A Problem of Human Trafficking: The Need to React

Human trafficking is the act of taking someone against their will to sell them for sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery, and organ removals. The history of “human trafficking” can date back to the 1800s starting with slavery in African Americans. Once slavery was abolished it then went on further to “white” women. “Around the 1900s Men and women would force, deceit, or drug the women for prostitution.” 

There are seven “Acts” in the law for human trafficking in the U.S. From the 1800s to 2019 There have ONLY been seven acts put into motion to stop human trafficking, which makes it harder to even put the people involved away if the government can catch them. There are 100 laws in place over substance control, which ruins the lives of people who choose to take the drugs but there are only seven acts in place to protect the innocent people taken from their family into this scheme. Human trafficking is a growing problem not only hurting the individuals involved but the family as well. We need to enforce our laws need to be enforced so that the government does not engage in this horrific crime. Victims of human trafficking can be any gender, race, or age. Often than most, to lure victims, traffickers usually make false promises of jobs and cheap education. It is easier for human traffickers to take advantage of people who come from broken relationships or those that have no loved ones. Traffickers use these methods to lure their victims and force them into labor or commercial sexual exploitation. 

Victims seldom come forward out of fear of the traffickers and law enforcement. Children are constantly being robbed of their innocence due to human trafficking. Many of them are also sold into forced marriages. Disturbing new reports state that 234 girls were kidnapped in Chibok, Nigeria in April 2014. According to the relatives’ “girls were sold for as little as twelve dollars to be used as wives.” 

Human trafficking affects victims in many ways, most victims are forced to work in dangerous working conditions, go days without food, and will be forced to have sex, while completely stripped of their dignity. Victims have a higher risk of: STDs, unwanted pregnancies, and mental health problems. The International Organization for Migration often comes into contact with victims who need assistance and reported that once they escape and go back to their homes it is hard to get past the trauma. “reports that victims do escape have been so brutalized that they experience lifelong physiological trauma, and according to psychologists, only 30 percent fully recover to live a normal life”. Victims can experience delayed progress in school or failure to complete a degree due to the years they have been trafficked. On Huffington Post, there was an article stating that a woman was promised a better life but instead, was trafficked into a bride market based in China. Mona was only fifteen at the time when an older woman approached her offering an opportunity in China. Her family was very poor and in debt, so she accepted the “opportunity”. “Mona then became pregnant after she was forced to have sex with a man in China who paid $10,300 for her.” Poverty can push parents to sell their children to traffickers. The inability to feed, educate or even provide basic needs for their family can be a strong factor for people to seek employment with a promised future. Nowadays, people will do anything for money and to save money. 

There have even been some rumors about several governments being involved in and supporting trafficking schemes. While reading an article, it stated that although the U.S government has a “Zero Policy” for labor trafficking, this is the least punished form of human trafficking. Although they have a zero policy the Government avidly hires for military zones through these companies. This is an example of how much money the traffickers make: “If a subcontractor brings over 8,000 workers, and each worker comes with a $2,500 recruitment fee, that’s a $20 million black money kickback.” What is worse is that the citizens of the U.S are responsible for these horrible acts “This is the only situation in which the government uses U.S. tax dollars to fund human trafficking,” he says. “It’s not that we’re idly sitting by; we’re actively paying for it. It’s like the U.S. government is the John, telling the pimp, ‘We need bodies here, but we aren’t going to look at how you got them, or if they are even getting paid. Many government officials take a blind eye to these situations out of pure benefit. In Argentina, the captain of the Anti-Trafficking police was accused of running brothels and the Commissioner was accused of holding four victims’ captive after their “rescue”.

Money is the motive everywhere and these horrific and unjust crimes will continue to go on if nothing is done about the neglect towards these situations. Human trafficking will continue to be a prevalent issue if society continues to allow those that govern it to engage in these activities.