Immigration policy accused of leading to human trafficking – World News Report

As regular routes are closed, large numbers of people are forced to take unusual and dangerous routes to migrate around the world

Experts say anti-trafficking rhetoric is being weaponized to justify policies that actually increase the risk of trafficking, exploitation and death.

Raleigh, North Carolina, USA, July 5, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ — Anti-trafficking rhetoric is increasingly being weaponized around the world to justify policies that deny asylum and close doors to migrants, speakers at an event this week said.

Advocates say this “weaponisation for political gain” increases the risk of migrants being trafficked, exploited and even killed, with anti-trafficking slogans being used to break modern slavery protection laws.

With election season approaching, global politics is at a critical juncture. With the death toll of migrants hitting a record high, immigration has become a hot topic for politicians and governments.

Joanna Ewart-James, Executive Director of Freedom United, an anti-trafficking group that hosted the online event, said:

“As global displacement increases due to economic collapse, conflict, persecution and climate disasters, access to safe, regular migration routes is decreasing. People on the move are forced to take great risks in search of a better life, but without protection or access to safe routes, some are at risk of being exploited, detained or even killed.”

Evatt-James explains that migrants are not inherently vulnerable to exploitation or human trafficking. Rather, they are vulnerable to exploitation because of their marginalization as a result of anti-immigrant sentiment, and policies that remove protection and safe travel routes that significantly increase their vulnerability and therefore their likelihood of being exploited.

Migration experts highlight a growing trend among governments and politicians to hijack “anti-trafficking” rhetoric to legitimize anti-immigration policies that push people into exploitation.

As immigration policies become increasingly strict and restrictive, trafficking networks become more powerful and profitable, while governments claim to dismantle trafficking and smuggling networks.

For example, the CBP One app, designed to manage asylum appointments at the U.S.-Mexico border, has inadvertently put migrants at greater risk. Limited appointments and issues with the app itself have left asylum seekers stranded and in a vulnerable position. This, in turn, has forced migrants to turn to smuggling networks, leaving them vulnerable to extortion, kidnapping, and human trafficking.

While the government claims the app’s purpose is to provide a safe alternative, it has instead increased dangerous conditions for people seeking safety, leaving them with no choice but to risk their lives.

The experts called on the EU, UK and US governments to immediately stop implementing “draconian” policies that not only fail to stop criminal activity, but instead create a market for traffickers and normalize inhumane practices against mobile populations.

The conflation of anti-immigration and anti-trafficking issues is at the heart of the outrage among advocates, who say it undermines real anti-trafficking efforts and emboldens trafficking networks in the very jurisdictions these policies are meant to protect.

Francesca Humi, a writer who studies borders and state violence, recently served as a panelist in an online discussion, “The murderous politics of immigration: how governments exacerbate human trafficking,” and noted that anti-trafficking measures in the UK and EU are extremely cruel.

She stressed that by placing malicious traffickers on one side and vulnerable victims on the other, the government absolves itself of any responsibility for the harm and exploitation caused by hostile immigration policies.

Humi said,

“This whole militarized infrastructure just makes it more and more risky for people to cross the border. It’s clear that these anti-trafficking measures have almost superseded immigration policy, and our migration pathways are becoming increasingly restricted.”

This militarized approach is reflected in EU outsourcing border controls and maritime interceptions To “save lives” to North African countries while preventing migrants from reaching European shores, it instead facilitates the exploitation of captured migrants by human traffickers, who are sent back to dangerous areas and detention centers where human rights violations are rampant.

Mario Bruzzone, policy advisor for the Women’s Refugee Commission’s Immigrant Rights and Justice Program, highlighted that President Biden had just announced further restrictions on asylum access at the U.S.-Mexico border. This was the latest action involving the flawed CBP One mobile app, which advocates claim makes it more difficult to obtain asylum.

Bruzzone says:

“The findings show that people forcibly displaced in Mexico are vulnerable to kidnapping, sexual assault, and actual violence by organized crime and opportunistic predators.”

Bruzzone noted that immigration policies can increase vulnerability.

“There has been an increase in the kidnapping and extortion of migrants, especially since the end of 2023. Many have described this as the worst period of violence they have ever seen, both in terms of volume and brutality. (The findings) also found that Mexican authorities either tolerated, participated in, or actively participated in kidnappings… U.S. authorities are aware of this as well.”

In the UK, the government’s defence is that Illegal Immigration Law is to prevent people from making the dangerous journey in small boats to reach the UK, claiming that people seeking asylum in the UK can do so through legal channels. However, panelist Sophie Cartwright, senior policy officer at the Jesuit Refugee Service UK, explained that this argument does not stand up to scrutiny, as the claim of asylum is a legal route and often no other conventional routes are available.

“British politicians were talking so much about ‘stopping the boats’ and ‘stopping the criminal gangs’ before the election, conceptually focusing on human trafficking and all this draconian punitive legislation designed to cut off basic opportunities for people seeking asylum to get to safety… The dishonesty of this policy is that it just punishes people for being forced to migrate,” Cartwright said.

The experts echoed the views of other migrant advocates and anti-trafficking groups that current policies force people to seek other dangerous “informal” routes that, far from acting as a deterrent, increase migrants’ vulnerability to human trafficking and death.

While governments and politicians stand at podiums or behind cameras, using immigration policies as campaign platforms, men, women and children die, are trafficked and exploited every day.

Watch a recording of the panel discussion here: https://www.freedomunited.org/webinars/migration-politics-that-kill/

Ellie Finkelstein
Free Association
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Freedom Alliance Online Panel Event: Deadly Immigration Politics: How Governments Fuel Human Trafficking