“I had nowhere else to go,” confesses one human trafficking victim explaining why she returned to her trafficker. Tears fill her eyes as she looks down at the crumpled wad of tissues gripped tightly in her fist. “I went back because I didn’t know anybody and I didn’t have any other options,” she sobs as she lays her head in her hands. Sadly, many women and girls like her in Western North Carolina have the same impossible choice to make when faced with the prospect of escaping their traffickers only to sleep on the streets. Unfortunately, life on the streets and the possibility of violence or death often seems preferable to this modern version of human slavery.
Women and girls experiencing homelessness face an array of problems beyond the lack of a safe and suitable home that include social disadvantages, reduced access to public and private services, and vulnerability to labor and sex trafficking. From the foreign woman escaping a life of abuse and discrimination hoping to find a haven in the land of opportunity to the young runaway fleeing from a violent and abusive home life, those without a place to call home share a common bond of vulnerability to traffickers. In fact, traffickers hone in on these vulnerable individuals often feigning affection or offering shelter to elicit commercial sex or services from their victims. Although human trafficking can happen to anyone, most human trafficking victims are women and girls. In addition to homelessness, gender is significant
Human trafficking is the act or practice of illegally transporting people from one country or area to another, typically for the purposes of forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation, however, it is continuing to grow in the united states and is happening everywhere not just in other countries. In this essay, I want to explain how human trafficking is involved in human services and how we can help people get help after they have been a victim of human trafficking. Victims can be men or women, or children, foreign nationals or U.S. citizens, the attacker normally draws in the victim with a stable job, education, or relationships.
“Human trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, and the transport of people within countries for sexual exploitation, forced labor, and/or organ donating.” (Gale) “Slavery is the condition in which one or more persons is owned as property by another and is under the owner’s control.” (American Heritage Dictionary) Trafficked people who are often regarded as disposable, are often used for these various reasons. Although, many believe slavery ended with the Thirteenth Amendment, slavery still exists in 2017. In order to understand that human trafficking is a form of slavery, one needs to examine what it is, the effects, and the solutions.
If you asked random people on the street they would all probably agree to the statement that
Human trafficking has received increasing global attention over the past decade. Trafficking of women and girls for forced sex work and, to a lesser extent, domestic servitude, were the sole focus of advocacy and assistance. There is recognition in today’s society that women, children, and men are trafficked into many different forms of labour, and for sexual exploitation. In her article, “Understanding and Addressing Violence Against Women”, Cathy Zimmerman and Heidi Stockl focus on the commonality of human trafficking and how evident it is in everyday life. They bring in the health effects and possible solutions to human trafficking to help validate their opinion and argument. In the solutions they offer, Zimmerman and Stockl shine a light on policy-makers/decision-makers, health-care providers, and researchers/funders and what each of these groups of people can do to help combat the issue of human trafficking. In a quote from their article, Stockl and Zimmerman say: “Health care providers and organizations involved with trafficked persons should increase their capacity to identify and refer people in trafficking situations and provide sensitive and safe services to people post-trafficking”. This quote shows how Zimmerman and Stockl believe human trafficking should be combated by caring and talking to those affected by the issue but how they also believe awareness should be made about human trafficking so as to allow people surrounding the issue to identify and help victims of this issue. Zimmerman and Stockl’s view on the ways human trafficking should be combatted relate to those of Soroptimist due to the fact that the two groups of people are focused mainly on helping women and girls who have been trafficked and trying to get them to a better life after getting out of the trafficking situation. Both groups focus on helping men as well, providing options to help them such as raising money and awareness, and getting educated on being able to identify victims of human trafficking.
Human trafficking doesn’t happen in third world countries only. It doesn’t just happen to poor people and it certainly doesn’t solely happen to women. It is present here in the USA but it is hidden, and even worse, so are their victims. They are everywhere yet invisible. They are silently crying for our help through their eyes and smiles. According to Polaris, “…the prevalence of sex trafficking in the United States is still unknown, we do know that women, children, and men are being sold for sex against their will in cities and towns in all 50 states”. Human trafficking can happen to anyone even to Theresa Flores, the author of “The slave across the street”(“Sex trafficking” 2015). An average 15 year old American girl, coming from a privileged background and a respected family became a victim of sex trafficking and through her book, she convinces us that human trafficking doesn’t have a specific demographic.
Human trafficking is a serious problem in modern society. In fact, the United Nations has referred to it as “one of the gravest human rights violations of our times” (“Secretary - General Calls Human Trafficking”). It is a fast growing industry that affects millions. No gender, age, or status is spared from the cruelty that is trafficking. To stress this point again, human trafficking is not just a problem of the “world” or “United States”, in general. As previously seen, it strikes very close to home, affecting hundreds of men, women, and children of our own community. In fact, “North Carolina ranked as a top-10 state for human trafficking with Charlotte being the top destination. It is estimated that more than 1,700 girls are trafficked
Most people throughout the world would think of slavery as an issue of the past, but sex trafficking is today’s form of “modern day slavery” (Countryman-Roswurm, 2014). Sex trafficking has become the fastest growing and most profitable criminal enterprise in the world due to the fact that people can be sold over and over again. Corrupt governments have tried to cover this issue up and have worked alongside traffickers to help them obtain illegal documents to continue operating (Deshpande et al., 2013). The effects of this crime causes victims of trafficking to have many emotional, physical, and mental traumas (Deshpande et al., 2013).
Human Trafficking is serious, you may think that it doesn't affect you, you may think that you can’t do anything about it because the world of Human Trafficking is so much bigger than we as humans can comprehend. Over 27 million people are still trapped in Human Trafficking, and those are the documented people. This is the largest number of slaves ever recorded in history. The majority of trafficking happens in cities like our own. In fact, Houston is one of the top hubs in America when it comes to Human Trafficking. Homeless children – desperate for food, shelter and comfort – are
Many people in today’s society do not realize how big of a problem human trafficking is. Everyday people are oblivious to the fact that at any moment they could become a victim of human trafficking. What are the punishments of being a human trafficker? The United States of America has government laws in place, but they rarely work. The victims are often treated how slaves used to be treat. That is why human trafficking is often called modern day slavery. Our country also has education programs and prevention protocols in place to help citizens realize everyone is in danger. Human trafficking is a world-wide problem, even in America.
The trafficking of human beings has evolved and become more universal and serious over the years. Trafficking of people is equivalent to modern day slavery. The duties and expectations of these people are outrageously irrational. The victims are forced to do unthinkable tasks for people they may or may not know. Anyone can be a leader or a victim of human trafficking. Victims of trafficking programs span from an extensive variety of women, children, and men ranging widely in age. There are two very diverse trafficking programs: sex trafficking and labor trafficking. Sex trafficking, the most common of the two trafficking programs, can also be referred to as sex slavery. The sex trafficking occurs when the unwilling are being forced to
“They would beat you. They would make you feel like they would cause you yourself or your family harm. Another thing, some of the girls don’t have anywhere to go (Victims, 2011).” Keisha Head works as an anti-human trafficking advocate, but that was not always the case. She was once a victim to this cold and unforgiving way of life that many people simply call “prostitution.” It has been said by the ignorant that prostitutes must enjoy their line of work, as sex is generally considered pleasurable. However, Keisha tells another story. “I became numb to what I was doing. I guess that’s the survival instinct,” she says. Another woman who escaped the life preferred to remain anonymous, but her statement is profound. “I was hoping that I would
Many forms of modern-day slavery still exist. The most popular form is human trafficking and it has become one of the most profitable businesses in the world. Overall human trafficking is a problem worldwide, and there are “millions of men, woman, and children around who are victims of it” (Piranty, Human).They are bought and sold as commodities into prostitution and forced labor. Many victims are sometimes tricked and lured by false promises or physically forced into this trade. Human trafficking that ends with teens in sexual slavery is on the rise in South Florida, according to Sun Sentinel, “every family-regardless of income, education, or location-could become a victim” (Sun Sentinel). Human trafficking is a growing epidemic destroying communities all over the state of Florida by depriving an individual of his or her natural right to freedom of will and choice, expanding gang activity, and robbing the innocence of the world’s youth, but in turn we could put an end to it.
I believe that the United States should not sell any products manufactured by companies that use human trafficking. Human trafficking is a very big problem all over the world including the United States. There are several types of human trafficking, but one of the biggest issues is labor trafficking. Labor trafficking is modern- day slavery which forces people, even children, to work long hard hours with no or little pay. In my opinion, labor trafficking is very immoral, and there are several things that our country can do to stop it. We need to spread the news, expose industries, and create new laws.
Theresa Flores, a girl from Detroit, was 15 years old when a boy she had a crush on from school offered her a ride home. Instead of taking her home he brought her back to his house where he insisted she come in. Red flags went off in Theresa’s head, but he told her he liked her, and that’s all it took to convince her to come inside. He offered her a soda laced with drugs that made her become dizzy, and then he raped her. The next day at school the boy and his friends informed her of the pictures they had taken of her, and threatened her to “earn the pictures back”, or they would share the pictures with everyone at school, her church, and to her family. From that day on, every night Theresa would receive a call around midnight and the boys would pick her up and bring her to random houses where often several men would be waiting for her. This continued for almost two years till her family relocated (Zukowski, 2015). This is one example of a girl being lured into sex trafficking as a teen and is one out of an estimated 800,000 women and children that are trafficked across international borders every year (Facts on human trafficking and sex slavery, 2012). Sex trafficking is a huge issue today and is only continuing to grow as an industry. In order to put an end to this horrifying issue more action must be taken in order for a difference of significance to be made. However, in order to take action people must understand the essence of what it is,
She’s the girl who’s running away from her abusive past, the one who is impoverished and looking for a way to make ends meet, or perhaps, she’s the girl who naively fell in love with the wrong man. Regardless of the reasons, there are nearly 30 million victims of human trafficking globally. There are more slaves now than ever before. Trafficking of persons is not a subject that should be ignored or taken lightly. In order to fully understand the enormity of this crisis, we will examine the root causes, facts, and the impact of human trafficking throughout the world.