Human Trafficking: Modern-Day Slavery in America

Human Trafficking is the trade in humans, most commonly for the purpose of sexual slavery, forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others, or for the extraction of organs or tissues, including surrogacy and ova removal, or for providing a spouse in the context of forced marriage. Human trafficking can occur within a country or trans-nationally. Human trafficking is a crime against the person because of the violation of the victim's rights of movement through coercion and because of their commercial exploitation. Human trafficking is the trade in people and does not necessarily involve the movement of the person from one place to another. Human trafficking represents an estimated $31.6 billion of international trade per year in 2010. Human trafficking is thought to be one of the fastest-growing activities of transnational criminal organizations. Human trafficking is condemned as a violation of human rights by international conventions. In addition, human trafficking is subject to a directive in the European Union. People have a better grasp on human trafficking and the signs, which vary depending on the type of crime. Sex trafficking involving minors is the easiest to spot,  but catching up to adults in a similar situation can be difficult.The National Human Trafficking Resource Center reported more than 82 percent of trafficking victims are female, and about 61 percent are adults.Traffickers often change locations, traveling in and out of jurisdictions daily, blending into the community and using standard transportation that wouldn’t raise eyebrows. In July 2012, laws went into effect that made human smuggling a felony and allowed convicted traffickers to be labeled as sex offenders and sexual predators.

Elements of human trafficking:

The Act (What is done)

Recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons

The Means (How it is done)

Threat or use of force, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or vulnerability, or giving payments or benefits to a person in control of the victim

The Purpose (Why it is done)

For the purpose of exploitation, which includes exploiting the prostitution of others, sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery or similar practices and the removal of organs.

Trafficking For Sexual Slavery:

Traffickers will use drugs to keep their victims from leaving, getting them addicted so they keep performing commercial sex acts that profit the trafficker. Force, fraud and coercion are used to keep adults against their will, often with threats to have foreign victims deported or to go after their families if they seek

help from police. Often foreign victims are recruited in their home countries, and traffickers know where to find a victim’s family or the victim if they try to escape.Some trafficked victims are smuggled into the country illegally, and traffickers can threaten to have them deported if they report abuses. In other cases traffickers will hold a legal victim’s identification papers, putting them under the trafficker’s control.

Trafficking For Forced Labor:

Domestic servitude abuse is the most difficult to find Victims used as housekeepers have little contact with the outside world. If brought into the country illegally they essentially don’t exist, and if they are legal no one knows where they are.The movement of people for the purpose of forced labor and services usually involves an agent or recruiter, a transporter, and a final employer, who will derive a profit from the exploitation of the trafficked person. In some cases, the same person carries out all these trafficking activities. With increased possibilities for traveling and telecommunications, and with a growing demand for cheap labor in the developed world on the one hand, and increasingly restrictive visa regulations on the other, possible channels for legal labor migration have diminished. Private recruitment agencies, intermediaries, and employers may take advantage of this situation and lure potential migrants into exploitative employment. Not only is the journey hazardous for the victims, but upon reaching their destination they are subject to low-paying menial work which is often degrading and work that they have to undertake in conditions close to slavery and bondage.

Trafficking for Organ Trade:

Trafficking in organs is a crime that occurs in three broad categories. Firstly, there are cases where traffickers force or deceive the victims into giving up an

organ. Secondly, there are cases where victims formally or informally agree to sell an organ and are cheated because they are not paid for the organ or are paid less than the promised price. Thirdly, vulnerable persons are treated for an ailment, which may or may not exist and thereupon organs are removed without the victim's knowledge. The vulnerable categories of persons include migrants, especially migrant workers, homeless persons, illiterate persons. It is known that trafficking for organ trade could occur with persons of any age. Organs which are commonly traded are kidneys, liver and the like; any organ which can be removed and used could be the subject of such illegal trade.Trafficking in organ trade is an organized crime, involving a host of offenders. The recruiter who identifies the vulnerable person, the transporter, the staff of the hospital or clinic and other medical centers, the medical professionals, the middlemen and contractors, the buyers, the banks where organs are stored are all involved in the racket. It is a fact that the entire racket is rarely exposed.Trafficking in human beings for the purpose of organ removal is, like all other forms of trafficking, a violation of the fundamental human rights and dignity of individuals, while also clearly representing a grave form of transnational organized crime. Persons trafficked for organ removal also face particular challenges, both during and after the organ removal and hence we have devoted a special chapter to these issues. Victims are reported to receive small amounts of money, and in some cases, no payment at all. They are often unaware of the long-term and debilitating medical consequences of organ removal and lack of post-operative care as well as the psychological impact of the operation. Victims report strong feelings of shame and social stigmatization within their communities, which may contribute to a lack of access to medical and psychological care.While it is commonly believed that trafficking only takes places for commercial sexual exploitation or for forced labor, trafficking, in fact, takes many forms such as trafficking for forced marriage and trafficking for organ trade among others.

Trafficking Of Children:

Children are trafficked for forced labor, domestic work, as child soldiers, as camel jockeys, for begging, work on construction sites and plantations but most children are trafficked for sexual exploitation. And girls trafficked for forced labor and domestic work often end up sexually exploited by their employers. The vulnerability of these children is even greater when they arrive in another country. Often they do not have contact with their families and are at the mercy of their employersChild trafficking can occur when children are abducted from the streets, sold into sexual slavery and forced marriage by relatives, or in any place where traffickers, pimps, and recruiters prey upon a child's vulnerabilities. Poverty is the pre-condition that makes it easier for traffickers to operate.The greatest factor in promoting child sex trafficking and child sexual exploitation is the demand for younger and younger victims worldwide. This demand comes from the mostly male buyers who become the customers in the growing global sex industry.Children are often trafficked, employed and exploited because, compared to adults, they are more vulnerable, cheaper to hire and are less likely to demand higher wages or better working conditions. Some employers falsely argue that children are particularly suited to certain types of work because of their small size and "nimble fingers.

Ways To Prevent Human Trafficking:

Parents should monitor what their children are doing on social media because that is one-way traffickers pick up victims.Trafficking in Persons as the

recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs

Is human trafficking considered modern-day slavery?, and why hasn't the government created programs to stop human trafficking in the United States?.