Human trafficking Govt. is doing enough but not enough

Sri Lanka awaits an announcement from the Election Commission on the date of the Presidential Election. Right now, however, there are humanitarian issues that every citizen needs to be concerned about and address. One of these key issues is human trafficking to which Sri Lanka gives little attention. We need a ministry or a state ministry to look into issues connected with the crime of human trafficking.
Later this month, the United Nations (UN) marks ‘World Day Against Trafficking in Persons’. The protocol of to the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, defines trafficking in persons as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve consent of a person having control over another person, for purpose of exploitation. There is no country that is safe from human trafficking.

Every year, thousands of men, women and children fall into the hands of traffickers, both in their own countries and abroad. Globally, according to the UN, one in three victims of human trafficking is a child, and a majority of these trafficked children are girls. Therefore, states must prioritise protection of children, strengthen laws, improve law enforcement and provide more resources to combat child trafficking.
The most prominent reasons identified for human trafficking are: poverty, insufficient support for unaccompanied minors in the face of increasing migration and refugee flows, armed conflicts, dysfunctional families and lack of parental care.
The UN states that there is an urgent need to take comprehensive measures to protect vulnerable groups and help child victims. This requires joint efforts at national and 
international level.
In a report on human trafficking in Sri Lanka, the US Dept. of State conveyed that when looking at Sri Lanka’s efforts in combat human trafficking, the 2024 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report by the US Dept. of State identifies Sri Lanka as not fully meeting the minimum standards for elimination of trafficking, but is making significant efforts to do so. According to this annual report, the Sri Lankan Government demonstrated overall increasing efforts compared with previous reported periods and 
remains on Tier 2. 
According to said report, these efforts included increasing convictions of labour traffickers and identifying and providing services to more trafficking victims. Sri Lanka has made policy changes to strengthen victim care and reported that more victims participated in criminal justice proceedings, cancelled licences and blacklisted more recruitment agencies allegedly responsible for facilitating trafficking; officials also reported providing assistance to a greater number of migrant workers at Sri Lankan diplomatic missions abroad.
However, the report notes that the government did not meet the minimum standards in several key areas. Reasons include the investigation and prosecution of fewer trafficking cases, and sentences for convicted traffickers being lenient, which undercut efforts to hold traffickers accountable, weakened deterrence, created potential security and safety concerns for victims, and was not equal to the seriousness of the crime. Furthermore, the government appears unwilling or unable to hold allegedly complicit officials accountable for trafficking, even suspected cases of child sex trafficking. The government has not cooperated with foreign law enforcements on trafficking cases despite many such cases involving migrant workers abroad. The government referred fewer trafficking victims to services, and officials’ have not reported, ordered restitution for, or provided compensation to trafficking victims. The government has not eliminated all recruitment fees charged by labour recruiters to workers nor increased monitoring of licensed recruitment agencies and subagents, and the government has maintained gender-based labour migration policies pushing Sri Lankan women to travel via unlicensed agents, which increased their vulnerability to trafficking.
Hence, there is a critical need for dedicated support for victims of trafficking and an urge to the public and policymakers to address the current shortcomings and accelerate action to end 
human trafficking.