Human trafficking is one of the most pressing issues of our time. The victims of contemporary forms of slavery around the world are millions of people every year. Among all the types of human rights violations that draw the attention of the international community, human trafficking and illegal trade of human organs are undoubtedly one of the most brutal. Trafficking can occur across borders and within the same country.
No one knows exactly how many slaves there are in the world now, because they are kept hidden and are not counted in censuses. However, experts estimate there approximately 27 million people enslaved today out of total world population 7 billion. Furthermore, some estimates are as high as 60 million (Farrell).
In addition to economic reasons, that force people seeking for a job abroad or in different regions of the country, important factors that contribute to trafficking are the lack of reliable information on employment opportunities and lack of knowledge of their rights. Europe experienced a particularly serious problem in this respect, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and a sharp drop in living standards in countries that have it included. Therefore, fully responsible informing the public about this serious problem as one of the most dangerous crimes against the person becomes of the greatest importance. A key role in this process is played by the media. While speaking about the organization of human trafficking, we should firstly note that almost every country has the legal rules in criminal law, under which criminal responsibility for human trafficking occurs.
It was firstly stated about human trafficking as a global problem at the beginning of the twentieth century. Then there was a need of development of systems approaches to struggle this phenomenon. A number of important international instruments to struggle the slave trade were decided in the first half of the twentieth century. The problem of human trafficking must first be seen as something threatening national security because at the fact it jeopardizes the achievement of all democratic societies.
The main and primary cause of the slave trade is uneven socio-economic development in individual countries and regions. High unemployment and considerable social and economic problems are the reason that the majority of these countries are potential risk group for traffickers. Also there are few more reasons, such as low living standards, legal illiteracy of the population, a superficial understanding of the ease of life in Western countries, the lack of real information about the problem, sexualisation of life, internationalization of the economy and active international labour migration. At the first place among the internal factors remains a difficult economic situation.
Women are mostly affected in this situation. First of all, they suffer from discrimination in employment, domestic violence and lack of social support. This forces women to migration and thus increases the risk to get into the modern traffickers. Forms of trafficking are different. Not all women are forced into prostitution, a considerable amount expect the job, such as housewives, and believe that such employment may be legitimate. In fact, the very kind of activity can be legitimate (as opposed to prostitution, which is banned in most countries), but the conditions under which women agree, are outlawed. In some cases, women do not have their passports, what makes their contacts with the outside world almost impossible and wages are generally below the minimum prescribed level. Moreover, taxes are not paid, no health insurance is provided and working hours exceed international standards. Thus, woman trafficking is one of the most brutal forms of slavery nowadays.
If to compare human trafficking between regions we should say that unfortunately the most unique trafficking is in the United States. The US, like many developing countries is a major source country for sex trafficking victims, has sex tourism on its territory and its native born sex trafficking victims have Hobbesian lives that are “brutish and short”. The uniqueness of it is caused by the fact that American trafficking victims are younger, more often native born and more mobile (Shelley).
Unfortunately in recent years, despite the fact that we already have a definition of human trafficking, the community is barely moved on the path of separation of trafficking from prostitution, which creates not only inadequate knowledge about the problem, but also entails prevention of human trafficking and moralizing around individuals who are engaged in prostitution. It is believed that trafficking in women covers the whole phenomenon of human trafficking. This thought is created because of a large percentage of women and girls who are sold for use in prostitution.
Today, human trafficking has become the subject for much empirical research, academic debate and advocacy in diverse disciplines and fields such as criminology, politics, law, human rights, sociologies of migration, gender and public health (Lee). I am pretty much sure that the right for life, liberty and security is the inalienable right of every human. However, there a lot of violence and gross violations of those rights in the real life. Sometimes people cause such terrible sufferings for each other that is almost impossible to imagine. And no matter how difficult it is we are obliged to speak out about these disturbing phenomena to find a solution how to end them forever.
Works Cited
Farrell, Courtney. Human Trafficking. Edina, Minn.: ABDO Pub., 2011. Print.
Lee, Maggy. Human Trafficking. Cullompton, Devon, U.K.: Willan, 2013. Print.
Shelley, Louise I. Human Trafficking. Cambridge [UK]: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Print.
