Both the Government and Society Are Responsible for Combating Human Trafficking

The 17th annual report by the U.S. State Department on human trafficking was unveiled on Tuesday at the U.S. State Department building. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, at the beginning of the ceremony, emphasized the importance of focusing on human trafficking, stating, "When governments or non-state actors exploit human trafficking, it becomes a threat to our national security." This report examines the status of human trafficking in various countries around the world. The foundation of this report is a law passed in the U.S. 17 years ago, titled the "Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act." According to this law, countries are divided into three categories: "Tier 1" countries fully comply with the law's requirements; "Tier 2" countries do not fully comply but are making efforts to improve; and "Tier 3" countries have actions that are inconsistent with the minimum standards of the law and are not making efforts to improve. Iran is categorized as a Tier 3 country. The report indicates that information from NGOs, media, and international organizations shows that Iran has not taken serious action to combat the widespread issue of human trafficking. It cites examples of human trafficking in Iran, including sexual exploitation of girls in cities like Tehran, Tabriz, and Astara, and references temporary marriages, noting that statistics in this area are on the rise. The report also mentions Iranian girls trafficked for sexual exploitation in brothels in Iraqi Kurdistan, particularly in the city of Sulaymaniyah, with some being taken there by traffickers. Mehrdad Darvishpour, a sociologist residing in Sweden, discusses this aspect of human trafficking and societal attitudes towards it, pointing out a duality: "In the case of sexual exploitation through the trafficking of girls for sex, society reacts due to its patriarchal culture, for example, regarding many Iranian girls engaged in sex work in neighboring countries, and protests against this as a scandal of the regime for allowing our girls to end up in the hands of Arab men. However, society does not react as strongly to the issue of temporary marriage, which has somewhat legitimized sexual exploitation. As a result, we witness dualities depending on which values have been internalized or remain from the past." Another group highlighted in the U.S. State Department's report regarding Iran is Afghan migrants and refugees, who are subjected to forced labor, sexual exploitation, and, in recent years, sent to fight in Syria and Iraq. Darvishpour notes that there is minimal sensitivity towards this group, stating, "In the case of Afghan migrants, societal sensitivity seems to be the least, due to a widespread negative perception and xenophobia towards this social group, to the extent that we rarely have institutions to support the rights of these migrants. This is concerning for a group that experiences the highest levels of human trafficking, which is organized and even supported by the regime itself. Consequently, even if there is information about this group, I do not assess that society reacts with significant sensitivity towards Afghan migrants." However, the situation in Iran, as indicated by both the U.S. State Department report and other research, is not unique to this country and is somewhat observed throughout the Middle East. The Walk Free Foundation, based in Australia, publishes an annual index on modern slavery, and according to Katharine Bryant, one of the report's producers, their annual research shows that the highest instances of modern slavery are found in the Middle East. Bryant adds in an interview that "in the Middle East, for example, some groups are forced to work without pay to repay their debts. Instances of forced labor are frequently observed. We have also seen cases of forced marriages. Previously, workers from East Asia or Africa were employed in modern slavery for wealthy families in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, or the UAE. However, now more citizens from the Middle East, including Iraq, Yemen, or Iran, are being employed as slaves, which is partly a result of the conflicts in Syria and Iraq and the rise of the so-called Islamic State. This situation has also led to people moving towards Europe, putting them at risk of trafficking." Such conditions in various countries compel both governments and civil society to take action against human trafficking. Kerry Pemberton Ford, director of the Cambridge Research Center on Human Trafficking, tells Radio Farda, "I believe both society and the government play roles in this matter, as the combination of the two shapes our social reality. In the Middle East, we witness both sex trafficking and multiple instances of human trafficking for construction labor and child trafficking. If there were no demand to support this trafficking, these events would not occur. At the same time, there needs to be a government that is genuinely prepared to intensify efforts against human trafficking and not accept the mechanisms of these individuals, for instance, when people work without any contracts, their identity cards are forcibly taken, and they live in very poor conditions. All of these are characteristics of human trafficking." According to the 444-page U.S. State Department report from 2017, the Iranian government has not taken specific actions regarding minimum standards for combating human trafficking and has thus remained in Tier 3, as in previous years. However, the report does mention the establishment of several centers to assist individuals harmed by human trafficking and adds that "the Iranian government has agreed to cooperate with several regional countries in this regard." Nevertheless, as in previous periods when this U.S. State Department report was prepared, the Iranian government did not cooperate in providing statistics.