Human Trafficking: Modern Slavery

Human trafficking is the exploitation of humans to make money. There are more slaves today than ever in history. Most times victims are trafficked by people they know, trust and love like friends and family.

Human trafficking is one of the many faces of organized crime. Human trafficking is a broad term which contains trafficking for the purpose of sex along with the exploitation of labor. Currently, there are 20.9 million victims of sex slavery (Stacy.j.cecchet 2014 482) whom have or are suffering suffer inhumane circumstances and consequences. Sex trafficking is one of the largest criminal activities in the world (Stacy 249). Vulnerable women and children are taken advantage of and thrown into sex slavery, yet there is no explanation available as to how women and children are taken and thrown into the industry within countries such as Canada and the United States of America (482 Stacy j Cecchet 2014), which have human rights protection. Sex slavery leaves everlasting mental and physical effects on the abused women and children being trafficked. Even though sex trafficking is a crime it is also, for a lack of better words, an industry which would cease to exist if it was not for the supply and demand for women and children.

As extensive humans being have been on earth, there has been some method of awfulness present. Have you ever felt alone with nobody there to help you? Have you ever felt the pressure to preform or face getting beat or threatened to be killed? This is a life that people all around the world have to face because of human trafficking. Different types of human cruelty include parental and spousal abuse, genocide, racial discrimination, and bullying. These are all techniques of mistreatment that stand out in one’s mind. However, there is one type of mistreatment that people may forget is human trafficking. Human trafficking is a horrible association where victims are controlled and abused by others. This type of growing business of trafficking has become a difficulty that concerns practically each country in the world. Some countries are making changes though it has seen small to no achievement. The craving for people to kidnap innocent people and put them in exertion for their own revenue needs to be put to end. Human trafficking is problematic because of the manner it destroys innocent people and the demand for such trafficking to be a force it produces a huge problem that needs to become a top priority for governments around the world. Trafficking innocent people is a criminal industry that revenues from enslaving people for sexual servitude and forced labor. There is absence of resources towards this matter that makes defined statistics almost difficult to gather. Human trafficking has a massive absence of awareness. Without funding for human trafficking makes working towards a solution very difficult. Without correct funds to place an end towards human trafficking. This demonstrate that there are many methods to get into the trafficking business and that people should be conscious that there are individuals out there that will take a harmless person.

Human Trafficking and Slavery universally happens in the world when individuals are placed or maintained in and exploitive situation for economic gain. Women, men and children are trafficked for a range of different purposes; forced and exploitative labour in factories, farms and private households, sexual exploitation, and forced marriage. Trafficking can happen to all people if the circumstances are right.

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.

Both Human Trafficking and Violence against Women can be caused by a number of things, yet let’s look specifically at the causes in the United States. Human trafficking is lucrative business, earning “$32 billion in 2005”, is fueled by the kidnapping of women and children before being coerced in to the sex trade and forced labor (Fiengold,2005). While human trafficking is an equal opportunity crime unlike gender-based violence, the root causes can be divided into three different parts including economic, social, and politics based on area in which the individual may be lacking or has had a void. Economicaly, “traffickers often deceive their victims” by luring them under false pretenses of vast and abundant economic opportunity, creating new “routes of trafficking from less developed countries to developed” ones like the United States (Clawson,Dutch,Soloman,Grace,

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 modern-day slavery and involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act (Homeland).

Human trafficking exists in several nations all around us. No nation, including the United States is exempt from human trafficking. There may be factors that create unique anti-trafficking issues and obstacles for each nation, but the characteristics are all the same or very similar worldwide. These characteristics are how the trafficking is conducted, how the victims are kidnapped, the percentage of victims, the gender of the victims, and the percentage of each gender in different trafficking situations. The situations include children, adults, male, and female victims. The situations the victims fall into are pornography, forced labor, sex slaves, prostitution, child sex tourism, and many more. These are the issues and key points made by the authors to persuade the reader to agree with their position.

Those who sadly become part of globalization or capitalism for women are beaten and force into organization that seen them as pawns in game that will drugged them to alter their perception of reality. They would even force pregnant mothers into having births and then taking their children away as collateral damage in order to make them obey their rules or laws. Policemen will even turn a blind eye because they have mutual ties with the brothels owners and it is not that they do not believe the victim or female story but it is far more common in countries where women are more sexually conservative. Prior examples are Iran, Pakistan, and India. Human trafficking is a disease that cannot be describe in one article or video but throughout history, it is a term that challenges the foundations of compassion and

This exists as a global problem because no county is protected; human trafficking numbers has grown rapidly over the years, in relation to the escalating international sex trade. This type of practice forces an individual to engage in sex acts or labor against their will through coercive threats, intimidation, the elimination of any legal documents and violence under enslaved conditions. (“Global”) Women are often trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual services, increasing their vulnerability to transmittable HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases, and brutality. They are held against their will in remote environments, these women have few avenues for assistance while they suffer vast physical and emotional abuse at the hands of their abductors. (“Global”)

Sex -trafficking has not dissipated over time; it is a growing, adaptive market that is prevalent across the world. We are not talking about an industry that sells depleting commodities. Sex trafficking is a giant market that profits on human slavery. It is paramount that this issue be moved nearer to the forefront of global consciousness, in light of violations of basic human rights and losses of autonomy.

More specifically then human trafficking, there is child trafficking. Child trafficking is today’s version of slavery that involves transferring a child for the purpose of abuse or illegal activities. According to the U.S. Department of State, “Child/Human Trafficking is one of the fastest growing crimes in the world and is the world’s second largest criminal enterprise, after drugs. Child trafficking happens in every single country, including the United States. When people think of trafficking of people, most think of women, but children are also being sold as slaves all across the world. Children who are most likely to become victims are those who come from low income homes, have limited access to education and are

The trafficking of women and girls for the purpose of prostitution is big business. It has been and still is one of the biggest industries worldwide. These unfortunate women and girls do not lead normal lives, but rather they are bought and sold as commodities. They also usually have no control over their lives and live in conditions of extreme poverty and abuse. Trafficking, debt bondage, forced labor, and other abuse is suffered by women all over the world and it is a violation of human rights. The problem is one of international proportion. United States feminists as well as many nongovernmental organizations acknowledge that this is a huge problem that needs to be tackled with greater proportions. We

Human Trafficking has become the modern day slavery; endangering millions if innocent humans. What is human trafficking? Well human trafficking or sex trafficking is when someone is illegally moving people from one country to another; it’s typically known for forced labor or forced sexual exploitation. Many victims are tricked into thinking that they are getting a better job offer, better living environment or even tricked into thinking they will be moved safely to a better country. This illegal industry is making a fortune, over $32 billion yearly, and is spreading all over the world. Now many people aren’t aware of the major threat and that is because people aren’t aware of what’s going on. For example, many of the students in my English class were unaware of what human trafficking was. During the class we had the opportunity to read Sold written by Patricia McCormick, and it opened up all of our eyes. It gave us the perspective of what the slaves had to deal with. With the book and the recent movies, like Taken, have opened up the eyes of society and see how dangerous and common human trafficking is.