Sex Trafficking In America

Topic A: Sex Trafficking in the Americas

The United Nations defines human trafficking as "the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring, or receipt of persons, by means of the treat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability, or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation." It is a very urgent and pressing issue in many developing countries as it is one of the most profitable sources of illegal income. The Dominican Republic is not an exception to this. Although the Dominican Republic’s economy is growing at a respectable rate, income

In fact, the poorest half of the country earns less than one-fifth of the Dominican Republic’s GNP while the wealthier ten percent enjoys more than forty percent of the Dominican Republic’s national income. This results in the massive industry of human trafficking. One of the most profiting criminal trades in the Dominican Republic is sex trafficking. Generating $9.5 billion USD annually, human trafficking in the Dominican Republic is the third largest international crime enterprise in the Caribbean.

Why human trafficking? It is because it rewards a much higher income while also greatly reduces risks posed by other illegal activities such as drug smuggling and arms trading. In the past, the Dominican Republic has tried to fight human trafficking through increasing job opportunities, stricter crackdown on border security and even from receiving financial support from more developed countries such as the United States of America. As a signatory for the UNTIP otherwise known as the Protocol to

The total GDP growth for the country in 2012 is 4.5%, significantly more than the average of the region, 2.8%. The Dominican Republic has the second-largest economy out of all the nations in the Caribbean Sea; the Dominican Republic’s largest economic sectors are agriculture, free trade, and services such as tourism. The most important trading partner for the Dominican Republic is the United States of America. This bilateral relationship comprises approximately seventy-five percent of export revenues of the Dominican Republic. There exists a Free Trade Zone industry in the Dominican Republic, which provides approximately 70 percent of the total exports, around 4.55 billion US dollars, of the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic’s economy places a strong focus on external markets and aims at diversifying the means of production, in order to keep up with the economic demands of the developing