Human Trafficking

Human Trafficking:

Name:

Institution:

INTRODUCTION

For my research project, I set out to investigate reasons why human trafficking thrives, the scope of its impact and why the government is unable to curb its growth. Human trafficking is the illegal movement or abduction of people, typically for the purposes of forced labour or commercial sexual exploitation. Not many are aware, but this is a form of modern-day slavery, where certain individuals make money through the control and exploitation of others. Most individuals go about their lives oblivious to the fact that human trafficking happens every day around them. Human trafficking happens today in areas in the United States and others nations around the world. Traffickers often use force, fraud or coercions tactics to control their victims for purposes of engaging them in forced labour or sexual favours against their will. Every day in America, traffickers will go exact debt bondage, violence, threats, violence, deception, and other equally manipulative tactics so as to trap their victims in horrific circumstances. The common thing with all the victims of human trafficking is the loss of their fundamental right to freedom (Feingold, 2005).

In the United States, sex trafficking takes place in brothels disguised as massage parlours or spas, street prostitution, residential brothels and online escort services. Labour Trafficking, on the other hand, is commonly observed or practiced domestic servitude situations, as well as carnivals, large farms, sales crews, restaurants and many more. The two primary factors that encourage the growth and spread of human trafficking are the high profits and low risk that are associated with the vice. Every year, the human traffickers generate billions of dollars in profits by victimizing millions of people around the world, including here in the United States (Tyldum & Brunovskis, 2005).

BACKGROUND OF THE TOPIC

In the modern days, the term human trafficking may be interpreted to mean many things. For instance, individuals may be held without their consent as domestic workers with little or no remuneration and with limited opportunities for finding alternative employment elsewhere. Others may be coerced into prostitution and prohibited from contact with outside parties that could offer them help (Lee, 2013).

The United Nations Protocol to Suppress, Punish and Prevent human trafficking particularly among women and children defines human trafficking as: The transportation, recruitment, harbouring, receipt or transfer of persons by use of force, abduction, deception coercion, fraud, abuse of power or bribing a person that has control over another so as to exploit them through forced labour, sexual favours or the removal of their organs. U.S. Anti-Human Trafficking Legislation categorizes human trafficking into two sex trafficking and labour trafficking. Here sex trafficking is commercial sex imposed on an individual especially if that person is under the age of eighteen and labour trafficking is induced forced labour (Shelley, 2010).

Most of the individuals that are victims of human trafficking have limited resources if any and will in most cases go unrecognized by social services representatives, law enforcement agencies and state-funded service providers. The silence of their victimization allows the criminals the chance to carry on the vice under the radar of law enforcement agencies thus making the significance of this crime more important understand (Lee, 2013).

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Why is human trafficking thriving: Why I human trafficking thriving is the main question of for this project. Similar to arms and drug trafficking, human trafficking is essentially a market-driven criminal industry that is supported by the principle of supply and demand. The following sub-questions will seek to answer this question: why does it have demand, what are the tactics employed by the traffickers, reasons why victims are caught in the net of the traffickers and reasons why the government has been unable to contain vice (Gozdiak, 2011).

Why does demand thrive: The various reasons provide a conducive environment for the demand of human trafficking to flourish; this includes the nature of the vice as being low risk. It is a highly demanded job description because the community is mostly unaware of its existence, the government institutions are not sufficiently trained to deal with the issue and the laws that are meant to check the problem are ineffective or dormant (Lee, 2013). For this reason, human traffickers perceive little risk or deterrence to affect their criminal operations. The business has excellent returns. When customers pay for sexual favours, they inadvertently create a niche for the sex traffickers to target the vulnerable and pimp them out to satisfy demand. On the other hand, consumers that buy goods produced by firms that are pro labour trafficking or that mainly rely on forced labour, they create the demand for labourers and thus the traffickers seek the workers and force them to work in these organisations (Laczko & Gramegna, 2003).

What tactics are employed by the traffickers: Traffickers are normally people that are acquitted with the victims thus share a cultural background, ethnicity or nationality. They lure and ensnare their victims into forced labour and sex trafficking by manipulating and exploiting their vulnerabilities. They do this through the use of force, kidnapping, psychological coercion, physical violence, deception and threats. The victims may be lured and thus caught by being promised better-paying jobs, favourable working conditions or exciting and new opportunities (Shelley, 2007).

Reasons victims are caught in the net of human trafficking: The victims that fall prey to these human traffickers may come from diverse backgrounds, varied cultures, gender, ethnicity, nationality and educational levels, but they all share the one characteristic of vulnerability. Most are convinced that better jobs await them with better pay and stability. Vulnerabilities such as, victims of domestic violence, war or conflict, sexual assault or runaway and homeless youth are all avenues that the traffickers seek to exploit. Most of this victims due to always being moved and not speaking the language of their captors cannot easily access help thus remain as their prisoners for extended periods of time (Gozdziak & Collett, 2005).

Reasons why the government is not stopping the vice: Most government agencies are not well equipped in to tackle this vice. Such agencies lack the resources required to detect, investigate and track those that are engaging in trafficking. Funding to finance such operations may lack or not be sufficient because to effectively run down a trafficking network, it would require a massive budget that these agencies lack. Proper and effective policy that can support government efforts of curbing human trafficking also lacks thus leading to frustration among law enforcers and the offenders getting away (Laczko, 2005).

PROFESSIONAL SIGNIFICANCE OF YOUR WORK

The main reason is to highlight the grievous and heinous nature of human trafficking and thus notify the community who are uninformed about it. Statistics for the ILO indicate that there are 20.9 million cases of human trafficking worldwide of which 5.5 million children and 55% are either women or girls. The human trafficking industry is a $150 billion industry globally. Hundreds of thousands of children are estimated to be in the sex trade in the United States, and this number is constantly on the increase with each New Year (Shelley, 2010).

OVERVIEW OF METHODOLOGY

The best method to gather relevant and accurate information for this research would be to host interviews with people that were once victims of the vice and got their first-hand information on the subject. Also, video and audio recording of previous interviews of victims may be sought. Another reliable source of content is the internet especially, government websites that research on the issue (Belser, 2005).

DELIMITATIONS

The research investigates the reasons why human trafficking thrives. Therefore, its boundaries will be the scope of the impact of human trafficking, the various reasons that facilitate its growth and reasons why the government is unable to curb its growth (Lee, 2013).

DEFINITIONS

Trafficking refers to a deal or trade in something illegal. Human Trafficking is the unlawful movement of people, typically for the purposes of forced labour or commercial sexual exploitation. Drug Trafficking is a worldwide illegal trade that involves cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of substances listed under the drug and prohibition laws (Gozdiak, 2011).

REFERENCES

Belser, P. (2005). Forced labour and human trafficking: Estimating the profits. Available at SSRN 1838403.

Feingold, D. A. (2005). Human trafficking. Foreign Policy, 26-32.

Gozdiak, E. M. (2011). Data and research on human trafficking: Bibliography of research-based literature. DIANE Publishing.

Gozdziak, E. M., & Collett, E. A. (2005). Research on human trafficking in North America: A review of literature. International Migration, 43(1-2), 99-128.

Laczko, F. (2005). Data and research on human trafficking. International Migration, 43(1‐2), 5-16.

Laczko, F., & Gramegna, M. A. (2003). Developing better indicators of human trafficking. Brown J. World Aff., 10, 179.

Lee, M. (Ed.). (2013). Human trafficking. Routledge.

Shelley, L. (2007). Human trafficking as a form of transnational crime. Human trafficking, 116-137.

Shelley, L. (2010). Human trafficking: A global perspective. Cambridge University Press.

Tyldum, G., & Brunovskis, A. (2005). Describing the unobserved: Methodological challenges in empirical studies on human trafficking. International Migration, 43(1/2), 17-34.