COVID-19: an opportunity to break the cycles of exploitation?

What kind of world do we want to live in? Times like these are an opportunity to rediscover — in light of the unique challenge our society faces today — our collective fate and our intertwined responsibility towards each other.

Although the COVID-19 threat is universal, the burden of this crisis is disproportionally carried by the most vulnerable in our societies. Among them, victims of trafficking are particularly at risk as traffickers seek to maintain their revenue through greater violence or new forms of exploitation. Meanwhile, access to shelters and other support structures is limited at a time when the need is at its highest. And vulnerable persons already living in precarious situations are now at greater risk of being swept into exploitative situations.

I am thinking of the workers on the margins, caught in the storm of the economic crisis and driven by the desperate need to feed their families. Young girls trapped in sordid apartments, forced to satisfy the appetite of porn sites whose audience has spiked during the lockdown. Human trafficking survivors, struggling to build a new life as glimpses of economic opportunity dry up. These unnamed girls, boys, men and women are hidden victims of the COVID-19 crisis. But they are not data points; they do have names; they are real, and they are millions. At this very moment, they are in our cities, maybe in our neighborhoods.

Our future is not predetermined. It is precisely when a crisis of this magnitude convulses our global community that our obligation to combat the exploitation of vulnerable people becomes most acute. Combating human trafficking is not just a law enforcement responsibility — it is a human, societal, and security imperative.

What kind of world do we want to live in? Today, as in all moments of historical change, we have the opportunity to steer our future in a better direction by addressing, at their core, the vulnerabilities that human trafficking feeds off, in particular gender and economic inequality. This can be the turning point in our battle against human trafficking. With the proper interventions and inclusive programs, we have a unique opportunity to break the persistent cycles of exploitation and to rebuild our economies and societies with equality and resiliency as the foundation.

Two weeks ago, we developed and issued recommendations to support OSCE participating States in their efforts to combat trafficking in human beings during and following the current crisis. They aim to tackle the scope of the challenge before us and the ever-present need for a comprehensive response focused on preventing trafficking in human beings, protecting its victims and prosecuting its perpetrators.  

The actions we take in the weeks and months to come will design the future of our societies. Working together, we can seize the opportunity ahead of us and build stronger and healthier communities, starting to form the world we want to live in.