Introduction
Human trafficking is one of the worst atrocities which can be committed against humanity. This atrocity can be traced back to the 17th century when slave trade began due to the large need for human labor in the American plantations. This led to great immigration which was mostly in form of human trafficking (Laura, 2008).
In the contemporary society, human trafficking involves mainly trade in human beings. The process is so rampant to a point that no country in this world can claim to be free from human trafficking either as the source of the people being trafficked, destination country where they are to work or as a transit country where they are to stay for some time before being transported again to the destination country (Laura, 2008).
Trafficking accounts for more than 60% of the total international trade that earns most of countries some cash. The traffickers use various means to get hold of the captives. The most common methods used include: abduction¸ kidnapping, use of power or authority and direct or indirect control over some vulnerable people by providing cash to have other people lure them into simple schemes and then transport them to other places where they are sold (Laura, 2008).
After sale, the victims are taken to various locations for tasks. One of the most evident one which has been witnessed and even openly castigated is prostitution. A number of movies have been produced to castigate this since the victims do not have any right to object any advance or report any abuse. Another reason why people are sold is forced labor. Many people believe that the time when forced labor existed is long gone but to be clear, it is still very much present. A good example is the reported cases of people who were lured into travelling to Saudi Arabia to work but all they got was mistreatment (Johnson, 2010).
Having introduced the concept of human trafficking in the contemporary world, this paper focuses on the means of capturing, trafficking and most important, young girls and ladies who are then sent into prostitution where they are sold. This is because there are very many cases pending in courts and others even unreported in which women are trafficked and forced into prostitution. This is all over the world but the worst hit is the European continent, the American continent and the Asian continent (Johnson, 2010).
In the 21st century, the most common form of human trafficking is mostly for sex or prostitution. Cases of forced labor have reduced apart from a few cases in Middle East but this also does not guarantee that the slave is forced into labor. The paper analyzes the whole scenario of trafficking in the 21st century starting from the traffickers, obtaining of slaves, problems faced by the slaves and some case studies. In the conclusion part, the paper analyzes some of the reasons making it hard to quit prostitution and other related behaviors (Marisa, 2006).
It is estimated that this illegal business results in trafficking of between 600000 and 800000 people across the international boarders in the world. This is attributed to about $2.4 billion which is used by the traffickers to help in the business. This money is mostly used by the traffickers to get more and more slaves who they then force into slavery or sexual work (Gordon, 2008).
Of all the captured people, about 80% are women among who 60% are teen girls. The other percentage of ladies is of ladies still in their early twenties and thirties who in most cases are obtained by threats on them, their families or are even physically abused to accept getting into the business. Another means usually employed is coercion that they are to get some well paying jobs but only to be deceived and sold into sex slavery (Gordon, 2008).
These sex slavery cartels are ran by organized gangs which work closely with some government officials. The money generated in the illegal business is used to run the organized crime gangs and also to buy the government security personnel so that the gangs can operate in a secure zone.
Once the gang captures the people it wants to induce or sell into prostitution, transportation is mainly by use of containers. In the container, the victims are raped even by gang members and left for the dead with nobody to care for them medically. Some are threatened with death while others are actually murdered. In Thailand, the most common form of trafficking is based on coercion that they (victims) are to have well paying jobs only for the girls to have very many debts forcing them to turn into prostitution. This is one of the reasons why teen prostitution in Thailand is at such high levels.
Upon reception at the market or destination, these ladies are introduced into prostitution mostly by the gang members in hotels of high profile in different parts of the destination countries. These ladies are further introduced into drug use so that the gang can have a lot of control on the girls and make them even more dependent on the gang for the drugs.
A number of frameworks have been developed of late in an attempt to explain the concept of human trafficking. In the first approach, radical feminist, the approach argues that prostitution is the root cause of human trafficking, in the approach, the only innocent person is the prostitute and everything done is against the will of the lady. However, this framework suffers from a main blow that prostitution does not always reflect human trafficking. In the second framework, women are portrayed to be responsible for their own well being. It argues that women have a number of alternatives instead of turning to prostitution as the only alternative mode of generating money. This approach claims that one should first analyze prostitution and then the connection between prostitution and trafficking. The approach further argues that not all prostitutes in external countries are trafficked there. In fact, some approach international dealers and pay them to be transported to the international destination. This approach finds no problem with prostitution but the context of the prostitution. However, this approach has a major weakness in the fact that with these conditions, it is very hard to draw a line between forced sex and willing full sex (Ronald, 2007).
In another framework which appears to have some root, it states that all women in prostitution are trafficked. This approach gives the women a notion that the source of trafficking is prostitution. For this reason, this approach suggests dealing with the problem of prostitution before embarking on trafficking. This is because if prostitution is abolished, then there would be no need to traffic people.
In the above frameworks, the context of discussion is only on international trafficking. According to a certain US internal source, more than 700000 girls are enslaved to work as sex workers in classic hotels. These girls are fetched from within Cambodia and other countries from within their population. This means that internal trafficking is also very high though people tend to assume that it does not exist.
For clear understanding of how internal trafficking occurs and some of the means used by the gangs to keep the prostitutes attached to their risky job, the paper now turns to some articles about Cambodia in the US and for international trafficking; the focus is on Thailand (Ronald, 2007).
Internal trafficking in Cambodia
Since the early 21st century, US has been on the front line in fighting human trafficking but in the recent, Cambodia has turned out to be one of the leading states in human trafficking. This atrocity is done by organized gang crimes which buy and sell young girls for prostitution in high profile hotels in Cambodian cities (Nicholas, 2004).
In a series of articles about this atrocity, journalist Nicholas explains how it all appears to occur. The first thing that the journalist explains is the approximate figures of girls who are introduced into teen prostitution. To have cheap girls for this task, the gangs target poor girls from the villages where girl child education is not well developed. Parents to such girls are promised some amounts of money in return if they sell the girls to the brothels to work for the gang. Since girls are not valued as much, they are easily sold into sex slavery. Also, the girls are promised a good life where their monetary needs will be fully met.
These girls are then transported into their brothels where they are given tags and cubicles where they are introduced drug use. With the effect of the drugs, these girls cease to use their judgment fairly hence they engage in reckless sexual behaviors. Due to dire need of the drugs caused by addiction, these girls do anything for money. The addiction and need for money enable the gangs to use the girls to make money by selling them as sex workers. Once they feel that a girl is used up, they sell her to another person (Nicholas, 2004).
According to the article, the gangs have completely bought the police so that they can work without any disruption from the government. This is exhibited by the way a senior police officer (lady) was even suspended for raiding one brothel and rescuing the girls from being used as prostitutes. Once the girls were rescued and taken to a certain center for some psychotherapy and induction back to normal life, the gangs went to the government and reported the case. They were given even military uniform and vehicles to go and raid the place where the girls had been taken and return the girls back to their job as prostitutes. This was accomplished and even the shocking part is the use of military and police equipment and the disciplinary action taken against the lady officer who had rescued the girls. This is clear evidence that the police and government are greatly involved in human trafficking and the revenue generated is also included in a way used by the government (Nicholas, 2004).
After the raid, something happened that exhibited different feelings on prostitutes towards their work. Some girls were ready to shun this behavior and be back to their normal lives. Some girls were very much in need of money that they wanted to remain in the business. This supports one of the approaches prior mentioned that some prostitutes are willing to be in prostitution while others are there due to lack of alternatives. After the raid, the gangs organized the girls to demonstrate against the American government claiming that US should not sabotage Cambodian matters. These girls appeared frustrated and disillusioned but didn’t have any alternative (Nicholas, 2004).
In pursuit of what makes the girls stick to this risky business, the journalist bought two girls, Neth and mom and set them free and returned them to their respective homes. They were received by their families where the parents of Neth confessed to have sold her to the brothels to earn a living. The girls were given each some amount start their own kiosks as a means of earning livelihood. Neth started her kiosk but soon it collapsed due to the excessive reliance on it by all her family members. She was not ready to go back to the brothels thus the reporter took her to train as a hairdresser where until the article was written, she was one of the best hairdressers and remained focused. From this girl, it was evident that prostitution had impacted greatly in her life. She had lost any interest in boys and men. In beauty studies, lessons pertaining to massage were her worst since they scratched some memories of how she was treated while in prostitution (Nicholas, 2004).
Tracing mom on how she proceeded after her freedom was returned to her, she fell back to the brothels. She accepted to hate the job but had nothing else to do. She appeared resigned and ready to do anything for money. Her debts made her drift back to the business. Once they were with the reporter, she explained how the gangs used drugs to control the girls and keep them under control. In another article by the same author, sale of girls is analyzed where the gang members taken them as items for sale. Though this is dehumanizing, the gang does this without any remorse (Nicholas, 2004).
Human trafficking in Thailand
This country appears to be the best hub for this underground business for a number of reasons. The main reason appears to be based on the administration and citizenship within the country. To begin with, the administration of the country is one of the poorest in the region. This makes it possible for gangs to capture and sell vulnerable people into sex slavery of unpaid servitude. The other factor is the high level of illiteracy that appears to exist in the region. This is supported by the fact that many girls in the north of the country are not even registered as citizens making the country to have very high sources of vulnerable people to slavery and human trafficking (Asia Watch Committee (U.S.), 1993).
This country acts mainly as a destination to international human trafficking cartels. The main business is commercial sex working for the victims. The process of international trafficking is more formally organized where some law enforcement agencies are fully integrated for security of the traffickers. The main source of international victims are the neighboring countries since the government of Thailand is much reluctant and in a way ignorant to registration of people. The boarders of the country are too porous to have any measures to control international human trafficking. After the actual trafficking is over, the victims are forced into commercial sex working or unpaid servitude (Amir, 2006).
In conclusion, some ideas about the contemporary form of human slavery and trafficking are very much evident. Unlike in the earlier centuries where slaves were mostly killed by the type of job they were given, the contemporary slaves are killed by AIDs in their mid 20s. In the past, the main form of keeping the slaves in their work was overworking them but in the contemporary world, debts which are always hiked are used to keep the girls trapped in prostitution. In the recent past, ladies in prostitution are mostly sent into it by poverty (Janie, 2006). They are mostly sold by their relatives to brothels with few being captured or coerced into it. Closely related to this is the way gangs carrying out the business are organized. It appears that the gangs are organized and include some government officials to keep safe. In order to fully eradicate human trafficking, a lot of things need to be put in place. One of the main things to tackle is poverty since it is the main cause of prostitution which then contributes by over 90% towards human trafficking (UN office of crime and drugs, 2012).
References
Gordon, M. 2008. Data and Research on Human Trafficking: Bibliography of Research-Based Literature, Georgetown University
Amir, D. 2006 Trafficking and the Global Sex Industry, Lexington Books
Asia Watch Committee (U.S.), 1993 A Modern Form of Slavery: Trafficking of Burmese Women and Girls into Brothels in Thailand, Women's Rights Project (Human Rights Watch),
UN office of crime and drugs, 2012, Thai and Cambodia police work on more effective anti-human trafficking co-operation, retrieved from http://www.unodc.org/southeastasiaandpacific/en/2013/04/human-trafficking/story.html
Nicholas D. 2004. Girls for Sale, articles in New York Times, 2004
Ronald. W. 2007. The social construction of sex trafficking: ideology and institutionalization of a moral crusade. Politics & Society 35.3
Laura, A. 2008 Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labor Markets and the Rescue Industry, London and New York: Zed Books.
Janie C. 2006. Beyond a snapshot: Preventing human trafficking in the global economy. Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 13.1
Johnson T, 2010. Sex trafficking, human rights, and social justice, Rutledge publishers
Marisa S. 2006. Modern-Day Slavery and Cultural Bias: Proposals for Reforming the US Visa System for Victims of International Human Trafficking. Princeton publishers
