Human Trafficking: Solutions
Samatha Shepperd
EN3220 Written Analysis
Dr. Lovett
August 28th, 2014
Human Trafficking: Solutions Human Trafficking is a transnational problem. All countries are affected by human trafficking; some countries are where the humans are taken from while other countries are where the humans are taken to for forced labor or sex. No one has a full proof solution to human trafficking but many countries have parts of solutions to the problem. Germany and the Netherlands have legalized prostitution to help lower the sex trafficking numbers in their countries. While in the United States, in Nevada, prostitution has been legal since 1971. In 2013, the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws wrote
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The drug money confiscated by the border patrol officers would also go back into the closed border systems. The third solution would be to place a tracking microchip in the trafficking offenders when they get released from prison. Just like sex offenders have to register and be watched constantly, the offender would be tracked to ensure they stay away from places known for holding the victims of human trafficking. They can also be watched to lead the police to the larger trafficking ring leaders. The offender will be required to sign a waiver stating that he understands the conditions of release include the micro chipping. Human trafficking is an issue that has many different parts to it and has many different solutions to each part. The biggest solution to human trafficking is to get society to care about something other than themselves again. Once we as a society care about other human beings once more the human trafficking epidemic will start to lower.
Resources:
Giang, V. (2011). Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Prostitution In Nevada. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.businessinsider.com/prostitution-legal-nevada-prostitutes-brothels-sex-2011-12?op=1. [Last Accessed August 20th, 2014].
National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (2013). Uniform Act on Prevention of and Remedies for Human Trafficking. [ONLINE] Available at:
You may be asking yourself, what is the real problem before the solution is stated? Sex trafficking is the selling of children and adults for money with them performing prostitution, pornography and sexual performance in return for drugs, shelter, food, money, or clothes. According to Safe Ventures in 2016, every 3 minutes a minor is sexual abused, 10-15 minors sold as sex slaves a day, 5.4 million reports of child exploitation in the US alone. According to the ILO it estimates human trafficking generates $150.2 billion in illegal profits every single year. What most people fail to notice is that sex trafficking is business that is strictly just profit which makes it that much more dangerous of an issue because there is no supply to buy. Traffickers use several tactics to lure their victims with using fear, intimidation, violence, and threats to make their slaves follow their commands. Sex trafficking is pure evil and we need to do something about so it does not happen to those who are possible victims.
Many organizations have formed to establish several resolutions for combating the issue of human trafficking , both locally and nationally. I chose to investigate two existing social awareness campaigns located in Ohio. The reasons I decided to explore these two organizations is because of the obvious, that my classmates and I are in the state of Ohio but overall, it is due to the fact that this state rank's number five in the nation for human trafficking. There are explanations behind the ranking of Ohio for this issue. The first explanation is due to the inner city centers and country counties, which included a big immigrant population. The second explanation is due to five main highways located throughout Ohio. These highways make it convenient for human traffickers (Ohio State Bar Association, 2014).
Each year about 17,500 individuals are brought into the United States and become victims of human trafficking. Every country has this problem and it has become the 3rd largest illegal industry worldwide.
Human trafficking brings in billions of dollars into the U.S and all around the world. “The prime motive for such outrageous abuse is simple: money. In this $12 billion global business just one woman trafficked into the industrialized world can net her captors an average $67,000 a year” (Baird 2007). The laws around human trafficking are not strict and vary depending on what country it is happening in. Human trafficking is not something that is strictly foreign, it is happening right in front of our faces, in our neighborhoods, and all around us.
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.
First and foremost, the current system the Unites States has fighting human trafficking is not succeeding. According to Patrick Belser’s Forced Labor Statistics, at any given time there are 12.3 million victims of forced labor or sexual exploitation worldwide (4). If this system is not revised modern day slavery will continue to blossom nationally. Human traffickers capture victims with the intent of selling them into forced labor, sexual exploitation or a mixture of both. Although not all slaves are in bondage for the same reasons, they all live under similar conditions. When tricking victims into capture, human traffickers promise them a better life with vast opportunity (U.S. Department of State 11). This is never the case. On the contrary of the victims’ beliefs, the victims proceed to live in terrible conditions being forced to do things against their will. They are often isolated and live with very restricted access to food, clothes, medical care, and sleep. These people are dehumanized. Slaves used for labor often get ill, injured, and sometimes even die from the intense circumstances they are living. Furthermore, slaves being sexually exploited often get sexually transmitted diseases. The victims also have very slim chances of escaping due to being locked into places and being guarded by multiple people with weapons (U.S. Department of State 17). By creating more laws against human
Human trafficking has become one of many issues within the borders of the United States as well as other countries. It seems that quite a few people have come to terms with trafficking and other forms of prostitution to be socially acceptable within and outside the realms of their own country. Even though a lot of these individuals see the injustice when it comes to sex trafficking, there are policies and values that tend to take precedence over the morality of the issue. With over hundreds of thousands of men, women, and even young children being purchased and sold into slavery and hard labor without a care in the world for them. It becomes quite clear after seeing this that this topic needs to seriously be addressed and closely examined.
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”)
According to the latest 2016 TIP report human trafficking is an extremely profitable $150 billion-dollar global industry that affects not only the economic structure of the modern world it also inhibits the basic human rights of individuals worldwide. An industry of that size is hard to conceptualize, so consider a comparison with one of the top ten Fortune 500’s most profitable global corporations Apple. As reported by USA Today, Apple’s reported earning only $53.4 billion that would only represent approximately a third of the profit from the human trafficking industry. Money from human trafficking flows to third parties like businesses, corporations, and banks who receive financial benefit and may serve the sole purpose of being a funding source to facilitate the human trafficking. Given the large profit available from human trafficking combating it can only be effective by attacking the tremendous funds perpetuating it.
The complex and precarious nature of identifying and finding human trafficking victims’ appeals greatly to traffickers who determine the consequences associated with this crime. Clearly, these traffickers aren’t bothered since the risk of apprehension is low thus human trafficking will continue to thrive unless if the authorities become more vigilant. It is not only crucial to diminish the vulnerability of potential victims but also to increase caution about possible offenders. It is also necessary for everyone and not only among the law enforcement to increase awareness and help identify potential offenders so as to increase the risk of apprehension. Only then will the risk outweigh the benefits of selling and trading humans, and the desire
The illegal trade and exploitation of human beings for forced labor, prostitution and reproductive favors is termed human trafficking. Human trafficking is a transnational phenomenon and is second only to the international drug trade in relation to organized crime. Human trafficking is a growing evil that is destroying communities, expanding gang activity and robbing the innocence of the world's youth. This global issue affects many lives and involves people of all ages. Human trafficking is also known as modern day slavery and originates in many countries across the globe. As stated by Sanchez and Stark (2014), “It is estimated that 14,500 to 17,500 individuals are trafficked in the United States each year; globally, this crime is a $12 billion industry”. Some of the worst offenders of this horrendous global problem are China, Russia and Uzbekistan joined by India and Pakistan. Even though slavery was abolished in the mid 1860’s, human trafficking is still extremely prevalent in today’s society. According to Byrne, Parsh and Ghilain, “Human trafficking is defined as the act of recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining a person for compelled labor or commercial sex acts through the use of fraud, force, or coercion” (2017). The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) was enacted in 2000 where it brought new benefits, services, and criminal penalties for those
Why me? How did this happen? It was my fault! They said I would be making money. They would bring my whole family. These are all the responses you here from human trafficking victims. It has been estimated that between fourteen and seventeen thousand woman and children are forced into human and sex trafficking yearly (WTLC, 2015). Human trafficking was said to date back to the origin of the nineteenth century (Derks. 2000).
The U.S government address’s human trafficking as a global issue, but when it comes to fixing the problem hardly nothing is done and we seem to fail. We can worry about education, marriage equality,
In recent times, the number of human trafficking cases has skyrocketed through the roof. So, what exactly is human trafficking? Human trafficking is defined as a criminal activity, in which people are recruited, harboured, transported, bought or kidnapped for the purposes of exploitation. These exploitations include forced labour, child soldiery, sexual slavery, forced marriages and so on. Statistics show that the main victims of human trafficking consist of women and young girls while children come in a close third (Appendix A). Over the years, human trafficking has become rampant worldwide as the demand for human labour and sex slaves drastically multiplies due to the Internet.
In the international effort to prosecute human trafficking, several guidelines and definitions of human trafficking have been provided: