Post-Communist Transition Research Paper

Over the last several years, the issue of human trafficking has been compared with the slave trade. This is because both are focused on taking someone against their will and forcing them to engage in demeaning activities. Yet, the practices of modern traffickers are different from slave traders. To fully understand the similarities and disparities requires contrasting them with one another. The combination of these factors will provide specific insights about the two. (Bales, 2010)

Critically analyze the development of human trafficking and its connections to the legitimate economic sphere. To what extent is this market a result of global structural conditions?

Trafficking in human beings is a serious crime and an unrefined violation of human rights. It is often linked to organized crime and is one of the most profitable criminal activities worldwide (Access to European Union Law, 2014). There are many different forms of human trafficking, and they progress with changing socioeconomic circumstances. It targets women and men, girls and boys in vulnerable positions (Trafficking in Human Beings, 2013). The International Labor Organization in June of 2012 covering the period 2002-2011 estimated the number of victims of forced labor globally (NPR, 2013). The estimate also included forced sexual exploitation which was, 20.9 million at a global level, with an estimated 5.5 million children being trafficked (NPR, 2013). Europe had a human trafficking matter for decades, where it began with the trading of slaves. The 1400’s marked the start of the European slave trade in Africa when the Portuguese transported people from Africa to Portugal to use them as slaves (Timeline of Human Trafficking, 2011). Later on throughout the 1600s, other countries became more involved in the European slave trade (Timeline of Human Trafficking, 2011). Recent studies have stated, more than 23,600 people were victims of human trafficking in Europe during a recent three-year period (NPR, 2013). It is important to understand what human trafficking is considered in Europe, why stricter laws need to be created, and how human trafficking can be prevented. By

Human trafficking has been entwined into the structure of governments, arms trade, drug trade, and even spreads as far as terrorism. For many years it has been a fact that the money that has been made by selling other humans to the highest bidder. It is also known that the organized crime operations generate one of the most profitable resources to the organization. These organizations use this money for theirs or other’s crime and end up in the hands of drug lords. Drug lords, in order to promote their own business give money to support terrorist groups and activities. Security after September 11, 2001 has recognized human trafficking as a national and international security risk.

According to estimates, more than 700,000 people are trafficked every year for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labour. They are transported across borders and sold into modern-day slavery. Over the past decade, trafficking in human beings has reached epidemic proportions. No country is immune. Clawson (2009) discusses how the search for

Although things seem to be changing after the Soviet Union fell apart, they stay the same when it comes to anti-Semitism. In an open letter, Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov claimed there is a Zionist conspiracy to seize power in Russia and asserted that "Zionist capital" has wrecked Russia's economy. The letter appeared to be aimed at the Russian business tycoons known as the "oligarchs," who were instrumental in reelecting President Boris Yeltsin over Zyuganov in 1996. Most of these business people are Jewish, including Boris Berezovsky, who has called for outlawing the Communist Party in Russia. Zyuganov wrote the letter in the aftermath of criticism of the member of his party, who has made numerous anti-Semitic statements. The lower

In 1949, once trafficking had become a big enough issue and the UN was ready, the “Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others” Act was passed. This gave the world its first legal document against human trafficking. It established restrictions and punishments against human trafficking; and also sparked the movement of other countries to create laws of their own (Stephenson, 2014).

The state of human trafficking has developed through the decade and there has been an increase. In the year 2000 only eight cases of human trafficking were recorded, soon after in 2008, there were thirty-seven cases reported in forty of the European countries(Sarrica 5). Of those forty countries,

Human trafficking is one of the most horrifying forms of organized crime and violation of human rights in Europe. Trafficking diminishes and violates rights, therefore inciting corruption. It also undermines international security and development and creates vast revenues for perpetrators. This global situation has led to an increase in forced labor, where the victim ‘accepts’ their situation because of the lack of choices and ways out of poverty. Human trafficking in Eastern European countries has recently attracted the attention of authorities, activists and scholars around the world, although it is a relatively stable and older issue. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, increasing globalization, accompanied by population increases,

“The human trafficking industry is estimated to generate around $150 billion annually” (Molloy). Baylee Molloy tells the reader in The Economics of Human Trafficking, how much this business makes, to show that it happens all around us whether we realize it or not. Human trafficking is not only forced sexual activity, but anything that uses force or threats to make people do something they are unwilling to do whether it be labor, fraud, or abduction. This business involves traffickers and a range of victims from men, to women and children. Since the Medieval times, people have been surrounded by several types of slavery including physical or sexual enslavement (M’Cormack). In 1904, the International Agreement for the Suppression of “White Slave

There may be historical roots that may have contributed greatly to modern forms of child trafficking. However, with little information concerning human trafficking during the Tsarist and Communist times, many political and human rights critics argue that it was the fall of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics that contributed to the volume of trafficking seen today in and outside Russian borders. Certainly, there was likely human trafficking occurring during the Tsarist and communist eras, but with little to no objective methodology reports prior to the collapse, it is challenging to assess the development of human trafficking in Russia. It is more common to locate studies, reviews, and reports concerning the failures of the communist leaders that contributed to the human rights violations during the USSR and the overall collapse of the nation, than reports of human trafficking.

Another factor that greatly influenced the influx of trafficking in Eastern Europe has been the rearrangement of the international labor market and of social inequalities including nationality, gender, race, class and citizenship that have differentially shaped this ‘reorganisation’ of the labor market . It is cofounding how essential class is as a variable in sex trafficking, subdivided into the following: poverty, urban and rural areas. In this crossroads of east and west and with the fall of Balkan territories it suddenly became easier and cheaper to move women from Eastern to Western Europe . As traffickers capitalized on porous borders and relied on political and military instability to glide across states without interruption, allow traffickers to create supply chains to satisfy the growing demands for sex workers across the Balkans and Eastern Europe.

The problem of human trafficking may never be fully solved, however the situation in Russia is dire. Russia currently is considered as a nation that does not fully comply with minimum standards to eliminate trafficking and is not making progress to do so. In order to be considered a Tier 1 nation, or one that fully complies with minimum standards for elimination of trafficking, Russia must begin to invoke changes (Trafficking, 2015, p. 47). Generally, the government must work on raising the economic status of those impoverished, as they are often the most vulnerable to human

In 2007, the U.S. state Department reported, “600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders every year,” “1 million is the number of children exploited by the global commercial sex trade every year,” and “161 countries identified as affected by human trafficking” (Polaris Project, DoSomething.org).

Human trafficking is a worldwide problem. From California to Australia, it happens. “161 countries are reported to be affected by human