The workshop was organised by Community Appraisal and Motivation Programme (CAMP) on 'Countering Women Trafficking' here. The objective of the workshop is to share information about the current situation of human trafficking and the existing laws and law enforcement network to counter the growing problem.
Project Co-ordinator CAMP, Said Afzal Shinwari, while giving detailed briefing about the aims and objectives of the NGO also shed light on the project titled 'countering women trafficking', a project funded by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Laying out the basic objectives of CAMP, he said that the non-governmental organisation (NGOs) works for strengthening the capacity of civil society organisations, including NGOs, lawyers and media, member of parliaments, provincial judiciary on counter trafficking knowledge/women trafficking and to promote inter-institutional co-operation for the effective counter trafficking mechanisms at provincial level.
He said that the CAMP was organising capacity building workshops with media, civil society organisations, judges, parliamentarians and lawyers in order to resolve the problem. Said Afzal stressed on the need for close liaison among all the stakeholders with specific focus on FIA and police in order to bring harmony in the set up and to effectively counter the growing number of human trafficking both inside and outside the country.
Director Federal Ombudsman Office NWFP, Mashood Mirza gave detailed presentation about laws dealing with trafficking cases, salient features of the law, international instruments signed by Pakistan, bilateral and multilateral agreements.
He defined the trafficking in persons saying that the three major steps of the whole process were recruitment, transportation and exploitation. Mashood Mirza said that partially deceptive, fully deceptive and forcibly deceptive methods were used in trafficking and international criminal gangs and local industries like entertainment industry were involved in the crime.
Referring to the difference between smuggling and trafficking, he said that smuggling was consensual and transitional whereas trafficking can be both legal and illegal and outside and within the country as well.
He also informed the media persons about the most frequented routes for human trafficking that use Pakistan as transit country and ultimately land in Middle Eastern, Central Asian Republics, African and European countries.
Elaborating on different forms of forced labour, he said that trafficked children and female are mostly forced into domestic servitude, sex business, forced military service and street begging.
The body organs of the trafficked people are removed and they are forced in to working in massage parlours, shops, agriculture and other manual work, he said. He added that the basic human rights of the trafficked people are usurped and their life span cut down due to developing different sexually transmitted diseases and mental and physical torture.
He said that human trafficking has become one of the three lucrative criminal businesses and it may surpass drugs and arms business in 2010. Mashood underscored the need for effective laws and proper implementation on it with an aim to check the growing menace that was eating in the roots of out country.
Later, a questionnaire was distributed in the media persons seeking their recommendations on the issue and question and answer session was held before winding up the first day of the workshop that would work as a baseline for the upcoming workshops with parliamentarians to translate the findings of these workshops into laws.