General - all subjectsRecommended reading on contributing factors
Owed justice: Thai women trafficked into debt bondage in Japan
Trafficking women into slavery and debt bondage: the case of Thailand and Japan
Authors:
; Human Rights Watch (HRW)
Publisher:
Human Rights Watch , 2000
This report is based on interviews conducted in Thailand and Japan, documenting serious abuses in the course of women's recruitment, travel, job placement, and subsequent employment. The paper argues that despite the increased awareness by Japanese and Thai officials regarding these abuses, they have failed as yet to take adequate steps to respond effectively to the problem.
Findings include:
- trafficking networks are often controlled by powerful organised crime groups, including the Yakuza in Japan and other mafia-like organisations elsewhere
- while Thai women's initial decisions to migrate for work were almost always voluntary, women typically were deceived from the time they made their decisions until their arrival in Japan, and most of the women experience debt bondage and slavery-like abuses, prohibited under international law
- escape is difficult and dangerous. Women are kept under near constant surveillance, their passports and other documentation are confiscated, they have little cash, and they are isolated by barriers of language and culture. They are threatened with violent retaliation or "resale" into greater debt if they are caught, and sometimes with retaliation against their family members if they are not. While Japanese authorities may be willing to facilitate escape attempts, they will also begin deportation procedures, without offering women any opportunity to seek compensation for back wages or damages
The report makes recommendations to the Japanese and Thai Governments, to international organisations and to all governments, including:
- ensure that the "Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children," currently being drafted, incorporates strong provisions for the protection of the human rights and physical safety of trafficking victims
- ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. While it does not propose new human rights for migrant workers, this convention draws attention to a vulnerable population whose human rights are often exempted from state protection
- raise the problem of trafficking in persons, and particularly the trafficking of women from Thailand into compulsory labour in Japan, in high-level discussions with the Japanese and Thai governments
- allow for outside monitoring of trafficking prevention and reintegration programs carried out in Thailand. Efforts to prevent trafficking of women from Thailand should include the promotion of viable economic opportunities for women and girls and information dissemination regarding legal overseas migration opportunities for women and their rights overseas
