30 July is World Day Against Trafficking in Persons. SI UN Representative, Jacqueline Shapiro reflects on the impact that COVID-19 is having on the urgent issue of human trafficking.

“With the primary attention of countries and communities everywhere focused on containing the health and economic crises of the COVID-19 pandemic, the peril of 3.8 million adults and 1 million children annually trafficked for sexual or labour exploitation has increased alarmingly.

This dire situation also highlights the social and economic disparities which are root causes of human trafficking and that disproportionately impact marginalised populations, including women. Some of many examples are-

• Increased poverty exacerbated by loss of employment, or loss of family income through death, has resulted in large numbers of adults and children forced into survival work or servitude.
• Displaced persons, refugees, undocumented migrants, informal and domestic workers, whose legal status is often precarious, are particularly vulnerable to increased exploitation.
• Child marriage, which often occurs to mitigate the economic burden of their desperate families, results in the end of a girl’s education, and often in a lifetime of violence and abuse.

During this time of multiple crises, criminals engaging in the lucrative business of trafficking have greatly extended their outreach. Children, who may be less supervised with school closures (with their predators having more time at home) have been the center of extensive targeting through communications technology. At the same time, women and girls who had previously been lured into prostitution with promises of better futures have been forced out of their housing, deported and left homeless and in poverty.

By contrast, restrictions to control the pandemic have resulted in reducing the capacity of both governments and NGOs to identify, support, counsel and seek justice for victims of trafficking. To address this calamity, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime urgently recommends “developing rapid assessment tools for countries to evaluate the impact of the pandemic on essential services for victims as well as on law enforcement and justice capacities” as a first step.

Soroptimist clubs around the world can play a crucial role by working in their local communities to identify individuals who might be vulnerable to trafficking and working with local government and other NGOs to help them obtain the economic, social, health, educational and psychological services to prevent them from becoming victims of trafficking.

Moreover, we must vigorously support the United Nations, with its 75 year reputation as the “moral compass” for the world, in its efforts to meet the challenge of ensuring all victims of trafficking all the basic human rights which are enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”

Click HERE to visit the SI Road to Equality Pages of the website – to find out how Soroptimist International is responding to the human trafficking crisis.