Over 20,000 cases of domestic trafficking reported in 2018

UN Women, NCSW to help combat women trafficking

As many as 20,000 people were reported to have fallen victim to domestic trafficking in Pakistan in 2018. A whopping 92 per cent of the trafficked people were women.

This was disclosed by an official of the Federal Investigative Agency (FIA) on Tuesday during a seminar on "Together to combat trafficking of women and girls". The seminar had been jointly organised by the United Nations (UN) Women Pakistan, the National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) and the Kashf Foundation.

"When we prioritise the protection of women's rights as human rights and develop strategies to combat violence against women, we encounter various challenges. One of these challenges is trafficking of women and girls, which rarely gets the attention it deserves,” said UN Women Pakistan Country Representative Jamshed Kazi.

Human trafficking ring uncovered in Islamabad

“For Pakistan to successfully tackle this threat, we need to work towards changing the underpinning social norms and behaviours in a transformative way, which would lead to the adoption of new behaviours and result in social change,” he said.

He added that women and girls are disproportionately impacted by human trafficking. Global estimates indicate that women and girls may constitute up to 80 per cent of people trafficked globally, with more than 60 per cent of those trafficked coming from the Asia region.

Most of the evidence on trafficking in Pakistan is anecdotal. While studies have been conducted at different levels, the number of girls and women trafficked for domestic labour, forced marriages or sexual exploitation is very difficult to ascertain from these reports. However, available data indicates that traffickers are not always strangers but can be family members, friends or acquaintances. 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 28^th, 2019.