Efforts to combat human trafficking have been largely focused on
source countries to the detriment of developing measures to address
the demand side of the crime, IOM’s Deputy Director General,
Ndioro Ndiaye, told a conference yesterday in New York.

The Deputy Director General, who addressed the International
Conference on Trafficking in Women and Girls at the ECOSOC Chamber
in New York sponsored by the Belarus and Philippines governments,
UNODC and the NGO Vital Voices, highlighted the need to look at the
whole chain of human trafficking, from supply to demand.

"Although poverty, gender discrimination, and political upheaval
can create vulnerabilities in origin countries, they are only
important contributing factors, rather than root causes, of human
trafficking today," she said. "While trade barriers fall to
facilitate the freer movement of goods, services, and
capital… migration policies have generally become more
restrictive and rigid. It is this tension between the intense
demand for labour and services on the one hand, coupled with too
few legal migration channels on the other that creates
opportunities for intermediaries. When the demand is for cheap
labour and cheap services specifically, the human trafficker steps
into the breach."

During the conference, UN Deputy Secretary General Asha-Rose
Migiro urged countries to join a new UN programme to be launched
later this year, the Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking
and Modern Slavery, and stressed the need for increased cooperation
among all stakeholders in order to stop the crime.

Other speakers included UN General Assembly President Sheikha
Haya Rashed Al Khalifa as well as senior officials from the
Philippines and Belarus, two countries that have had long
experience in combating human trafficking and who have shown great
commitment to addressing the issue and with whom IOM has developed
important partnerships.

Last October, IOM and the Belarus government organized a
conference on cooperation between countries of origin and
destination. This Belarus initiative was notable in bringing
together a number of governments that had never met to discuss
human trafficking before and led to the opening of important, new
channels of dialogue.

Among recommendations made by IOM for countries of destination
for human trafficking are:

• Broaden the awareness, attention and research into all forms of
  forced labour and exploitation, whether as a result of internal or
  international trafficking, and the factors that underpin its
  demand;
• Ensure that informal and unregulated work activities are
  brought within the protection of labour laws to ensure that all
  workers enjoy the same labour rights;
• Encourage the creation of ethical employer associations which
  will adhere to codes of conduct that ensure protection of the
  rights of its workers;
• Engage in public awareness campaigns focusing on acceptance of
  migrants and their families to reduce discrimination and
  stigmatisation of migrant workers.

For further information, please contact:

Jonathan Martens

IOM Geneva

Tel: + 41 22 717 9469/+ 41 79 224 9747

E-mail: "mailto:jmartens@iom.int">jmartens@iom.int