Sri Lanka as an island nation has long dealt with various border control and trafficking issues. However, the country needs to revisit its approaches to combat human trafficking in light of changing trends and tactics used by those who engage in the despicable practice.
According to the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crimes (UNODC), human trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring, or receipt of people through force, fraud, or deception, with the aim of exploiting them for profit. Men, women and children of all ages and from all backgrounds can become victims of this crime, which occurs in every region of the world.
In 2000, the United Nations established the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially women and children, which provided a commonly accepted working definition of human trafficking and called upon countries to promulgate laws to combat the practice, to assist victims, and to promote coordination and cooperation between countries. However, 24 years on, exploitation of vulnerable communities and people by unscrupulous elements and criminal groups for human trafficking continues, with economically challenged South and East Asian communities prime targets for the crime.
Today, human trafficking has returned to the spotlight in Sri Lanka, as concerns grow about ex-servicemen, many of whom had been allegedly misled to travel to Russia and Ukraine for the purpose of armed combat. The Sri Lankan Government will dispatch a delegation to Russia at the end of this month to seek clarity about the legality of hundreds, if not thousands, of Lankans fighting on their frontlines and may press Moscow to repatriate the wounded and the dead.
The families of those who are engaged in combat for Russia claim that their husbands, brothers, and sons were duped into performing frontline duties. Russian authorities have indicated to their Sri Lankan counterparts that a number of Sri Lankan ex-servicemen who travelled to the country are currently members of the Russian armed forces and are engaged in combat, The Daily Morning reliably learnt last week. The confirmation comes following a high-level meeting between Russian authorities and a group of diplomats from the Sri Lankan mission in Moscow on 30 May, a senior Government official close to the matter disclosed to The Daily Morning.
Sri Lankan authorities have arrested nearly a dozen individuals, including some involved in the migrant employment industry and some retired members of the armed forces. This includes a retired Major General from the Sri Lanka Army, who the Police suspect was behind one of the rackets to recruit ex-servicemen from logistics backgrounds to be sent to Russia, where they found themselves committing to another set of agreements (in Russian), following which they had been rushed through several days of combat training and pushed to perform frontline duties.
Some of those who faced frontline combat against Ukrainian forces and managed to return to Sri Lanka have told the media a pathetic tale of being misled and being treated poorly, essentially left to their own devices, facing opposing forces in trench warfare. The families of those who are in the frontlines complain that their loved ones who are in the Russo-Ukrainian front are not paid regularly, or that they have not been paid at all. Some families told the press that the Sri Lankan combatants have had to buy their own food and some of the kit they need to survive in the harsh climate and war conditions on the Russian front. It is learnt that law enforcement authorities are investigating the scam and the complaints,
After much protests and the issue making points of order in the Legislature, the slow State machinery has begun to move slowly to address the issue. The Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force under the Ministry of Defence is said to be helping the Police with their investigations. Recently the task force conducted a multi-stakeholder conference to educate senior public officials and military officers about the ongoing issues with the human trafficking situation.
Building awareness is key to identifying and preventing human trafficking. However, some observers have questioned if there are adequate laws to address the offenders. Sri Lanka’s judicial reforms process has been slow over the years, but has gained ground recently. Given the dire economic conditions faced by nearly 30% of Sri Lanka’s populace, who have now slipped beneath the poverty line, Sri Lanka remains fertile ground for would-be human traffickers to exploit. It is prudent that our lawmakers move quickly to close the loopholes they exploit to gain from the misery of our poor.