Human Trafficking in Dar es Salaam

CREDIT: CLARO CORTES IV/REUTERS

Pillars of Hope‘s public outreach campaign has been working to educate our communities and equip them with knowledge on crime against our children. If we better educate our communities, it will lead to prevention. Individuals equipped with the knowledge of how the adults coerce, manipulate, and exploit our youth are better prepared to recognize and prevent it from occurring. Unfortunately in some instances, children fall into human trafficking.

The PoHEO intervention program consists of street outreach where a trained team of individuals seek out children involved in street work. Outreach may include providing food and basic toiletries. The team coordinates with local agencies, shelters, government services and law enforcement. If youth are in need of a safe place to stay, organizers work with local resources to identify available programs with capacity to help. Medium and long term these youth need individualized services to address their physical, psychological, and educational needs that will lead to a successful transition to independent living.

Human trafficking is a serious issue in Tanzania. It is the illegal movement of people, typically for the purposes of forced labor or sexual exploitation. Being trafficked makes victims vulnerable to violence and crime and exposes them to infectious diseases. Long-term mental health and medical conditions result from this abuse.

Labor trafficking is defined as "the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage or slavery." Within human labor trafficking, there are three main types: child labor, bonded labor, and forced labor. Unfortunately, youth are often lied to and exploited while being made to work. They often don’t have even have basic needs taken care of.

When children are forced to work, they are deprived of their childhood, school, and their future potential. Children are often sent to the city to earn money for the family. They may stay with a relative, friend or someone from their village. This puts children in a position of reliance and great danger when their caretaker takes advantage of them being far from home. Forced labor is traumatic and harmful to the physical and mental development of children. Working on the street interferes with children's schooling by depriving them of the opportunity to attend or forcing them to leave school at an early age.

Bonded labor, or debt bondage, is where victims become bonded laborers when their labor is demanded as a means of repayment for a loan or service. This could be for basic food and shelter. The value of their work is greater than the original sum of money or services “borrowed.”

Forced labor can include domestic servitude, agricultural labor, factory labor, and begging.

Sex trafficking is defined by coercion, which threats of serious harm to or physical, any time a person believes that failure to perform an act would result in serious harm, or the threat of turning someone in to police for the same or different crimes. There is no single type of victim; trafficking occurs to adults and minors in rural, suburban, or urban communities. Victims of human trafficking have diverse socio-economic backgrounds, and varied levels of education. Traffickers target victims use methods that compel that individual into forced labor or commercial sex, such as threats to their family, safety or reputation. Extreme poverty remains the single most influential factor in becoming a target of human trafficking. Runaway and homeless youth are vulnerable to trafficking. Women and children can be targeted due to their relative lack of power, social marginalization, and their overall status compared to men.

Victims may seem anxious, fearful, or paranoid. They avoid eye contact and usually have someone translating or answering questions on their behalf. They can come from economically and physically unstable home life or from populations characterized by oppression, such as refugees. They have unexplained bruises, cuts, or other signs of physical abuse. They have high rates of illiteracy, possess little social mobility. They lack knowledge of their whereabouts and/or of what city they are in. They do not seem to have freedom of movement and cannot freely leave where they live. They have extreme security measures.

Individuals who have experienced violence and trauma in the past are vulnerable to future exploitation, as the psychological effect of trauma is often long-lasting and challenging to overcome. Victims of domestic violence and sexual assault may be targeted by traffickers who recognize the vulnerabilities left by their prior abuses. Victims may normalize the violence and abuse, therefore leading to feelings of shame or unworthiness; this can leave them susceptible to human trafficking.

The trafficked victims' needs are among the most complex of all crime victims. They often require a multidisciplinary approach to address their severe trauma. Emergency Services such as Crisis Intervention, Emergency Shelter and Referrals can be provided by PoHEO or partners. Urgent Medical Care, Food, Clothing, and Social Services are provided by additional community stakeholder resources.

Once victims are stabilized, there may be additional opportunities and resources PoHEO can offer. Job skills and work-related training to acquire gainful employment or small business skills are PoHEOs key objectives. PoHEO helps with career choices and positive changes to ensure youth success. PoHEO focuses on career development, character development, goal setting, and job skills training with our partnering agencies.