(1) Comprehensive Crisis Intervention Strategies - Intro, Definitions & Statistics

In 2016 dozens of Police swarmed and raided a building in central Lebanon. What was revealed was the largest ever-known trafficking ring in the nation. That night, seventy-five Syrian women were freed from forced prostitution in one of Beirut’s nightclubs. These women, victims of sex trafficking, were smuggled from their war-torn homes in Syria, held captive both physically and emotionally, and forced to endure cycles of sexual violence and rape throughout their years enslaved in the Chez Maurice nightclub. One of the women recounted her story to a reporter from the Guardian and said, “I do not plan to tell my own family about this ordeal, [because] they would see what happened to me as a stain on their honor.” (Shaheen, 2016)

The Chez Maurice case shocked Lebanon with the scale of the network that had been operating undetected for years. However, the issue of rape and sexual violence committed against women trying to escape conflict is more profound than many people realize. This paper delves into the grim world of people smuggling and human trafficking, focusing on the crisis facing young female refugees from conflict zones in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. These girls and women, escaping war and seeking refuge, often become victims of rape, a particularly horrifying outcome of their already traumatic journeys.

Unlike crisis intervention in the United States, this people group does not often have access to mental health professionals, local law enforcement, social workers, or other training crisis workers. In most cases, humanitarian and aid workers, along with friends, family, and religious leaders, are the individuals that will have the opportunity to help these women deal with crises as they arise. As a result, there are very few studied cases of professional-level crisis intervention strategies being used among female victims of sexual violence fleeing conflict zones in the MENA region. What exists are case reports, guidelines, and a mosaic of methodologies pieced together from research-based intervention practices used in situations that share similar factors.

Definitions

Before proceeding, it will be helpful to establish definitions and context for discussing the issues.

Middle East and North Africa (MENA):

The MENA region consists of the nations of Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. (Office of the United States Trade Representative, n.d.) These countries, except Israel, which is Jewish, and Lebanon, which does not have a national religion, are all Muslim. The most predominant language is Arabic, and they are all culturally similar: collectivist, family-oriented but often shame-based, tribal, and patriarchal. These cultural factors culminate in higher rates of sexual assault as well: 37% of women in the Middle East report having been sexually assaulted, compared to just 30% across the rest of the world. (Cole & Huang, 2022) These countries are, relative to the rest of the world, defined by war and conflict, often escalating from tribal conflicts to internationally recognized wars funded by world superpowers to further their interests. This creates massive upheaval and destabilization in the area, resulting in the MENA region being known internationally for the brutality that finds its home there.

Refugees:

Refugees are internationally displaced people. As defined by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR),

A refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war or violence. A refugee has a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. Most likely, they cannot return home or are afraid to do so. War and ethnic, tribal and religious violence are leading causes of refugees fleeing their countries. 69% of those displaced across borders come from just five countries: Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan and Myanmar. (UNHCR, n.d.)

Refugees differ from Internally Displaced People (IDP) in that they have crossed international borders. IDPs may be displaced from their town or home within their own country. Refugees are not inherently legal or illegal in the countries to which they flee. Many will receive international refugee status from the UNHCR or a nation that they are applying to as a refugee. However, this status may take decades to obtain. Under the threat of violence or harm, many do not have the luxury of waiting years for a legal remedy to present itself and may resort to other methods.

Human Trafficking or People Smuggling:

Human trafficking, a multi-billion-dollar illegal industry, is rampant across the globe, exploiting millions of people every year. Smuggling, a subset of this trade, coerces or tricks individuals into crossing borders under false pretenses, often resulting in the victims being forced into unpaid labor, sexual slavery, or other forms of exploitation. Conflict zones, unrecognized by most, generate a large proportion of these victims. The MENA region, embroiled in a myriad of conflicts, serves as a poignant example of these factors colliding. (Holvikivi, 2020)

People smuggling is the trade of illegally transporting a person across a border. Generally, the person voluntarily seeks to gain entry into another country, and a smuggler is employed to transport them. Human trafficking, on the other hand, is the “recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons by improper means (such as force, abduction, fraud, or coercion), for an improper purpose including forced labor or sexual exploitation.” (UNHCR, n.d.) Both terms have slightly different meanings, and present differently in some scenarios, but there is often overlap, and the lines between them blur. In both cases, the victim is vulnerable and often exploited (monetarily, physically, or sexually) by the perpetrator. Both terms apply in most situations this paper addresses, like the Chez Maurice case.

Conflict Zones:

Conflict or War zones are defined by the violent disruptions in the lives of their residents. People cannot survive and thrive in conflict zones. Conflict zones are ripe with trauma and fertile grounds for PTSD and other mental agonies. They are the primary cause of most IDPs and Refugees around the world. Around 23% of the refugees resettled in 2023 came from the Middle East, with 43% from Africa (north and south Africa). (Ward & Batalova, 2023)

Statistics

These areas defined above could each be studied, as they each bring their slew of corresponding traumas and issues. However, as these issues compound, it presents a startling problem. Studies among Afghan refugee women revealed that an alarming 79.8% had experienced physical, sexual, or psychological intimate partner violence (IPV), leading to detrimental impacts on their physical health (Cole & Huang, 2022). Studies among refugee populations in the Middle East and North Africa consistently demonstrate that they experience significantly higher rates of sexual violence along different routes in their journey than individuals in cases where one of the factors is changed. However, acknowledging the complexities of gathering data on violence against refugee women in the MENA region is crucial. Fear, insecurity, absence of protective legal systems, and inadequate reporting structures pose significant challenges. These issues often contribute to substantial underreporting, hindering the information collection process. Furthermore, the ongoing conflicts in this region impact the reliability and accessibility of displacement-related data.

These profound statistics demonstrate the importance of understanding the dynamics within these areas and the risks that individuals, especially women, experience when trying to escape their war-torn homes.