Interview with Pete Kernoghan from Stand Out International, September 2010
Pete Kernoghan, 30, works as the local ministry co-ordinator, Exodus Lisburn. He is one of the founders of Stand Out, an organisation pursing the end of child sex exploitation. He tweets at @peteyk4.
Q. How do you define human trafficking?
A. The United Nations’ definition of human trafficking is: “The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.”
I think that’s great definition.
Q. Who are the main victims of human trafficking?
A. The main victims are generally the vulnerable; the poor are the main targets, people caught up in natural disasters (e.g. those in Haiti, when that disaster happened a lot of people were trafficked from there)…mainly orphaned, vulnerable children. The average age for a girl who is trafficked into the sex industry is 14.
Q. How are the victims trafficked?
A. There are numerous ways, they can be bought, stolen, tricked, born into, kidnapped. There are countless methods for people being caught up in it.
Q. Who are the traffickers/offenders?
A. Normally, it’s a criminal organisation. Human trafficking is the second largest growing illegal trade activity on the planet, the illegal arms trade is first then illegal trade of humans, and then drug trafficking is third. So it’s easier to traffic humans than it is to traffic drugs. The offenders are anyone who is out to make a lot of money. I know the Northern Irish paramilitaries are now getting involved in it here.
Q. Is the ‘market’ growing?
A. The market has never really stopped, it just was underground. There are more people trapped in slavery now than there ever have been. It’s just maybe a bit more open and in the public eye now.
Q. Which countries suffer the most from human trafficking?
A. South-East Asia is probably the biggest area. India, China, Thailand, and Cambodia are all very involved; whether that is consuming or supplying. But Eastern European countries are now a bit of a breeding ground…but pretty much everywhere has this problem.
Q. What’s the situation like in Northern Ireland?
A. NI is getting progressively worse; we are pretty much the gateway to the UK through the Republic of Ireland. So, it’s getting worse here, for sure.
Q. What are our governments doing?
A. Governments have been quite active setting up numerous task forces and changing quite a few laws so that prosecuting human traffickers is easier, but it’s more than catching them – you’ve got to get to the source, e.g. dealing with poverty in these countries so that people don’t have to sell their kids, etc..
Q. What does Stand Out International do?
A. SOI funds projects that are involved in the whole range, from extraction to rehabilitation to education, so that kids aren’t sold into it.
“StandOut International exists to tackle the problem of child sexual exploitation head-on. As well as rescue and rehabilitation, StandOut works to keep children safe so that they never have to know what it is to be trafficked and abused. We can stop this injustice and StandOut for these children. Act now. Change lives. StandOut.” http://www.standoutinternational.co.uk/
Modern Day Slavery 