“The risk of
human trafficking is at its height directly after disaster, but the six to 18
months after a disaster is when lots of trafficking occurs, as the media
spotlight is no longer on these situations,” says Jill Marie Gershutz-Bell,
senior legislative specialist at Catholic Relief Services.
The
devastation of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines late last year disrupted the
familiarity of academic routine and uprooted families. The quicker children can be put back in
school and family livelihood can be restored, then vulnerability to human
trafficking can be lessened.
Many
realistic scenarios can contribute to the post disaster trafficking problem. For instance, a family may make an impulsive
decision such as selling a child or illegally crossing international borders
when the financial and emotional stress following a disaster remains, despite
the passage of time. Additionally,
scattered children can be wrongfully assumed to be orphans once immediate
family tracing services fail to reunite children with such loved ones. It does not help that a large amount of human
displacement is a common occurrence following natural disasters.
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