Human Trafficking - Research Paper Example

?Human Trafficking A crime against humanity! Today is the age of globalization and it has made our lives easy in terms of price competition and competitive advantage. However, at same time it has had some negative effects as well. To keep our community in harmony, the negative effects need to be erased that come up in terms of crimes. Among major crimes that are observed around the globe, crime human trafficking is one of contemporary issues. It is a crime against humanity which needs to be addressed at its first instance of existence or conception. Approximately 2.5 million people are trafficked around the globe. Human trafficking is affecting every country and every economy. Almost 161 countries are involved in this and people are trafficked from 127 countries to 137 countries. Human trafficking is most comprehensively defined by United Nation Office on Drug and Crime on unodc.com as: it is an act of forcefully or by power, recruiting, transporting, transferring and harbouring a person with an aim to exploit them .It is a Umbrella term used for a process in which many people are enslaved . Annually a lot of population globally that includes males, females and children become victim of this crime within their country and abroad .Every country is affected by trafficking- either people are transported from there or it is in transit or destination where they are exploited. Human trafficking is also known as Trafficking in persons or TIP.Expolitation could include prostitution, sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery, removal of organs, servitude etc. United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocols states on website unodc.com that definition given by UNODC has three elements: Any of these parts can create human trafficking case. First part is “Acts what is done” it means Recruitment, transportation, transferring, harbouring and receipt of person. Second part is “the means used to commit those Acts(How it is done )” these are refer to warning given to use power, fraud, abuse, punishment, cruelty, dishonesty or giving payments or awarding a person in control of the victim. Third element is “the goals for which the act was committed (Why it is done)” it means the reason of misuse, which includes exploiting the prostitution of others, sexual exploitation, forced labour, slavery, removal of organs. UNODC states in its report Trafficking in Person: Global Patterns that victims of human trafficking who are sexually exploited are of 79% and forced labour 18%.Women exploitation is more seen especially in city centres and along high ways. Other forms are domestic servant, forced marriage, children begging, sex trade and war fare, prostitution, pornography, and nude dancing. Shelley in his book Human Trafficking:  A Global Perspective states that millions of people are being exploited each years at brick kilns ,sweatshop ,chicken forms mines ,rock quarries , fisheries , public or service work, beside females and children ,boys are also exploited in particular sex industry(281-285). Human trafficking is referred as modern day slavery by Shelley in his book Human Trafficking:  A Global Perspective: it is an evil which the modern world thinks has conquered and relegated to the history book. But today’s media, Nongovernmental organizations, human right organizations and the police cases paints a different picture. Reports form these organizations point out that trafficking is one of the most important sources to keep the deadly slavery practices alive. International Organization for Migration has given figures of victims’ exploitation such as physical and sexual violence 95%, forced economic exploitation 32%, forced commercial sexual exploitation 43 %( 98% of these are females). Shelley has written in his book Human Trafficking: a Global Perspective that person’s consent becomes irrelevant when any means of trafficking is used. Child consent is not considered even if particular means are not used in trafficking. Migrant smuggling and human trafficking is same but they differ in four aspects such as: Migrant smuggling is usually undertaken in unsafe and humiliating conditions. The victims are never consented before the trafficked if they are consent it could be by the use of power, abuse etc to get their consent according to smugglers intension. Migrant smuggling ends when a victim reaches its destination, whereas trafficking includes continuous exploitation of the victims.Smuggling is international where as trafficking could be local or international. In smuggling profits are earned by transporting or illegal entry or stay facility provided by the smuggler in another country. Where as in trafficking profits is derived by exploiting the victims (112-140). The difference is faint and both overlap, so identifying either case is related to human trafficking or smuggling has become very difficult. Some reasons of these confusions are: Some victims are told that they are smuggles to other country illegally but later on they are exploited by deceived or force. Traffickers attract person by showing opportunities that seems more like smuggling, some time they are asked for fee for smuggling but later on they come to know traffickers intension. Criminals may smuggle and traffic peoples using same routes and methods to attract people. People are often misunderstood between the real smuggler and human traffickers. UNODC act as a guardian to UNTOC help states and organizations to control, suppress and punish people involved in human trafficking. It provides comprehensive anti trafficking strategies with implementation assistant. Assistance includes development of local capacity and skills, practices tools to persuade cross border cooperation in enquiry and tribunal . United Nations General Assembly has adopted a protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in person especially women and children, international efforts are geared to stop trade in human. Through Global Programme against trafficking in human being has helped member’s countries to eradicate this issue. Till today 110 countries have signed and ratify the protocol. But very few criminals are punished whereas large numbers of people involved in this crime are still unidentified. Aronowitz states in his book Human trafficking, human misery:  the global trade in human beings thats Every country of the world is affected by this some are origin, some are transit other are destination countries or some countries are involved in all these activities .But generally it is from developing countries to developed countries where people are attracted due to their poverty, war or miserable conditions. Furthermore it is observed that mostly human trafficking is regional or within national boundaries but international trafficking is also there (77-100 ) . Normally people are trafficked from Asia to Europe to different destination- whereas America is both the origin and destination of human trafficking. Some statistics of different region of world facing human trafficking given by International Labour Organization is that Latin America and Caribbean 10% , Asia and Pacific 56%, Middle East and Northern America 9.2% . To judge exact profit earned from the human trafficking is difficult but Patrick Besler has given estimated figures in his paper Forced Labour and Human Trafficking: Estimating the Profits by this the estimated profit from human trafficking is US $ 31.6 billion , out of which 49% is from industrialized countries ,303.6% from Asia and Pacific, 4.7% from middle east, 4.1% from Latin America and Pacific and other from Latin America and Caribbean. Some data about victims and culprits of human trafficking is available in UNICEF report UK Child trafficking Information Sheet .It states that victims are of any age and any gender but a large number of women are both victims and culprits. Female criminals have important role in human trafficking, former victims also become perpetrators. Majority of the victims are between the ages of 18 to 24, an estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked yearly. Men Culprits are 52%, women are 42% and 6% are from both gender. Almost 54% recruiters were stranger to the victims and in 42% they were known to victims. Joyce has written about the industries with human trafficking in his book Human Trafficking that most of trafficked people are deployed are agriculture, horticulture, construction, garments, restaurants, domestic work, entertainment, and sex industry. Trafficked forced labour affects the people working on irregular employment, migration status, health care, contract cleaning and food processing (6-10). Some of the steps are given by Joyce in his book Human Trafficking through which person can help in eliminating human trafficking keep himself updated by reading news paper and follow events as this is happening everywhere. Create awareness in people about what is human trafficking how they can be affected. Person can talk on this with his friends, family colleagues or local politician so that any suspect can be eradicated. Individuals should participate in anti trafficking activities such as campaign or workshop to get latest updates. Person should be responsible consumer by knowing what practices business follows to get his product ready. If there is any exploitation involves specially child or force labor is involved in business, he should raise voice against that and inform concern authorities. Person should be well informed about his surrounding neighborhood, colleagues or workers, if he finds any culprit he should inform to concern authorities so that action could be taken on time before it is too late (41-49). Human trafficking is harsh reality of modern world .Human beings have become so cruel that we exploit other humans for our own benefit. Many national and international organizations are taking measures to stop and eliminate it but the process is very slow. Mostly people involved in this practice are double face on one hand they are doing some sort of welfare work or normal business and on other hand they are involve in trafficking which made it difficult to identify them. Now it is the responsibility of the government and people to take steps to eliminate it. The government should take steps to reduce poverty, biased justice system and instability which have been root causes of why people become victim to trafficking in developing countries. People should keep their eyes on surroundings so that any culprit can be punished. Work Cited Aronowitz Alexis A. Human trafficking, human misery:  the global trade in human beingsGreenwood Publishing Group,2009. “Human Trafficking” UNODC,18.May 2011< http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human trafficking/whatishumantrafficking.html?ref=menuside#What_is_Human_Trafficking> Joyce Hart , Human Trafficking the Rosen Publishing Group, 2009. Patrick Besler, Forced Labour and Human Trafficking: Estimating the Profits, working paper (Geneva, International Labour Office, 2005) Shelley Louise Human Trafficking:  A Global Perspective Cambridge University Press, 2010. UNICEF, UK Child Trafficking Information Sheet (January 2003) United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Trafficking in Persons: Global Patterns (Vienna, 2006) Read More