Solutions to Child trafficking in Romania
The Guardian describes the story of Marinela, A seventeen year old Romanian girl who was kidnapped and sold as a sex slave. The British newspaper shared that “[Marinela’s] Daily shifts lasted twelve hours, 10pm to 10am, seven days a week.” She was later discovered and arrested for prostitution in England. It was also reported that, “Her first day in custody was the first time since her arrival in England six months earlier that she had not been forced to have sex.” (Townsend). Unfortunately, Marinela’s story is not unique, she was discovered with at least one hundred other Romanian teenage girls, and she is one of an estimated four million victims of human trafficking each year (Moju Project). Romania’s
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1 This is a population pyramid of Romania. The massive population boom (in now middle-aged Romanians) is evident of how destructive Ceausescu’s population laws were (Central Intelligence Agency).
The combination of food insecurity and these utterly insane tactics drove the infant mortality rate in Romania up to 83 deaths out of 1000 births (“Over-planned Parenting”). Since many women were unable to feed themselves, let alone all of their children, a large majority of infants were abandoned to grow up in state- run institutions. Romania is infamous for these inhumane and abusive establishments, and they have become a symbol of communist oppression in the country. Since the fall of communism and assassination of Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989, conditions for women have improved drastically, but the country is still reeling from these laws, and mistreatment of women has taken a new form. Romania’s past of discrimination towards women has inspired a lack of self-worth and confidence, especially for their institutionalized population. These factors have contributed to why Romania is one of the largest sources and transit countries in the world for human trafficking
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Awareness is an instrumental weapon in the fight against human trafficking. Other than the bloody coup d’etat that took place in Romania late in 1989, the world knows very little about the Eastern European country (Smith). Romanian’s take pride in their country and how they reclaimed it from Communism; if they were aware that their reputation in the West involved forced prostitution and corruption, the problem would most likely be more ardently combatted in their country. In order for this to happen, awareness must be raised, inside and outside of Romania. An example of one significant way awareness can be raised is by spreading the first-hand accounts of women who have escaped or survived ordeals as Romanian sex
As victim count continues to rise, its difficult to see how such great numbers of men, women and children are bought and sold every year. Trafficking can be found in many forms, including: prostitution, slavery, or forced labor (Harf and Lombardi, 2014). It wasn’t until the 1980’s that international human trafficking became globally noticed. With the lack of government intervention and control in several nations, and the free trade market, slavery once again became a profitable industry (Harf and Lombardi, 2014). As previously mentioned, easier movement across nations borders is one of the outcomes of globalization. It is also what makes human trafficking so easy today. It is estimated that about 20.9 million people are victims across the entire globe (United Nations Publications, 2012); trafficking accounts for 32 billion dollars in generated profit globally (Brewer, n.d). 58 percent of all human trafficking was for the purpose of sexual exploitation, and of this 55-60 percent are women (United Nations Publications,
The significance of this publication is to promote awareness on the issue of sex trafficking.
Awareness of sex trafficking is very important because it can lead to the prevention of this modern slavery. Lack of awareness is a major reason for the existence of modern slavery because not many people know what to do about it. In the modern age, “one of the biggest impediments to anti-trafficking efforts is
Merlan, Anna (2014, January 30). Just in Time for February, the Myth of Sex Trafficking and the
Raymond, Janice G. “The Ongoing Tragedy of International Slavery and Human Trafficking: An Overview.” Serial No. 108–137. 29 October 2003.
In comparison, many other countries have geared towards adopting policies that deal with human sex trafficking. The European Union’s tactic to trafficking begins from a gender and human rights perspective and focuses on prevention, prosecution of criminals and protection of victims. These ideals can be reflected in Directive on trafficking in human beings adopted on March 21, 2011. Much like U.S foreign policies dealing with human trafficking, the Directive focus is committing to the prevention of and fights against trafficking in human beings, and to the protection of the rights of trafficked persons. Within the Asian continent twenty-three out of the twenty-seven countries opt to adopt specific legislative provisions to fight human trafficking
Awareness of child sexual trafficking can be viewed as a balanced scale, with one side representing the country’s population that is fully informed of the issue, while the other side is either unaware or unattached to the issue. The public needs to have more involvement with this affair based on multiple concerns; first, the act of child sex trafficking itself is a serious crime that violates human rights (Fong & Cardoso, 2010). Second, various negative health repercussion including transmittable sexual diseases, physical damages, mental disturbance, post traumatic stress disorders, and other illnesses plague many victims (Fong & Cardoso, 2010). Third, sexual trafficking is responsible for generating poverty as a result of obstructing economic, and social development (Reid, 2012). Child sex trafficking proves to be a global dilemma affecting numerous countries
Summary: We see that there are many different aspects and types of human trafficking that everyone should be made aware of. As a whole human trafficking is a lucrative industry raking in $150 BILLION globally. The impact that this industry has on its victims is
Human trafficking is the act of coercing someone into working against his or her will. Anyone can be a victim, especially young girls who are vulnerable to the captor’s lies. Victims have been found anywhere from driving ice cream trucks to touring boys’ choir. In her talk, Noy Thrupkaew shares several examples about how people are deceived and coerced into coming to the United States and being forced to work for someone else. She focuses on how close to home human trafficking really is and how the victims don’t necessarily need saving but solidarity. In Noy Thrupkaew’s speech about human trafficking, she not only shares her own story but also the different situations regarding how the crime functions. Because the speaker
The influx in human trafficking during this time, combined with a historical view of women as inferior, has led to the cultural acceptance of
Human trafficking propaganda often serves as the justification for increasing penalties for consensual adult prostitution. As a matter of fact, Nikki Adams from the English Collective of Prostitutes confronted a former member of the British Parliament, Denis McShane, on the BBC program Newsnight because he had cited estimates that 25,000 women were trafficked into the U.K. every year. As a result, the British Parliament expanded their trafficking laws in a way like Sweden and thus those law deter independent prostitutes from working with their peers for safety reasons. “I thought that you were coming on the program to apologize because the claim is so clearly ludicrous and this Guardian article does begin to uncover the truth to what is actually going on,” said Nikki
Sex trafficking is a global issue that involves a form of coerced sexual exploitation, which is not limited to prostitution. Victims of sex trafficking are stripped of their basic human rights and forced to live a life of modern slavery. The U.S. State Department (Stop Child Trafficking Now, 2012) has stated that human trafficking is “one of the fastest growing crimes in the world.” It it hard to put a number on how on many people are living inside the sex trafficking industry for many reasons, one being that not all victims come forward. It is estimated by the U.S. State Department (Stop Child Trafficking Now, 2012) that every year “600,00-800,000 people will be trafficked across international borders, 80% being women and children.” This
Sex trafficking is essentially systemic rape for profit. Force, fraud and coercion are used to control the victim’s behavior which may secure the appearance of consent to please the buyer (or john). Behind every transaction is violence or the threat of violence (Axtell par. 4). Just a decade ago, only a third of the countries studied by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime had legislation against human trafficking. (Darker Side, par.1) Women, children, and even men are taken from their homes, and off of the streets and are brought into a life that is almost impossible to get out of. This life is not one of choice, it is in most times by force. UNODC estimates that the total international human trafficking is a $32-billion-per-year business, and that 79% of this activity comprises sexual exploitation. As many as 2 million children a year are victims of commercial sexual exploitation, according the the U.S. State Department.-- Cynthia G. Wagner. (Darker Side, par. 4) The words prostitute, pimp, escort, and stripper tend to be way too common in the American everyday vocabulary. People use these words in a joking manner, but sex trafficking is far from a joke. Everyday, from all different countries, people are bought and sold either by force or false promises. Some are kidnapped and others come to America with dreams of a dream life and job. The buyers involved in the trade will do anything to purchase an innocent life just to sell for their own selfish profit. Many people wouldn’t think of a human body to be something you can buy in the back room of a business or even online. But those plus the streets are where people are sold most often. There are many reasons and causes for sex trafficking. The factors behind sex traffic...
"Facts On Human Trafficking And Sex Slavery | Soroptimist." Soroptimist.org. N. p., 2017. Web. 14
Web. 10 Feb 2014 Radu, Roberta. “Romania’s Child Brides”. The Guardian.com. 29