To Better Know A Country: Human Trafficking in Afghanistan

by Amanda Kloer · 2009-08-26 07:00:00 UTC
Topics:

Every year, the U.S. State Department releases a Trafficking in Persons report which rates countries on their efforts to combat human trafficking.  Each week, I'll be providing a brief glance at human trafficking in one of those countries, based off the 2009 Trafficking in Persons report, with my own (often snarky) analysis added.  This is just a snapshot of what's going on in the country.  For more information, you can check out the full text of the 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report here. 

This Week's Country..... Afghanistan

Basic Stats

  • Ranking: Tier 2

  • Status: Source, transit, and destination country for trafficking victims

  • Political Stability: Unlike the country itself, not so hot

  • Cash Flow: Like the country itself, pretty dry

  • Do I Think They Care?: Trafficking is pretty low on their priorities list  

Who Are the Victims and What Are They Doing?

  • Girls: Commercial sex, forced begging, forced marriage, debt bondage, carpet-making factories, and domestic servitude.

  • Boys: Extremist/terrorist paramilitary groups, commercial sex, forced begging,  debt bondage, carpet-making factories, and domestic servitude

  • Women: Commercial sex and forced marriage

  • Men: Forced labor and debt bondage

What Are They Coming From and Where Are They Going?

  • Victims are trafficked from Afghanistan to Iran and Pakistan

  • Victims are trafficked from Iran, Tajikistan, and China to Afghanistan

  • Victims are trafficked through Afghanistan from Iran and Tajikistan

  • Afghan and foreign victims are trafficked internally

What's Gotta Happen?

  • More prosecution of traffickers

  • Work with NGOs to protect child victims

  • More public awareness campaigns

What Can I Do? 

  • You can support the Central Asia Institute, which promotes community-based education, especially for girls, in remote areas of Afghanistan. 

In summary, Afghanistan's got a lot of really, really rough stuff going on right now, between the political instability, the foreign military presence, and the economy.  I'm not surprised that combating trafficking is a little low on their list.  However, I hope they see the connection between labor exploitation and economic struggles, and between international trafficking and border security and step up their game.  They might fin solving trafficking solves their other problems as well.

Amanda Kloer is a Change.org Editor and has been a full-time abolitionist in several capacities for seven years. Follow her on Twitter @endhumantraffic
PREVIOUS STORY:
Teen Trafficking Survivor Gets Life Without Parole
NEXT STORY:
Today is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day, how are you going to take action?

COMMENTS (1)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.