leaving human traffickers unchecked when dozens of Pakistani nationals died from the sinking of a trawler off Greece in June.
At least 10 alleged human traffickers were
arrested over the incident for their role in luring locals abroad in exchange for hefty pay.
Beyond Pakistan, the whole of South Asia has
struggled to crack down on its decades-long human trafficking problem due to the historical dependence of some communities on bonded labor.
The worldwide multi-billion-dollar industry is a significant human and labor rights challenge in the region, with
estimates by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime that over 150,000 people are trafficked annually in South Asia, with women and girls making up nearly half and a quarter of all victims, respectively.