The Term Human Trafficking - Essay Example

Human Trafficking number Department Contents Introduction 2 2 Discussion 3 3 Conclusion 13 References 14 Introduction The term human trafficking is related to human trade that is mainly for the purpose of forced labour, sexual labour or sexual exploitation for commercial purposes, carried out either for the trafficker or somebody else. Human trafficking can also include organ or tissue extraction, and comprise issues such as surrogacy or even delivery of a spouse in the scenario of forced marriage. The human trafficking mechanism can take place within borders or across borders. It is a crime, because it violates the right to free movement of the person who has been subjected to human trafficking for commercial exploitation and because it involves coercion. Human trafficking is concerned only with trading of people and it does not necessarily include any kind of movement of people from one location to another. The annual international trade in relation to human trafficking constituted an amount of $31.6 billion (Anderson, 2000 ).The most popular – and fastest growing – activity of the criminal organizations that operate transnationally is that of human trafficking. According to international convention, the concept of human trafficking is related to violation of the basic human rights. It is even subjected to directive in the context of the European Union. Human trafficking can be further be defined as transport, recruitment, harbouring, selling and even receipt of people through some exploitative means such as threat, fraud, deception and force. The main forms of human trafficking comprise sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, labour exploitation, internal trafficking, organ trafficking, and child trafficking. There have been policies and strategies that have been set forth by various nations, some of which are effective, but still this issue is growing and gaining more importance in the current decade. 2 Discussion The main focus of human trafficking is in the areas of the trafficking of women. The key countries that constitute women trafficking are United Kingdom, eastern and central European countries (such as Hungary, Belarus, Lithuania or Ukraine), South East Asia, Latin America, West and East Africa. The countries in which there exists a great deal of woman trafficking are Germany, Italy, Belgium, Greece, Netherlands, and countries in which such trade is moderately high are Denmark, Austria, France, Spain, Poland, UK, Switzerland, Bosnia, Poland and Kosovo. Each country where such trafficking is a very serious issue has different statistics, which cannot be considered as a reliable source to predict the consequences that some nationally formed policies and strategies have on these kinds of human trafficking (Costa, 2009). In the phase of globalization, women are being traded or are subjected to illegal immigration mainly for sexual favours; on the other hand, men and children are subjected to such trafficking mainly in order to exploit them for hard labour. This issue affects many cultures and families and, most importantly, violates the rights of the individuals who are subjected to such human trafficking (Maradiaga, 2009). This kind of trading may have certain benefits, but it is still considered to be illegal and immoral. Various factors lead to such human trafficking, but the most important issue amongst them is money and the poor economic conditions that prevail in the home country. The most common effects of human trafficking are human rights violation, mental illness and various diseases (Wright, 2006, pp. 97-98). Many countries offer false hopes to individuals. For example, Burma currently operates on forced labour, thereby forcing the citizens of that region to flee to other countries; such a condition in turn provides a very great opportunity for traffickers to influence such individuals and finally to sell them off for money. The major purposes for which such individuals are subjected to slavery are labour and sexual exploitation (Goodey, 2010, pp. 56-57). The children who are victims of such human trafficking are mainly immigrated for various types of dangerous work. The most important reason behind such crimes is the unstable economic conditions that are prevalent in less developed countries. Hence, these countries are subject to military force, drugs, and human trafficking (Barrett, 2000, pp. 45-46). Developing countries with an unstable government might turn to these illegal mechanisms, as they bring a lump sum through such trading, which is important so as to sustain the economy. In such economies where the majority of the population are earning below the minimum wage rate and there is a lack of education regarding human rights, etc., this might give rise to more reasons for human trafficking. Another factor behind such human trafficking, apart from that of government, is the issue of religion (CEOP (Child Exploitation and On Line Protection), 2009). In some religions, there exists huge discrimination towards women, which is the primary reason behind the trafficking of women in such countries. In countries where women are not considered equal to men, they are treated more as property and are forced into prostitution or marriage, or subject to other forms of abuse, that lead to many diseases such as HIV or AIDS. People are being traded for money, but this can have some serious effects globally, for example, in the form of dangerous diseases such as AIDS/HIV (Hester and Westmarland, 2004). These diseases are a result of forced prostitution in the case of women trafficking, which causes these diseases to spread globally. Violence is another global issue of such human trafficking. The men and children are forced to join military forces in some countries; specifically, the children are made to run across the fields to test for mines. This results in the formation of rebel groups who make demands for places that do not belong to them. This kind of violence causes serious impact globally and, as the issue of human trafficking is illegal, it involves all kinds of illegal elements such as prostitution and drugs (Jeffreys, 2008, pp. 104-105). When legal action is taken or law is formulated by some other country to handle such an issue, it gives rise to more violence created by the country dealing in human trafficking, as they do not want to stop their source of income. The major effects of human trafficking can be summarized in a diagram (Figure 1) that illustrates these effects on wellbeing and health at various stages of human trafficking. Figure 1: The major effects of human trafficking (Human Trafficking. org, 2006) Figure 1 shows that the effects caused by human trafficking can be summarized as poor mental health, coerced or forced use of alcohol and drugs, economic exploitation, social isolation, legal insecurities (mainly associated with people who are traded across borders) and, for those going back to their home country, a return to the same conditions but with more health problems and challenges (Letherby, Birch, Cain and Williams, 2008, pp. 67-68). Human trafficking has been a global issue with a series of effects, and various laws and regulations have been formulated by the governments of various nations to stop such illegal aspects of human trading. Firstly, certain rights are given by governments in the context of medical services and other forms of services that are provided to such trafficked people, in accordance with Article 6, subsection 3 of the United Nations’ Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons (Pease and Pringle, 2002, pp. 56-57). This Article encourages the provision of medical assistance for the victims of trafficking. However, the Article does not provide any guidance on the type of health services that need to be provided (and for what length of time) or under what circumstances this provision would be valid (Chaikin, 2006, pp. 115-116). According to Article 6, it is the duty of each state that is party to the protocol to implement measures to provide for the psychological, social and physical recovery of the individuals who are subjected to trafficking. The health sector plays a very critical role in the prevention of human trafficking and is also involved in the care of the victims of human trafficking (Reichel, 2005, pp. 123-124). There is a great opportunity for health workers in terms of spreading awareness and alerting individuals regarding the risks that are involved in human trafficking, to identify the victims who are in conditions of exploitation and to provide care to those individuals who have been subjected to human trafficking. However, the regulation that is set forth by this article was not able to achieve much of importance because of cultural differences, language barriers, limited resources, inadequate information, issues of discrimination, stigma, security and safety, and lack of knowledge or training regarding the aspects of human trafficking and its post-referral care (Sanders, 2008, pp. 113-114). In contrast, there are few useful approaches that could be adopted to deal with the issue of human trafficking. Firstly, at the regulatory level, it is essential to increase awareness amongst those people intending to migrate, so that they have full knowledge regarding the risks that are associated with human trafficking. There has been a recent effective development – the Convention on Domestic Workers – that encompasses specific measures to protect those workers who are vulnerable in the employment group; it even serves as a guiding principle for companies to provide responsible employment and recruitment, mostly to migrant workers (Lee, 2007, pp. 94-95). There is a need for government to make it mandatory to provide long-term health care to those individuals who are being trafficked. These victims should be given health services that are state provided and that should not be associated with the ability of victims to pay for the treatment or their willingness to take any kind of criminal action against the traffickers. Secondly, the organizations and providers who are associated with health care should be able to identify the victims of human trafficking and should be able them to offer safe and sensitive post-trafficking services (Aradau, 2008, pp. 67-68). Some of the best healthcare organizations working with such an initiative are the International Organization for Migration, the Health Protection Agency (situated in England), and the initiative taken by London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (Chapkis, 2003, pp. 923-937). There is a limitation for empirical research in the context of human trafficking. Such research lacks data from samples of those who are being trafficked, and long-term study is required to determine whether there are some changes in health factors in post-referral trafficking treatment (Beyrer and Stachowiak, 2003, pp. 105-17). Moreover, there is a need to gain more information and data on trafficking issues across a wide range of the labour sector. More defined research and studies in the global scenario are needed, so that effective strategies can be implemented in order to counteract human trafficking and to implement the best care possible for those subjected to human trafficking. Human trafficking is currently a booming area of international trade that is making billions of dollars but at the cost of millions of people. Certain international laws are designed to fight such crimes. The first law was the UN protocol that has been agreed upon by the majority of governments: it mainly comprises realistic definition describing the concept of human trafficking and establishes a platform for criminalizing human trafficking, mainly of children and women. Around 111 states by the year 2007 had agreed this protocol and had even incorporated it into their domestic rules and regulations. The protocol mainly deals with measures to protect victims and prevent human trafficking, but also incorporates prosecution of criminals (Oram, 2011, pp. 7-12). The United Nation Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), with some financial support provided on behalf of Abu Dhabi by the Crown Prince, has implemented measures to take a global initiative – the Fight against Human Trafficking. It was financially launched in the year 2007 in London to create a long-term impact across the world in order to fight against such a crime very effectively (Weizter, 2007, pp. 447-495). The UN-led Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking has been built upon a platform that comprises certain goals, such as: raising awareness of this crime strengthening prevention or, rather, discarding the factors that make people vulnerable to such kind of migration, such as underdevelopment, lack of opportunity or poverty reducing demand, such as eliminating the root cause of the problem by lowering the incentive level of the trade and decreasing the level of demand providing support and protection for victims enforcing law: enabling agencies to track the routes of traffickers, dismantle the group and prosecute the traffickers implementing international commitments so as to ensure that laws and practice are incorporated on a national basis, and further improvement towards compliance monitoring enriching the knowledge base for this crime strengthening partnerships to set up stronger networks, involving inter-governmental organizations, civil society, and the private sector establishing a special fund to end human trafficking across the world creating an informal group so that it can enable long-term momentum to protect the society against such crime (Kelly, 2003, pp. 139-144) The main objectives set by this global initiative is to give more empowerment to women, combat AIDS/HIV, implement measures for maternal health improvement, improve education, discard poverty, and establishing a global partnership for further development of nations. A number of UN agencies, and helpful regional programmes at the international level, deal with various aspects of human trafficking: UNICEF – aimed towards protecting children from violence, exploitation or abuse UNODC – protects people from human trafficking ILO (International Labour Organisation) – deals with prevention of child labour or forced labour IOM (International Organization for Migration) – deals with protection of migrant workers OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) – focuses on fighting the various issues related to human trafficking in its own significant region OHCHR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights) – acts as a custodian for all the legal instruments related to anti-slavery (Anderson, 2000, pp. 165-166) Some non-governmental organizations, and even some private individuals, work independently towards spreading awareness about human trafficking and even take measures to care for the victims with proper medication and facilities (Adams, 2003, pp.135-139). Although so many strategies and policies have been framed, it can prove to be effective when the action plans are so designed that they are aligned with the international standards and focus more on local problems. The initiatives that have been taken by so many nation states can be only said to be effective if the percentage of individuals who are involved in human trafficking is reduced to a minimum. This is not the situation in the present scenario: although the percentage has shown a slight decrease, there are still certain sections of society who are not much aware of the effects of human trafficking (Weitzer, 2000, pp. 934-949). The policies can prove to be effective only when the victims are not held responsible for this crime, but punishments are given to the traffickers and the entire trafficking route is dismantled. 3 Conclusion Human trafficking, as one of the most important global issues, generates huge amounts of revenue, but deprives people, mostly children and women, of their freedom and dignity. The criminals who are involved in such trafficking make profits through satisfying the consumer demand of the market. In the middle of all this crime and profit making lie the victims, who are subjected to poverty and are trapped by such traffickers either through deception or by force. Human trafficking can be regarded as a commercialization of humanity, where products are represented in the form of humans, and in which they are used and they are thrown away. In general, the victims are children who are forced into manual labour, men who are forced into military organizations or hard labour, and women who are exploited for sexual favours, prostitution and household work, and are even traded across borders by traffickers for money. The crime of human trafficking still persists, although people are becoming aware of this crime. Many countries have adopted international laws in order to prevent their society from the threat of human trafficking, but still these laws have not been fully implemented and are still not adhered to. The majority of the victims subjected to this crime never receive adequate help and only a small section of the criminals are being convicted. The population as a whole is still not aware of the real extent of this crime and it is a major problem that needs very strong attention in order to eliminate it from society. 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