Global Human Trafficking: The African Slave Trade

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.)

As prostitution is a heart breaking reality for women globally, to a woman or young girl who has grown up in a destroyed environment, the pressure to provide for her family or to make “quick money” prostitution quickly becomes an ultimate option. However, fighting human trafficking and reaching out to a prostitute is not the same. Young girls, women and even some boys are physically locked behind doors, terrified for not only their lives, but the lives of their loved ones. Typically human trafficking begins when someone in a family owes another party some sort of debt but cannot afford it. The child or adult becomes a form of collateral. In other cases, human trafficking begins with the luring or preying of an individual. The trafficker notices the vulnerability of the victim and feeds into making them feel loved or special. Selling dreams to the person trafficked is not only manipulation but also mentally

Human trafficking is a heartless and inhumane treatment of our fellow humans in this life’s journey. There are many different perspectives and definitions for human trafficking because there are many different organizations and groups that are interested in this unfortunate occurrence. However, human trafficking, according to the United Nations trafficking protocol (2001:2), is defined as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat of use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, or fraud, of deceptions, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability, or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person,

Human trafficking by definition is a hidden crime because most people are uneducated and unaware of it; however, the general public’s social awareness of this modern day slavery could lead to action being taken to prevent it. According to Free the Slaves, there are approximately 20 to 30 million slaves in the world today who are sold at about $90. 19 percent of human trafficking involves labor exploitation. This includes those working in domestic work, construction, agriculture, and commercial sex. 80 percent of human trafficking involves sexual exploitation. Sexual exploitation takes women or children within national or across international borders for the purpose of forced sexual work (Soroptimist). This includes pornography, prostitution, and sex trafficking of women and children in exchange for goods or

Problem, The et al. "What Is Sex Trafficking? - Shared Hope International." Shared Hope International, 2018, https://sharedhope.org/the-problem/what-is-sex-trafficking/.

The women that are being trafficked around from state to state have to have sex the way the customer wants it even if it means unprotected. Men don’t care for the women that they are having relations with so they force them to have sex knowing that they might or might not have any kind of infection. “Gita contracted HIV as a direct result of her status as a victim of sex trafficking. She, also, unknowingly and unintentionally, may have spread HIV to customers who bought her after she became infected”, (Kloer 2). This is a clear fact showing that the people who commits these acts are people who only care about putting money in their pocket failing to realize that those girls can die from this. The human trafficking seen is helping spread diseases like HIV/AIDS as well as infections such as

is a destination point for victims, there are many possible global solutions to combat sex trafficking. Examining the reasons sex trafficking persists in a country built on the ideals of liberty and freedom can aid in creating successful solutions to solve the problem of human trafficking, specifically sex trafficking. The most common form of modern day slavery, sex trafficking is defined for the purposes of this paper as the “transportation of persons within or across boundaries by force, fraud, or deception for the purpose of sexual exploitation.” Sex trafficking is a lucrative industry, existing in all types of sex industries such as prostitution, pornography, massage parlors, and strip

The United States abolished slavery in 1865, the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states, "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude...shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction" (The United States Constitution). We never thought that over one-hundred years later there would be a new form of slavery that has affected so many people around the globe. Human trafficking is another name for modern-day slavery, where the victims involved are forced, coerced and deceived into labor and sexual exploitation. Most human trafficking victims are forced into the trade by the false promises made regarding job opportunities. Many women from third world countries are lured into this trade with the bait of false marriages or false jobs. Many of the victims are forced with violence or indirectly with psychological blackmail into the sex trade. Human trafficking is the worst form of abuse that can be inflicted on an individual. A trafficked human being suffers from mental, and physical abuse, leaving them with lifelong mental illnesses.

Human trafficking is one of the largest and most prevalent issues that affects all walks of life both domestically and internationally. Human trafficking is not only a horrendous crime but a major human rights violation, impacting public health. “Human trafficking is a form of modern day slavery” . Human trafficking is the taking of a person with the intent to exploit them through, sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery/servitude, or the removal of organs.

People in non developed country like Nigeria, Pakistan, Burundi, Central African Republic, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, South Sudan and Sudan all face this problem because the people in these countries are destined for better life which attracts traffickers. The need for better life makes traffickers very happy because it gives them the chance to trick people that they are going to have a better life if they come with them, this the Context of Vulnerability stage of human trafficking (Human Trafficking). Many of the victims of trafficking are not forced or kidnapped, they’re usually tricked into it and this the Recruitment stage. Recently poor Nigerians wanted some sort of better life because the cost of living in Nigeria is too much to handle, so many Nigerians were tricked, thinking that they were going to Europe for a better life but ended up being enslaved by Libyans. They thought that they were going to get a good job but they were tricked (Nigerian Migrant Says He Was Sold at Libya Slave Auction). Some victims of human trafficking are abducted by force and some are even drugged, this is the curel stage of human trafficking. The transportation stage for human trafficking is very complex, some victims are put in the back of trucks and smuggled across a border only to be sold or exploited in the designated country (Human

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.

Imagine being trapped among countless people who don’t value your life but instead see you as an object for their own pleasure, people who proceed to throw you to whoever wants you next after they are finished and got what they wanted. Horrific events such as this are happening all around the world. Specifically, girls in Minnesota who are being sold as if they are commodities, and traded for unjust acts such as rape or other heinous acts the buyer desire. Many women who have been caught in the sex trafficking system have been charged for prostitution instead of helped and viewed as victims. Decriminalizing girls that have been forced into sex trafficking, and working to find those buying and selling girls of all ages will create a motive

American government and societies are enforcing underage prostitution by increasing demand to have sex with young girls, criticizing victims as criminals and ignoring sex trafficking. The societies are not willing to rescue victims because they think it was their decision of going into prostitution or it is too risky. Some girls make this decision, but many of them are trafficked and enforced into prostitution. In the popular article titled, “Human Trafficking: A Misunderstood Global Scourge,” Stephanie states, “Often, girls who end up in prostitution are already vulnerable – they are abuse victims, come from unstable homes, have run away, or suffer mental impairments. Others are simply naive, susceptible to manipulation of a pimp, who often

Sex trafficking. Sex trafficking receives a great deal of attention, trafficking for labour purposes is actually in greater demand (Gozdziak, 2008). Labour trafficking applies to men, women, boys and girls. 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.

Many people did not know or notice about this social problem because it can simply happens anywhere and everywhere.