By Rangon IslamEver since the colonization of America, there has been a growing criminal meat market. Human trafficking is one of the most common and largest international crimes that involve various types of abuse and force against humans by transferring people of any age and gender for the purpose of exploitation or commercial gain. The Department of Homeland Security describes human trafficking as “a form of modern-day slavery, and involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to exploit human beings for some type of labor or commercial sex purpose.” Human trafficking can happen in mostly every continent but it occurs more in Third World countries than more developed countries because people in poverty are more vulnerable to become puppets to perpetrator. Exploitation can come in different forms in the world of trafficking; it can range from sex trafficking to forced labor to even organ harvesting. Based on the human trafficking trends from 2007 to 2012, Polaris Project reveals that the “three most common forms of sex trafficking reported to the hotline involved pimp-controlled prostitution, commercial-front brothels, and escort services.” Almost half a percent of these are identified around the world. How can this chain of inhumane actions be stopped or at least alleviated? The United States have some laws to enforce laws against human trafficking, but are they really working? Even though human trafficking is not something we would encounter on a daily basis, it should still be an important issue because our human rights are violated and victims are being treated in such a brutal way, even children who don’t even deserve to experience such a dark side of this world.
Human trafficking is an economic business. It makes “an estimated #32 billion dollars annually.” All this money goes to the traffickers who use people to do their dirty work and sell the victims whenever they feel like it. Traffickers use their victims as cheap labor to gain larger profits – either sexually or in business involved in agriculture, clothing, food, etc. Since organs are medically scarce, some traffickers also take their victims’ organs and sell them for a cheap and profitable price without any consent from the victim. These situations often happen in countries that are less developed and have weak institutions, where the people are vulnerable and in need of things to keep them alive. Human trafficking victims are people of any gender, age, race, and religion. Half of the detected victims are women, eighteen percent are men, twelve percent are boys, and twenty-one percent are girls. Of the one-third victims that are children, sixty-two percent were found in Africa and the Middle East, thirty-six percent in South Asia, East Asia, and the Pacific, thirty-one percent in the Americas, and eighteen percent in Europe and Central Asia. Most of these victims were found in underdeveloped countries because the victims are more vulnerable. The most vulnerable victims are the homeless and runaway, because they do not have a shelter to protect themselves, and immigrants, because they do not know about all the resources available to them and they do not know the language, which make them all easy to trick. “Between 14,500 and 17,500 people are trafficked into the U.S. each year” and “the average age a teen enters the sex trade in the U.S. is 12 to 14-year-old.” “The Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, published by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in November 2014, found victims from 152 nationalities in 124 countries” and these aren’t even one percent of the total victims out in the world. Fox News publishes a couple of human trafficking articles but one of the most shocking ones by far is Annie Lobert’s article about a sex trafficking survivor, who describes the Super Bowl as the “just another weekend for the hundreds of thousands of sex-trafficking victims in the United States.” The victim is exposed and tortured by dozens of men all day during the Super Bowl weekend and all the money is taken away from her pimp when she goes back. Not only that, but she has to go through more beatings from her pimp. She described how she had lost her identity – literally and figuratively. The pimp created a fake ID to hide her identity and after being completely controlled by her pimp, she lost control over herself because if she did anything to harm the pimp, she will be threatened or the pimp will threaten her by saying that her family or loved ones will be killed if she even tried to escape. This article was published to raise awareness of the situation and to state that “[if] there had been more people of action, if there were more resources available, [the victim would] like to think that [he/she] would have been rescued out of trafficking much earlier.” Spreading the information and gaining more support saves lives because when more people are helping, the more quickly we can find the traffickers. Human trafficking has concealed so well into our society that we do not even notice it happening right in front of us or that we are using the products created under a human trafficking environment. Sarah Maslin Nir exposes the story behind nail salons in New York City in a New York Times Article, “The Price of Nice Nails.”(9) These manicurists take on 10 to 12 hour shifts to try and earn enough to make a living. However, Jing Ren, a new immigrant ready to take on a manicurist job in a Long Island mall, has $100 in her pocket to pay the salon owner. Why was a new employee paying her boss on the first day of work? She said it was the cost of being an employee of the salon. The boss did not even pay her until three months later when he decided that she was skillful enough. All he paid her was $30 a day, not even minimum wage. This is one case in more than 150 other nail salon cases where the employees were paid below minimum wage to none at all for long hours. Many of these salon works are immigrants who are not able to speak the English language properly enough and some even believe that this is the proper way to start making a living. Sometimes these employees are even punished for labor and violating the salon’s rules, verbally and, in rare cases, physically. They are unaware of how unfairly they are treated and that there are better opportunities out there. Illegal immigrants have limited job options and risk being deported if they leave the salon but anything would be better than being a victim of human trafficking and stripping off their natural rights. At the same time, some of these people can be illegal immigrants so they are most vulnerable to be stuck in these types of situations because they can only take on limited opportunities. Some owners may say they are helping these new immigrants get a job as an excuse that they are doing a good deed. With more stores than Starbucks, New York City’s nail salons are common immigrant-run businesses in a major city that exploits their worker for commercial gain, fitting right into the definition of labor trafficking. To raise awareness of the effects of human trafficking on people, some survivors took up the courage to explain the horrors of this inhumane crime. The Polaris Project provides a blog of stories from human trafficking survivors. Most of them had something in common: it was about the survivor whose life was flipped around when they were tricked with false promises. Innocent people are kidnapped and forced into prostitution or forced labor. They all wish to escape but the security around these businesses is high and sometimes the traffickers even threaten or punish the victims for trying to escape. Even when the traffickers are caught, the survivors are not all cured. Many went through starvation and harsh physical abuse that could include broken bones, burns, and other permanent injuries. Victims of sex trafficking can even carry sexually transmitted diseases, along with the side effects of illegal abortions or miscarriage they were forced to have. Most victims also suffer from psychological effects like an eating disorder, depression, self-hatred, shame, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Even though the justice was enforced for these survivors, they are still left with memories and scar that will forever remind them of the crime they were part of. We listen to the news to catch up on events that is happening around us. Human trafficking news has the same purpose; even though human trafficking is not something an individual would encounter on a daily basis, one should be aware of their surroundings and the signs of human trafficking to prevent it. We are all potential victims, theoretically, and since this is a violation of our human rights, we should stand up against it. Also, it would be worth it to recognize at least the signs of human trafficking so you are more aware of what kind of surrounding you could be in. The Polaris Project created a list of common signs to human trafficking situations such as an individual with “poor mental health or abnormal behavior,” “avoid[s] eye contact,” “is not in control of his/her own identification documents,” “lack of control,” or “is under eighteen and is providing commercial sex acts.” It will take time and taking helping even a little is better than ignoring the problem altogether. Many people have proposed ideas to help stop human trafficking, but it will not be of use unless we take action. The Orange Movement, a human trafficking awareness organization, provides the basic steps on how to start fighting against human trafficking: “Share, Serve, [and] Support.” Before taking action, you need to know what you are fighting for. Learn about human trafficking through books and documentaries such as Emily Goodwin’s Stay, which allows you to travel through the eyes of a human trafficking victim whose life change in an instant when she was kidnapped, and The Candy Shop: A Fairytale About Sexual Exploitation of Children, which takes a dark and innocent path to provide awareness of the reality of child trafficking. In addition, listening or reading the news is a great way to keep up with the current events about human trafficking. After educating yourself, share your information with others in social media sites to spread the truth and get more people to join along in the movement. Then it is time to take action! Volunteer in human trafficking movements, such as the Orange Movement, with fundraising or awareness events. If you are so passionate, you can even go make a career for yourself, dedicating you soul to stop this international crime. Human trafficking is one the world's most common crime. It is seen as modern-day slavery where the natural human rights are violated. The United States are one of the global players in the human trafficking game. Events, such as the Super Bowl, are businesses for people who commit this crime. The perpetrators take advantage of vulnerable people or use force to kidnap individuals for sex exploitation, forced labor, and illegal organ donations. The use of people for personal use and deriving them from their natural rights is a crime. The crime violates the US Constitution and 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. No human being should be chained by their own kind. It is not right and should be stopped!
0 Comments
Human trafficking refers to illegally trading a person for either exploitation or commercial gain. Victims of this crime are denied of natural human rights. Often times, human traffickers force victims into labor or prostitution. According to Homeland Security, human trafficking is the second largest profitable transnational crime. This crime is becoming popular because of its low risks and high profits. Annually, human trafficking produces billions of dollars in profit. There are many forms of human trafficking which need to be restrained in order to make sure that no individual is deprived of his or her natural rights. Certain factors that cause human trafficking are poverty, violence, oppression, and lack of human rights, education, and opportunities. Human traffickers make people suffer from such conditions their subjects because the traffickers are easily able to mislead them with false hopes, promises, and opportunities. Human traffickers often tell their victims that they will provide their victims with opportunities to help improve their incomes and financial conditions, provide for their families in villages, or escape from conflict such as war. Often, human traffickers lure the victims into traps and then place them into different types of human trafficking. The different types of human trafficking are labor, sexual exploitation, and organs, cells, and tissues. Victims trafficked for labor are placed in conditions of slavery. They are forced to work for jobs regarding agriculture, fisheries, construction, and domestic servitude. Victims, women and children, trafficked for sexual exploitation are taken away from their homes to other countries and put into sexual slavery and inhumane conditions. Also, the traffickers keep their victims in constant fear, which discourages the victims to fight back. Victims trafficked for organs, cells, and tissues are targeted for their highly demanded organs, especially the kidney. According to Interpol, a network of police forces from 190 countries, in many countries, the wait for organ transplant is very long which gives traffickers the idea to start illegally removing and selling organs from victims. Traffickers involved in this type of trafficking make a great amount of profit because the demand for organs is high in many countries due to endless diseases and health problems. Experts have estimated that about 21 million people are victims of human trafficking globally. The United States spends less than $150 million annually on antitrafficking actions, which can be described as a drop in a bucket. There are programs involved in ending trafficking but they are not all financially supported. United Way Worldwide —the world's largest charity— wants the next elected U.S. president to make antihuman trafficking a priority. According to the Huffington Post, this charity has one question for all the presidential candidates: "How much money would they put towards ending trafficking?"( New Group Wants Every Presidential Candidate To Explain How They'll Combat Trafficking by Stella Dawson). Human trafficking is an important issue in society because it limits humans their basic rights and places people in inhumane conditions. In order to reduce the number of people being trafficked and to stop the spread of this profitable crime, people have to help contribute to discovering solutions to this social issue. One way to help is to fundraise money to end human trafficking. For example, The United Way Worldwide, which has 2.6 million volunteers from 40 different countries, raises about five billion dollars in donations annually to fight such social crimes. Organizations that raise money for antitrafficking purposes use the money to help save the lives of victims and help settle the saved victims into everyday life. Donations are also used to understand new trafficking patterns and techniques. Many donors and antitrafficking organizations are suggested to analyze and help provide the benefits and advantages the traffickers falsely promise their victims so that they are working in a way known as “working in parallel” to traffickers. Also another way to contribute to the end of human trafficking is by buying products that are not produced from people involved in human trafficking. For example, the United Way plans to purchase products and services that are slave free. Furthermore, a very effective way to put an end to the spread of human trafficking is by educating people on this matter. Informing people about what is human trafficking, how people are victimized, and ways to end trafficking allows people to become aware of and help put an end to this crime. We live in a world where millions of people are sold into human trafficking for the purpose of exploitation. Millions of lives are destroyed every year by smugglers trying to make a profit out human being. According to the U.S. Department of States, an approximately 20.9 million men, women and children are trafficked for commercial sex or forced labor around the world. Human trafficking relinquish people’s freedom and makes them susceptible to modern slavery.
Every year, millions of people are trafficked in countries around the world, including the United States. Traffickers target individuals who are vulnerable to persuasion. Usually, victims of human trafficking are people who are emotionally unstable or having difficulty adjusting to a new environment. The vulnerability of victims gives traffickers the opportunity to approach them and persuade them to the point of involuntary submission. Most of these people are immigrants from developing communities. Their unfamiliarity with the language, laws and customs is an advantage for traffickers to manipulate and exploit immigrants in their new environment. Human trafficking has become a business that makes a profit to destroy a person’s soul. In fact, the United Nations estimates that human trafficking makes approximately 32 billion US dollars a year, (UNODC, 1). Traffickers make billions of dollars per year by selling people into human trafficking, where individuals are forced to work against their will in harsh working conditions ,which endangers their wellbeing. The damages caused by human trafficking are expanding quickly. Victims are trafficked across national and international borders, for the purpose of exploitation. According to one World Health Organization reports, (Exodus,1), the global scale of human trafficking can be attributed to the way nations approach human trafficking and what they do to provide a solution. For example Algeria denied sex trafficking despite evidence. As a result, no effort is made to investigate, prosecute, or convict perpetrators of sex trafficking. Countries like Algeria need to acknowledge the problems affecting their citizens, in order to diminish the control of traffickers over the population. Human trafficking affects every country in the world. It occurs for three reasons: prostitution, forced labor, and the illegal trade of human organs. According to the U.S. Department of States an estimated 20.9 million women, men, and children are trafficked around the world. The United States should serve as a model of justice by decreasing human trafficking and advocating for the rehabilitation of victims of human trafficking. It’s our task as citizens to stand up for humanity and establish the issues affecting our society. As Americans, we have the freedom to make choices and create change. In the upcoming election, America should elect a candidate who has the capacities to fulfill the characteristic of a world leader. So it’s very important to understand the stand of every presidential candidate, in order to know how they might provide a solution or relieve to human trafficking. We can decrease the influence of human trafficking by spreading awareness about anti trafficking programs that will help victims of human trafficking. Antitrafficking programs like Restore NYC and the Polaris Project provide a safe environment for human trafficking victims, where they can reconstruct their lives and become influential representatives. There are many antitrafficking programs, but they are not endorsed by elected officials. Victims are not familiar with these programs; it often takes them about a year or more to receive help. The United Nations has the goal to achieve global awareness of human trafficking, but it is a difficult task. It’s time to demand justice by promulgating awareness and spreading hope. Our society needs leaders that will address human trafficking and provide a solution. We need officials that want to create awareness. Human trafficking seems to be a problem, far from home, but it is happening right outside of our doors. For instance, New York has “6000 Chinese restaurants located” throughout the state (Macaulay, 1). As the number of Chinese restaurant grows, the competition increases. Restaurants owners are forced to commit “underhanded and even illegal activities”(Macaulay, 2), because of the pressure to maintain their customers. By lowering the food cost, owners have to deduct money from their worker’s salary to sustain the restaurant. In one case, Mexican immigrants were paid a salary of $3.50 an hour to work at a Chinese buffetstyle restaurant under harsh living conditions (Chicago Tribune, 1). To furthermore, the Mexican workers worked 84 hours a week without substantial breaks, (Chicago Tribune, 2). Immigrants are exposed to exploitative labor conditions that are characteristic of trafficking cases, such as withholding of documents, deportation, nonpayment for services, physical abuse, or extremely poor living conditions. The United Nations estimates that victims from over 130 different nationalities are trafficked in almost 120 countries. We have to stop the exploitation of human beings and promulgate the enforcement of justice. It is our duty to stand for our belief and preserve the freedom granted to us. As citizens, we have to spread awareness about human trafficking, in order to get rid of thousands of years of slavery. Even though, presidential candidates haven’t addressed this issues, we have to ask them this kind of questions to elect an official capable of creating change and hope for those, who are not free. Work Cited "Human Trafficking." (2007): n. pag. 2005. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. "What is Human Trafficking?" Exodus Cry. N.p., n.e.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2016 "Algeria." U.S Department of State. N.p., 20 June 2014. Web. 1 May 2015. Janssen, Kim. "Suit: Chinese Buffet Workers Made $3.50, Slept on Dumpster Mattresses." Chicagotribune.com. Chicago Tribune, 13 Nov. 2015. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. "Exploitation in Chinese Restaurants in New York City." What's Cookin in NYC. Macaulay, 07 May 2014. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. http://www.clarionproject.org/news/pricefleshsellingwomenislamicstatecaliphate http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isisuncovered/isisterroryazidiwomanrecallshorrors slaveauctionn305856 NEWS ARTICLES - Rangon Islam
The Truth About The Super Bowl http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2015/01/30/sex-trafficking-survivor-truth-about-super-bowl-and-sex.html
“I am a victim of the sex-trafficking industry. I was trafficked for more than a decade in Minneapolis, Hawaii and Las Vegas. Based on my experience I can tell you that the Super Bowl is just another weekend for the hundreds of thousands of sex-trafficking victims in the United States. That’s what it was when I was a sex-trafficked call girl in Las Vegas. The escort agency I worked for expected me to go on as many calls as I could fit in a 12-hour period, from 8 in the evening to 8 the following morning. I would see between 10-30 different men a night. It didn’t matter how tired I was or how much money I made, I had to be loyal my entire shift for the entire weekend, or face a fine of $1,500. When I finally got home, as soon as I walked in the door, my pimp took 100% of my earnings. Never mind that the tricks (the men that paid for sex) thought I was enjoying myself. Never mind they thought I was making great money, paying my way through college. These were the lies my alter ego “Fallen” would tell with a smile on her face—only to make more money for my pimp. When you live in fear of the next beat-down (I was physically beaten more times than I can count by my pimp and by tricks), this is what you must do to survive. Pretend you are someone else. When I began my time as a prostitute, I chose the name “Fallen” for my fake ID. I was no longer the Annie I knew and recognized; I was “Fallen”—a victim of high-class sex trafficking Vulnerable Victims:
Signs of Human Trafficking: https://www.polarisproject.org/human-trafficking/recognizing-the-signs National Human Trafficking Resource Center: 1 (888) 373-7888 SMS: 233733 (Text "HELP" or "INFO") Hours: 24 hours, 7 days a week Languages: English, Spanish and 200 more languages Website: traffickingresourcecenter.org To catch up on more current events related to this topic, check out The New York Times’s section for recent human trafficking articles. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/h/human_trafficking/index.html Conclusions: Human trafficking isn't something encounter on a daily basis, so why should it be an important issue?
Raisa Talal
Domingo Fortuna
WHAT IS HUMAN TRAFFICKING? Every year, millions of people are trafficked in countries around the world, including the United States. Most of these people are immigrants from developing communities, who are transported to developed communities that are more prosperous. Traffickers use immigrant’s workers unfamiliarity with the language, laws and customs as an advantage to manipulate or exploit them in their new environment . Traffickers sell them into involuntary servitude, where immigrants are forced to work against their will in harsh working conditions. Labor trafficking has become an important issue for the U.S. presidencial race because illegal immigration has resulted in an increase of involuntary servitude in the United States. Also labor trafficking violates the Constitution of the United States of America, which states "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”. Even though the authorities are trying to decrease labor trafficking in U.S. soil, their effort is not effective because labor trafficking is happening in the major cities of the United States. RESTAURANT WORKERS New York City is known for its Chinese food. In almost every corner of the city we can find a Chinese restaurant. As the number of Chinese restaurant grows, so do the competition. Because of this restaurant owners are forced to commit “ underhanded and even illegal activities”. Exploitation, fraud, and coercion are some the tactics that are used to manipulate immigrant workers. Immigrants are exposed to “exploitative” labor conditions that are characteristic of trafficking cases, such as withholding of documents, nonpayment for services, physical abuse, or extremely poor living conditions. Also traffickers use the threat of deportation as well as document confiscation to maintain control of their victims. HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND ITS IMPACT According to the U.S. Department of States an estimated 20.9 million men, women and children are trafficked for commercial sex or forced labor around the world. Even though the United States provides programs to help victims of human trafficking, the victims are not familiar with these programs. It often takes them about a year or more to receive help because they are uneducated. The United States has the goal to achieve global awareness of human trafficking, but it is a difficult task. For example, countries like Algeria denied sex trafficking despite evidence. As a result, no effort is made to investigate, prosecute, or convict perpetrators of sex trafficking. In Algeria human trafficking are subjected to force labor and sex trafficking. Typically, sub-Saharan African men and women immigrate to Algeria voluntarily but illegally with the help of smugglers. Some of these women and men go to Algeria thinking that smuggler would help them travel to Europe. In contrast, these women may be forced into prostitution, domestic service, and begging. Just like in the United States Immigrants are the most vulnerable to sex trafficking or labor trafficking in Algeria because of the language barriers. Human trafficking affects every country in the world. It occurs for three reasons prostitution, forced labor, and human organs. The majority of the victims of human trafficking are immigrants because traffickers use immigrant’s workers unfamiliarity with the language, laws and customs to manipulate them. From Algeria to New York City we can see similarities in the way involuntary servitude works. If we come together we can decrease human trafficking, and spread awareness about anti-trafficking programs that would help the world. Its our duty as citizens to acknowledge the problems that are affecting our society. So it’s very important to understand the stand of every presidential candidate, in order to know how they might provide a solution or relieve to this issue . Anika Anna
|
Authors
Domingo, Rangon, Anika, Raisa, ArchivesCategories |