Human Trafficing - Research Paper Example

As defined by the United Nations (2000), human trafficking ultimately entails the exploitation of the less fortunate by means of deceit, force or intimidation. Many cases have been reported of poor people, most frequently from developing countries, who are invited to apply for work abroad - only for the work in question to be something less than legal, such as prostitution or some other form of involuntary servitude. Regardless of the form it takes, though, the evil of such a practice cannot be denied.

The most frequent victims of human trafficking tend to come from developing countries. This can be explained at least in part by the lucrative nature of the human trafficking industry, in spite - or perhaps because of - its illegality. Even 8 years ago, the estimated total annual revenue of the industry reached as high as $9 billion (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, 2004). Today, it has been singled out as the single fastest growing criminal industry in the world, and is second only to the drug trade in terms of profitability (Haken, 2011).

And while the nature of the problem of human trafficking might lead one to assume that only the developing countries are victims, the fact of the matter is that things are not so simple. For a start, while it is true that people from developing countries tend to be the ones most frequently victimized by human traffickers, a report by the UN (2008) told of 25 million human trafficking victims from 127 different countries. Such statistics actually do make sense in context, the year in question coinciding with the peak of the economic recession that swept through the world.

Given the precarious situation of the economies of these 127 countries, it can be assumed that their citizens sought greener pastures abroad, only for things to end up going wrong in the worst possible way. Needless to say, not even citizens belonging to a