Research Paper

Child Trafficking As a Non-Traditional

Security Threat

Submitted to:
Sir Bilal Qureshi

Submitted By:
Amna Tauhidi

Date of submission:
18 April, 2013

Faculty of Contemporary Studies

Department Of International Relations

National Defense University, Islamabad

Global security has changed dramatically since the beginning of the 21st century especially by
the event of 11 September 2001.The definition of security has once again been narrowed.
Before globalization the focus was on national security but today in the globalized period the
non-traditional security has gained momentum and now there is a shift from the concept of
state oriented security to individual security. This concept is backed by what Kofi Annan said:
“Security can no longer be narrowly defined as the absence of armed conflict, be it between, or
within states. Gross abuses of human rights, the large scale displacement of civilian
populations, international terrorism, the AIDS pandemic, drug and arms trafficking and
environmental disasters present a direct threat to human security, forcing us to adopt a much
more co-ordinate approach to a range of issues”. In short, we can say that non-traditional
security threats are not visibly seen but certainly have a negative impact on the country.

Today, child trafficking has a prominent status on the global stage and falls under the
category of non-traditional security threat as it talks about the violation of the rights of the
children by exploiting their existing conditions and weaknesses and using them for the
achievement of their goals. The academic literature on trafficking can be broadly divided into
two fundamental approaches:

1) Sexual violence approach linking trafficking to sexual exploitation.

2) Migration approach linking trafficking to increase in conduct of irregular migration.

As per the UN convention on the Rights of Children, the exploitation of children less than
eighteen years of age is a crime. This statement clearly clarifies and identifies our statement
and purpose to prove child trafficking as a non-traditional security threat. It would not be
wrong to say that increase in any crime can lead to serious traditional security threats for the
state. Child trafficking is a huge profit generating business which often involves non state actors
and individuals from both inter and intra-state level and further creates problem for the
security agencies to highlight the external and internal variables involved in this. Child
trafficking is conducted through a systematic three step process that involves:

1) Recruitment
2) Transportation
3) Exploitation.

• Recruitment involves abduction, forcible recruitment, fully deceptive recruitment and

partially deceptive recruitment. In transportation it is necessary to highlight the places
of origin and destination. The traffickers involved in this business highlight the areas
where they get easily target the children and exploit them regarding their social,
political and economic conditions. Thirdly, Sexual exploitation, forced labor, forms of
 slavery, begging, organ transplant, armed conflicts, organized crime, surrogate mother.
The traffickers use different strategies for exploitation such as brain washing strategy,
cashing religious and cultural values, economic strategy that is providing them with
better incentives. International child trafficking who is sometimes referred to as modern
day slavery has increasingly come to be seen as a security threat. The question arises as
what kind of threat child trafficking poses? It is also necessary to highlight the politics of
trafficking and the external and internal variables involved in this sinister crime.

Studying the feminist approaches to child trafficking has made it easier to design and formulate
a traditional security framework, considering instead the security of trafficked persons,
recognizing the manner in which both traffickers and the state itself pose security threats. To
further elaborate this approach we need to study the political, social and economic aspects of a
particular state and what are the responsibilities of the state to tackle this growing menace. In
fact it would not be wrong to say that it is often these conditions that aggravate the non-state
actors and agencies to exploit. To state and study the concept of child trafficking in regard to
Pakistan we much study the following dimensions:

1) Political instability
2) Militarism
3) Civil Unrest
4) Social culture
5) Unemployment
6) Natural calamities

These are the factors that provide traffickers a fertile ground to do their business on. Political
instability leads to frustration and loss of public confidence on the government which gives an
edge to exploit the situation in their favor. Political instability further leads to civil unrest and
people come on streets and raise revolts against the governments. Political instability also leads
to unemployment which further creates sense of resentment among the public and they easily
fall prey to the well thought sugar coated strategies of traffickers. These are the dimensions
that seconds the feminist approach that it is often the national policies and political structure
and imbalance or inability of the government to keep pace between the needs and demands of
the public. If talking about social and religious values that make us prone to attacks by the
traffickers. Lack of awareness and command on our culture and religious values further
provides a fertile ground. Natural calamities and crises also play a huge role in giving rise to
child labor. The recent floods that hit Pakistan can be seen as a major threat to the future of
thousands of children. Once the families that have been displaced by the floods return to their
homes, they will encourage their children to go to work and help restore the financial
conditions of their families. Media reports have indicated that children from the flood-hit
regions are being promised lucrative jobs, taken away from their families and then being used
for sex work. An increase in child labor was noted after the previous natural calamity — the
2005 earthquake. There are fears that this pattern could be repeated.

The second half of the essay would focus on developing a link between the non-traditional and
traditional security threats. Or how non-traditional security threat can lead the country to traditional
security threat? The very first thing that arises is for what purposes these trafficked children are used?
The uses indicate a very humiliating attitude which proves the first point if non-traditional security
threats that it involves violation of human security and rights. The age below eighteen is a soft and
flexible age and children can be molded easily in any direction. These children are used to perform low
level and extremely humiliating tasks and often can be used as means to achieve an end in a particular
state which also leads to the concept of terrorism. Considering a hypothetical situation these children
can be trained and used to create internal disturbance and chaos. For example in Afghanistan children
are exploited in the name of religion and financial aid. They are promised incentives which range from
money to a place in Jann’at as they are told that they are doing God’s work and they will be rewarded
for it.

Secondly, as far as the concept of violation of state sovereignty and boarders, the traffickers are
illegally operating in Pakistan and illegally transferring the children and population of Pakistan
without the consent of the government.

Thirdly, children being used as front line soldiers. A child soldier has been defined as a person
under the age of eighteen who directly or indirectly participates in an armed conflict as a part
of an armed force or group. Today in most of the armed conflicts ranging in the world, an
estimated staggering number of 300,000 children are active participants in combat. This creates
an easy linkage to the traditional security threat as these children can be used to fight on
boarders as the elements of deception. How do children become soldiers? Hunger and poverty
may drive parents to offer children to volunteer as a way to guarantee regular meals, clothing
or medical attention. Some children become soldiers to protect themselves and their families in
the face of violence and chaos around them, while others particularly adolescents are lured by
ideology. Children also identify with social causes, religious expression, self-determination,
national liberation or the pursuit of political freedom. These children can also be used to cause
harm to the country’s image and prestige and to destroy its reputation in the international
community which would ultimately result in the deterioration of diplomatic as well as economic
relations. These children can also be used as non-state actors for another state and creating
rivalry between those states which would result in the break of an armed conflict between the
two states which eventually would lead to the traditional security threat. But the question is
raised that why the issue of child trafficking is not gaining the momentum it deserves? This
leads us to study the politics of trafficking. The fact that the US,EU and the UN-in their capacity
are the three basic and fundamental sources for donor funding and development and provision
of aid to the developing countries with Pakistan topping the list are the driving forces behind
projects and programmers on trafficking. This is just an analytical observation derived from the
principle of camel racing. Politicians are involved in the trafficking of children to pursue their
personal interest or to earn money through back channels. This principle also hints towards the
concept of corruption that’s why this threat is ignored. As stated above the organizations can
be involved in this business which is highly influential and gains the support of the government
through secret channel. These forces INGO’S and donors most certainly also explain the
increased reaction, if not interest, on the part of source countries’ governments to take some
kind of action against trafficking. Hence, certain forces must be at work promoting trafficking as
an important and highly political issue. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO),
about 12 million Pakistani children are forced into child labor, especially in Punjab and the
Northwest Frontier Province, in conditions of real slavery. The gap between the law and its
implementation is a serious problem in Pakistan. According to the Child Labor Law in Pakistan, a
child cannot be employed before the age of 15, under any circumstances. Moreover, bonded
labor, or ‘debt bondage’ is a practice condemned by the UN as being similar to slavery and
consequently a violation of Article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is
considered by the International Labor Organization (ILO) to constitute forced labor and to be a
violation of the ILO’s Convention no 29 on forced labor. However, the government has not put
its laws into practice to stop child labor and these laws are universally ignored in Pakistan
where children aged four to fourteen keep the country’s factories operating, often working in
brutal and squalid conditions. Moreover Pakistan is considered among the developing countries
and so it needs labor power which is being indirectly extracted from Pakistan to delay or lessen
its developing speed. Every year, 2.7 million people are trafficked. Most of them are women
and children. Children alone may account for as many as 1.2 million of the people who are sold
into the some of the worst forms of modern-day slavery. Some have been sold by their parents,
some abducted from their homes or streets and others recruited with false promises by
traffickers. Children of all ages are trafficked for a variety of purposes – sexual exploitation in
the commercial sex industry, marriage, domestic work, industrial labor, drug trafficking and
forced begging are only a few. Babies may also be sold to childless couples or couples seeking
to rear a bride for their sons. According to a recently-published report by the Asian Human
Rights Commission, children suffering from microcephaly are sent into servitude as forced
beggars – a possible 20,000 of them, mostly in Pakistan’s Punjab province. Microcephaly is a
neurological development disorder that causes children to have small heads. It can be caused
by genetic or environmental factors that lead to abnormal brain development in the womb or
after birth. Pakistani children are also trafficked into the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where
they work as camel jockeys. Between 2002 and 2010, nearly 1,000 children were trafficked into
the UAE from the Southern Punjab and the Northern Sindh regions of Pakistan. Most of the
trafficking victims were from Rahim Yar Khan in Punjab province. This is the statistical data that
provides a quantitative understanding to the child trafficking and it is yet growing with every
passing year. The increasing element points towards the failure of the government to tackle this
situation and to provide its people with better living standards. This all can turn against
Pakistan if not paid effective attention. These children can be trained and can be used against
Pakistan to internally destabilize the state.

The process theory integration entails merging of concepts from diverse disciplines and
theories to explain a crime which involves a high contingent of perpetrators. Theory integration
is a process of combining the best elements of existing theories to better explain the causes of
criminal behavior (Brown, Esbensen & Gees 2007:410; Lanier & Henry 2009:382)

Rational choice theories postulate that criminals are rational beings who make decisions to
commit crime based on the costs and benefits involved in the process of crime perpetration.
Deterministic in nature, criminal decision making process is based on free will, which
necessitates observation of opportunities, circumstances and situations that could affect the
successful perpetration of the planned crime, (Lanier & Henry, 2004:90).

Economic theory can be used to explain crimes, actions and behaviors which calculate the gains
and benefits accrued from participating in a certain task. Economic theory of crime suggests
that people make decisions to offend in ways that resemble their decisions made about other
non-criminal activities, (Witt & Witte 2000:4, 6). The criminal might commit crime if the
expected gains from legal work are less than the ones that are to arise from illegal work. The
underlying principle of the economic theory is that, criminals commit crime because they have
perceived the benefits from the crime to outweigh the possibility of being prosecuted and
incurring costs, (Eagle & Betters, 2007:166; Person & Siven, 2007:213).

The central idea of constitutive criminology is that power and equality build socially
constructed differences through which harm and deprivation is imposed on the subordinated
group. The interconnectedness of societies which cannot be seen outside of cultural and
structural contexts, determines the types of crimes that are likely to be perpetrated in specific
geographical communities, (Lanier & Henry, 2004:321). Constitutive criminologists perceives
criminals as excessive investors in crime who could use any means necessary to achieve the
desired outcomes whereas a victim is often the disabled party who experiences pain, loss and
denied humanity, (Lanier & Henry, 2004:323). As intercontinental trade agreements become a
profitable way of conducting business, relations between countries expand. Business executives
and non-governmental organizations travel frequently inter- and intra-continentally. With the
world connecting on global scale immigration, traveling and tourism opportunities are now
more accessible. Power and inequality, interconnectedness, investment in crime and loss and
pain experienced by victims during the perpetration of human trafficking are identifiable
variables important to build an integrated theoretical framework to explain human trafficking
of young women and girls for involuntary prostitution. The constitutive cultural and structural
contexts within which potential victims emanate are important to describe victim vulnerability
to human traffickers.

Where does Pakistan lack and what are the possible solutions to combat child trafficking?
Pakistan’s laws on child trafficking need to be urgently strengthened to consistently protect all
children against trafficking. The following issues should be addressed to control child trafficking:
1) There are no specialized child protection units in Pakistan, even though plans to establish
these have been in the pipeline for the past few years. While the Juvenile Justice System
Ordinance (JJSO) 2000 offered greater protection to children, it is not being implemented in its
totality. The judiciary should assume the leadership role for ensuring its implementation if the
provincial governments lack the interest to provide direction in this regard.

2) The trafficking ordinance’s offence of child trafficking does not include cases where children
are threatened or coerced into providing consent to be trafficked. Since its provisions are
limited to trafficking in and out of Pakistan, it leaves out cases of internal trafficking.

3) The Child Protection Bill has been tabled before the Parliament but has not yet been
adopted.

4) Pakistan must ratify the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and
child pornography, to sign and ratify the protocol to prevent, suppress and punish
trafficking in persons, especially women and children by UNICEF.

Conclusion:
In the end, we can say that as a state we must be able to provide our
citizens with equal opportunities and better living standards. Secondly, as a
state we should be able to keep pace with the growing needs and demands
of our population. Thirdly, there is a dire need to raise awareness among
the children about their rights and to educate them with the true
knowledge and teachings of Islam. Lastly, we should organize workshops to
enlighten the children about trafficking, the horrors of this heinous activity
show them the real picture of the trafficked children so they would not fall
to the false and trickery promises of these traffickers.