The nature of the crime which involves trafficking of persons from one country to another is such that it naturally needs the attention of policy makers of all the concerned countries. As, it can be understood that the crime is unlikely to occur without a proper formation of network among the criminals and the saddest part of the story is that it many a times involve the officials of the government in these illegal activities. Thus, in order to curb the growing menace effective steps must be taken globally.
The network that is formed across the countries to carry out human trafficking not only restricts itself to this particular crime it also widens its area by involving in other kind of heinous crimes and this only becomes possible with the help of a strongly build network. As Adamoli et al. observed, “a criminal group with already-trained personnel, already-equipped means, already tested trafficking routes, already-developed corruption networks, already-existing contacts in different countries of the world, will move into new illicit markets”. Human trafficking in itself involves several other criminal acts like identity fraud, threats, abuse, bribery or money laundering which are required to carry out the trafficking.
These above factors add on to the several other reasons as to why human trafficking has become a major concern for different states. Even though it’s a concern for almost all the states still the states are quite far from adopting an extensive approach in this regard. One of the causes that attribute low response can be insufficiency of proper funds or other resources; example of one such state is Laos. On the other hand, there are also evidences that show that at times even resources are not enough to fight with human trafficking if there is absence of proper policies in this regard, example is Japan. There are also certain states that have shown a very reluctant attitude towards ratification of different treaties, protocols and conventions made in order to protect from trafficking specially for women and children. Few examples of such treaties are Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) group, etc. This lack of consent does not allow setting a common legal standard across regions and thus limiting the states to adopt an inter-operable legal system that might help in battling the crime of human trafficking across the border. Even though this fact cannot be negated that all the states are at different levels of development and thus adopts different attitude towards ratification, nevertheless, the ratification might enhance their capacity and through joint effort they might formulate laws against human trafficking. So, all the states should move towards ratification in order to have a proper formulation and enforcement of anti-trafficking laws.
———–Asst.Prof of Law ——- Rituparna Dey
