Overview
The UN Trafficking Protocol defines human trafficking as the “recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving and receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person for the purpose of exploitation” (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2004).
Several statistics on slavery reveal that:
There is an estimated 29.8 million living in slavery today;
The income from slavery annually is about $ 32 billion globally;
About 78% of the victims of human trafficking are taken for labor while 22% of the victims become sex slaves;
There are about 60,000 victims of slavery in the United States today;
India has the highest number of slaves at 14 million.
The slavery hotspots today are: Mauritania, Haiti, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Moldovia, Benin, Cote d’ Ivore, Gambia and Gabon (The Borgen Project, 2014).
Previous research has revealed that the two main causes of human trafficking today are poverty and civil unrest. Individuals who are poor or who live below the poverty line have been shown to be the sources for victims of human trafficking. These victims who seek a better quality of life agree to join these traffickers just because they are promised greater income. These individuals, in their desire to earn more, agree to the terms of the traffickers, or are blinded by their promises (Wright, 2015). In the case of civil unrest, those residents of an area or a country where there is civil unrest also become so desperate to get out of their country such that they instantly agree to take the offers of these predators and become victims of human trafficking (Hepburn and Simon, 2013). The main thesis of this short paper is that if poverty and civil unrest are the main antecedents and causes of human trafficking, then the solution to this issue is to address poverty and to immediately resolve civil unrest around the world. Only when these two conditions are eradicated will there be a decline in human trafficking activity.
Discussion
Ending the poverty of those who have been enslaved is crucial to securing their freedom and to ending human trafficking. Parents sell their own children who can be utilized for slave labor because they have other younger mouths to feed; and they can barely take care of their own children. Thus a child who can earn money is a big deal for these parents, and they themselves will have less mouths to feed. For a parent who hardly can feed his family, he will then agree to send his child off to human traffickers with the smallest promise of a meager income. Thus if poverty is ended, families will no longer become desperate and sell their children to the human traffickers. The first step is to create awareness on the part of the families on how these trafficking syndicates prey on them and operate in general. Thereafter, families must be given the necessary economic opportunities. If they need to be trained in order to gain new skills or to become better at what they do, then local governments must step in and do their share. After the families have been made aware of the issue and have received training in order to gain additional skills, there must job creation on the part of the local government.
In the case of Somaly Mam, a victim of sex slavery from Cambodia who is striving to put an end to this in her home country of Cambodia, a huge part of her work is to empower women and girls and to give them solutions such that they are able to have alternatives in their lives, such that they do not give in to the traffickers in their midst. Among the solutions are education, skills training and development and the creation of social enterprise through partnerships with the private sector. Mam helped create the Somaly Mam Beauty Salon, which is the model for a business venture that was developed with the help of the Estee Lauder Company that aimed to help other victims of human trafficking and to help also other girls and women who are at risk of becoming victims. Courses in beauty training and basic business management are included in the business model mentioned. There is also psychological and spiritual training such that the women are able to remove the stigma of being a victim of human trafficking. Mam hopes that with the progression of the project, more and more girls and women will become aware of the negative effects of human trafficking and will resist opportunities for victimization (Skoll World Forum, 2013).
Another cause of trafficking is civil unrest. In places where civil war is going on, the people become so desperate. Their dire straits lead them to agree to the requests of these traffickers, as they desire to escape their current situation. They do not bother to ask about the “jobs” that are offered to them, nor do they investigate the background and credentials of those who offer them these “jobs”. By way of suggestion in order to come up with a solution to end human trafficking due to civil unrest, first of all, solutions to civil unrest must be arrived at. Any potential for civil unrest should already be brought to the attention of the parties involved such that they can negotiate and end the conflict before it blows up into violent conflict. Also, education can contribute to raising awareness about the evils of civil conflict, such that the importance of bringing all the issues to the negotiating table must be stressed.
Conclusion
Clearly, the end of human trafficking can be brought about by an orderly civil society. This in turn can evolve if and only if the leadership of that society values each and every human life, and believes in investing in education to raise awareness about the ills of poverty, civil unrest and other problems in society. Poverty alleviation should always be a priority in the platform of any leader, and along with poverty alleviation is always education. Jobs must be created in the economy, and the populace must be well-educated and allowed to develop the skills so that they can assume positions in the jobs that are available in the labor market. Only when individuals have a decent source of living or income, and when they are trained to respond by negotiating and listening to others, then the human traffickers will certainly have difficulty recruiting in a certain society. If women and girls are educated and not treated as second class citizens in society, and are aware of their human rights, then they will not be tempted to give in to the offers made by these traffickers. Education, job creation and training for a more equitable society will help put an end to human trafficking.
References
Hepburn, S. and Simon, R. (2013). Human Trafficking Around the World: Hidden in Plain Sight. NY: Columbia University Press.
Skoll World Forum. 2013. How to End Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking. Retrieved from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/skollworldforum/2013/11/15/how-to-end-modern-slavery-and-human-trafficking/#56d766c36d59
The Borgen Project. 2014. 10 Statistics on Slavery Today. Retrieved from: http://borgenproject.org/10-statistics-on-slavery-today/
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. 2004. United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocols Thereto. Retrieved from: http://www.unodc.org/documents/treaties/UNTOC/Publications/TOC%20Convention/TOCebook-e.pdf
