ChildTrafficking

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Children Not For Sale



=//**__Introductions__ **//= //Before we talk about the problem, this might be the right time to explain what child trafficking is. Child trafficking falls into a group of human trafficking which can be defined as the collection of people that are sold or distributed for cash or other economical purpose. So to cut it short, human trafficking is the modern day slavery. (“Polaris”) Most of the time children are bought and made to work in horrible working conditions. Also, many of them are forced into a sex slave position. Child trafficking is a global crime that is the second most profitable business in the world with profits around // $12 billion. (“SCTnow”). media type="youtube" key="HJ26aU5uwRw" height="405" width="500"

= //__Proof__// =

Sexual exploitation, child labor, and child soldiers are the main reasons why people traffic children in order to make money; which has become a global problem. Child trafficking is a major crime happening all over the world. “Out of the twenty seven million people trafficked around the world, about fifty percent trafficked are children” (Bradley).



Child trafficking is a slave trade, because children are being deceived or taken away by force not by their own will. More than 1.2 million children every year are being sexually exploited (“Child Trafficking” 9 Feb.). So many innocent children are being fooled into slavery because of false advertising, promises for a better life, they have no other alternatives for themselves and their families, and most are so desperate that they will believe anything and do anything to survive (“Child Trafficking: A Thriving”). The youngest reported case for sexual exploitation was a five month old baby (“Minga”). Even babies that are very young have been taken away and used in such a horrible way. The average age of trafficked children is around the ages of 12-14 years (Bradley).



The majority of trafficked children around the world are girls. “Around the world today, girls make up around 1/3 of 250,000 child soldiers”(“Minga”). Girls have been suffering because they are targeted for sexual violence, including sexual exploitation. “Girls are especially vulnerable in war zones”, says Pamela Shifman, a UNICEF advisor on violence and sexual exploitation. Prostitution rises in conflict situations because around the world, rape is used as a weapon of war in conflicts (“Child Trafficking: A Thriving”). War is not the only reason why most girls are trafficked; some girls are trafficked to become wives of men they don’t even know. “Before the age of 18, over 60 million women aged 20-24 were married” (“Minga”). “Especially in China, in some villages 30-90 percent of marriages are the result of trafficking” (“Child Trafficking: A Thriving”). So many trafficked girls have been abused and taken advantage of. Have you ever wondered how much money child traffickers make? Annually traffickers make 7-10 billion US dollars (“Child Trafficking” 9 Feb.). Money is the source for child trafficking. Trafficked children are taken because of money. Traffickers use children to gain money; that is why traffickers make so much money. Child trafficking increases and will continue because of economic problems and poverty (Bradley). Because of the demand for money, due to the world’s economic problems and poverty, the need for children will continue to rise. The U.S. is also a big place for child trafficking. “At the end of 2000 in the U.S., 325,000 children were used in commercial sexual exploitation. Out of the U.S., 25% of sex tourists are American. In the U.S., 1 out of 5 children, who use the Internet, are led by strangers for sex. (“Minga”) Although America hosts many child traffickers the largest and worst place for child prostitution is in Asia, where there are over 1 million." Child trafficking is making over 10 billion dollars for over 1.2 children and is a global crime which continues to increase in its numbers because of economic problems and poverty. The statistics for child trafficking are incredibly high making it a very serious crime that people should be globally aware of.

= //__Causes & Effects__// = = =

Every day, children are being trafficked, taken from their homes or sold by their loved ones. It’s estimated that 1.2 million children are trafficked throughout the world. 6,000 of those children between the ages of twelve and sixteen are trafficked just from Eastern Europe. For example, A recent article in the Guardian newspaper reported the case of a retired Italian couple who had been arrested for buying a three year old Albanian boy, paying $6,000 to the trafficking gang that specialized in “underage merchandise.” The boy had allegedly been traded for a colour TV set by his father. (Child trafficking in eastern) In order to comprehend why one would sell their child, one must consider the reasons one would do such a thing. For it is such people that are the reason child trafficking started, and they are allowing child trafficking to continue. In some cases, it is against their will in which they must give up their child. Girls and women are taken and brought to places called baby farms. There, they are forced to breed and carry a child. Once the child is born it is taken away, getting a small compensation, and the process starts again. “That mother would willingly, in some cases, hand over the fruit of their wombs for money, without any care as to the ultimate fate of their child is a sad testament to the sort of world we live in today.” (“Babies for sale”) Other children are sold for other reasons, such as the extreme poverty of their family. Mothers in desperate times sell their youngest child in hopes it will get a better life someplace else. “Of course I miss my child”, fatimira told the journalist, “but we live like animals. I’m glad they took him. He has a chance to have better living conditions in Italy.” (“Child trafficking in eastern”) sadly, better living conditions are hardly ever what awaits a child sold to strangers. Thousands of eastern European children and teenagers are being reduced to commodities in a trade in human misery. They are bought and sold like chattels to satisfy perverted sexual appetites, to provide slave labour, or worst of all, to be “harvested” for their organs or body parts so that the rich and their children can live at their expense. (Child trafficking in eastern) As stated before, child trafficking is a trade in human misery. Children are being sold by their parents, and are bribed away from their homes with promises of education and better living conditions. Even those children with no one, who live in an orphanage, have become victims of their guardians, false protectors who sell them out as child prostitutes. In Kenya, twenty five children were recently rescued. The children, between the ages of five and eighteen, had been staying in two rooms. This is good news that they were rescued, but the question is, what happens to the children rescued? The ones who were kidnapped are reunited with their parents if they can be found, but what is the right thing to do with the children who were sold by their parents? If they are brought back to their parents, they are often used as prostitutes until they are sold again. They are stuck back into the life they had to continue the life of poverty and suffering from which they came. If the parents can’t be found, they are placed in shelters that have horrible conditions and few beds, along with others that were victims like them. Finally there are the few who end up put in the system of adoption. In which cases, they are surrounded by strangers until someone, also unknown to them, chooses to adopt the child. This is equally traumatic, considering it was strangers that put them in the life of pain and misery in which they live. It was strangers that took them from their homes and threw them into the world of abuse and mistreatment. Very few find happiness and help, being able to function in society once more.

= //__Solution__// =

Child Trafficking is a serious problem in the world. However this problem is hard to stop all at once. The reason for this is because of the conditions that make the economic activity thrive. The reason for this is because the risks are low but profits are high. (“Polaris“). The way this concept is, is that the term risk is referring to the resistance towards the crime. The reason for this is because there is a lack or ineffective law enforcement, so if the traffickers are not prosecuted they have no reason to cease their activities. Also with the high profit from this from the economic activity, it gives incentive for traffickers to continue their crimes. (“Polaris”) But we also have to include the demand of the consumers to buy a good or services from these criminals. Many consumers that go to business with the traffickers buy service children that involve labor or sexual exploitation. Greg Wark the operation support director of SCTnow said, “If we save a child on the street another one will be in their place. If you take a pimp of the street there will be another on corner of the street.” When he was expressing this he showed how hard it is really for child trafficking to end. (Lewis ) To stop the activities of Child Trafficking, the first step is to create laws, regulation, and punishment for the traffickers. Some organization, such as the endhumantrafficking, tries to encourage citizen to advocate law makers to create policies. This will require a lot of time though because of the process and time that is need to pass laws, but anything is better than none. Also we need to help the victims of the trafficking so that they will educate other of ways to get out. (“End”) So it should be considered that mental and physical health services and other psychosocial reintegration be given to the victim to help them recover from the trauma. UNICEF, Unite for children, had written on their web site that stated, “Child trafficking is lucrative and linked with criminal activity and corruption. Trafficking always violates the child’s right to grow up in a family environment. In addition, children who have been trafficked face a range of dangers, including violence and sexual abuse. Trafficked children are even arrested and detained as illegal aliens.”   Also the simplest thing that we can do to help is to educate the public to get involved with the cause. If people get educated in there they will have a need to help such as the Ron & Lynette Lewis. This couple felt a need to help so they started Stop Child Trafficking Now, SCTnow.  Because this issue is such a hard crime to solve we have to find the source of these actions. However this issue is hard because demand is so high. So even if we were to just save one child, another would be kidnapped. Same as the consumers, such as pimp, if one is taken to jail another one will be there to take over eventually. So the only real way to solve this problem is to remove the predators of the streets. However the only way we can do this is to hire special Ops that will hunt down the pedophile of the streets. Clark Struart an operation director of operation with SCTnow expresses this information in his speech:  Through the use of special operation troops and law enforcement, we are going after the demand side, the pedophiles. The same tactics we use to go after terrorist today were going after pedophiles the same way. This method is effective, is proven, and it works. How are we doing it? We’re collecting information and bringing it back to law enforcements to gather case that are prosecutable here in the United States. (Lewis)  The only problem is that it requires money to do this. It static says that for $30 a consumer can buy the service from a trafficker for about 15 minutes. But that same $30 can be used to hire special Ops to for 15 minutes to capture the traffickers. Just four special Ops can capture a hundred predators. (Lewis)  Child Trafficking is the second largest Criminal industry in the world. (“End”) However it’s hard to stop because the risk are low but the profits are high. So the way that we have to stop is, is from these facts. We have to create legislation that will help prevent child trafficking. Also we will have to attack the predator of the streets and taken them out so they will stop the activities. All these are possible but we need the help from the public so the real way to prevent child trafficking is to educate the public. (“Polaris”)   .media type="youtube" key="BkYk99NrdSU" height="405" width="500"

=**//__Stories__ //**= India is a fast growing economical country that is emerging. In the America we trade with India with a lot of goods and services. However what he also gets a lot from them is agriculture. So you may ask your self what is so bad about this. Well the answer all lies behind the scene of the farm. Recently Indian Police rescued 5 boys the age of 9 – 11. These boys were kidnapped near train stations and were forced into labor. Many officials fear that if India's economical growth continues so will the exploitation, which will continue to rise in India.
 * // __Indian Boys Captured, Enslaved to grow YOUR FOOD .__ //**

More will be up as time allows

=**//__DidYouKnow?__ //**=

· ****Child trafficking in Britain has gone up 50%. **


 * · ****<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 50%;">68% of all suspected victims are females. **


 * · ****<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 50%;">In Nairobi, more than 20 children are trafficked a month. **


 * · ****<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 50%;">Children mainly babies are sold for $100 and up. **


 * · ****<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 50%;">148 countries have made human trafficking a crime **


 * · ****<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 50%;">Each year, 1.2 million children are trafficked worldwide. **


 * · ****<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 50%;">6,000 children between the ages of 12 and 16 are trafficked from Eastern Europe 650 of which **

· ****<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 50%;">Children are sold out as prostitutes for as low as $35. An hour **


 * · ****<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 50%;">Girls are sold in Italy for $2,500 to $4,000. **


 * · ****<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 50%;">80% of children brought to Germany come from Eastern Europe. **


 * · ****<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 50%;">Often gangs offer the sale of children dead or alive. **


 * · ****<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 50%;">The global value of human trafficking at over $12 billion a year. **


 * //<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">__Future__ //**

<span style="font-family: Cambria,serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">With all the information that we have provided, now we can conclude that child trafficking is a very negative activities in the world. It is something that will always exist if we don’t take actions to stop it. If we don’t take any actions our future will be turn into a society similar to the early Americans colonies. The reason for this is because human trafficking is nothing but a modern day slavery. If we don’t do anything to stop it all that will happen is that history will keep on writing itself in continuities. Let me ask you now, if we spent over 100 years to abolish slavery of the blacks, why are we going to sit here to let this inhuman activities happen today ? Also as many of you know currently, globally, we are in a recession falling towards a depression. If these activities like child trafficking continue it will further hurt our country. Now let me stop and talk about the future's effect in general. If we put ourself in the eyes of the victims we will learn that there are long term effects that they are put through from their mistreatment. Many of them are scared for life. It doesn’t matter how long they spend in therapy, many of them will not recover fully. Plus as these kids are kidnapped from their family, some of them leave their country and most importantly their childhood. In some countries once people leave, they are not permitted to return. An example is recently there was a case where 3 Ethiopian girls were trafficked by an American organization that offers adoption. A family received and took care of one of the 3; believing that they were doing a good deed, taking in orphan. However as time progressed they learned that the American organization paid the father of the girl money. So now because they were adopted in America they cannot go back to Ethiopia to see their family. This is just one of the million victims’ stories that happened in the world. If we continue to allow child trafficking to progress all we will see is corruption in the world and we will soon rewind back to the time of the American colonies.

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