The Halloween terrorist attack in New York by Sayfullo Saipov has ignited a debate in social media between scholars of Central Asia on why there is an apparently increasing number of such attacks by Uzbeks. The New York atrocity follows similar events in Istanbul, St Petersburg and Stockholm. Four very prominent attacks within ten months give an impression and suggest a trend.

Certain questions naturally arise. Why so many Uzbeks? Does this simply reflect the high number of emigrants, or is it a matter of specific recruitment networks within their migrant communities? Does the combination of a more repressive environment at home with a more open environment in countries of destination matter? Maybe it&rsquo;s specific histories of conflict between certain groups and the government in Tashkent? Or, perhaps, it&rsquo;s a backlash against the foreign allies of Uzbekistan? For most of these questions, only partial answers are available &ndash; but certain things can be said.

The error repeatedly made across the media is to look for explanations in Uzbekistan itself, but this isn&rsquo;t about radicalisation in Uzbekistan. There are very few terrorist attacks in Uzbekistan itself, only ten out of 85,000 global incidents recorded from 2001-2016. The much-cited Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan left the country almost two decades ago, hasn&rsquo;t committed an attack there since 2004, and now fights in remnants in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Meanwhile, the attackers perpetrating the incidents above left Uzbekistan many years before the attacks and were &ldquo;radicalised&rdquo; after leaving. Clearly, the real explanations lie elsewhere.

Getting out

This is why migration matters, as it does on almost every question with regard to contemporary Central Asia. Uzbekistan has easily the largest population in Central Asia, with more than 30m citizens. Over the last 20 years, several million Uzbeks have left their home country in search of a better life abroad. In this sense, the millions of Uzbeks are part of a wider trend of predominantly young men migrating overseas. For many of them, this is a tremendous opportunity; most are assets to their new home countries. But a tiny minority fall prey to radicalisation and violence.

In a social media debate with other Central Asia specialists, Sarah Kendzior, a journalist and anthropologist of Uzbekistan, argued:&nbsp;

<blockquote>
I think the big error that people are making is that this is an &lsquo;Uzbek problem&rsquo; instead of a &lsquo;alienated man abroad susceptible to the influence of terrorist propaganda and recruitment efforts&rsquo; problem. It makes far more sense to examine the three Uzbek cases within this broader category of men.
</blockquote>

Then there&rsquo;s the question of recruitment mechanisms among migrants. Sergei Abashin, the Russian anthropologist, has drawn attention to how the sheer extent of Uzbek migrant networks makes them an attractive target for militant groups who offer them meaning in militant religion. Uzbek author and journalist Hamid Ismailov concur; in a Facebook response to the Saipov attack, he recalled a passage from his 2014 novel where he linked the emergence of international Uzbek jihadist networks to the battle between two very violent political institutions: the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and the government of Uzbekistan.

Also relevant are specific security governance measures and patterns. Kendzior is correct that the things that attract Central Asians to conduct terrorist attacks and mass shootings are the same as those which attract other young men, including Europeans and Americans. This is a global phenomenon &ndash; but it&rsquo;s also true that more perpetrators come from certain places than from others. The question is why.

Hunted abroad

Some countries, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Uzbekistan in particular, have been very good at &ldquo;exporting&rdquo; young men who are susceptible to jihadism due to their experience of repression at home. And this repression can even follow them overseas.

At the University of Exeter, we record Central Asian governments&rsquo; transnational security measures against exiled citizens and opposition groups. Of these states, Uzbekistan is consistently the most likely to pursue its exiles overseas, and particularly its religious exiles. As Alexander Cooley and I discuss in our book Dictators Without Borders, the Uzbek security services informally but extensively collaborate with security services in Russia, where the vast majority of Uzbek migrants are found, and other former Soviet states.

The Uzbek government would say that attacks such as the ones seen this year justify its strategy, but the reverse may be true. Their transnational crackdown on peaceful groups feeds into the jihadist narrative that secularism and Islam are entirely incompatible, as well as subjecting many young men who were not previously attracted to such narratives to harsh, violent repression.

Moreover, despite Uzbekistan&rsquo;s appalling human rights record, some Western democracies continue to provide limited security co-operation, particularly the US. These measures too can help fuel jihadist thinking. Had the US government made an explicit policy decision many years ago not to work with the Karimov government on counter-terrorism because that government was making the situation worse, it would have undercut some of the violent, radical narratives that may draw in a figure such as Saipov.

The Trump administration&rsquo;s knee-jerk anti-immigration response to the Saipov attack risks exacerbating this problem, and once again affirms jihadist images of the West. Migration should be recognised as a given and a good, and not least as part of the foundation of the US itself; simply shutting it down cannot be sound policy, and it won&rsquo;t help to reduce risks elsewhere. Instead, Western governments need to push back against repressive counter-terrorism policies among the states who have &ldquo;exported&rdquo; the perpetrators of violent acts &ndash; and they must be prepared to withdraw their support from those dangerous governments who&rsquo;ve come to depend on it.

This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com" rel="nofollow" target="blank">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/has-uzbekistans-repressive-government-helped-radicalise-its-emigrants-and-exiles-86887" rel="nofollow" target="blank">original article</a>.

Image Credit: EPA

The repressive counter-terrorism policies of states, such as Uzbekistan are pushing many of its emigrants to paths of extremism.

The Halloween terrorist attack in New York by Sayfullo Saipov has ignited a debate in social media between scholars of Central Asia on why there is an apparently increasing number of such attacks by Uzbeks. The New York atrocity follows similar events in Istanbul, St Petersburg and Stockholm. Four very prominent attacks within ten months give an impression and suggest a trend. Certain questions naturally arise. Why so many Uzbeks? Does this simply reflect the high number of emigrants, or is it a matter of specific recruitment networks within their migrant communities? Does the combination of a more repressive environment at home with a more open environment in countries of destination matter? Maybe it’s specific histories of conflict between certain groups and the government in Tashkent? Or, perhaps, it’s a backlash against the foreign allies of Uzbekistan? For most of these questions, only partial answers are available – but certain things can be said. The error repeatedly made across the media is to look for explanations in Uzbekistan itself, but this isn’t about radicalisation in Uzbekistan. There are very few terrorist attacks in Uzbekistan itself, only ten out of 85,000 global incidents recorded from 2001-2016. The much-cited Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan left the country almost two decades ago, hasn’t committed an attack there since 2004, and now fights in remnants in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Meanwhile, the attackers perpetrating the incidents above left Uzbekistan many years before the attacks and were “radicalised” after leaving. Clearly, the real explanations lie elsewhere. Getting out This is why migration matters, as it does on almost every question with regard to contemporary Central Asia. Uzbekistan has easily the largest population in Central Asia, with more than 30m citizens. Over the last 20 years, several million Uzbeks have left their home country in search of a better life abroad. In this sense, the millions of Uzbeks are part of a wider trend of predominantly young men migrating overseas. For many of them, this is a tremendous opportunity; most are assets to their new home countries. But a tiny minority fall prey to radicalisation and violence. In a social media debate with other Central Asia specialists, Sarah Kendzior, a journalist and anthropologist of Uzbekistan, argued: I think the big error that people are making is that this is an ‘Uzbek problem’ instead of a ‘alienated man abroad susceptible to the influence of terrorist propaganda and recruitment efforts’ problem. It makes far more sense to examine the three Uzbek cases within this broader category of men. Then there’s the question of recruitment mechanisms among migrants. Sergei Abashin, the Russian anthropologist, has drawn attention to how the sheer extent of Uzbek migrant networks makes them an attractive target for militant groups who offer them meaning in militant religion. Uzbek author and journalist Hamid Ismailov concur; in a Facebook response to the Saipov attack, he recalled a passage from his 2014 novel where he linked the emergence of international Uzbek jihadist networks to the battle between two very violent political institutions: the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and the government of Uzbekistan. Also relevant are specific security governance measures and patterns. Kendzior is correct that the things that attract Central Asians to conduct terrorist attacks and mass shootings are the same as those which attract other young men, including Europeans and Americans. This is a global phenomenon – but it’s also true that more perpetrators come from certain places than from others. The question is why. Hunted abroad Some countries, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Uzbekistan in particular, have been very good at “exporting” young men who are susceptible to jihadism due to their experience of repression at home. And this repression can even follow them overseas. At the University of Exeter, we record Central Asian governments’ transnational security measures against exiled citizens and opposition groups. Of these states, Uzbekistan is consistently the most likely to pursue its exiles overseas, and particularly its religious exiles. As Alexander Cooley and I discuss in our book Dictators Without Borders, the Uzbek security services informally but extensively collaborate with security services in Russia, where the vast majority of Uzbek migrants are found, and other former Soviet states. The Uzbek government would say that attacks such as the ones seen this year justify its strategy, but the reverse may be true. Their transnational crackdown on peaceful groups feeds into the jihadist narrative that secularism and Islam are entirely incompatible, as well as subjecting many young men who were not previously attracted to such narratives to harsh, violent repression. Moreover, despite Uzbekistan’s appalling human rights record, some Western democracies continue to provide limited security co-operation, particularly the US. These measures too can help fuel jihadist thinking. Had the US government made an explicit policy decision many years ago not to work with the Karimov government on counter-terrorism because that government was making the situation worse, it would have undercut some of the violent, radical narratives that may draw in a figure such as Saipov. The Trump administration’s knee-jerk anti-immigration response to the Saipov attack risks exacerbating this problem, and once again affirms jihadist images of the West. Migration should be recognised as a given and a good, and not least as part of the foundation of the US itself; simply shutting it down cannot be sound policy, and it won’t help to reduce risks elsewhere. Instead, Western governments need to push back against repressive counter-terrorism policies among the states who have “exported” the perpetrators of violent acts – and they must be prepared to withdraw their support from those dangerous governments who’ve come to depend on it. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Image Credit: EPA

Why Uzbeks are turning into jihadis

Chile is fast developing as a hub of human trafficking. For the last 10 years, the country has witnessed an unprecedented rise in migration. Most of these immigrants came from Central America, the Caribbean islands and the neighbouring countries of South America. As per the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Global Trafficking Report (2014, 2016), Chile is also receiving a significant number of immigrants from Asia, particularly India and China. &nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
Instances of trafficking of Indian citizens to Chile was first reported in 2014. 
&nbsp; 
In a very trendy Indian restaurant, located in one of the central neighbourhoods of the capital city, Santiago, the owner who was an Indian himself was found subjecting 12 other Indian citizens to forced labour. The 12 Indians were brought by the owner under false promises of work and were held in miserable conditions. They lived in the restaurant, basically with no payment, no contact with the outside world as they were unable to communicate due to language barrier (none of them spoke Spanish) and with inadequate sanitary and health provisions. When discovered, one of the victims was suffering from tuberculosis, a disease that had been wiped out of Chile, a long time ago.&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

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<h5>Located in one of the central neighbourhoods of the capital city, Santiago, the owner who was an Indian himself was found subjecting 12 other Indian citizens to forced labour.</h5>
</blockquote>
</div>

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<div class="share-blockquote"><a class="twitter popup" href="http://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Located in one of the central neighbourhoods of the capital city, Santiago, the owner who was an Indian himself was found subjecting 12 other Indian citizens to forced labour." target="_blank">&nbsp;</a></div>
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&nbsp;

The Indian owner of the restaurant and his Chilean manager were criminally charged with for human trafficking and sent to police custody. The defendants appealed, and the Court, unfortunately, subjected the defendants simply to house arrest. In the appeal&rsquo;s hearing, the Indian defendant was accompanied by his ambassador, who testified in his favour, praising the accused&#39;s remarkable character, who he knew on a personal level. 
&nbsp; 
Four victims were eventually repatriated. There has been no news regarding updated outcomes of the case. 
&nbsp; 
Last April, another Indian citizen, owner of two local Indian restaurants in Vina del Mar, a city in the central coast, was detained and charged with the crime of trafficking 11 Indian citizens who were brought under false promises of work. The defendant had forged their migration papers and had sent false documentation to the Chilean embassy in India. Although the prosecutor had required the accused to be held in custody, the judge set the defendant free, and summoned him to a future hearing. 
&nbsp; 
That same month, two Indonesian women accused an Indian citizen, owner of a shop in the Free Trade Zone of Southern Chile (Magallanes), of having trafficked them for domestic servitude when they were minors, forging their passports and lying about their final destination. The women were held under his control for more than three years, and brought under false promises of work and good salaries. They originally reported the case in 2011 with no response from the local prosecutors and are currently trying to reopen the case. 
&nbsp; 
All these cases were brought to the attention of the authorities because the victims themselves had the chance to escape and report their exploitation to police officers or labour inspectors. According to local residents in Magallanes, the situation of servitude and forced labour among migrant population in the Free Trade zone was something everybody knew, but nobody talked about.&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
Chile is quite new in the&nbsp;international anti-trafficking enterprise. It incorporated the crime in the way it is prescribed by the Palermo Protocol (2000) as recently as in 2011. In 2008, Chile created a Committee against Trafficking in Persons which is a national intersectoral multiparty task force. But it was not until the modern law of human trafficking -Law No. 20.507- was enacted that the Committee came to be fully functional. During 2013-2014, the Committee designed and implemented the first national plan of action that covered strategic dimensions of awareness-raising and training, including details about detection and prosecution, victim assistance and international co-operation. 
&nbsp; 
What prompted the government&rsquo;s response was not only the need to fulfill its international obligations but to address an unprecedented phenomenon: an actual increase in cases involving the recruitment, transportation and exploitation of foreign citizens within the Chilean territory. 
&nbsp; 
The magnitude of the problem is great and if appropriate measures are not taken immediately we face great risks.

&nbsp;

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<h5>Long distances and cultural differences are no obstacles for people recruiting others under fraud or coercion from anywhere in the world</h5>
</blockquote>
</div>

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&nbsp;

&nbsp; 
Trafficking has become a globalised crime. Stories of trafficking between Chile and India, distant countries with a different history and culture, constitute just one example of the globalised character of the crime. The UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons (2016) shows victims are trafficked along a multitude of trafficking flows; within countries, among neighbouring countries or even across different continents. More than 500 different trafficking flows were detected between 2012 and 2014. Countries in Western and Southern Europe detected victims of 137 different citizenship. 
&nbsp; 
There are no boundaries anymore for the global market of human commodity. Long distances and cultural differences are no obstacles for people recruiting others under fraud or coercion from anywhere in the world despite the potential costs involved. 
&nbsp; 
Human trafficking is, after drug trafficking and arms trafficking, the third biggest illicit market. However, trafficking is not necessarily a manifestation of complex organised crime; it has transformed into private transactions between individuals. Parallel to criminal entrepreneurial industry, trafficking has come to manifest in a more subtle way, as a kind of private labour recruiting system, performed by individuals who live perfectly normal lives, with normal jobs, that &ldquo;employ&rdquo; workers using the techniques of fraud and coercion in a smaller scale. 
&nbsp; 
This is a particularly dangerous and complex trait. Facilitated by globalisation of poverty and migration restrictions, there is a huge market of cheap labour force, willing to take risks to achieve the dream of a better life. They are recruited on a one-by-one basis, accepting work offers from individuals that will employ them in exploitative conditions. According to International Labour Organisation, forced labour in the private economy generates US$ 150 billion in illegal profits per year. 
&nbsp; 
Unfortunately, there is a systematic failure to understand trafficking from the operators of the criminal justice system. Due to a misperception of what constitutes the core of the crime, there is a failure in detecting and convicting the traffickers. For instance, public officials are keen to book cases but fail to recognise situations of abuse that happen in domestic settings where no extraordinary, movie-like conditions take place. 
&nbsp; 
The UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime and its Protocols against trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants was a landmark in the fight against trafficking in persons. But since the Convention, the focus has turned towards fighting complex organised criminal activity at the expense of detecting more domestic and silent exploitation taking place in private settings. 
&nbsp; 
Nevertheless, and more seriously, blindness to certain situations of trafficking has to do with the fact that there is a massive normalisation of mistreatment in employment relationships. There is a tendency to normalise abuse by viewing it as a legitimate social dynamism of relationship. Legitimate in the sense that it expresses a cultural practice, explicitly or implicitly consented or at least tolerated by the members of the community.

&nbsp;

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<h5>In today&acute;s globalised inequality, the employment relationship carries in itself a trait of subordination and dependence that is taken as a given thing</h5>
</blockquote>
</div>

<div class="col-sm-1 blockquote-content">
<div class="share-blockquote"><a class="twitter popup" href="http://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=In today?s globalised inequality, the employment relationship carries in itself a trait of subordination and dependence that is taken as a given thing" target="_blank">&nbsp;</a></div>
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&nbsp;

&nbsp; 
Among communities, cultural differences act as a barrier that impedes detecting the abuse from the part of the local criminal justice operators or even the general public. The submissive behaviour of foreign workers is interpreted as a natural behaviour relevant to a particular culture. There is no further questioning and, more dangerously, there is an implicit approval of the situation under the idea of &ldquo;they are worst off in their own countries&rdquo;. As if that, in some strange way, would authorise conditions of abuse that the bystanders themselves would not tolerate or would not delay signalling it as exploitation if it had happened to them. 
&nbsp; 
Trafficking is occurring as a private, domestic practice because we are tolerating and accepting abuse in the way we relate to each other. And we are tolerating and accepting abuse because, in some level, we believe we are not equal, and therefore we do not deserve the same. In today&acute;s globalised inequality, the employment relationship carries in itself a trait of subordination and dependence that is taken as a given thing, a fact as natural as a storm, or an earthquake. 
&nbsp; 
This given fact of unequal power to set the conditions for mutual exchange, consciously or unconsciously. It authorises and legitimises hierarchies between individuals. In absence of internal ethics or external controls of law and enforcement, abuse and exploitation get justified. The massive naturalisation of abuse operating under the belief we are not truly equal gives no space to detect trafficking: it is the way things are. 
&nbsp; 
Thus, any real attempt to combat human trafficking will require a radical ethical shift: &nbsp;to recover the age old principle of commutative justice, that is, recovering the notion of what is fair and just in exchange of what two or more people in their private capacities is an equivalence in the benefits: each party of the relationship deserves the same. Arithmetically the same. 
&nbsp; 
I am saying nothing new. This was stated by Aristotle, and by Ulpian and the Stoics before him. But as Andre Gide used to say, everything that has to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, everything has to be said again.

(WION)

As per the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Global Trafficking Report, Chile is receiving a significant number of immigrants from Asia, particularly India and China

Chile is fast developing as a hub of human trafficking. For the last 10 years, the country has witnessed an unprecedented rise in migration. Most of these immigrants came from Central America, the Caribbean islands and the neighbouring countries of South America. As per the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Global Trafficking Report (2014, 2016), Chile is also receiving a significant number of immigrants from Asia, particularly India and China. Instances of trafficking of Indian citizens to Chile was first reported in 2014. In a very trendy Indian restaurant, located in one of the central neighbourhoods of the capital city, Santiago, the owner who was an Indian himself was found subjecting 12 other Indian citizens to forced labour. The 12 Indians were brought by the owner under false promises of work and were held in miserable conditions. They lived in the restaurant, basically with no payment, no contact with the outside world as they were unable to communicate due to language barrier (none of them spoke Spanish) and with inadequate sanitary and health provisions. When discovered, one of the victims was suffering from tuberculosis, a disease that had been wiped out of Chile, a long time ago. Located in one of the central neighbourhoods of the capital city, Santiago, the owner who was an Indian himself was found subjecting 12 other Indian citizens to forced labour. × The Indian owner of the restaurant and his Chilean manager were criminally charged with for human trafficking and sent to police custody. The defendants appealed, and the Court, unfortunately, subjected the defendants simply to house arrest. In the appeal’s hearing, the Indian defendant was accompanied by his ambassador, who testified in his favour, praising the accused's remarkable character, who he knew on a personal level. Four victims were eventually repatriated. There has been no news regarding updated outcomes of the case. Last April, another Indian citizen, owner of two local Indian restaurants in Vina del Mar, a city in the central coast, was detained and charged with the crime of trafficking 11 Indian citizens who were brought under false promises of work. The defendant had forged their migration papers and had sent false documentation to the Chilean embassy in India. Although the prosecutor had required the accused to be held in custody, the judge set the defendant free, and summoned him to a future hearing. That same month, two Indonesian women accused an Indian citizen, owner of a shop in the Free Trade Zone of Southern Chile (Magallanes), of having trafficked them for domestic servitude when they were minors, forging their passports and lying about their final destination. The women were held under his control for more than three years, and brought under false promises of work and good salaries. They originally reported the case in 2011 with no response from the local prosecutors and are currently trying to reopen the case. All these cases were brought to the attention of the authorities because the victims themselves had the chance to escape and report their exploitation to police officers or labour inspectors. According to local residents in Magallanes, the situation of servitude and forced labour among migrant population in the Free Trade zone was something everybody knew, but nobody talked about. Chile is quite new in the international anti-trafficking enterprise. It incorporated the crime in the way it is prescribed by the Palermo Protocol (2000) as recently as in 2011. In 2008, Chile created a Committee against Trafficking in Persons which is a national intersectoral multiparty task force. But it was not until the modern law of human trafficking -Law No. 20.507- was enacted that the Committee came to be fully functional. During 2013-2014, the Committee designed and implemented the first national plan of action that covered strategic dimensions of awareness-raising and training, including details about detection and prosecution, victim assistance and international co-operation. What prompted the government’s response was not only the need to fulfill its international obligations but to address an unprecedented phenomenon: an actual increase in cases involving the recruitment, transportation and exploitation of foreign citizens within the Chilean territory. The magnitude of the problem is great and if appropriate measures are not taken immediately we face great risks. Long distances and cultural differences are no obstacles for people recruiting others under fraud or coercion from anywhere in the world × Trafficking has become a globalised crime. Stories of trafficking between Chile and India, distant countries with a different history and culture, constitute just one example of the globalised character of the crime. The UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons (2016) shows victims are trafficked along a multitude of trafficking flows; within countries, among neighbouring countries or even across different continents. More than 500 different trafficking flows were detected between 2012 and 2014. Countries in Western and Southern Europe detected victims of 137 different citizenship. There are no boundaries anymore for the global market of human commodity. Long distances and cultural differences are no obstacles for people recruiting others under fraud or coercion from anywhere in the world despite the potential costs involved. Human trafficking is, after drug trafficking and arms trafficking, the third biggest illicit market. However, trafficking is not necessarily a manifestation of complex organised crime; it has transformed into private transactions between individuals. Parallel to criminal entrepreneurial industry, trafficking has come to manifest in a more subtle way, as a kind of private labour recruiting system, performed by individuals who live perfectly normal lives, with normal jobs, that “employ” workers using the techniques of fraud and coercion in a smaller scale. This is a particularly dangerous and complex trait. Facilitated by globalisation of poverty and migration restrictions, there is a huge market of cheap labour force, willing to take risks to achieve the dream of a better life. They are recruited on a one-by-one basis, accepting work offers from individuals that will employ them in exploitative conditions. According to International Labour Organisation, forced labour in the private economy generates US$ 150 billion in illegal profits per year. Unfortunately, there is a systematic failure to understand trafficking from the operators of the criminal justice system. Due to a misperception of what constitutes the core of the crime, there is a failure in detecting and convicting the traffickers. For instance, public officials are keen to book cases but fail to recognise situations of abuse that happen in domestic settings where no extraordinary, movie-like conditions take place. The UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime and its Protocols against trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants was a landmark in the fight against trafficking in persons. But since the Convention, the focus has turned towards fighting complex organised criminal activity at the expense of detecting more domestic and silent exploitation taking place in private settings. Nevertheless, and more seriously, blindness to certain situations of trafficking has to do with the fact that there is a massive normalisation of mistreatment in employment relationships. There is a tendency to normalise abuse by viewing it as a legitimate social dynamism of relationship. Legitimate in the sense that it expresses a cultural practice, explicitly or implicitly consented or at least tolerated by the members of the community. In today´s globalised inequality, the employment relationship carries in itself a trait of subordination and dependence that is taken as a given thing × Among communities, cultural differences act as a barrier that impedes detecting the abuse from the part of the local criminal justice operators or even the general public. The submissive behaviour of foreign workers is interpreted as a natural behaviour relevant to a particular culture. There is no further questioning and, more dangerously, there is an implicit approval of the situation under the idea of “they are worst off in their own countries”. As if that, in some strange way, would authorise conditions of abuse that the bystanders themselves would not tolerate or would not delay signalling it as exploitation if it had happened to them. Trafficking is occurring as a private, domestic practice because we are tolerating and accepting abuse in the way we relate to each other. And we are tolerating and accepting abuse because, in some level, we believe we are not equal, and therefore we do not deserve the same. In today´s globalised inequality, the employment relationship carries in itself a trait of subordination and dependence that is taken as a given thing, a fact as natural as a storm, or an earthquake. This given fact of unequal power to set the conditions for mutual exchange, consciously or unconsciously. It authorises and legitimises hierarchies between individuals. In absence of internal ethics or external controls of law and enforcement, abuse and exploitation get justified. The massive naturalisation of abuse operating under the belief we are not truly equal gives no space to detect trafficking: it is the way things are. Thus, any real attempt to combat human trafficking will require a radical ethical shift: to recover the age old principle of commutative justice, that is, recovering the notion of what is fair and just in exchange of what two or more people in their private capacities is an equivalence in the benefits: each party of the relationship deserves the same. Arithmetically the same. I am saying nothing new. This was stated by Aristotle, and by Ulpian and the Stoics before him. But as Andre Gide used to say, everything that has to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, everything has to be said again. (WION)

Exclusive: Increasing number of Indians are trafficked to Chile everyday

New Zealand said on Wednesday it will tighten access to its skilled work visas, just a day after the United States and neighbouring Australia announced similar restrictions on immigration.

New Zealand&#39;s immigration minister said he was taking a &quot;Kiwis-first approach to immigration&quot;, echoing Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and U.S. President Donald Trump in announcing policies to ensure jobs for Australians and Americans.

Migration has become a hot topic in the lead up to New Zealand&#39;s Sept. 23 general election.

&quot;These changes are designed to strike the right balance ... and encourage employers to take on more Kiwis and invest in the training to upskill them,&quot; immigration minister Michael Woodhouse said in a statement, using the colloquial term for New Zealand citizens.

The changes to be introduced later this year include introducing a minimum income requirement, making it more difficult for family members to join visa holders and limiting the amount of time seasonal workers are allowed to stay in New Zealand.

A boom in new arrivals has helped the New Zealand economy race along with some of the strongest gross domestic product growth in the developed world.

But opposition parties and the central bank have called for a review of current policies, citing low wages growth and soaring house prices spurred by the influx.

Many sectors, such as technology and construction suffer from a severe shortage of workers and companies in these areas were recruiting many of their workers from offshore.

Under the changes, employers would need to provide a minimum income of NZ$49,000 ($34,530.30) for anyone entering on a prioritised &quot;skilled&quot;. Anyone earning more than NZ$73,000 would be classed as highly skilled.&nbsp;

(Reuters)

The US and Australia announced similar restrictions yesterday

New Zealand said on Wednesday it will tighten access to its skilled work visas, just a day after the United States and neighbouring Australia announced similar restrictions on immigration. New Zealand's immigration minister said he was taking a "Kiwis-first approach to immigration", echoing Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and U.S. President Donald Trump in announcing policies to ensure jobs for Australians and Americans. Migration has become a hot topic in the lead up to New Zealand's Sept. 23 general election. "These changes are designed to strike the right balance ... and encourage employers to take on more Kiwis and invest in the training to upskill them," immigration minister Michael Woodhouse said in a statement, using the colloquial term for New Zealand citizens. The changes to be introduced later this year include introducing a minimum income requirement, making it more difficult for family members to join visa holders and limiting the amount of time seasonal workers are allowed to stay in New Zealand. A boom in new arrivals has helped the New Zealand economy race along with some of the strongest gross domestic product growth in the developed world. But opposition parties and the central bank have called for a review of current policies, citing low wages growth and soaring house prices spurred by the influx. Many sectors, such as technology and construction suffer from a severe shortage of workers and companies in these areas were recruiting many of their workers from offshore. Under the changes, employers would need to provide a minimum income of NZ$49,000 ($34,530.30) for anyone entering on a prioritised "skilled". Anyone earning more than NZ$73,000 would be classed as highly skilled. (Reuters)

New Zealand tightens immigration rules in 'Kiwi-first' crackdown

The man expected to be voted in as the next UN secretary-general tomorrow says 'migration is necessary, better to organise it'

“I’ve never seen a Portuguese taking care of my mother,” Antonio Guterres says, with a tinge of exasperation at the ongoing debate in Europe and North America about migration. His 93-year-old mother needed a caregiver, so he contracted one from a private agency. “They are all migrants,” he says. And then he drives home his point. “There is no way Europe, an ageing continent, can deal with the problems of the elderly people without migration.” Guterres would know. The 67-year-old is a former prime minister of Portugal and former United Nations high commissioner for refugees. In an exclusive interview in New Delhi on July 22, the day after he emerged as the front runner to become the next United Nations secretary-general -- he is expected to be formally voted in as the next UN chief on Friday -- Guterres insisted that migration is part of the solution to global problems. And he has a compelling argument against the insular, myopic and at times hypocritical debates, bordering, some would say, on xenophobia and racism, which have engrossed and agitated Britain, Hungary and France in Europe and across the Atlantic in the United States. The fertility rate in most European countries is below 1.5. In my country Portugal it is between 1.2 and 1.3. There is no way these countries can survive without immigration × Fertility rate is the ratio of births to the population, expressed per 1,000 population per year. “So if migration is necessary, (it is) better to organise it,” Guterres wonders aloud. He concedes that there may be some truth to the claims that smugglers and people traffickers are manipulating the migration of millions into Europe and that, in turn, is causing social tensions in local communities and aiding some terrorist organisations. But he is categorical that the alternative is not to say no to refugees. “Several leaders in Europe and North America say we don’t need Muslim refugees. This is the worst thing you can say in a country that has millions of Muslims. This is the best propaganda for Daesh,” Guterres says, taking the Arabic name for the so-called Islamic State. “Those that are saying these things are helping terrorists recruit people. They are telling Muslims that you don’t belong and this is absolutely crazy. Xenophobic populist leaders are the best allies of terrorist organisations,” he adds. Guterres has in the past said that the migration debate in Europe is irrational and schizophrenic. He wants migration to be made legal and structured. He is equally critical of some leaders in Europe and North America for failing to, what he calls, create "the conditions for Muslim communities to feel that they belong". He says the fight against the so-called Islamic State is a battle for values which needs to be waged on two fronts – by the Muslim and the non-Muslim worlds alike. On the one hand, the Islamic religious scholars and civil society should fight radicalism and the rise of extremist tendencies with as much intensity and effective propaganda as the terrorist organisations. On the other hand, governments must realise that if they “start discriminating against Muslims you are only helping these terrorist organisations". He cautions that the use of force against the so-called Islamic State “is legitimate (and) is necessary but it will not alone solve the problem". Guterres feels the need for a surge in diplomacy to make the UN a more effective organisation. “The Oslo accord and the Iran (nuclear) agreement are good examples of discreet diplomacy,” he says. “I see the need in today’s world for an honest broker; someone that is independent; someone that wants to cooperate with States and is at the disposal of the States, to create the bridges that are necessary. Today’s wars are wars that nobody wins.” He speaks about the centrality of prevention of conflicts as opposed to the policy of pre-emption, which some countries such as the United States have espoused and practised before. “The problem with prevention,” he says, “is that TV cameras are not there when prevention takes place. TV cameras are there when a crisis erupts. So prevention is normally not a political priority for parliaments, for governments and for international organisations.” “We also need to have a comprehensive approach to prevention. To invest in adaptation for climate change is a way to prevent conflicts. To make sure that human rights are respected is a way to prevent conflicts. Then there are inequalities of development. “We need to bring all of this together and then use the classical instruments of diplomacy and political dialogue to avoid conflicts and to make sure that parties are able to resolve their contradictions peacefully.” In sharp contrast, pre-emption is rooted in suspicion and miscalculation. “We need dialogue to prevent misunderstandings. Some countries believe that what some other countries are doing can be a threat to them but it can be completely false, it can be their imagination so they strike first. We need to avoid misunderstandings and misperceptions that have contributed to so many conflicts in the world.” So are Syria and Iraq among some of the UN’s failures? The diplomat ventures only so far as to say that they represent “a failure of the international community” and “to that extent they are also a failure of the UN. But the UN would never be able to solve the problem if those key stakeholders that have an influence on the parties to the conflict would not be able to come together and solve the problem.” In the straw poll conducted by the United Nations security council in New York on July 21, Guterres got 12 out of 15 votes. The Council is composed of five permanent members - China, France, Russia, the UK and the US - and 10 non-permanent members elected for two-year terms by the General assembly currently consist of Angola, Egypt, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Senegal, Spain, Ukraine, Uruguay and Venezuela. There are 12 candidates in the fray, half of them women. In the UN’s 70-year history there have been eight secretary-generals, all male and none from eastern Europe. Eight of the 12 candidates this year hail from eastern Europe, including three women. So should the next secretary-general be a woman and/or from eastern Europe? Guterres has this to say: “I understand the symbolic value of having a woman secretary-general and if I have to be a victim of my own convictions in relation to gender equality I am ready to accept it. I believe that if elected I will be totally committed to gender parity in the organisation and to effective protection and empower of women in everything the UN does.” (WION)

Migration is a solution to global problems: Antonio Guterres

Ecuador on Saturday deported 29 undocumented Cubans who asked the government to transfer them to Mexico en route to the United States, the Interior Ministry said. 
 
The 20 men and nine women could not justify their presence in Ecuador, and were returned to Cuba on an air force plane, the ministry said. 
 
The dozens of Cuban migrants who returned home were part of a group of 99 Cubans demonstrating outside the Mexican embassy this week, seeking humanitarian visas so they can move forward in their effort to reach the United States. 
 
After the Cubans were removed from the embassy area, they started protesting in a nearby park. 
 
Most of those who were not yet deported were still having Interior Ministry interviews, its statement added. 
 
Foreign minister Guillaume Long said on Tuesday that the Cubans had not requested asylum in Ecuador but that they wanted to be flown to Mexico in Ecuadoran government planes, on their way to the United States. 
 
Long said Quito &quot;should not be taking part in illegal migration, that involves people trafficking, nor in people trafficking itself by giving people planes to use.&quot; 
 
Under a US law dating back to the Cold War, Cubans who reach US soil. whether by plane, foot or boat, are allowed to stay and to work. 
 
Those spotted and picked up at sea, in contrast, are returned to the Communist-ruled Caribbean nation. 
 
Cubans in their thousands have been fleeing to try to reach US shores urgently since many are convinced the special treatment will end soon now that the United States and Cuba have buried the hatchet and restored diplomatic relations. 
 
(AFP)

A Cold War era law allows Cubans who reach the US by plane, boat or foot to stay and work while those spotted at sea are sent back

Ecuador on Saturday deported 29 undocumented Cubans who asked the government to transfer them to Mexico en route to the United States, the Interior Ministry said. The 20 men and nine women could not justify their presence in Ecuador, and were returned to Cuba on an air force plane, the ministry said. The dozens of Cuban migrants who returned home were part of a group of 99 Cubans demonstrating outside the Mexican embassy this week, seeking humanitarian visas so they can move forward in their effort to reach the United States. After the Cubans were removed from the embassy area, they started protesting in a nearby park. Most of those who were not yet deported were still having Interior Ministry interviews, its statement added. Foreign minister Guillaume Long said on Tuesday that the Cubans had not requested asylum in Ecuador but that they wanted to be flown to Mexico in Ecuadoran government planes, on their way to the United States. Long said Quito "should not be taking part in illegal migration, that involves people trafficking, nor in people trafficking itself by giving people planes to use." Under a US law dating back to the Cold War, Cubans who reach US soil. whether by plane, foot or boat, are allowed to stay and to work. Those spotted and picked up at sea, in contrast, are returned to the Communist-ruled Caribbean nation. Cubans in their thousands have been fleeing to try to reach US shores urgently since many are convinced the special treatment will end soon now that the United States and Cuba have buried the hatchet and restored diplomatic relations. (AFP)

Ecuador starts deporting Cubans bent on getting to US

With 51.9 per cent of the voters in the UK referendum voting for Brexit, the EU economy will have to gear up for massive changes

The European Union's chief concerns over Britain's vote to leave the group are political, but losing its second-largest economy will have a huge economic impact as well. Below are some of the main economic risks and benefits for the EU's remaining 27 members. BUDGET/ECONOMY Other members will have to fill in at least some of the shortfall from a lack of its contributions. Britain's total contribution to the EU budget for 2016 has been set at 19.4 billion euros ($21.4 billion), including its rebate and customs duties. It receives about 7 billion euros, mainly agricultural and regional subsidies, leaving a gap to fill of just over 5 per cent of the total EU budget. Germany, the EU's largest member, would inevitably have to provide the most extra cash. Germany's Ifo institute estimates that would be 2.5 billion euros. UniCredit says there would be manageable negatives for the euro zone, with a trade impact, a financial flight to safety and uncertainty possibly leading to tighter financial conditions and postponed investment. It would revise down its 2017 forecast for GDP to 0.5-1.0 per cent from the current 1.6 per cent. TRADE The rest of the European Union has a trade surplus of around 100 billion euros in goods with Britain, while Britain exports some 20 billion euros more in services than it imports, the same gap as for financial services. Many economists forecast Brexit would at least temporarily reduce UK growth, uncertainty hitting domestic demand and weakening the pound, with a resultant impact on EU goods exports to Britain, which make up some 2.6 per cent of rest-EU GDP in 2014. A UK "demand shock", linked also to a possible reintroduction of import tariffs, of 10 per cent could lead to a reduction of rest-EU GDP by 0.26 per cent. Brexit campaigners say the EU would want to agree a free trade deal with Britain even if the country left the bloc. However, Oliver Schulz, an economist at Citi, reasons that could play more into the hands of the EU given there tends to be more focus in trade deals on goods than on services, and financial services in particular. Switzerland, where financial services are a larger share of GDP than in Britain, has no general access to EU financial service markets and runs a financial services trade deficit with the bloc. The EU's main service export to Britain, tourism, is unlikely to be affected. INVESTMENT The United Kingdom is consistently the largest recipient of foreign direct investment in the European Union, according to UNCTAD data, with an average of some $56 billion per year in the 2010-2014 period. EU partners supply just under half of this. Some 72 per cent of investors in an EY study in 2015 cited access to the European single market as important to the UK's attractiveness to FDI. There is a risk some FDI would be diverted to other EU countries if Britain lost access to the EU single market. MIGRATION One of the main arguments for Brexit campaigners is to limit migration of workers from other EU countries, even though both Norway and Switzerland have had to accept free movement of people in return for access to EU internal markets. If Britain did cap immigration, it could have a negative impact on eastern European countries, from which some 1.2 million workers were in Britain in late 2015. The impact could be most acute in the countries with the most citizens in Britain - Poland (853,000 in 2014), Romania (175,000) and Lithuania (155,000). By contrast, other affluent western European countries, such as Germany, could as a result see higher inflows of EU migrants. This might be beneficial economically, if politically difficult. IRELAND, BENELUX HIT HARDEST? Research by the Bertelsmann Foundation sought to break down the impact by country and determined that the impact of a "soft exit" could be worse in Ireland than in Britain, based on their degree of trade dependence on Britain. The Benelux countries and Sweden would take the next biggest hits, while the impact on Germany would be very limited given that its auto and other manufacturing sectors have many other markets. The Belgian region of Flanders will suffer a 2.5 per cent decline in GDP, according to its premier Geert Bourgeois, who believes his region would be hit hardest after Ireland. DYNAMIC EFFECTS The Bertelsmann study also looks into "dynamic effects", such as a potential loss of productivity because a decreased openness to trade reduces international competition and lowers the incentive to improve competitiveness. With dynamic effects, the long-term impact on German GDP would range between 0.3 and 2 per cent below the value if Britain remained in the European Union. (Reuters)

From trade to migration: how Brexit may hit the EU economy

Once upon a time in India, there was a girl who was promised a job and a better future but was sold instead as a bride to a family thousands of miles away from where she lived.

With a dearth of young women in the village, she entered a world where abductions, forced marriages and enslavement were acceptable methods of propagating family trees.

Her story is fact, not fiction. It is part&nbsp;of a new anthology of graphic non-fiction that has brought together over two dozen Indian writers,&nbsp;artists and illustrators to tell such stories of life in India through comics.

&quot;The medium of comics is fantastic for this. It allows readers to engage with characters, locations and circumstances, as if they were doing it first hand,&quot; said Vidyun Sabhaney, one of the editors of the anthology, First Hand.

Citing the example of Maus (Art&nbsp;Spiegelman), Palestine (Joe Sacco), Barefoot Gen (Keiji Nakazawa) and Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi), Sabhaney wrote in the preface, &quot;These books have been startlingly radical for readers not just because of the medium that they use but the stories that they chose to tell.&quot;

The project that began two years ago focuses on stories about migration and trafficking, poverty, caste and LGBT discrimination and the impact of environmental damage that often go unreported.

One powerful narrative in the book is about the young girl trafficked and sold as a bride.

&quot;In a trafficking situation graphic illustrations are all the more useful to give the reader a sense of the remote places people are trafficked from - with a different language, culture and practices - to the final destination which is completely unfamiliar and traumatising,&quot; Neha Dixit, author of the story &#39;Girl Not from Madras&#39;, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

In another story,&nbsp;artist Ita Mehrotra explores the life of a woman she has known for a decade. Chetan is an overworked and underpaid construction worker in India&#39;s capital New Delhi

&quot;I felt through talking with her that she held a history of the city&#39;s past that was more real than others I have read - it was about how she and others actually built it from scratch,&quot; Mehrotra said.

Field research by environmental group Chintan is the basis for E-Waste Sutra, a story about &quot;urban gold diggers&quot; recycling electronic waste.

With data punctuating the narrative, the story is about young boys who use their bare hands to take apart&nbsp;machines and women who sit with magnets to pull out iron components.

&quot;A wise poet once said that the universe is made up of stories not atoms,&quot; editor Orijit Sen wrote in the preface of the book, the first of a planned series. &quot;That line has always stayed with me as one that beautifully captures the essential paradox of truth-telling in narration.&quot;

The anthology called First Hand also talks of caste discrimination, migration, and environmental damage which often go unreported

Once upon a time in India, there was a girl who was promised a job and a better future but was sold instead as a bride to a family thousands of miles away from where she lived. With a dearth of young women in the village, she entered a world where abductions, forced marriages and enslavement were acceptable methods of propagating family trees. Her story is fact, not fiction. It is part of a new anthology of graphic non-fiction that has brought together over two dozen Indian writers, artists and illustrators to tell such stories of life in India through comics. "The medium of comics is fantastic for this. It allows readers to engage with characters, locations and circumstances, as if they were doing it first hand," said Vidyun Sabhaney, one of the editors of the anthology, First Hand. Citing the example of Maus (Art Spiegelman), Palestine (Joe Sacco), Barefoot Gen (Keiji Nakazawa) and Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi), Sabhaney wrote in the preface, "These books have been startlingly radical for readers not just because of the medium that they use but the stories that they chose to tell." The project that began two years ago focuses on stories about migration and trafficking, poverty, caste and LGBT discrimination and the impact of environmental damage that often go unreported. One powerful narrative in the book is about the young girl trafficked and sold as a bride. "In a trafficking situation graphic illustrations are all the more useful to give the reader a sense of the remote places people are trafficked from - with a different language, culture and practices - to the final destination which is completely unfamiliar and traumatising," Neha Dixit, author of the story 'Girl Not from Madras', told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. In another story, artist Ita Mehrotra explores the life of a woman she has known for a decade. Chetan is an overworked and underpaid construction worker in India's capital New Delhi "I felt through talking with her that she held a history of the city's past that was more real than others I have read - it was about how she and others actually built it from scratch," Mehrotra said. Field research by environmental group Chintan is the basis for E-Waste Sutra, a story about "urban gold diggers" recycling electronic waste. With data punctuating the narrative, the story is about young boys who use their bare hands to take apart machines and women who sit with magnets to pull out iron components. "A wise poet once said that the universe is made up of stories not atoms," editor Orijit Sen wrote in the preface of the book, the first of a planned series. "That line has always stayed with me as one that beautifully captures the essential paradox of truth-telling in narration."

A comic book tells true stories about India's poverty, prejudice, and its trafficked girls

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