Trafficking and labour migration (ABSTRACT)

Fati Mamiashvili

A cautionary slogan of the social advertisement – “beware of becoming a slave in the 21st century” – testifies to the fact that in the third millennium technical progress and justice administration can not cope with slave trade, illegal migration, cheap labour force exploitation, sex industry and forced transplantation.

The strange thing about it is that victims of trafficking are mostly people who often watch such advertisements on TV ? housewives, unemployed, young people.. They know that an illegal migrant is a potential victim of trafficking, but they believe that they will not get into a trap. In reality, every victim is a person who is silently deprived of any rights, and no state is insured against such problems. On the contrary, trafficking develops together with humankind, its scales, requirements and ruthlessness becomes more and more marked and increased. Why? ? Because trafficking is the largest illegal business coming after arms and drug trade. Its minimum annual profit runs into 8-9 billion US dollars. Every year 800-900 thousand people get into the trafficking trap, of which 18-20 persons go to the US. The number of domestic trafficking cases yet remains unclear.
Georgia is not only a transit country for illegal migrants, but it is also a country that receives and sends the migrants to other countries. Though a law against trafficking has already been adopted, there is still a lack of true information. Some of our citizens are in slavery in American, European and Asian countries. Nor there is any perspective and hope of employment growth and economic situation improvement. Yet social opinion polls show that 75% of Georgian females have the wish to work abroad. The reason for it is that they want to earn money to keep their families and children. In Georgia as well as in the whole world struggle with trafficking is ineffective as it is influenced by the following factors: poverty and yearning for better living conditions, disregard of trafficking results, devaluation of social values, political and economic unrest, requirements for cheap labour force, large gains and low risk.