Human Trafficking - Research Paper Example

?Introduction Human trafficking is one of the highly lucrative illegal businesses in the world, which involves the trading of human beings for the purposes of enslavement (Skinner 10). It is a business, which can only be compared with drug trafficking in terms of profits irrespective of the fact that governments and institutions, especially human rights watch groups around world, have continued to spend numerous resources in trying to curb the vice. The United Nations, for example, adopted the Trafficking Protocol in the year 2000 in Italy, which is a component of the Palermo protocols named after Palermo, which is the location in Italy where they were adopted. These protocols were acknowledged and signed by 117 countries, showing that it is a major dilemma in the society. Statistics indicate that more than 700000 people are trafficked on yearly basis with approximately 70% of them being women. More sadly to note is the fact that approximately 50% of these victims comprise of children. The numbers of people, who are currently under modern day slavery, are estimated to be approximately 27 million, which is according to the US Department of Human Health and Services (Bales 26). This paper is a critical evaluation of human trafficking and the effects it has on various societies and economies of the world. Human Trafficking Human trafficking has been defined as the trade of human beings through coercion, threats, deception among other means. The world in general has been subjected to this atrocity as it is believed that there is no single country which has not been affected including all the states in the United States, which is known to have the highest powers, ability and instruments to detect illegal trade and other criminal activities. It is a business, which has continued to enrich individuals and organized cartels, who take advantage of vulnerable people especially from poor back grounds, promising them better opportunities only to subject them to labor without pay. Statistics indicate that these cartels are making a lot of money, based on 2004 reports which valued the revenues collected to approximately $32 billion, which goes in to the pockets of the beneficiaries in this business (Bales 32). It is important to note that human trafficking is different from people smuggling though both are crimes punishable by law. People smuggling involves providing people, mostly illegal immigrants, with the means to enter into a foreign country or state without following due legal process and for a price. Once the smuggled people reach their destination, they are set free to go and start their own lives in whatever place they choose. Human trafficking is not a new phenomenon as it has its roots in ancient times when civilization was taking form, which is even before the 15th century. In places such as Rome and Greece, the vice was so prevalent and lucrative that the society had accepted it as a normal business, which put almost half of the population in bondage (Williams 36). However, it is only after the 15th century that this form of trafficking took a global dimension as a result of new explorations and establishment of colonies by the Portuguese, Dutch, British and French among others in territories outside their own continent. It is from here that capturing of indigenous people, with the help of collaborators, began whereby the captured people were driven to work in large farms and plantations in the colonies as well as in Europe and other continents such as the US, which led to widespread transfer of populations. Some races such as African Americans were formed as a result of this atrocity after people from the African continent were procured by US slave masters to go and provide cheap or forced labor in their firms and while at it, the slaves continued to procreate both within themselves and with the indigenous Americans thus their current existence. However, anti slavery movements emerged in the 1770s and consequently several nations outlawed it and it remains outlawed even in the contemporary society most notably through the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Williams 85). Human trafficking in the contemporary society is carried out for various selfish purposes such as labor and sexual exploitation. In terms of labor, the trafficked persons are enslaved through two main ways, which include bonded labor and forced labor. With regard to bonded labor, victims are made to work without pay so that they can clear a debt, which they owe either the person whom they are working for or the agent who facilitated the trafficking (Farr 22). More often than not, the debts are set in such a way that the victim can never complete paying thereby meaning that they would have to provide labor until such time when his or her master decides to release them. This happens mostly to those people who are tricked by agents of trafficking cartels, who sometimes advertise job opportunities either on print or electronic media, offering huge amounts of money in form of salaries and wages. To make the offers attract more people, they include their willingness to pay travel costs as well as accommodation expenses for successful applicants, without expecting to be refunded. This works well especially in third world countries, where job opportunities are scarce and those available cannot satisfy the financial needs of the employees as they only attract meager salaries and where there is a perception that working in developed countries such as the US or Britain is a great privilege. Once they travel to their destination, the hosts take possession of their documents such as academic certificates, identification as well as travel documents, with the promise of returning them after the debts are fully paid, such that there is no way they can leave and go back to their home countries when the going gets tough. Forced labor, on the other hand, has no such principles. The victims are forced to work against their will and they are informed of the consequences of failing to do so. Such consequences include death, beating, being locked up or deported among others (Bales 41). Trafficking for sexual exploitation mostly affects women, who are tricked into believing that they are being recruited to work in decent and lucrative environments in other countries away from their homes. To their surprise and dismay, they find themselves being forced to work for madams and pimps, who operate brothels that make thousands of dollars on daily basis. Some of the women are forced to work in night clubs as strippers, where they are subjected to violence and conditions that they may never have wished for. These businessmen also find it difficult and risky to find women volunteers to feature in pornographic films, which are also in high demand in various societies (Karra 28). Volunteers, in this context, would be difficult and expensive to maintain owing to the nature of the business, which touches highly on integrity. To make matters worse, it has been noted that in some societies, such as the Indian, there is a wide perception by men that having sex with a virgin woman is a possible cure for sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS. This has contributed highly to the trafficking of underage girls, some below 10 years old, in order to service this demand for innocent girls. It is estimated that more than 3000 female children are trafficked from Nepal into India on yearly basis. It is sad to mention that some of these children are sold off by their own parents, due to poverty, so as to be able to afford the ever rising cost of living (Parker 63). An 8 year old girl is a vulnerable being, who cannot defend herself from such atrocities and that is why parents are there to offer such protection but as it has been noted, some are willing to go to great lengths in order to satisfy their greed for money and wealth. Besides this, the general population of children working in manufacturing companies around the world is disheartening. 2008 reports indicate that there are approximately 215 million child laborers world wide, with countries such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh among others taking the lead (Parker 72). Bonded labor and child trafficking are considered to be among the leading contributing factors to this high prevalence rate with regard to child labor. In addition, human trafficking in the recent times has continued to evolve such that traffickers are starting to widen the scope of the trade to include human organs. This is especially in societies, which engage in activities such as witchcraft as well as to facilitate major operations such as organ transplants. In third world countries such as Tanzania, in East Africa, several cases have been reported whereby scrupulous dealers have tricked while others have been arrested in the process of tricking men and women suffering from albinism, into believing that they are being offered jobs in the country, only to be killed and used in ritual activities. The belief in this part of the world is that organs from such people have the capability of making someone rich or improve their success in the political scene. It is for this reason that albinos in east Africa have become an endangered species and thereby live in constant fear of being captured and sold off to witches not withstanding the fact that countries in the region have continued to guarantee their safety (Ross 2010). It is also notable that the advent of internet technology has facilitated human traffickers with a medium for making business especially with the growing numbers of people visiting the internet, some of whom are only interested in visiting sites offering pornographic materials. Numerous sites have been created to satisfy this demand and this has promoted child abuse and trafficking for the benefit of pedophiles. In this context, children are forced to pose naked after which photographs are taken and trafficked through the internet (Eichenwald 2006). This is to imply that human trafficking does not necessarily have to involve capturing or physical transfer of population, thanks to the advancement of technology, which has made it even more difficult to apprehend perpetrators. This is due to the fact that such internet sites are designed in such as way that the contents i.e. the pictures are posed in a way that the reproductive organs are concealed through tiny but somehow revealing undergarments, in order to avoid attracting accusations of child pornography. Users are required to log in after subscribing and paying a certain amount of money through electronic money transfer. It is estimated that child pornography through the internet generates more than $34 billion on yearly basis, showing the magnitude of the problem the contemporary society is faced with (Eichenwald 2006). Human trafficking has numerous adverse effects especially in the third world countries, which have been identified as the major sources of trafficked persons due to the availability of various push factors such as poverty and conflict. It is worthy mentioning that trafficking in these regions take place both across international borders as well as within the individual countries. This is where one may find parents selling off their children into sex slavery and forced marriages in an effort to improve livelihoods, though in an inhumane way. Doing so leads to the erosion of human capital as well as the depression of salaries and wages (Farr 44). In this context, it is true to say that these children once they are subjected to modern day slavery, they are denied the opportunity to go to school and study so that they can become professionals and be employed in various economic sectors in their respective countries thereby contributing to the overall economic growth. If they are taken to school instead of being recruited as soldiers or being married off to old men for a mere $100 or less, they would be in a better position to assist their families in achieving economic success and consequently, the level of poverty in the country would go down. Instead, this business has only helped greatly to maintain the status quo whereby poverty and illiteracy have become an unbreakable cycle in most of families in third world countries. In addition to this, the availability of cheap labor lowers the competitiveness especially in manual jobs, for example farming, mining and masonry, in terms of salaries and wages as well as opportunities (Bales 94). In a wider context, human trafficking involves transfer of populations from the source countries to wherever there is demand for slaves. This means that the source countries, mostly the third world countries, are subjected to loss of human resources, which are exported and utilized by the host countries. It may be found out that majority of victims of human trafficking are young and energetic people who have the capacity to engage in constructing their own countries or villages and when they leave, the elderly people are left behind and there is nothing much they can do to improve their surroundings. This is not withstanding the number of deaths that occur due to hazardous working environments in which these persons work under. The International Labor Organization (ILO) reports indicate that more than 1 child out of 5 trafficked children lose their lives on medical grounds related to poor treatment and lack of health protection. Some of these are killed by their masters as a result of refusing to be submissive or diseases contracted while performing their slave duties (Williams 66). Sexually transmitted diseases especially HIV/AIDS have remained as a great challenge for the developing nations. Human trafficking has added to this dilemma and has therefore continued to undermine efforts being made to lower their prevalence rate through investments in contraceptives and antiretroviral drugs. A sex slave has no authority and control of her sex life as she is availed to customers on demand and to make matters worse, she is denied the right to consent and decide on what preventive measures to take (Karra 45). The madams and pimps make all the decisions and in some occurrences, they are compelled to allow their customers to engage in unprotected sex as long as they are willing to pay a hire price. When these women return to their homes after long periods of forced servitude and prostitution, they add up to the already existing burden of patients looking up to the government to provide free or subsidized treatment at the expense of the taxpayer. As if this is not enough, some of these people find it difficult to re-integrate with the society and this leads to them moving to the streets to continue with prostitution while others, including men, choose to engage themselves in criminal activities thus contributing to the increase in the number of street children and general insecurity (Skinner 30). It is understandable that reforming former sex slaves or militants is a difficult task but it is the role of the society especially consumers to reject products suspected as being manufactured using forced or child labor and to avoid engaging in sex trade where they believe that the partner is a sex slave and indeed take it upon themselves to report such suspicions to the authorities for appropriate action to be taken. This is due to the fact that they might later become the first victims of atrocities committed by the same people they are helping to remain in slavery. The US is perceived as the dream home for majority of people from third world countries due to its economic dominance and numerous job opportunities. Human traffickers have realized this and have thus continued to exploit the urge of people to move to America. It is estimated that more than 50000 people are trafficked to the US on yearly basis and this must have an impact on the country’s economy (DeStephano 57). To begin with, manufacturing companies and textile industries as well as domestic servitude are some of the entities, which are identified as absorbing trafficked persons for their cheap labor. It goes without saying that there are people in the country, who are capable of carrying out these tasks. However, they have been denied the opportunities to earn a living and this may be one of the reasons why the country is being faced with unemployment, a problem that the president Obama’s administration has been trying to solve at least for the last one year. In addition, the government has realized that modern slavery is a harsh reality and has therefore continued to spend large amounts of money and resources to solve the problem. The government is said to have allocated more than $28 million in 2008 for the purposes of tracking and shielding rescued victims as well as promoting awareness of the vice within the society (DeStephano 72). This is money, which could have been spent in promoting other sectors of the economy such as healthcare, education or even infrastructure. Human trafficking in the country has also been highly connected to other criminal activities such a terrorism, gun trafficking and gang life. Proceeds from these activities are said to be used in funding terrorist activities around the world especially after the 9/11 attacks, which resulted to a heavy American assault on Taliban thereby disorganizing their channels and sources of funds. The al-Qaeda has been noted as using women and child abduction as a way of making money, after such victims are sold off to rich Arab men. This is a major concern for the US government owing to the fact that it has been victimized by these terrorists and with them being operational, the government must continue to spend more tax payer’s money to protect citizens from another attack (DeStephano 96). Conclusion Human trafficking is the trade of human beings for the purposes of forced servitude. Forced servitude in this context involves; forced labor, sexual exploitation, child labor, bonded labor and military enrollment. It is estimated that there are more than 27 million people world wide in modern slavery, a business which is attracting a lot of illegal money valued at more than $32 billion annually. Third world countries have been noted as the major targets for traffickers, while the developed ones such as the US are the recipients due to their high economic growth and numerous opportunities. Some of the impacts of this trade on Developing countries include and not limited to; depression of wages, high prevalence of STDs, loss of human capital as well as high crime rate. The US, which receives more than 50000 trafficked persons on yearly basis, suffers from unemployment since victims are made to provide cheap labor, insecurity as well as the burden of spending tax payer’s money in combating the above mentioned consequences. Works Cited Bales, Kevin. Disposable people: New Slavery in the Global Economy. University of California Press, 2004 DeStephano, Anthony. The War on Human Trafficking: U.S. Policy Assessed. Rutgers University Press, 2008 Eichenwald, Kurt. “With Child Sex Sites on the Run, Nearly Nude Photos Hit the Web.” New York Times. August 20, 2006.October 18, 2011 Farr, Katherine. Sex Trafficking: The Global Market in Women and Children. Worth Publishers, 2004 Karra, Siddhardh. Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery. Columbia University Press, 2010 Parker, Michael. India's other virus: human trafficking and the spread of HIV. Thomson Gale, 2006 Ross, Will. “Kenyan arrested by Tanzania police over 'albino sale.'” BBC World News.17 August 2010.18 October 2011< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11001791> Skinner, Benjamin. A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery. Free Press, 2009 Williams, Eric. Capitalism and Slavery. The University of North Carolina Press, 2000 Read More