Human Trafficking

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Human trafficking is a human rights issue that has been occurring for thousands of years. Human trafficking is defined as “the recruitment, of a person for labor or services through the use of fraud.” (Ford 71.) The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade of Africans to the Americas to be sold into slavery was the largest case of human trafficking in the world. The Portuguese began the transportation of people from Africa and using them as slaves. In the late 1500’s British joined and later other countries became more involved. The most recent public case of human trafficking was the abduction of the 234 Nigerian school girls on April 15, 2014 to be sold as wives by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram. Today about 80% of human trafficking victims are women and children and is estimated to be a multi-billion dollar business.
The best known form of human trafficking is the sex industry, but despite popular opinion most victims of human trafficking are used for labor. The market for workers is far greater than the sex industry. "Thousands of victims are trafficked for the purposes of forced labor, domestic servitude, child begging, or the removal of their organs" (UNODC.org) “A study conducted in 2005 concluded at about 9.5 million victims forced into labor in Asia. Less than 10 percent were trafficked for commercial sex exploitation” (Feingold 26.) Asia and the pacific region have the largest number of victims in the world. Further studies indicate that “East African girls trafficked were bound for oppressive domestic work, and were raped and even beaten.” (Feingold 26.) Teenage boys from Cambodia are frequently trafficked into being deep sea commercial fishermen. They often times stay at sea for 2 years and most don’t make it back due to i...

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... I spread awareness about human trafficking is by posting a flyer about human trafficking in every academic building on campus and posting the hotline number on all of my social media. I also have watched several movies with friends about human trafficking such as 12 Years a Slave, Taken, and Whores Glory. After the movies we discussed how real human trafficking is and it affects people’s lives every day whether it’s here in America or abroad. Like Krishnan stated in her Ted talk it only takes telling two persons to about the issue of human trafficking. You don’t have to be a human rights activist or a notable figure to make this issue more known amongst our peers. I sent text messages to close friends of mine about human trafficking, gave them the number to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center and I told them to pass the message along to another person.

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