When trafficking incidents occur in hotels, they are therefore subject to criminal and civil obligations. Even through THB is a criminal activity in 146 countries, condemnation rates of traffickers across the globe are low. While these rates vary by country, in Europe, only 44% of prosecutions result in condemnation (Kangaspunta, 2015). In fact, these rates are lower than other serious illegal conviction rates.
Thus, many argue for additional legislation which imposes organizations to disclose their anti-trafficking policies and activities. Generally, there are four possible reasons why conviction rates for THB remain low including (COMBAT, 2016):• the lack of training on detecting the signs of trafficking.• a low level of reporting of traffickers and victims (which may not reflect the reality of the situation),• the dark nature of the crime (victims are often seeing to hide the crime and the reliance on others to testify in court),• the limited capacity or resources to investigate trafficking incidents and corruption. According to WTO, since the early 1990’s, various measures in fighting commercial sexual exploitation of children have been taken by the tourism industry.
Tourism industry associations are developing policies for their organizations, for examples:Ø The Universal Federation of Travel Agents’ Associations (UFTAA) was the first tourism industry association who has adopted The Child and Travel Agents’ Charter (1994). Ø WTO Statement on the Prevention of Organized Sex Tourism (1995). Ø The International Hotel and Restaurants Association (IH and RA), adopted in 1996 a resolution in which they “recommend to all their members” to “(…) adapt measures and policies to prevent the use of their enterprises for the commercial sexual exploitation of children” and “to prevent ease of access to child prostitution or child pornography”. Relating the governmental movements, the European Parliament and European Commission have realized the gravity of the problem of the commercial sexual exploitation of children.
The following measures have been taken by the European Commission: ü Preparation of a training system for organization staff. ü Preparation of label folders for guests. ü Preparation of an in-flight video. Also, the French government released a tourism project, depicted as “Grande Cause National 1997” has summarized in an effective way what hospitality organization can do to join the fight against the commercial sexual exploitation of children as following:ü The hotel’s policy should clearly state the hotel’s intention and position with regard to the trade in child sex. The hotel shall also make this understood among its personnel and provide them with knowledge on how to detect the trafficking issues and how to handle them.
ü Hotel management should provide information to its staff and customers regarding national laws and the penalties imposed for the sexual abuse of children.ü The hotel’s security staff should be trained to detect and handle guests or personnel who sexually abuse a child, particularly on the hotel’s premises. ü Staff members must report immediately to the police or some other authority.
ü Co-operate with the relevant labor unions and human right organizations. ü Work actively as a precautionary activity by building up links with police, social authorities and other organizations that may be interested in such issues. ü Prevent children from entering the hotel alone via bars, restaurants, lobby or reception. ü Imposing full control over check-in systems and accessing the hotel’s facilities.
