The UN definition of "trafficking", under the terms of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (supplementing the 2000 UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime), Article 3(a) states:
'Trafficking in persons' shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.
[...] By the late Brezhnev period, extra-legal activity became an almost universal social phenomenon, and officials grew increasingly akin to "mafia bosses." After the fall of Communism and the beginning of transition, the grip of the old nomenclature on power in most Central Asian republics (with the notable exceptions of Kyrgyzstan and more all-out war in Tajikistan) was taken as a proof that the contest between "state" and "society" in Central Asia was won by traditional institutions and values. The impact of the soviet state system was deemed minimal and Central Asian societies were cast firmly into the category of "Third World Muslim societies." (Malashenko 2001, p. [...]
[...] The perception of increased human smuggling and other organized criminal activity, as well as cases of corruption in public administration that raised serious concerns among EU officials. For example, at the Justice, Home Affairs and Immigration (JHA) Council meeting in Birmingham, Anita Gradin, and the former European Commissioner for the JHA said that "certain sections of the Polish border are vulnerable and lend themselves to exploitation by criminal organizations trying to deliver illegal immigrants to the West." She commented on "organized crime's power over the state machinery" in Hungary and "the institutionalized corruption" in the Czech Republic (quoted in ER 1998, pp.8-9). [...]
[...] The reality of the Russian transition does not match the expectations and the accounts given in the books by the (now dismissed) Western advisers. Rather than a virtuous unseen hand bringing about a collective optimum, Russia appears to be suffering a collective failure. By pursuing individually rational goals, agents have brought about a less-than-optimal collective outcome. In this politico-economic environment, a "shadow" economic and political system of Russian Mafias has emerged, as has the practice of human smuggling and human trafficking. [...]
[...] Like many transnational criminal enterprises, human smuggling relies extensively on collateral enterprises, such as passport and visa forgery, corruption of government officials (especially in transit countries), and money laundering. Women originate, overwhelmingly, from Central and East Europe; with German nationals and non-EU nationals, notably from Turkey and Central and East European countries, variously employed in the exploitation of women. Central and East European women, alongside women from Thailand, also feature predominantly in Kelly and Regan's (2000) report on England and Wales. [...]
[...] As mentioned in the introduction, there is a thin line between human smuggling and human trafficking many Central Asians are happy for a trip away from the poverty and strife of their home countries, and legal immigration is difficult-to-impossible for many. But what makes them wish to migrate? The answer is ironically, not only the collapse of the planned economies and the poverty that followed, but the tight ethnic and family connections that led to the rise of organized crime syndicates which now provide a vehicle for both voluntary and involuntary migration. [...]
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