Human trafficking can be seen as many things, since it includes many subcategories. Human trafficking can be defined as the illegal movement of people, typically for the purposes of forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation. But does not exclude the many other reasons that human trafficking is used. When focusing on trafficking we need to understand it’s the act force or other forms of coercion and the beneficial aspects such as the giving or receiving of payments or benefits without consent from the person for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation does not only involve sex acts, but also includes forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs (UNDOC.)
Human trafficking or also known as sex trafficking is an international problem that poses a universal threat to human refuge. For centuries, men, women and children around the globe have been captivated and dehumanized by the inhumanity of society (modern day slavery). Not often is human trafficking discussed or brought to awareness like other global issues such as wars in the Middle East or political institutionalism (prison confinement in the US). Human trafficking is a very sensitive, and vital international issue that must be commutated with the theories of constructivism.
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). There are about 21 million people trafficked around the world. Children trafficking; 5.5 million of that (UNICEF USA 1). Trafficking isn’t just prostitution as most believe. It’s pornography,
It causes major physical and emotional problems to all of the victims. “Most live under constant mental and physical threat. Many suffer severe emotional trauma, including symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and dissociation(“Sex Trafficking Fact).” This is a huge problem because it causes serious health issues like STD’s and PTSD. Most victims live under huge stressors like when their next meal will be or when are they gonna get out of this constant struggle. This is one of the biggest issues that these poor women and children go
Human trafficking produces billions of dollars in profit every year, it is right behind drug trafficking as the most lucrative form of crime throughout the world. (DHS website). Victims of human trafficking rarely come forward due to the threats of murder, threats of killing their loved ones/friends, as well as having nowhere else to go because they have been ostracized from their own family and their “pimp” is their family. Another issue of why victims do not come forward is that they are afraid of law enforcement so they may go to jail, etc. (DHS website)
There are many different forms of slavery still happening today, like workers on farms being enslaved, children and even young adults being forced into unconsenting marriage, and human and sex trafficking being a huge problem in the United States and even the world. Slavery is a such large part of America, even today. It’s the past, and the past cannot be completely forgotten. As an example of the claws that slavery still has on America today, here’s a tidbit of information. “The International Labour Organization estimates that there are 20.9 million victims of human trafficking globally. 68% of them are trapped in forced labor. 26% of them are children. 55% are women and girls.”(Polaris) 20.9 million victims, all over the world, mostly female, and portion of them children. All these people, these humans, innocent people just like everybody else, are steadily being forced into slavery, some right now. Is anybody aware that 3,827 people per day are being sold or kidnapped into slavery?
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. Means is how the crime is done, means mostly consists of abduction, threats, manipulation, deception, force and the like. Purpose explains why it was committed which is the explicit intent to exploit the victim. The International Labor Organization reported that in 2017 approximately 24.9 million people were victims of human trafficking with around 81% of victims falling under the category of forced labor and 19% falling under the category of sexual exploitation. Out of the 24.9 million the demographics showed around 70% of women and girls were victims of trafficking and 30% of men and boys were victims of trafficking, with 75% being over the age of 18 and 25% being under the age of 18. Within the United States there are approximately 600-800,00 victims of trafficking according to the US State Department, with Asia-pacific region accounting for the largest amount of victims internationally. Human trafficking generates billions on earning, with 2014 statistics reporting that “Human trafficking earn profits of roughly 150 billion a year for traffickers” . While
Organisations are being and have been set to aid in the fight against human trafficking such as the International Association of Human Trafficking Investigators which provides human trafficking training to law enforcement officers and prosecutors in order for them to have the skill of identifying victims, charge traffickers and successfully prosecute human trafficking cases. By recognizing the core problem and setting up programmes such as girl child education and awareness campaigns in countries against trafficking, communities are made aware of what to look for .Not leaving the issue in the shadows helps eliminate the threat since more people are informed about the complexity of the crime, especially girls, making them less vulnerable to traffickers. The majority of the trafficked victims are below the age of 18. Empowering them with this knowledge enables them to realize the potential of eliminating the international
According to Hepburn and Simon, women and young females are the ones who are more likely to be trafficked than men. This is because women and young females are most often used for the purpose of sexual exploitation. According to Hepburn and Simon, “. . . women and girls make up 56% of persons trafficked for the purposes of forced labor while men and boys make up 44%. In terms of those trafficked for the purposes of forced commercial sexual exploitation, women and girls make up 98% and men and boys comprise 2%” (Hepburn and Simon, par.4). 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
Is human trafficking a gender issue? If indeed so, anti-trafficking and gender-related initiatives need occur that help eradicate the gender-based consequences of human trafficking. This draws attention to the people targeted by human trafficking and anti-trafficking parties of the government to look closely at the gender aspects of human trafficking in globalization. Sex slavery is the main area of gender-based issues. It is common knowledge that women are more likely to become sex slaves among men. Leuchtag comments on this issue, and makes an example of a Thai girl. (Leuchtag 10). The girl was more at risk, surrounded by poverty and a foreign country known for human trafficking. Duong raises the awareness to investigate gender related prostitution and human trafficking. It is a fact that women are at higher risk with human slavery. Duong focuses on Vietnam, a ‘hot point’ of human trafficking in some regions. Over ten thousand women are missing from their homes within the last ten years, and most point to human trafficking. (Duong). As a Vietnamese woman and the dean of Gender and Development at Vietnamese Women’s Academy, Kim Anh Duong wants to shine a light on the issue of modern-day slavery. She makes sure to point out that human trafficking is a major issue all around the world, and not just the United States. Most of the human trafficking cases are not frequently conversed about, mainly because no one wants to talk about what happens to those men and women. Debbie Nathan tells of a Kenyan woman that got involved in human trafficking through a childcare job. Nathan goes on to list several feminists’ organizations, trying to push action, and reduce the number of victims of human trafficking.
Every year, millions of people are trafficked in countries around the world, including the United States. Most of this people are immigrants from developing communities, who are transported to developed communities that are more prosperous. Traffickers use immigrant’s workers unfamiliarity with the language, laws and customs as an advantage to manipulate or exploit them in their new environment . Traffickers sells them into involuntary servitude, where immigrants are force to work against their will in harsh working conditions. Labor trafficking has become an important issue to the U.S. presidencial race because illegal immigration has result in an increase of involuntary servitude in the United States. Also labor trafficking violates the
The world has gone through a lot of major events in the past. However, there is still darkness in the background that people are ignoring. Human trafficking needs to be talked about more. The lost souls of the people that who were taken, are still roaming. They deserve their justice. All around the world human trafficking exists and there needs to be a stop to it. Human Trafficking is a national problem because current laws are ineffective and therefore action needs to be taken to reduce the problem.
Human trafficking, or trafficking in persons (TIP) or modern day slavery, is a heinous and widespread crime occurring around the world in nearly every society. Most people often thought slavery was part of the past; however, human slavery is part of our current society and has been an on-going issue around the world. Human trafficking is a type of slavery that involves forced or bonded labour, sexual servitude, child labour, or involuntary servitude all over the world. It is important to note that sex trafficking contributes to more than half of human trafficking and most of these victims are women and young girls. This modern day slavery can happen to anyone, anywhere, and at anytime (Ton, 2012).This literature review of documents and reports
We are living in a world where one person has an absolute power over another. The groundless trade of human beings in today’s world shows a deteriorated state of affairs which confirms that the greatest moral challenge facing the globe today is human trafficking. It refers to illegal sale or trade of people for sexual abuse or forced labor through coercion or abducting people.
Human Trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of sexual slavery, forced labour, organs removal, commercial sex exploitation and economic exploitation. Normally, trafficking is done by threat, compulsion, abduction, fraud, misleading, abuse of power, vulnerability, giving payments or benefits to a person in control of the victim .Trafficking in person is a serious crime and dignified violation of human rights . Most of people nowadays do not know that human slavery still exists; after it was abolished 150 years ago, its proven when there is an auction of young women intended for sexual slavery occurred publicly in Britain highly policed location and another auction even took place in front of a café at Greenwich Airport, Britain (News by BBC UK, 4 June 2006, 14.31 GMT). These crimes have been booming and become a global phenomenon when victims from at least 153 countries were detected in 124 countries worldwide between 2010 and 2012. Female hold the biggest percentage of victims and the remaining are men and children but recently the percentage of children in victims have been increasing to one third of the victims of human trafficking in the world. On top of that, trafficking of human is world 2nd most profitable criminal activity after drug trafficking according to report made by Ricky Martin Foundation, which is major donor to