Term Paper on "Human Trafficking"

Term Paper 10 pages (3248 words) Sources: 5

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Human Trafficking (a Global and a National Problem)

Smuggling and Trafficking

Trafficking and Sex Tourism

Trafficking and Forced Labor

Human Trafficking (Profile of Victims )

The Problem of Arizona

Police Response to Human Trafficking

Human Trafficking

Human trafficking is an epidemic problem affecting millions of people around the world. Poverty, globalization and the promise of higher standards of living drive countless young people to move outside their country, often through illegal channels, only to find themselves end up as hapless victims of human trafficking. Collaboration is the key to successful dismantling of the multinational human trafficking network. While active measures by police, proactive citizens and human rights organizations have saved many victims from the perpetrators of these horrific crimes, effectively destroying the human trafficking syndicate would necessitate a more ground level approach, one that addresses the important factors that contribute to the demands of the market. Eradicating the drug market, destroying the drug cartels, developing programs for destitute children and women, addressing poverty and other social initiatives have to be vigorously pursued. An all round effort including social, political and law enforcement policies and practices are needed for the successful dismantling of the global human trafficking menace.

Introduction

Human trafficking is a global problem that affects millions of people around the world. It is one of the worst crimes as it affects not only the trafficked person but also the family members who are left miserable and totally clueless of the whereabouts of the missing person. It also happens to be one of the most profitable crimes in the world falling next only to drug trafficking and weapons smuggling. [ELDR, 2006] it is estimated that the global human trafficking industry nets a profit of 32 billion per year. [Polaris Project, 2007] as per the 2007 'Trafficking in Persons report' released by the U.S. government, the numbers are high and range from anywhere between 4 and 27 million people throughout the world. Human trafficking is a multi-dimensional problem, one that promotes organized crime, one that totally destroys the human rights of a person, and one that carries serious health risk consequences. Statistics indicate that as much as 80% of transnationally trafficked people are women and as much as 70% of them are forced into commercial sex trade while 30% are forced into manual labor. [Polaris Project, 2007]

The harrowing fact is that as much as 1 million children are victims to the global commercial sex industry. The problem is universal and according to the recent UN report, as many as 162 countries are affected by human trafficking. [Polaris Project, 2007] Even in the U.S., where human right violations are a serious crime, the deplorable fact is that human trafficking continues to be a major problem and as much as 17,500 people are trafficked into the country to be forced into sex trade and slave labor. [ALERT, 2009] These are grim facts and while the law enforcement force across the country use different tactics including surveillance, undercover agents and confidential informants to uncover this covert crime, human trafficking continues to be a major issue in the U.S.A brief overview of the human trafficking and the strategies that the police use to counter and destroy the human trafficking network will provide better insight into the topic.

Human Trafficking (a Global and a National Problem)

As the sober statistics mentioned above indicate, human trafficking is a well-formed and profitable global network. It is not just a problem of the underdeveloped or the developing world but also an issue that confronts developed nations in the world. In fact, the U.S., widely known as an epitome of democracy and its strict laws on human rights continues to be one of the biggest destinations of human trafficking. Human trafficking for sex trade and labor trade is very much a prevalent issue across the country. As Lois Shelley, the director and the founder of Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center in Washington puts it, "This is important because we are the only advanced democracy in the world that has the preponderance of its victims be its own citizens and have it be youth. And this is something that we're not paying enough attention to. We have an enormous problem of victimization in our country, and a vulnerability, and we're not talking enough about it, and we're not doing enough about it.." [RFERL, 2008] This happens to be a highly secretive as well as profitable trade and the traffickers come from a wide range of social backgrounds from organized crime gangs to diplomats and executives. A case in point is the recent finding about two Uzbek professors residing in Texas who exploited two Uzbek girls and managed to make $400,000 in just 18 months. [RFERL, 2008]

Smuggling and Trafficking

The U.S. is an attractive destination for people from many countries. The promise of living in an advanced economy drives many people, particularly from the bordering countries such as Mexico to smuggle into the U.S. Smuggling, is the willful consent of the person who pays money to somehow enter into the U.S. soil. Trafficking on the other hand involves involuntary and forced exploitation wherein the victim is transported across from one place to another and forced to endure horrible conditions often involving sexual exploitation and forced labor. The tightening up of the U.S. border post September 11 has driven many people to prefer the underground route of entry into the country and this has made them increasingly vulnerable to the exploitation of the traffickers. As per a recent CIA report, " between 45,000 to 50,000 women and children are brought to the United States every year under false pretenses and are forced to work as prostitutes, abused laborers or servants." [NAFI, 2007]

Trafficking and Sex Tourism

Increasingly young women and children from economically deprived countries are abducted and engaged in sex business without their consent. Mexico is one of the most affected countries in the human trafficking issue. The powerful drug cartels across the country and the vulnerable population of Mexicans who are willing to risk entering and working in the U.S. have made the country a major source of human trafficking victims. Central American countries and Asian countries are important destinations for sex tourism for clients from U.S. And Canada. The intra-regional trafficking of children and women in Mexico who are forced into these commercial sex industry for serving tourists from the U.S. And Canada has literally blown out of proportions making the country one of the worst affected by human trafficking and human rights violation. "According to a study by Richard Estes more than 16,000 children in Mexico are engaged in prostitution in just seven Mexican cities. Many of these children are victims of national and intra-regional trafficking from poorer countries located in Central and South America, including Costa Rica, Honduras and Guatemala." [NAFI, 2007, pg5] Although the destination for most of these trafficked children is the U.S., many of them end up in Mexico as the widespread police corruption and poor law enforcement practices in the country make it easier to run the sex business. Armed with economic power and weapon power the Mexican drug lords easily overwhelm the local police and make substantial profits from running pornography and sex businesses catering to local as well as foreign clients. [NAFI, 2007, pg 5]

Trafficking and Forced Labor

People from as many as thirty five (and more) countries are engaged in forced labor across the cities in the country. Studies indicate that Chinese constitute the main victims of forced labor in the U.S. Mexicans and Vietnamese are the next in line with thousands of people being forced to do labor against their consent. Reports indicate that forced labor is in operation in more than 90 cities across the U.S. And the problem is more prevalent in big U.S. cities with a large immigrant population. States such as California, Texas, NY and Florida are identified as major destinations of human trafficking for forced labor. In the U.S., 46% of these trafficked victims are forced into sexual trade, 27% into domestic services, 10% into agriculture and 5% in sweatshops. [NAFI, 2007, pg 7] the U.S. also happens to be one of the important destinations of smuggled children. Since adoption laws are much stricter and adoption usually involves a long waiting time, many couples in the U.S. are willing to adopt trafficked children circumventing the long and dragging legal adoption process. This in turn increases the demand for children and more and more are trafficked from foreign lands making the U.S. one of the important destinations for child trafficking from across the world. Mexico happens to be the number one source for children. [NAFI, 2007]

Human Trafficking (Profile of Victims )

In the U.S., the majority of victims of human trafficking happen to be females aged between 12 and 18. Most of them hail from ethnic minorities and have little or no education. Children from economically deprived backgrounds are particularly vulnerable to trafficking for purpose of sex tourism. In general, minorities,… READ MORE

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