The National Human Rights Commission of Korea developed an Index on Identification and Protection of Human Trafficking Victims in a bid to identify victims of human trafficking in early stage and to protect them. The NHRCK recommended the Ministry of Justice, Employment and Labor, Gender Equality and Family, National Police Agency and metropolitan local governments to devise measures to prevent human trafficking and to protect victims based on the index.
Early identification of human trafficking victims can be the starting point to prevent further damage due to human trafficking and provide help to victims. However, with lack of detailed standards to identify human trafficking, it is difficult to identify and protect victims of human trafficking even when they are physically, economically or mentally damaged due to diverse reasons including employment.
The NHRCK based on the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime(UN Protocol on Trafficking in Persons) developed 27 Identification Index including actions, methods, and purpose and 15 Protection Index including providing shelter to victims, measures related to police and immigration, provision of medical service and protection from further damage.
Pursuant to the UN Protocol on Trafficking in Persons, ‘trafficking in persons’ includes cases where people are recruited for employment and not allowed to freely move or manage their wage with their identification document including passport kept by employer.
The National Assembly of the Republic of Korea ratified the UN Protocol on Trafficking in Persons in May 2015, which went into effect in December 2015. Hence, establishment of legislation and implementation system is needed in a bid to implement the protocol.
In November 2015, the UN CCPR recommended to the Korean government to broaden definition of trafficking in persons to meet international standards and provide every necessary measure to identify and help victims.
The 2014 Survey on Human Rights of Migrants with E-6-2 Visa confirmed diverse and serious human rights infringements against migrants with E-6-2 Visa including forcible sex trafficking, violence, sexual violence, and confinement by employers who seized migrants’ passports or foreign identification certificate.
In addition, many of foreign women, who were forced to sexual exploitation, were treated as criminal, not as victims of human trafficking. They were often ordered to evict and placed in foreigners protection facilities.
The NHRCK hopes that the Index can serve as a foundation for Korea to conform to international convention related to human trafficking and to prevent human rights infringements by identifying victims of trafficking in persons.
