Throughout many centuries, the exploitation and abuse of children and adolescents led to the current trafficking problem occurring in Southeastern Asian countries. Child sex trafficking is known as one of the most common types of trafficking in the Asian nations.
Traced back to the Vietnam War in 1954, according to Nikolic-Ristanovic Vesna the visit of many U.S. soldiers caused a major demand for prostitution, which would later on convert to sex tourism. The U.S. soldiers being away from their home, and especially their wives, for very long periods of time, started feeling the need of sexual pleasure. As a result, many Asian women and children were forced and raped by U.S. armies. The consequences, would later be reflected in the countries that now face the major concern of child sex trafficking.
Currently, the commercial sexual exploitation of children exists in almost every Asian country, including: Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Burma. For various reasons, child sex trafficking dominates many countries. “It is reported that 23,000 Cambodian per year are victims of trafficking, including minors” (United Stated Department of State). Laos also has groups of 50 to 100 Lao victims among thousands of Lao national deportees. The UNIAP, reports that because of poverty issues, lack of education and the need of employment, many children are abused and placed in the sex industry. As well, the Polaris Project Organization emphasizes that exposed populations are homeless youth. The United States Department of State adds that parents sometimes force their children to work in domestic services in urban areas, knowing and not knowing the risk of their child being trafficked. Moreover, the Polaris Project points out that the nu...
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...hild sex trafficking, which does not provide minors a protection from trafficking. So government in order to stop or lessen the sex trafficking in children they must create laws and policies to protect children rights in Southeastern Asia.
Child sex trafficking is tolerated by many Southeastern countries, impacting negatively the lives of many children; however attempts could be made to vanish the sexual exploitation of children.
Work Cited
“2013 Trafficking in Persons Report-Thailand.” Refworld.org United Sates Department of State,
19 Jun. 2013. Web. 17 Feb., 2014.
“Commercial sexual exploitation of Children.” International Labour Organization,. International
Labour Organization, n.d. Web. 17 Feb., 2014.
Polaris Project. Polaris Project, n.d. Web. 11 Feb., 2014
UNIAP. United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking, n.d. Web. 30 Jan., 2014
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
The significance of this publication is to promote awareness on the issue of sex trafficking.
This is an interdisciplinary paper, which focuses on the trafficking of young women and children into prostitution. It starts with a brief description of what is human trafficking and how it works as a business. Then, it focuses on the sex trafficking part of it and how young women and children are more vulnerable to victimization and exploitation. Many victims of human trafficking are under this idea of debt bondage, which is sort of the commitment that victims have with their traffickers. Victims are forced to work until they pay their debt, which most of the time is unpayable. Public corruption is one of the many reasons why many traffickers can transport their victims within or out of the country, which can make it harder to help the victims,
According to Van Wormer & Bartollas (2014), sex trafficking, “encompasses the organized movement of people, usually women, between countries and within countries for sex work” (p. 289). Sex trafficking is also a very lucrative business, it is estimated to make $31. 6 billion annually. This amount is estimated from the 2.5 million people who a trafficked each year. The exact number of people who are victims of the sex industry cannot be predicted accurately for all over the world. In the United States alone there is about 14,500-17,500 people trafficked each year. Human trafficking it the third biggest organized crime after drug and arms trafficking (Hodge, 2014). Young men make up about 44% of people being trafficked, while women and girls
Sex trafficking is when women, young girls, and young boys are held in slavery and forced into prostitution for the financial gain of others in brothels in the United States, Europe, and other developing countries such as Thailand and the Philippines (Sexual Slavery). It’s happened to many women and children throughout many years in many of these countries for money and more power. Often purchased or kidnapped off the street, women, girls, and boys are trafficked across international
Majority of human trafficking are worldwide which involves the transportation of victims from Africa, South and Eastern Asia, Central and South America, Russia and other developing countries to developed countries in Asia, the Middle East, North America and central and southeastern countries of the European continent. It is the Asia-Pacific region where a majority of the world’s forced laborers come from followed by Africa. The Asia-Pacific region contributes 56% or 11.7 million victims, while Africa accounts 18% or 3.7 million victims of human trafficking. The meltdown of the global economy in the recent times has given rise to an increase in contemporary slavery. About 26 percent of modern slaves are children below the age of 18 years, out of which girls are the victims of child prostitution and
In order to understand how sex trafficking affects its victims, one must first know the severity of sex trafficking and what it is. The issue of sex trafficking affects 2.5 million people at any given time (Abas et al., 2013). The form of sex slavery affects many women and children across the world. Even though both males and females are sexually trafficked and exploited, there is a deep emphasis on the sexual exploitation of women and children. This is due to gender discrimination (Miller, 2006). This is because women and children are more vulnerable and appeal to the larger populations of brothels and the so-called “clients” since the majority are men. Ecclestone (2013) stated that children as young as age three are trafficked. Sex trafficking has changed over time; “Today, the business of human sex trafficking is much more organized and violent. These women and young girls are sold to traffickers, locked up in rooms or brothels for weeks or months, drugged, terrorized, and raped repeatedly” (Walker-Rodriguez & Hill, 2011). It is found that many of the victims of sex trafficking are abducted, recruited, transported and forced into involuntary “sex work”. These sexual acts include prostitution, exotic dancing, pornography, and sexual escort services (McClain & Garrity, 2011). What happens to these sex trafficking victims is extremely traumatizing.
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,
Many people are aware of the issue of minor sex trafficking in the United States, but people may not be aware of the extent of the problem or what it is that attracts these “pimps” to children in the sex trafficking business. Sex trafficking is a major issue both in the United States and in foreign countries, although many Americans do not realize that there are more U.S. citizens that make up the victim count of traffickers than foreign nationals, and of these victims, children are the most vulnerable (cite DMST). According to the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000,
... living conditions and are constant fear. Next form of human trafficking is, trafficking for forced labour. Victims of this equally widespread form of trafficking come primarily from developing countries. They are recruited and trafficked using deception. They find themselves held in conditions of slavery in a variety of jobs. Men, women, and children are engaged in agricultural and construction work, domestic servitude and other harsh jobs. The final most common form of human trafficking is commercial sexual exploitation of children and tourists. This crime type has been apparent in Asia for many years and has now taken hold in Africa as well as Central and South America. The growth of this is promoted by the growth of inexpensive air travel and the relatively low risk of prohibition and prosecution in these destinations for engaging in sexual relations with minors.
“Injuries of human dignity and Human rights of a globalized society. Nobody may be held in slavery or peonage; Slavery and slave trade are in all forms forbidden”. These are the words of the Universal declaration of human rights (United Nations, 1948).Human trafficking is just another name for modern-day slavery, where the victims involved are forced and deceived into labor and sexual exploitation. Exploitation referring to using others for prostitution or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery, or the removal of organs. The numbers are scary. Almost 600,000 to 800,000 women and children are annually trafficked across national borders. This does not count for the numbers that are trafficked within their own countries. Human trafficking is very much hidden and accurate data and the extent of nature of human trafficking are hard to calculate. Trafficked victims are often in dangerous positions and may be unwilling and too scared to jeopardize their lives to report or seek help from authorities. Victims live daily with emotional and physical abuse, inhumane treatment, and threats to their families, like they are going to torture...
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
Human trafficking is prevalent throughout the world, especially in Asia and more specifically in China but the government and non-governmental organizations (NGO) are taking measures to put an end to it. Human trafficking involves exploitation of human beings; either sexually or by coercing them to work in unfavourable conditions for little pay or nothing at all. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) defines human trafficking as “the acquisition of people by improper means such as force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them.” Women and children, especially girls between the ages of fourteen and twenty constitute the majority of victims of human trafficking. “China is a source, transit and destination country for human trafficking; the majority of which is internal trafficking” (www.humantrafficking.org).
The largest number of sex trafficking victims originates in Asia, with an estimated 150,000 annually from South Asia alone. India is a major destination country for sex trafficked women and girls, with large numbers of Nepalese, Bangladeshi, and rural Indian females trafficked to Indian cities annually. Mumbai is considered to be the most common sex trafficking destination within India (Silverman, Decker, Gupta, Maheshwari, Patel, Willis & Raj, 2007).
Human trafficking is a worldwide problem. From California to Australia, it happens. “161 countries are reported to be affected by human trafficking by being either a source, transit, or destination count. Out of the 161 countries, 56% of those are in Asia and the Pacific, being the number one place it occurs” (UNGIFT). Trailing far behind with 10% is Latin America and the Caribbean” (UNGIFT). No matter the location or the state of the economy, human trafficking is always in progress. “People are reported to be trafficked from 127 countries to be exploited in 137 countries, affecting every continent and every type of economy” (UNGIFT). “The majority of trafficking victims are between the ages of 18 and 24 years old” (UNGIFT). Just because those are the most common ages, doesn't mean that it only happens to them. Children are also affected by human trafficking. “An estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked each year” (UNGIFT). So many people think that it is just teens and adults that get stuck into the trafficking business, but it is also small children.