HumanTrafficking

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Fall From Grace: A Loss Of Innocence



Proof
In the past 150 years, there have been more than a dozen international conferences banning slavery, yet there are more enslaved people in the world today than at any other point in history. (Skinner) Estimates put the number at 12.3 million, and 1.39 million of these victims are in the sex trade, most of them women and children. (“Many”) Human sex trafficking is a worldwide problem that affects people of all ages and genders all over the world.

Compiled of mostly women and children, the business of trafficking people with the intent of forcing them into the sex industry is an offense so horrible that one federal judge described a case dealing with it as “one of the most base, most vile, most despicable, most reprehensible crimes” he had ever seen. (O’Beirne) The business of sex trafficking is made up of 1.39 million victims (“Many”) and “the U.N. estimates that trafficking in persons generates US $7-10 billion dollars annually for traffickers. Trafficking is the second most lucrative crime in the world.” (“Child”)

These crimes are not limited to far-off countries: “The U.S. government estimates that 50,000 women are trafficked each year into the United States, primarily from Latin America, countries from the former Soviet Union, and Southeast Asia.” (Raymond and Hughes) In 1998, a string of brothels in south Florida were raided. Mexican girls as young as thirteen were being forced into prostitution; many of these girls were also beaten, addicted to drugs, and forced to have abortions. (O’Beirne) In October of 2009, the FBI arrested 642 sex traffickers and saved 47 of their victims, children who were being sold for sex online and on the streets. Since 2003, there have been 510 offenders arrested and 886 child victims saved. (“Make”)

The U.S. Department of Justice has started an initiative called Operation Twisted Traveler, which is aimed to stop sex tourists who travel overseas to commit sex crimes. Sex tourism is a multi-billion dollar industry in Southeast Asia, where, like most countries where this act is prevalent, poverty is common and there are no tight laws preventing it. (“Sex-tourism”)

Countries with lenient laws and a high rate of poverty are especially affected by this problem. According to Derks, “nearly one-third of the global trafficking trade, or about 200-225,000 women and children, are trafficked annually from South-East Asia” and “Of the 45-50 thousand women and children estimated to be trafficked to the United States, approximately 60 per cent (30,000) are estimated to originate from South-East Asia.” In South Africa, 38,000 children are estimated to be enslaved for the sex industry, where “traffickers used gang rape, drug provision, sleep deprivation and torture to ‘break’ new children.” (Skinner)

Addressing the U.N. General Assembly, former president George Bush said of human trafficking:

//There's a special evil in the abuse and exploitation of the most innocent and vulnerable. The victims of [the] sex trade see little of life before they see the very worst of life, an underground of brutality and lonely fear. Those who create these victims and profit from their suffering must be severely punished. Those who patronize this industry debase themselves and deepen the misery of others. // (“Trafficking”)

Causes
Sex trafficking has been a part of the human society for as long as history has been recorded. Though it has not always been called sex trafficking, or viewed as a social crime, the trade of women for sexual purposes was commonplace in past eras. As far back as the eighteenth century BCE, laws were already being made regarding the rights of prostitutes in documents such as the Code of Hammurabi. There are few records of sex slaves in ancient Babylon, but jump forward twelve centuries and you have different classes of prostitutes being described in Greek literature. One of these classes of prostitutes was the “//pornai//, or slave prostitutes.”(Head)

So what drives people to sex trafficking in the modern world, if not just for the purpose of sexual pleasure, the answer is money. While some women in continents such as Asia get into the sex industry due to a lack of good income or a shortcoming in social standing, others are kidnapped and forced to become sexual slaves at no personal gain of their own (Hennink), like the fifteen year old known as Debbie.

"Debbie's story is particularly chilling. One evening Debbie said she got a call from a casual friend, Bianca, who asked to stop by Debbie's house. Wearing a pair of Sponge Bob pajamas, Debbie went outside to meet Bianca, who drove up in a Cadillac with two older men, Mark and Matthew. After a few minutes of visiting, Bianca said they were going to leave.

"So I went and I started to go give her a hug," Debbie told "Primetime." "And that's when she pushed me in the car."

As they sped away from her house, Debbie said that one of the men told Bianca to tie her up and said he threatened to shoot Bianca if she didn't comply." ("Teen”)

There are few illicit activities that span as far, and make as much money as the international trade of people for sex. The sheer possibility for monetary gain from buying and selling human beings for any purpose drives more of the pimps to these illicit actions. ("Trafficking") For the most part, pimps like to stay out of sight and out of mind, but to get more victims and paying customers for their activities they need to make themselves visual, and reveal themselves to the rest of the world. (Moossy) Making money for personal use and greed is not the single reason for why people end up becoming sex traffickers. Large conflicts between nations have a direct correlation to the amount of people being sold into slavery. Traffickers often go to refugee camps and take the weak and insecure from an already difficult situation. ("Trafficking") The recent earthquake in Haiti has left thousands upon thousands of small children venerable to outsiders attempting to take the children away, a case of which being the 10 Baptist missionaries attempts to move 33 Haitian children out of their country.

"They were arrested on the border with children that were not theirs and that they had no papers for those children. For me it's not Americans that were arrested, it was kidnappers that were arrested" ("Ten")

Kidnapping is generally thought of as a violent act where a stranger drives up and grabs unsuspecting children off the street, but that is not always the case. Issues at home can drive children to run away, making them weak as well and therefore prime targets for traffickers to kidnap by offering them protection and safety. ("Trafficking")

The prime cause for anyone to engage in activities as unthinkable as selling other human beings as nothing more than a possession of yours to be used, is money, and always has been. Through manners of deceit and threats people are taken from their homes and moved to locations unknown to them, and they are kept there, away from family and safety. (Hennink) Until mankind can place the good of others above their own personal wants and greed, the buying and selling of other people is likely to never go away. Until then, the most we can do is educate ourselves on the circumstances, and help any of those we suspect victim of sexual slavery.

You can read more stories on sex trafficking like Debbie's [|Here]

Effects
Slavery has always been a big part of the development of today’s society. Cruel enough, it happened just about everywhere on earth, in which some slaves were more brutally mistreated than others. Today, many people say that slavery exist no longer, however, it does exist in the form of human trafficking. Though it’s more underground that past slavery has been, it still happens and it happens everywhere. Human trafficking is primarily for commercial sex and labor, specifically on children. (Administration for Children and Families) These people are either manipulated into becoming ones’ personal sex slave via bribes and astonishing offers or are forcefully taken from their homes, as much of the children who are forced into labor are. “Trafficked victims in year 2000 included 250,000 persons from southeast Asia; 150,000 from south Asia, 100,000 each from the former Soviet Union and Latin America; 75,000 from eastern Europe and another 50,000 from Africa.” (//West African Review //) Regardless, human trafficking is a global crime that is affecting more than just the individual people involved.

Those who are involved in human trafficking as a victim, suffer great emotional and physical pain. “Victims trafficked for sexual exploitation face physical and emotional damage from forced sexual activity, forced substance abuse, and exposure to sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS. Some victims suffer permanent damage to their reproductive organs. When the victim is trafficked to a location where he or she cannot speak or understand the language, this compounds the psychological damage caused from isolation and domination by traffickers.” (U.S. Department of State) “Those who end up escaping and going to the government for help come from countries where law enforcement is corrupt and are not helped too much in their situation. (“Human”) With those who are rescued, the ‘trafficking industry has greatly affected the professional field of psychology, requiring extensive rehabilitative services for the growing number of rescued trafficked victims around the globe.” (Woodland) //Children // forced into labor lose all rights to grow up in a protected environment. In any case, victims of human trafficking, whether it is child labor or for commercial sex, the personal suffering is irreversible.

The economy and government also suffer the effects of human trafficking. ‘Some effects of trafficking include depressed wages, fewer individuals left to care for an increasing number of elderly persons, and an undereducated generation.’ (U.S. State Department) Sometimes even, the law enforcement sent to deal with this get secretly involved with the trafficking as well. “In Bosnia, Human Rights Watch found evidence of visa and immigration officials visiting brothels for free sexual services in exchange for ignoring the doctored documents produced by traffickers to facilitate transport through the country.” (West African Review) With this, productivity of the world decreases along with the amount of those educated. The government also faces first hand how it cannot protect everyone under it. Though rights are in order, the government has no power to place displaced people, leaving human trafficking victims lost while other governmental law enforcements get mixed up in the case without helping. Human trafficking has a much bigger impact than what people would expect. This is one of those things that, just because it cannot be seen first hand, don’t make it less of a problem. The awareness may not be as plain out as some other global issues, but the impact on society is just as, or worse than any other problem. Those involved are trapped forever in the horrors of being a victim, while the government sees itself in the mirror and realizes how little control they have over the things that matter and that are tearing this world apart.



Future
It may seem surprising that sex trafficking exists in such a place as Europe, but in reality, sex trafficking is a problem that affects people of all ages and genders on all continents of the world. Sex trafficking is a rapidly growing global crime, and it will continue to be one of the world’s leading global crimes if the issue goes unaddressed and unresolved.

Sex trafficking is an ongoing problem that will never be fully diminished. Trafficking-especially for commercial sexual exploitation- has become a worldwide, multi-billion dollar industry. (“Child”) People tend to overlook this serious problem due to the vulgarity and horrendous nature of sex trafficking. Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF, reports that, "Boys and girls are favored targets for sexual exploitation and groups with low social standing are often the most vulnerable, such as minorities and refugees." (“Child”) Approximately 120,000 women and children are trafficked each year, and 90 percent end up in the sex industry. (Varouhakis) Another factor that contributes to the continuation of sex trafficking is that developing countries are the main participants in the crime. Sex trafficking “is global, but some of the worst forms are found in Asia, where more than a million people are being exploited each year”, (“Child”) which creates a problem with finding and prosecuting criminals of sex trafficking. Sex tourism is a multi-billion dollar industry in Southeast Asia, where, like most countries where this act is prevalent, poverty is common and there are no tight laws preventing it. (“Sex-tourism”)

Even though it is difficult to eliminate sex trafficking altogether, efforts are put forth to help mend the issue and work to minimize sex trafficking. Organizations such as the A-21 Campaign, the Future Group, the Coalition Against Trafficking of Women, and many more work to prosecute criminals, rehabilitate victims, and gain money and support to diminish sex trafficking. Even churches, schools, and other small organizations support the abolishment of such a crime.

Governments have responded [to sex trafficking] with tough criminal laws, police training and a push to prosecute offenders. However, in practice, victims of human trafficking still find it near to impossible to access the justice system. When they do, the process is often retraumatizing and victims end up with nothing; the profits from the traffickers’ crime have vanished into thin air. (“Human”)

Because of new organizations and benefits to help terminate sex trafficking as well as media and globalization to help shed light on the issue, sex trafficking will slowly diminish into a smaller problem. If sex trafficking continues to be overlooked though, the problem will only increase to a higher degree. No matter how large the problem of sex trafficking is, fixing the issue starts with informing others so that they too can do their part to end sex trafficking.

Solutions
Trafficking in children is a global problem that affects a large number of children. Some estimates have as many as 1.2 million children being trafficked every year. There is a demand for trafficked children as cheap labour or for sexual exploitation. Children and their families are often unaware of the dangers of trafficking, believing that better employment and lives lie in other countries. (“Child”)

The reasons that children are targets of child trafficking are that children can be traded for little money. They are not strong, so they are taken easily, and the owner who takes them can use them easily as slaves. Children live in poor places have parents in debt, so their parents send them to get money. In most cases, the parents don’t know that their children are trafficked. Some trafficked children have lost their parents because of a disaster or their parents were killed. Actually, after the Sumatra earthquake and Haiti earthquake, many children lost their parents and after few days they disappeared suddenly. Those are the typical reasons for child trafficking (“Human”)

How can we help these children and protect them from child trafficking? It is not easy to stop trafficking as long as there is demand. Child trafficking is actually increasing year by year. One of the ways to solve the problem is for governments to be strict about the child trafficking and establish more laws about it. Despite this, the laws do not prevent child trafficking, and they are not enough. (“How”)

Children and parents should be educated because in many cases parents send children to earn money. They don’t know that their children are trafficked and will be worked as slaves, so they need education. (“How”)

 Know about child trafficking. Now child trafficking can happen anywhere, and if we cannot realize what is going on, we cannot stop the problem. (“NGO” )