Causes of child trafficking are multiple and complex. However, some of the common causes are poverty, lack of employment opportunities, low social status of the girl child, a general lack of education and awareness, inadequate legislation, and weak law enforcement agencies. There are certain other cultural factors that are responsible for child trafficking. Sometimes it becomes difficult to distinguish between the cause and the purpose.
Causes of child trafficking may be determined by main two factors i.e. Push factor and pull factor. Push factor means those factors which cause a person to be pushed out of the community. These are factors create a situation that causes a person to be moved out and trafficked from the source area. Similarly, pull factors are the factors that act on the demand side or the final destination causing the person to be pulled to such a place. Pull factors determine the type of person to be trafficked, especially the age profile, the sex profile, the physical features of the person as well as the source area, the transit routes, the revenue generated by traffickers etc. In common terms, the push factors could be stated as ‘vulnerability factors’ and pull factors as ‘demand factors’.
Some of the basic causes of child trafficking as discussed briefly :
Poverty
Low levels of literacy, awareness and knowledge are risk factors attributable to the problem of trafficking. Economic deprivation and associated environment are also listed as
One of the many things that can make a person susceptible to trafficking is their financial situation. Victims of trafficking might come from any socioeconomic class, but the lack of resources, especially employment prospects, is intrinsically tied to the crime. When people desperately try to escape poverty, they may fall victim to deceptive job practices or sex trafficking. Human traffickers focus on the poor and those who are otherwise unable to provide for even their necessities. Over a third of the world's population, or 2.5 billion people, are at risk for human trafficking since they earn less than $2.00 per day (Cook et al., 2022).
As we speak right now, someone across the world is being forced into labor or sexual interactions. Men are the minority in this case and not forced into this as much as women and children. Most of those children are girls of ages from eight to fourteen starting in this business. I highly doubt any of you know that human trafficking, the modern day slavery is worse today than it was during the Atlantic Slave Trade in the 1500’s. Human Trafficking is where traffickers forcefully control victims to make them engage in sex or labor against their will (Bales 1).
Many of the adults and children put into prostitution were at one point abused horribly. Furthermore, 98 percent of women become prostitutes if abused at a young age. Children were taken from their families and forced to have sex against their will. These traffickers can be charged for sexual assault, kidnapping, and abuse. The population is growing, between 100,000 and 300,000 children are being taken away to work as prostitutes.
With this being said, it is clear that women and young girls are typically the most at risk when it comes to commercial sexual exploitation. In this category of trafficking, traffickers act as “pimps” and sell these women like prostitutes. These victims are made to perform sexual favors to make their captor or captors a profit. Most of these crimes go unseen and
They are afraid to speak or ask for help because their captives have threatened them. These girls are abused physically, sexually and verbally. Human trafficking is the number one crime in America after drug trafficking and there are 50 thousand cases of slavery a year. The third story we saw was the awful working conditions children in other countries are put through. In Kenya children work for hours picking coffee beans that often burn their skin.
It occurs for three reasons prostitution, forced labor, and human organs. The majority of the victims of human trafficking are immigrants because traffickers use immigrant’s workers unfamiliarity with the language, laws and customs to manipulate them. From Algeria to New York City we can see similarities in the way involuntary servitude works. If we come together we can decrease human trafficking, and spread awareness about anti-trafficking programs that would help the world. Its our duty as citizens to acknowledge the problems that are affecting our society.
These people go and are sold into the sex trade and work as slaves. They often report monetary or housing problems to officials but because they are uneducated they fail to see that they are victims of a much larger crime, human trafficking. Another cause of human trafficking is trusting the wrong people. Many youth are trafficked because they do not understand the true dangers of society. Under the influence of peers many youth end up getting into cars with strangers and going to a so called party, instead they are trafficked, sold, raped and left for dead.
It is the world’s fastest growing global crime that people are being bought, sold and smuggled for sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, bonded labour and even organ sacrifice ending up with death. The most tragic fact is 26% of the victims that are sucked into trafficking are children. In this violation of human rights’ grave, where persons have a price tag, anyone can be a victim. Human trafficking doesn’t discriminate on age, gender, race or religion. It is happening to humans, just like
When human trafficking is actually brought to the attention of the public it is reflected inaccurately. The public is misinformed due to its furtive nature. In places like Ethiopia child sex trafficking does not have an impact in the community. People in the community have little to no empathy or tolerance for the children involved in human trafficking. Child victims are antagonized and looked down upon.
Throughout history different ideas arose about how people should be treated and how they should have some set basic rights. As it is known there will also be people who will go against such and do what they please. This problem is native to every civilization on the planet. One of these infringements of rights is human trafficking which has had a massive impact on the middle east as well as other areas. Therefore, Child and Human trafficking is native to many places and different nations went about helping this in different ways.
The poor are living in unbearable conditions and selling themselves or others off to slavery to be provided with quick, dirty money to better their living conditions which only helps strengthen the terrible cycle that is human trafficking. Similar to olden times, victims of modern slavery are sold off for prices lower than the cost of slaves in previous time periods. While a slave in the 1850’s could easily cost $40,000 in today’s money, the average price of a slave today is only a mere horrendous price of $90 (Nye 23). With these prices, it is no wonder that the poor are often victims of human trafficking. Along with the poor, helpless children are also common victims of trafficking.
Human trafficking can affect any person, anywhere at any time, yet leaves multiple groups at higher risk for human trafficking. Runaway/homeless youth, LGBT members, migrant workers, undocumented immigrants, racial/ethnic minorities, those who struggle with substance abuse, and others all tend to be at higher risk for becoming victims of human trafficking. In order for human trafficking to be classified as a crime it must fit the three elements of human trafficking. These three elements fall under Act, Means, and Purpose. Act explains what is happening, in this stage people are recruited, taken, possibly moved to another location, and received by other traffickers or those who wish to exploit them.
In china trafficking has many forms: purchasing for brides, purchasing male son, selling unwanted girls (female children), and using people for slave labour, prostitution or commercial sex. Mainly in rural areas of china, men are willingly seeking the brides from a country in which women are short in supply. And these men willingly married to trafficked women. Trafficking of boy children and women has become serious human violation in china. As per the report of TIP from U.S department “domestic trafficking is the most signi9ficant problem in china.”
THE IMPACT OF TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS Human trafficking today is a global phenomenon, affecting men, women and children in over 130 countries of the world. Trafficking is a crime against individuals. As such, the consequences are most directly felt by trafficked persons. As well documented, trafficking activities contravene fundamental human rights, denying people basic and broadly accepted individual freedoms. Trafficking also has broad economic, social and cultural consequences.
While research on sex trafficking is criticized for being ideological, there is very little attempt to analyse labour trafficking through the development of a theoretical framework for understanding this phenomena. Labour trafficking. While victims of trafficking for labour may be forced into domestic servitude or industrial labour. One crucial component in labour trafficking is migration.