Concurrent session 1b—Trafficking: Getting to grips with human trafficking: Converting a confused concept into a guide for action

Mr Jacob Townsend, Director: Capability Development, STATT Consulting Ltd, Indonesia

There are still tremendous difficulties in addressing human trafficking in a tangible and systematic way. The concept covers such a broad and diverse range of activities that it is at best a vague framework for practical action. International and domestic definitions of trafficking often duplicate existing offences. There are also confused conflicts over anti-trafficking priorities.

In Indonesia, there has been intermittent donor, government and civil society interest in anti-trafficking. Organisations telling us they are involved in anti-trafficking include those targeting gangs of street children, under-age brothels, illegally low wages or death sentences for labour migrants abroad. Given this diversity of interests, and noting that all these problems except the last are already illegal under other laws, it is unclear how we should prioritise anti-trafficking assistance—and how the general concept of trafficking adds value.

To test a new method of developing practical guides for action, we conducted primary research in East Java. Our method centred on focus group discussions with key informants, divided into law enforcement, politicians, development planners, civil society, the private sector, religious leaders, migrants and educators. First, we invited participants to generate concepts and concrete offences that they believed constitute trafficking. Second, the facilitator combined these inputs with a pre-existing list of offences and participants ranked them by seriousness. Third, the facilitator introduced potential interventions that the national government or foreign donors might support to address trafficking and participants assessed these in terms of desirability and feasibility.

The presentation will report results and identify implications for the next round of nascent interest in anti-trafficking in Indonesia. We observe that this type of program design research is generally lacking in approaches to human trafficking assistance. We conclude by noting its potential to support strategic, prioritised and coordinated anti-trafficking frameworks in Indonesia and beyond.