Prevention of Human Trafficking Bill lacks focus on protecting victims’ rights: NGOs

SINGAPORE – A group of non-governmental organisations behind an anti-trafficking campaign have criticised the Prevention of Human Trafficking Bill tabled in parliament earlier this month, saying the premise of the Bill does not create an environment where trafficked victims feel safe enough to report their traffickers.

StopTraffickingSG is opposed to the Bill’s greater emphasis on prevention and prosecution instead of protecting trafficked victims’ rights. The group insisted it is more effective to protect the rights of trafficked victims where they feel safe and empowered to report their traffickers and assist in investigations.

The six NGOs behind the StopTraffickingSG campaign are Association of Women for Action & Research, Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics (HOME), Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2), Maruah, Project X and Singapore Committee for UN Women.

Leading the group’s critique on the Bill – introduced by Member of Parliament Christopher de Souza (Holland-Bukit Timah GRC) – HOME’s executive director Jolovan Wham said: “We have seen several cases of trafficked victims refusing to report their traffickers because we could not guarantee them these rights, especially the right to work.”

Dispelling traditional notions of trafficked victims illegally brought into Singapore to do forced labour, Mr Wham added that many victims they encounter come into Singapore willingly to work, but have been deceived about the nature or conditions of their work. They find themselves unable to leave because of large recruitment debts, or threats made against them or their families.

Traffickers also make false promises to apply for work visas, threatening to expose victims as illegal migrants and the prospect of punishment thus deters victims from filing complaints, Mr Wham explained.

HOME’s Tan Peck Hoon also noted that there seems to be a bias towards protection of the “perfect victims” – trafficked female sex workers – which does not reflect the spectrum of victims in Singapore.

“(Law makers) are forgetting that there are foreign domestic workers; there’re also male labour trafficked victims. These are overshadowed in the emphasis on police rescue (and) underlying bias in the belief that most of our trafficked victims are trafficked for sex work,” said Ms Tan.

StopTraffickingSG also pointed out discretionary powers given to police and non-police enforcement officers to arrest and forcibly gain entry to premises without warrants should be curbed as it could lead to secondary traumatisation of victims, especially during raids.

The lack of or insufficient definition of key indicators of trafficking – such as deception, forced labour and abuse of vulnerability – was another area of concern for the group.

Mr Wham said: “I think with continued engagement with the authorities and as we work together on this issue, the Bill will evolve to a piece of legislation that will be more comprehensive and uphold the rights of trafficked victims.”