Zambia's Response to human Trafficking and Exploitation: A Human Security Approach

Abstract

The study sought to assess Zambia’s response to human trafficking, using a human security approach. Despite increased attention and response to the topic of human trafficking, the empirical state of the literature has seen only marginal developments over time, leaving the magnitude of the problem unknown. Human trafficking is a process of people being recruited in their community and country of origin and transported to the destination where they are being exploited for purposes of forced labor, prostitution, domestic servitude, and other forms of exploitation. The study was informed by human security conceptual framework Gregoratti, (2009). The concept refers to the provision of human security. Human security addresses key issues in safeguarding the vital core of all human lives from pervasive threats. A human rights based approach was also used to complement the human security concept particularly on the issues of prevention and protection which require proper legal provisions to respond to human trafficking. In conducting this study, a qualitative case study research design was adopted which was appropriate in describing the experiences of all enforcement agencies and those non enforcing entities in responding to human trafficking in Zambia. The study findings show that Zambia has put in place legislative provisions such as the Anti-Trafficking Act of 2008 to respond to human trafficking. In addition, as a way of operationalizing the Act, the government of Zambia also put in place some capacity building initiatives to all enforcement officers, the National Prosecuting Authority lawyers and a taskforce was put in place to cover issues of human trafficking. The findings also show that Zambia is party to the Regional and International legal instruments that deal with Trafficking in Persons (TIP) and to the Inter-Ministerial Committee in the SADC region which was put in place to tackle human trafficking. In addition, several other non-state actors such IOM, UNHCR and other local NGOs also help the government in responding to the needs of victims of human trafficking. Although there are these positive strides in responding to human trafficking in Zambia, there hasn’t been much information on human trafficking internally despite the fact that a baseline survey was conducted in 2016 to establish the drivers and dynamics of human trafficking. There is lack of a monitoring framework to ensure that the desired goals and results of the anti-trafficking drive are achieved. Considering the above bottlenecks and milestones achieved by the Government of Zambia and its implementing partners, this study suggests commitment of human resources and a budget dedicated towards responding to human trafficking. In addition, the involvement of the NPA helps to accelerate the implementation of the Anti-Trafficking Act while also increasing awareness of human trafficking in the different forums.