Addressing Contentious Questions
When population movement occurs, it is important to immediately distinguish whether those on-the-move are Trafficked, Refugees, Internally displaced or Migrants (TRIM). The distinction is important since support mechanisms and the legal status of the people can affect the response operation. PopWatch entails to work on the following four crucial domains of population movement:
First Domain: Trafficking... in persons is identified by many as the third largest source of profit for organized crime generating billions of dollars annually despite increasing funding for intervention efforts. It is increasingly recognized as a complex process, involving a series of episodes for the person trafficked requiring markedly different responses from governments or communities. These episodes might start with a need or desire to migrate, followed by an encounter of coercion and deception leading to highly harmful and exploitative working situations. The trafficked person after some time might prefer to remain away from their original community, despite the exploitation and harm they have suffered. The options for returning home may involve further stigmatization, lack of control over their lives or no opportunities for economic survival. The right to self-determination of survivors with rights-based recovery modalities lies as a central theme of critical concern of our intervention.
Second Domain: Refugees..., as the most vulnerable population with high visibility, is a trans-border phenomenon and are often left destitute without destination. The exodus continues in an unprecedented scale posing threat to just peace and security. Witnessed is the four-way traffic in the flight of refugees, i.e. movement within the region; movement from the region; movement into the region and movement within the country of domicile. Often, the definition of a refugee has been a contentious issue resulting in the incidences of refoulment and non-entreé. None of the countries in South Asia, for example, have ratified the Refugee Convention-1951 nor have the enacted national laws to govern growing refugee crises. Reliable and comprehensive data in this area, especially in forms that lend themselves to either longitudinal or cross-national studies, are often not available due to lack of collection and restrictions. The right to return of refugees to their homestead and unconditional protection within the host nation is the nucleus agenda of our campaign.
Third Domain: Internally displaced persons (IDPs)... are persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, development-induced displacement and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border. The number of IDPs is fivefold in comparison to refugees. The crisis of IDPs has alarmingly escalated than ever. PopWatch believes that the adoption and enactment of appropriate measures in line with the UN Guiding Principles for the safety, security and welfare of IDPs is the demand of the day!
Fourth Domain: Migrant population... is made up of people displaced by factors other than armed conflict - people forced to move by economic hardship, exploration of better living options, formation of a new country or changing national boundaries. Migration is a natural phenomenon and it is a fundamental right of a person to move from one place to another and return to the homestead. An often neglected but substantial number of trans-national migrant population's concern has become an integral part of the human rights movement. Protection of the rights of migrants (regular/irregular) and their families, without any discrimination on the basis of gender, nationality, religion and language is the contemporary issue of vital concern for the organization.