8/16/2015

A human security crisis of global proportions Submitted by – Sweta Leena Panda

College – SRI SRI UNIVERSITY

It’s sad but true people are being bought, sold, and smuggled like modern-day

slaves.

Human trafficking involves the use of human deception to exploit the vulnerable

through forceful stripping of their dignity and self-worth. It portrays a contrasting

picture of inequality among equals with regard to the right of every individual over

his or her life, as trafficked victims are compelled to sell their inherent freedom and

are subject to coercive subjugation. They are trapped in lives of misery—often

beaten, starved, and forced to work as prostitutes or to take grueling jobs as

migrant, domestic, restaurant, or factory workers with little or no pay. Human

trafficking is the third largest criminal industry in the world, outranked only by arms

and drug dealing. The United Nations estimates that trafficking in persons generates

$7 to $10 billion annually for traffickers. One of today’s biggest human rights crises

is the international trafficking of women, girls and, to a lesser extent, boys into sex

slavery. The number of people trafficked each year is estimated by most experts to

be in the millions. Given its current growth rate, which is fuelled by its high

profitability, low investigation rate and low prosecution rate, human trafficking is

expected by some to take over drug trafficking as the second largest criminal

industry in the world within the next , That’s why We have to work hard to stop

human trafficking—not only because of the personal and psychological toll it takes

on society, but also because it facilitates the illegal movement of immigrants across

borders and provides a ready source of income for organized crime groups and even

terrorists.

Human Trafficking can happen to anyone men, women and children. The crime rate

has increased dramatically in the past years, Human trafficking is a global

phenomenon that manifests in the form of Sex Trafficking (973) ,Labor Trafficking

(194) ,Trafficking Type Not Specified (124),Sex and Labor (53) ,case (NaN)

(Since 2007). Poverty lies at the heart of human trafficking. Traffickers acquire their

victims primarily from developing countries where poverty is rampant, commonly

through some means of force or deception. Victims are typically very young, most

ranging in age from eight to 18 years old. Some are as young as four or five years

old. In sex trafficking, women and children are merely reduced to the status of a

gratifying sexual commodity. It has become an organized billion dollar industry and

has at its core, investors, unscrupulous recruiters and corrupt public officials as

principal participants. Exploiters take advantage of the broken environment of

victims and lure them with false promises of a better life. Blind faith leads victims to

the pit of darkness as caution is compromised because of desperation. Cops

sometimes conspire with traffickers in return for free sexual favors. Sometimes

parents, desperate to repay their debts, sell their girls to brothel owners in return

for a paltry sum. This is particularly seen in the ‘Extremely poor people’ ,

untouchable community , sometimes they are also forced by their own parents to

provide sexual favors to wealthy older men called sugar-daddies, in exchange for

school fees Some human rights abuses which are primarily regional, sex trafficking is

global in nature. This exploitation is not dependent on nationality, race or religion. It

is also not dependent on economic or social standing. For example, a working

man may purchase the use of a child sex slave trafficked from any country for $1 but

Another girl of the same age and same country will be charged out at $100 , often

more if she is still a virgin – to a human trafficking businessman. child will be used as

a sex slave in the lucrative and depraved child pornography business, the reach and

growth of which has become unlimited since the advent of the Internet.

The most brutal form of sex trafficking is the commercial exploitation of children.

Sadists feed on the popular belief that having sex with a virgin would cure them of

sexually transmitted diseases (AIDS). Little girls are raped and tortured to such an

extent that heir reproductive system is permanently damaged depriving them of

their natural right to motherhood. The incidents of sexual exploitation among young

boys are seldom heard of because of the complete failure on our part to

acknowledge its existence which is further fuelled by the gender-biased assumption

that there can never be male victims.

The one substantial difference is that it is the wealthy countries through their

military, businessmen, ex-patriots, tourists, and Internet pornography subscribers,

all of whom pay significantly more for the use of a sex slave that keep this criminal

industry extremely profitable for traffickers.

The mental, physical and emotional impact of this egregious crime on the human

security of the countless individual victims is obvious.

1) Threats to border integrity, as millions of people are transported annually across;

2) Threats to human health, through the spread of HIV/AIDS and other STDs to the

victims, their clients, their clients’ wives, and so on.

Human Trafficking has turned into a major world crisis and needs to be known

about. Something needs to happen around the whole world so that human

trafficking can end, what that might be nobody knows. People are doing everything

their power to try to help, and they are upgrading everyday. Even though there is a

lot of programs already helping human trafficking, there needs to be a lot more,

there can never be enough. People just need to be aware of the problem so they

know what they can do to prevent it from growing and happening to their families. If

there were more people who helped and understand human trafficking then it

wouldn’t be the second biggest and fastest growing crime rate in the world. “You

can only sell a drug once, but you can sell a human being over and over”.