Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Islamabad (Fides Service) - It is estimated that each year around the world, over 700 thousand people are victims of human trafficking , considered the third largest source of income for criminal organizations that submit the victim to prostitution or forced labor, especially women and children. The largest number of victims are from Asia, with over 225 thousand people annually from Southeast Asia and more than 150 000 from South Asia. The former Soviet Union is considered the largest source of trafficking with over 100 000 people a year from this region. 75 000 are from other Central and Eastern Europe, over 100 thousand from Latin America and the Caribbean, and more than 50 000 from Africa. Most of the victims are sent to Asia, Middle East, Western Europe and North America.
In Asia, Pakistan is a source, transit point and destination for men, women and children subject to this phenomenon. Boys and girls are bought, sold, hired, or kidnapped to work in organized, illegal, begging circuits, domestic work, prostitution and forced to work in fields. Girls and women are sold for forced marriages. In some parts of Pakistan they are sold like pets. When the 'condition' of women is good, the price determined by the buyers is higher. Once the owner has bought them they are held in private prisons or sent to other parts of Pakistan and abroad to be re-sold and used for prostitution, drug dealing and forced labor. Once the owner does not know what to do with the woman or the woman loses her usefulness, he sells her to someone else. Many girls, some underage, give birth to children who are then sold in markets.
Women trafficking has always been present since the creation of Pakistan. During the partition, thousands of women were kidnapped on both sides of the borders of India and Pakistan to be sold or forced into prostitution. After the creation of Bangladesh there has been an opportunity to fiddle with thousands of other women. In times of wars, floods or other natural disasters there is always an increase in trafficking because poverty spreads, people are desperate and women are forced into marriages with older men or for the explant of organs to pay off debts. To limit this phenomenon, Pakistan prohibits any type of transnational trafficking, through the Prevention and Control of Human Trafficking Ordinance (PACHTO) which provides for punishment from 7 to 14 years in prison. In addition, the Bonded Labor System Abolition Act prohibits forced labor by imposing punishments ranging from 2 to 5 years in prison or fines to offenders. The country’s Government is seriously struggling with this serious problem trying to remove at least a part. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 07/20/2011)
