Human trafficking is an issue, which comes from ancient times, when Egyptians made their slaves built famous pyramids and Romans exploited Greeks in order to fill the gap in their own education. Times changed and every human is born free and able to choose his own path. However, modern slavery though illegal, takes its place and poses a great problem of the modern society. So personally for me this acute issue is worth being discussed and given attention to.
According to the definition taken from the official website of the Department of Homeland security human trafficking is viewed as ‘a modern day slavery and involves the use of force, fraud and other forms of coercion to exploit human beings for some type of labour or commercial sex purpose’ (Homeland security). Another source defines trafficking as something that ‘occurs when one person completely controls another person, using violence or the threat of violence to maintain that control exploits them economically and they cannot walk away’ (not for sale). Professor Cullen Du-Pont indicates that human trafficking has reached the world-wide scale and has spread throughout every continent except for Antarctica. Some countries serve as transit and some are destinations (Cullen Du-Pont).
Thus, the process of human trafficking has three main constituencies: the act which involves transportation, harboring and recruitment of persons, the means, or in other words how the act is fulfilled by means of abuse, fraud, deception abduction or coercion; and the last stage is the purpose of the act mainly for sex or labour exploitation (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime).
The first question to answer is what social categories are at risk of being smuggled and put into slavery? There is one general tendency: almost all sold and sent abroad people are from either developing countries or from poor districts. A statistics revealed on the official anti-slavery website shows that it depends on the purposes of trafficking. 98% of women and girls are likely to suffer from sexual exploitation, while labour exploitation like domestic or agricultural work, processing and packing influences men and women at almost equal terms: 44% against 56% (anti-slavery website). What is more drastic, not only adults are at risk but also small children and in the worst cases even babies. Alexis Aronovitz makes an example describing small boys put into slavery as camel jockeys, baby infants who are sold to cover parents’ debts or children captured for military service. She says that ‘people are trafficked for greed to satisfy their demands for cheap goods and services and to quench the demand for prostitution’ (Aronovitz). The United Nation’s statistics shows that more than four million people are trafficked every year around the world.
The next important point to consider is how people fall into a snare and are bound to end their days in misery? As studies expose the vast majority of human trafficking victims are migrants, who have left their countries in search for a better job. Poverty and discrimination in their motherlands make them escape hoping for a better prospective and a possible ability to support their families financially. So-called ‘recruitment agencies’ offer well-paid jobs abroad but the reality turns out to be harsh as employees get worse conditions, unfulfilled promises and laughable salaries.
There are various mechanisms and detailed schemes of how to coerce deceived people. The most widespread means is taking migrants’ passports away on arrival. An absence of a document which identifies a person’s identity makes it impossible for them to stay legally in the country and to turn to authorities for assistance. Part of victims even does not try to escape as having borrowed considerable amount of money from their families’ and friends they realize the necessity to give this money back, and therefore they have to stay in the slavery position. What is more, victims are isolated from the society the moment they are under traffickers’ oversight, unable to make a step aside because of being intimidated or even tortured (Kara).
Many stories about those who survived can be heard, telling about dreadful conditions while transiting from one place to another, deaths from hunger and starvation and parents’ sincere wish to give their children education sending them abroad with a man who promised to take care of their kids (Hart).
Thus, people become the victims of human trafficking mainly because of being ignorant about the ways of luring people with tempting job offers and promising opportunities.
The last thing to consider is, how do the authorities and the whole global community fight with trafficking and is there anything to be done in order to prevent illegal actions?
In 2003 the United Nations adopted ‘the Protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children’. More than that, a number of other documents were enacted in several countries, making them an effective tool for fighting with trafficking. The researchers consider laws an essential part of the process of addressing the issue. However, they are reasonably not enough. It is in government’s powers make the population conscious about the problem by establishing special programs which are to educate and provide economic support to the most vulnerable social groups (Cullen Du-Pont).
Despite the establishment of laws and acts and organizations to execute them, such measures do not seem to be quite effective, considering the scale of the problem. Lack of financial provision of the agencies leaves them with limited opportunities in solving the problem. Besides, Maria Grazia Giammarinaro, a special representative and coordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings pointed out that ‘too often, trafficking cases, especially labour exploitation are not qualified as such and therefore criminal networks are not disrupted’. She underlines the necessity of being proactive in bringing most remarkable cases in court, thus, raising social consciousness and enacting the authorities for introducing new preventive measures (Global initiative to fight human trafficking). Furthermore, it is in everybody’s power to make his contribution by examining our need for low-cost products and insatiable necessity in using cheap services. Mass media is also a powerful tool to bring home to people the stories of those who survived, thus raising people’s awareness in this question.
Taking everything mentioned into account, the issue of human trafficking is a burning one that touched upon different social groups, but in spite of all efforts the amount of victims is not lessening and the modern-day enslavement is illegally flourishing throughout the world. The society has faced a serious threat which must be eliminated. As Jessica Neuwirth, an executive director of ‘Equality Now’ noted ‘the candles are lit to end human trafficking – and we need to spread fire for its abolition’.
Works cited:
Anti-slavery. ‘What is Trafficking in People?’. 03 November 2013
<http://www.antislavery.org/english/slavery_today/trafficking.aspx>
Aronovitz, A. Alexis. ‘Human Trafficking, Human Misery: The Global Trade in Human
Beings’. Greenwood publishing group, 2009. Print
Cullen Du-Pont, Kathryn. ‘Human Trafficking’. Infobase Publishing, 2009. Print
Global Initiative to fight human trafficking. ‘Special Representative calls for business
community to step up efforts to eliminate human trafficking’. October 2013. 03 November 2013 <http://www.ungift.org/knowledgehub/en/stories/October2013/osce-special-representative-urges-prosecutors-judges-to-fully-apply-laws-protect-human-trafficking-victims.html>
Hart, Joyce. ‘Human Trafficking’. The Rosen publishing group, 2009.
Kara, Siddharth. ‘Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery’. Columbia
Not for sale. ‘Slavery’. 03 November 2013.
<http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/about/slavery/>
Official website of the Department of Homeland Security. ‘Combating Human Trafficking’.
03 November 2013. <https://www.dhs.gov/topic/human-trafficking>
Polaris Project. ‘Human Trafficking’. 03 November 2013.
<http://www.polarisproject.org/human-trafficking/overview>
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. ‘Human Trafficking’. 03 November 2013
<http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/what-is-human-trafficking.html>
Representative calls for business
