Abstract
Since 1999, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has been active in the fight against human trafficking in the Greater Mekong sub-region, particularly in Thailand, which is considered a major destination country for victims of trafficking. Taking Lao migrants as a case study, this chapter examines anti-trafficking programmes and their effects on women and girls identified as ‘victims of trafficking’ (VoT) or ‘at risk’ of human trafficking. It contrasts their experiences with the discursive and material tools developed and disseminated by the IOM which markedly shape the war against human trafficking and, more specifically, the disciplinary initiatives adopted by the region’s governments. On the basis of extensive ethnographic research in Laos, this study challenges the role played by the IOM in anti-trafficking processes of VoT rehabilitation and return and posits that these policies and programmes aimed at protecting women’s bodies come at the expense of their rights.
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Notes
- 1.
I deeply thank Anne Therese Gallagher for her very helpful comments and Lumia Perniciaro for her invaluable proofreading.
- 2.
In the interest of ongoing research, the name of the organisation will not be disclosed.
- 3.
- 4.
Civil society in Lao PDR is not only fragile but closely monitored by the regime.
- 5.
Very few interviews and meetings were conducted with the IOM members, as their insight was beyond the scope of the initial research project. It was only after a chance meeting with an IOM Laos chief officer in a karaoke bar that my curiosity was sparked.
- 6.
These party-sponsored sociopolitical structures fulfil the functions that are traditionally entrusted to civil society organisations in most other parts of the world.
- 7.
TOT sessions were held in districts of the Northern provinces (Bokeo, Luang Prabang, Oudomxay, Luang Namtha), in the central provinces, including the capital (Vientiane, Khammouane), and in the south of the country (Savannakhet).
- 8.
https://www.transparency.org/news/feature/corruption_perceptions_index_2017. The new Lao President has recently declared a war on corruption.
- 9.
https://www.iom.int/countries/lao-peoples-democratic-republic; accessed 2 February 2018. The online content was changed following an interview I conducted with an IOM Lao officer in March 2018 in Vientiane.
- 10.
Interview, IOM Lao Office, Skype, June 2017.
- 11.
- 12.
- 13.
On 31 July 2017, the IOM donated to the Thai Immigration Bureau (through a Canadian-funded project) new technologies that detect identity and passport fraud within 10 seconds. Human trafficking was a primary reason for the project’s enhancement of Thailand’s passport inspection capabilities. See https://thailand.iom.int/news/thai-immigration-bureau-receives-advanced-equipment-un-migration-agency-enhance-passport and https://thailand.iom.int/news/thai-immigration-bureau-receives-advanced-equipment-un-migration-agency-enhance-passport
- 14.
Since 2001 the US State Department has published a ranking of countries considered to be experiencing human trafficking based on their compliance with standards established by US law. Tier 1 countries are considered to be in full compliance with US standards, Tier 2 are making efforts to do so and Tier 3 is reserved for countries ‘whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so’. A Tier 3 ranking can trigger US economic sanctions and lead to American interference in a country’s relations with financial institutions (Chuang 2006). While Lao PDR has long appeared to be particularly indifferent to the threats accompanying the TIP Report, resisting US pressure to consider human trafficking seriously, Thailand has shown much more sensitivity (Gallagher 2006). Quotes from https://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2017/271117.htm
- 15.
Quotations taken from the special online report issued by the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at http://www.mfa.go.th/main/contents/files/media-center-20150311-164953-538433.pdf
- 16.
Four Lao interviewees who claimed to be over 18 years old when Thai police raided the karaoke bar they worked in were identified as VoT. Their passports were kept by police officers and they were placed in Thai governmental shelters for more than a year.
- 17.
- 18.
The same limitation of women’s mobility and autonomy in the name of their protection had been observed in the 1999 directive, issued by the Burmese military government, that prohibited women who were 16–25 years of age ‘to cross the border unless accompanied by a legal guardian’, a decision widely discussed and reported as an effective ‘anti-trafficking measure’, for example, in the concluding observations of 1999 and 2000 CEDAW Committees. Nepal has criminalised the movement of women and girls under 30 when travelling without a husband or the permission of a male guardian beyond the country’s borders several times in the name of protecting them from being trafficked to Arab States (Kapur 2002; ILO 2015).
- 19.
‘IOM Hosts Workshop on Shelter Management and Direct Assistance for Victims of Trafficking in South Korea’, at www.iom.int/news/iom-hosts-workshop-shelter-management-and-direct-assistance-victims-trafficking-south-korea. Maintaining a strong role in support of the Global Shelter Cluster and operational shelter coordination, the IOM is involved in the coordination of shelters in 26 countries and perceives itself as a key player in the Strategic Advisory Group within the Global Shelter Cluster, co-leading the Shelter Projects (www.shelterproject.rg) and the GBV in Shelter Programming Working Groups (www.sheltercluster.org/gbv). The Handbook can be found at http://publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/iom_handbook_assistance.pdf
- 20.
The IOM concerns and guidelines were compiled in a 2004 set of minimum standards for ‘The Mental Health Aspects of Trafficking in Human Beings’ that promote ‘comprehensive and coordinated psychosocial care of trafficked persons from the time of their rescue to throughout their reintegration process’ (IOM 2004b); also see ‘IOM Training Manual on Psychosocial Assistance for Trafficked Persons’ (IOM 2010).
- 21.
‘[N]o mobile phones or pagers are allowed in the shelter at any time. Such items must be handed over to the shelter staff for safekeeping when entering the shelter, and will be returned on departure from the shelter’ (IOM 2007, 152).
- 22.
On 8 December 2004, a shelter in Phnom Penh operated by Somaly Mam’s NGO Acting for Women in Distressing Situations (AFESIP) was attacked. The international community, including the United States, immediately condemned the attack. However, the French doctor Pierre Gazin, then President of AFESIP, declared that a police ‘rescue operation’ had preceded this attack, which the women logically experienced as a raid. Once detained in the shelter, they called their friends with the mobile phones they had hidden and asked them to come and free them from the shelter. While press releases reported ‘armed assailants’, Pierre Gazin affirms that the men who came and broke the gate’s padlock had no guns.
- 23.
- 24.
These women and girls had been repatriated from Thailand to Lao PDR and had stayed, escaped from or been denied entry to a non-governmental shelter in Lao PDR subsequent to their retention in Thai governmental shelters for an average period of one year.
- 25.
I interviewed four former residents of Nareesawat and seven from Sisurat.
- 26.
- 27.
http://www.dissertation.xlibx.info/d1-juristic/236070-19-case-study-thailand-may-2013-human-rights-center-sexual-violenc.php. Skrobanek and Boll affirm that in Baan Kredtrakarn, ‘80% of shelter residents are victims of trafficking and the remaining 20% are referral cases of physical violence, pregnancy and family dysfunction from other agencies’ (2011, 30).
- 28.
A package providing information on social support and other specialised services is available for returning Thai suspected of having been victims of trafficking in Australia. See When I Return Home (2007), at https://thailand.iom.int/when-i-return-home. Quotation from page 19 of this report.
- 29.
In Baan Kredtrakarn, a building houses up to 60 residents, in Nareesawat around 15 and in Sisurat around 2.
- 30.
This position was confirmed in the last interview conducted in March 2018 with an IOM Laos project chief.
- 31.
With support from many international organisations such as ILO, IOM, Australia-Asia Program to Combat Trafficking in Persons (AAPTIP) and United Nations Action for Cooperation Against Trafficking in Persons (UN-ACT).
- 32.
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Miramond, E. (2020). Humanitarian Detention and Deportation: The IOM and Anti-Trafficking in Laos. In: Geiger, M., Pécoud, A. (eds) The International Organization for Migration. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32976-1_11
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