Memorandum submitted by STOP THE TRAFFIK
1. MATERNAL HEALTH
AND HUMAN
TRAFFICKING
1.1 STOP THE TRAFFIK welcomes the International
Development Committee's Inquiry into Maternal Health, and DFID's
contributions to maternal health programmes. This is key to assessing
and implementing the Millennium Development Goals, and the recognition
of the links between maternal health and other key development
factors including poverty, infant mortality, population growth,
and the status of women is crucial.
1.2 STOP THE TRAFFIK urges the International
Development Committee to consider the implications of another
key development factor on maternal health—human trafficking.
This modern-day slave trade that deceives and coerces victims
into commercial and sexual exploitation has a huge impact on maternal
health. The catalogue of evidence is overwhelming:
1.3 The June 2007 Scoping Project on Child
Trafficking in the UK by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection
(CEOP) Centre records several cases where human trafficking has
impacted maternal health:
— Five trafficked Chinese girls had
been abandoned once they had become pregnant.
— One West African girl after being
daily raped was beaten regularly in the stomach because she had
become pregnant.
— Pregnancy is used as an instrument
of oppression on trafficked girls. One baby of a child victim
of trafficking was found dead after the mother's oppressors had
taken it whilst she was enslaved.
— One trafficked girl was sexually
exploited and forced to sell illegal drugs and commit credit card
fraud until she became pregnant and was abandoned.
— Trafficked girls suffer from STDs,
pregnancies, miscarriages, trauma, depression, drug addiction,
and psychological instability.
1.4 The effects of human trafficking on
maternal health are not just limited to the UK. This is recognised
by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Global Initiative
to Fight Human Trafficking (GIFT):
The objectives set for the Global Initiative
will contribute to achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals
of empowering women, improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS,
eradicating poverty, improving education and developing a global
partnership for development.
1.5 The UN Inter-Agency Network on Women
and Gender Equality (IANWGE), through their work in Eastern and
Central Europe, also link human trafficking and maternal mortality:
Social phenomena such as violence against women,
increased trafficking in women and prostitution contribute to
the worsening of reproductive health.
1.6 The World Health Organisation (WHO)
linked achieving the MDGs regarding reproductive health with human
trafficking as part of an ILO course:
The issues of poor nutrition for girls in adolescence,
female generated mutilation, domestic violence and several trafficking
are recognised as detrimental to reproductive health and violate
several and reproductive rights.
1.7 The National Asian Pacific American
Women's Forum also links reproductive health and human trafficking:
Women and girls trafficked into sex work are
vulnerable to contracting sexually transmitted infections ...
So when reproductive health issues arise, for example if women
develop ovarian cysts, they are prohibited from receiving treatment.
1.8 PATH, an international NGO working in
community health, highlight the pregnancy complications for trafficked
women:
They have a high risk of complications and infertility
due to undiagnosed and untreated STIs, including HIV/AIDS, and
risk complications from pregnancy and unsafe abortion.
1.9 STOP THE TRAFFIK therefore urges the
International Development Committee to take full account of and
recommend measures concerning improving maternal health through
tackling human trafficking. Without such action the MDGs will
not be achieved.
2. ANSWERING
THE QUESTIONS
2.1 Donors can catalyse progress towards
MDG 5 by recognising the impact of human trafficking, outlined
above, and by improving access to holistic health services for
mothers vulnerable to human trafficking. An anti-trafficking focus
should therefore be included in all Poverty Reduction Strategy
Papers (PRSPs) and DFID's Country Assistance Plans (CAPs). Measures
should be focused on those specifically identified as vulnerable
to trafficking, and the outcome should be an independently verified
measurable increase in maternal health and reduction in human
trafficking.
2.2 DFID should ensure that skilled birth
attendants and other staff in recipient countries are being trained
in identifying and caring for victims of trafficking, and that
this is integrated within the local, regional, and national health
systems.
2.3 DFID should mainstream awareness of
and action concerning human trafficking across related policies,
so as to provide a sustainable, self-generating, and systematic
approach to improving maternal health and reducing human trafficking.
2.4 MDG 5, in relation to tackling human
trafficking, should be prioritised and integrated into countries'
overall healthcare provision, as women and mothers tend to be
the homemakers and family providers.
2.5 DFID should only support the 2006 recommendation
by the UN General Assembly for an MDG target for universal access
to reproductive health if it recognises the detrimental role that
human trafficking has, and implements measures to combat human
trafficking to improve maternal health.
2.6 Many of the maternal deaths from unsafe
abortions are experienced by trafficking victims (see the IANWGE
link). There will only be a sustainable reduction if human trafficking
is addressed through reducing both the demand for trafficked women
and the supply of trafficked women. This can be achieved through
implementing prevention, prosecution, and protection measures
such as those suggested in the Council of Europe Convention on
Action against Trafficking in Human Beings.
2.7 Effective family planning can improve
maternal health, but only if it is provided on a free, accessible,
safe, and sustainable basis, obtainable by the most vulnerable
in communities, such as victims of human trafficking.
2.8 DFID can work more effectively with
donors and stakeholders to promote maternal health by incorporating
the advice, training, and resources of agencies that work to tackle
human trafficking, thus providing a more holistic approach.
2.9 The UN is not providing leadership on
maternal health and human trafficking, and its agencies are not
co-ordinated. The UNODC is attempting to lead the other UN agencies
on tackling trafficking and achieving the MDGs through GIFT, but
the team are under-manned, under-resourced, and under-supported.
Member states such as the UK should more actively promote efforts
like GIFT, which will contribute to improving maternal health.
2.10 DFID has recognised the barriers to
women's empowerment and the low status of women, but need to do
more to implement MDGs 2 and 3. They particularly need to develop
tailored education and training programmes for women and girls
vulnerable to trafficking, which would include awareness raising
and equipping for avoiding trafficking.
2.11 The international community can improve
maternal health in crisis and conflict settings by ensuring that
those personnel responding to such situations are trained and
equipped to care for women and girls who have been trafficked,
such as child soldiers, sex slaves, forced labourers and beggars,
and other roles.
2.12 STOP THE TRAFFIK urges the International
Development Committee to address these issues, integrate anti-trafficking
into its Inquiry into Maternal Health, and mainstream tackling
human trafficking in all its work surrounding the MDGs.
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