LAHORE: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Wednesday released a study titled ‘Modern slavery: Trafficking in women and girls in Pakistan’, which identifies Pakistan as a source, transit and destination country for human trafficking.

“Although it is difficult to determine the magnitude of the crime — given a lack of reliable data — the HRCP is particularly concerned by the network of trafficking that exists internally, spanning sex trafficking, forced child labour, bonded labour, forced begging and forced marriage. Economically vulnerable women and under-age girls are targeted in particular.”

The study explains why it is difficult to address trafficking compared to other human rights violations — from the dearth of reliable data on trafficking and constant under reporting to lack of implementation of existing anti-trafficking legislation.

Moreover, the pervasive lack of awareness of the various dimensions of trafficking, and gaps in coordination among stakeholders such as the FIA and law enforcement agencies, are added challenges.

The report maintains that though the National Action Plan entails a very comprehensive roadmap to combat trafficking in persons in Pakistan, the real challenge lies in its implementation as the earlier plans were not able to achieve the set targets due to lack of resources and limited capacity of the organization.

The report recommends that an effective system to collect, compile and report data on all the dimensions of human trafficking be developed as a matter of priority.

The capacity of law enforcement agencies to identify and report trafficking must also be strengthened immensely.

A significant number of trafficked women and girls are re-victimised. There is hardly any information available on how women and girls survive trafficking in long run. Therefore, a study should be conducted to highlight factors that help victims survive trafficking.

Addressing the long-term vulnerabilities of trafficked women and girls is extremely important to protect them from re-victimization.

The government should develop a comprehensive strategy for the rehabilitation and reintegration of trafficked women and girls into mainstream society. Only short-term protection is not enough, it recommends.

Finally, the government must allocate adequate resources to implement anti-trafficking laws, encouraging better coordination among stakeholders, with targeted interventions for groups that are specifically vulnerable to trafficking.

Published in Dawn, March 10th, 2022