Trafficking in human beings

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Trafficking is a term to define the recruiting, harboring, obtaining, transportation of a person by use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjecting them to involuntary acts, such as acts related to commercial sexual exploitation (including prostitution) or involuntary labor. Trafficked persons are often from the most vulnerable in society (especially in post-conflict situations, such as the former-Yugoslavia), they may also be university educated and from all backgrounds, races, and classes. Human trafficking is often seen as a modern form of slavery.

Human trafficking is the trade of human beings and their use by criminals to make money. That could mean forcing or tricking people into prostitution, begging, or manual labor. Between 2 and 4 million people are trafficked worldwide every year, the majority in East Asia and as many as 500,000 people are trafficked in Europe every year. 20,000 people are trafficked into the United States each year. Trafficking in people is also increasing in Africa, South Asia and South America. The majority, about 80%, of victims trafficked across international borders are female and 70% of those women and girls are trafficked for sexual exploitation, forced into prostitution.

Contents

Introduction

In East and South East Asia and Europe, girls and young women are particularly at risk from criminals who promise good jobs or study and then force the victims to be prostitutes. The criminals profit while the girls and women suffer rape and other physical and mental violence.

Men are also at risk of being trafficked for unskilled work predominantly involving hard labor. Other forms of trafficking include bonded sweatshop labor, forced marriage, and domestic servitude.

Human trafficking is so common now that it is the third most profitable criminal activity in the world after illegal drugs and arms trafficking. Globally, forced labor - which includes sexual exploitation - generates $31bn, half of it in the industrialised world, a tenth in transition countries, the International Labour Organization says in a report on forced labor ("A global alliance against forced labour", ILO, 11 May 2005). Trafficking in people has been facilitated by porous borders and advanced communication technologies, it has become increasingly transnational in scope and highly lucrative. Unlike drugs or arms, women and children can be "sold" several times. The trafficking in human beings is not new. But it is a rapidly growing problem. A number of factors have led to its expansion, such as the easy profits made from exploitation; growing deprivation and marginalization of the poor; discrimination against women; restrictive migration laws; a lack of information about the realities and dangers of trafficking and insufficient penalties against traffickers. The opening up of Asian markets, porous borders, the end of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the former Yugoslavia have contributed to this dark side to globalization.

The trafficker takes away the basic human rights of the victim: the freedom to move, to choose, to control her body and mind, and to control her future. Victims do not agree to be trafficked - they are tricked - lured by false promises - or forced. Traffickers use coercive tactics including deception, fraud, intimidation, isolation, threat and use of physical force, and/or debt bondage to control their victims. Women are typically recruited with promises of good jobs in other countries or provinces, and, lacking better options at home, agree to migrate. Through agents and brokers who arrange the travel and job placements, women are escorted to their destinations and delivered to the employers. Upon reaching their destinations, some women learn that they have been deceived about the nature of the work they will do; most have been lied to about the financial arrangements and conditions of their employment; and all find themselves in coercive and abusive situations from which escape is both difficult and dangerous.

In many cases, such as in Bosnia and Herzegovina, corrupt officials facilitate the trafficking, accepting bribes to falsify documents and provide protection. Without such corruption and complicity on the part of state officials, trafficking could not thrive. Many governments treat trafficked persons as illegal aliens, criminals, or both, exposing them to further abuse. For example, Thai trafficking victims in Japan are regularly detained as illegal aliens and deported with a five-year ban on reentering the country. By targeting the victims instead of the perpetrators, states allow the abuses to continue.

Human trafficking is not the same as people smuggling. A smuggler will facilitate illegal entry into a country for a fee, but on arrival at their destination, the smuggled person is free; the trafficking victim is enslaved.

International law

In 2000 the United Nations adopted the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, also called the Palermo Convention and two protocols thereto:

All three these instruments contain elements of the current international law on trafficking in human beings.

Notorious situations

Certain nations do very little to combat human trafficking and have been the subject of critical reports issued by the United States Department of State under the Trafficking Victim Protection Act of 2000 including Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, see for instance, human trafficking in Saudi Arabia [1].

External links

Organisations and Campaigns

Articles and papers

Government and United Nations


References

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