The United States is home to international victims of human trafficking from all over the world. These individuals, mostly women and children, leave their native countries with promise of safety, refuge, and work but in turn, are unwillingly made prostitutes or forced into different types of labor. The individuals that are saved, or the ones who escape this imprisonment, want nothing more than to have the new safe start in life in the land of opportunity that they were promised. Instead, they are threatened to be deported back to their home countries only to be persecuted against and live their lives in fear. This is why the United States government needs to grant illegal survivors of human trafficking whom are seeking asylum, the right to receive it.
Due to the undercover nature and the difficulty to get exact data for this reason, it is hard for any world agency to give precise information of the amount of victims of trafficking. However, the UN Office of Drugs and Crime (http://www.ungift.org/doc/knowledgehub/resourcecentre/GIFT_Human_Trafficking_An_Overview_2008.pdf) assesses that there is a minimum amount of 2.5 million human trafficking
For example, since the survivor has to be in the US due to human trafficking, this would exclude all of those survivors who came to America because they escaped where they were trafficked from. One of the other requirements is that the survivor has to show that they are a victim of a severe form of trafficking. Different individuals can interpret a severe form of trafficking differently. One’s definition of severe may be different than someone else’s, but no one will truly understand the horror experienced except the survivor. Forced labor survivors may have a difficult time proving that they are survivors since they accepted the presented job to them voluntarily at the time- unaware of the circumstances they were truly going to have to work
Many American citizens know of the criminal act of sex trafficking in third world countries, but very few know how much it takes place in the United States. In America prostitution, pornography, and stripping are all considered acts of sex trafficking when they are forced on the victim. This increased crime has led to victimization, physical and psychological effects and after-effects of American and international victims. The government is aware of the slavery of humans taking place in this country and it has to release funds in creating programs for sex trafficking survivors and re-authorize the act that protects sex trafficking victims, in order to support the equal rights for every citizen.
Country to country, person-to-person, human trafficking is becoming a bigger and bigger issue all across the globe, including right here in the United States. Human trafficking is said to be a form of modern-day slavery, subjecting its victims to commercial sex, debt bondage, and forced labor through force, fraud, or coercion. There are often no easily identifiable victims as they come in all ages, genders, and races. There are said to be at least 2.4 million victims of human trafficking across the globe at any given time, leading to profits of $32 billion for the criminal masterminds behind such trafficking operations, making it the second most lucrative criminal industry behind narcotics. Despite the abundance of victims, it is estimated that fewer than 30% of all countries report at least 10 trafficking convictions a year, and 20% of countries do not even have an offense for trafficking. An additional 20% of countries have an offense for trafficking but still report no convictions of the offense. Without an organized coalition to help prevent such atrocities, it is left up to national governments to come up with solutions for their respective nations, and many governments do not possess the know-how or effort needed to combat these crimes.
According to the Office for Victims of Crime, crimes committed against human trafficking victims can lead to the destruction of basic life assumptions; that one is safe from harm, one is a good and decent person, and the world is meaningful and just (Office for Victims of Crime, 1998). Working through the psychological trauma experienced by trafficking victims can require long-term, comprehensive mental health therapy (Briere & Scott, 2014). The health care response to trafficking victims in the United States differs greatly from efforts made by governments and health care entities. The health care response to trafficking victims in the United States differs greatly from efforts made by governments and health care entities in developing countries. In many developing countries, governments have allocated no financial support for programs to combat human trafficking, or for programs to provide medical care to victims. Lack of funding, trained medical staff and the stigmatization placed on many victims once back in their home countries can make access to appropriate health care virtually
According to a new report from the National Human Trafficking Resource Center as many as
Human Trafficking is a form of modern slavery that exists throughout the United States and Mexico. In Prayers of The Stolen, there are plenty of examples in Mexico where women and young children were being taken. Some women who have been taken never return back to see their families. They have known to start trafficking along the U.S. Mexico border. This is where human trafficking is developing and experts have said that the U.S. government is trying to police and control the nation’s borders to put a stop to human trafficking.
Sexual exploitation exploits women and provides a vehicle for racism in a “first world” country like America, where victimization rates are disproportionately higher with “third world” women (O'Connor & Healy, 2007). Goodson is an anti-trafficking activist, is director of international programs for Shared Hope International which is an organization who works with victims of sex trafficking. From her experience, many victims are poor and are sexually abused children and young adults who are swayed by the promises of a better life. Once they reach the United States, the victims are psychologically and physically abused. In the United States, victims of international sex trafficking come primarily from South and Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Africa through states such as Florida, California and New York (Goodson, 2006). The U.S. Department of State estimates that about 600,000 to 800,000 people, mostly women and children, are trafficked across national borders annually. Furthermore, it is estimated that 17,500 to 20,000 victims are trafficked into the U.S. annually, with Florida receiving a high percentage of those victims. Although the people who enter the United States are often not legally permitted to enter the United States, Lagon asserts that it is important to note the difference between human
To begin, human sex trafficking is an enormous industry. The sex industry makes up approximately 75-80 percent of human trafficking (“55 Little Know” 1).
The penalties to traffickers is inadequate and often the victims of sex trafficking are punished. Prostitution is a punishable crime no matter what your age. Many times the children are punished for prostituting because either police officers are inadequately trained to deal with sex trafficking or because that is the only way they can get them away from their pimp/trafficker. “This statute explicitly recognizes that existing laws often fail to protect victims of trafficking and, paradoxically, often punish victims more severely than they do traffickers.” (Hodge, 148) Symbolic interactionists would argue that by failing the children with the laws that punish them harsher than the actual perpetrator, these kids develop a complex due to labeling
The organization, Stop the Traffik, defines human trafficking as “to be deceived or taken against your will, bought, sold and transported into slavery. For sexual exploitation, forced begging, sacrificial worship or removal of human organs, as child brides or into sweat shops, circuses, farm labour and domestic servitude” (Stop the Traffik, 2014). It is estimated by the International Labour Organization that up to 20.9 million people are toiling as modern slaves around the globe generating 19 billion dollars per year (Clause, 2013). Although there are many forms of human trafficking, prostitution occurs in almost half of these cases. See Figure 1.
Sex trafficking is a human right issue which breaks the slavery violation in the UDHR. It 's going on in many countries like Thailand and is happening to young children. This should be stopped because its inhuman and no child or person should have to go through it.
“Human trafficking coerces and persuades their victims to cross national borders in search of new jobs and better opportunities and after that they are forced into some sort of labor bondage” (At Issue: Human Trafficking 1). Even though trafficking is a problem in almost every country; poorer countries have a bigger problem with it because they are more desperate for work. Just in 2000, the U.S. enacted their first federal anti-trafficking law, called the Victims of Trafficking Protection Act (At Issue: Human Trafficking 1). Trafficking has just begun to receive notice on how big of a problem it actually is. “Proponents of strict anti-trafficking initiatives say that laws and prevention against trafficking are necessary in order to stem the growing tide of large scale organized crime that profits off of smuggling and trafficking” (At Issue: Human Trafficking 1).
Thousands of foreigners are smuggled across national borders as forced labour in factories, farms, and brothels. Many are forced to become victims of human trafficking through force or the false promise of the American dream. The threat of human trafficking presently is that it deprives people of their human rights, it is a global health risk, and fuels the growth of organized crimes, such as sex crimes. Within this paper I will discuss my research on human trafficking and the victims’ deprivation of human rights. In order to so, I will synthesize three relevant sources on this topic, discuss additional questions that should be addressed when further researching this issue from a peace studies perspective, and outline a specific proposal for future research.
Human trafficking involves women, children as well as men, but the human traffickers are rather known for kidnapping women. When the victims are being used as slaves for someone else’s personal use, they are also being physically and mentally abused by their overseer to rip apart their self esteem and confidence. These helpless victims are commonly kidnapped, taken by force and drugged and shipped off to another country to be taken advantage of as sex slaves. Brazil, Thailand, India and Ghana are the most well known countries that are famous for human trafficking mentioned by Kinika Bambra in 10 Countries that are Famous for Human Trafficking written last summer. 7,000 Nepali girls as young as nine years old are sold every year into India’s red-light district, human trafficking is a devastating effect that is happening everywhere.
“Stolen people, stolen dream” is the brutality faced by numerous, vulnerable, gullible children in the black market around the world even in the admirable United States. Trafficking of children is the modern day slavery, the act of recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining a person for compelled labor or commercial sex acts through the use of force, fraud, or coercion. More than ever, it has become a lucrative method that is trending in the underground economy. A pimp can profit up to $150,000 per children from age 4-12 every year, as reported by the UNICEF. Also, according to the International Labor Organization statistics, “There are 20.9 million victim of human trafficking globally, with hundreds of thousands in the United
Human Trafficking is trading human beings for sex, labor, or any other force trade. It is known as modern day slavery. Many people in the United States believe that slavery was abolished long ago, but the truth is slavery exist more now than it ever has before. People are being trafficked all around us. Victims of human trafficking range in age, gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Typically victims share one thing in common, they become isolated from either their country of origin or their families in hope of a better life. Nearly 100,000 children in the United States are currently exploited through commercial sex trade. Over 27 million people worldwide are trapped in human trafficking. Many people are negligent of the fact that millions of people are currently living enslaved in the sex industry. The statistic remains that there is a battle going on worldwide. Ending any form of human slavery will never happen, but becoming aware of the problem and creating ways to stop the numbers from rising or even getting the numbers to decrease should be important. People are not property and no one human being should own another human being. Battles are fought all over the world for people who are oppressed, why is there not a bigger battle for the millions of people being bought and sold right now? It is injustice. Although this global crime is a huge problem that seems way too big to begin solving. There is a way to become aware, speak out, and stop sitting on the sidelines. Even though many people picture slavery as a thing of the past, it never ended. Even though many citizens of the United States see slavery in their mind as something in some far off country and brush the notion aside, t...