Human Trafficking: An ordeal to reckon

Our globe is prey to the multiple ordeals – terrorism, surging poverty, soaring unemployment, global warming, conflicts among the countries, and refugee crisis are the names to few. Every individual is mindful of such calamities. However, amongst most appealing tribulations that our planet is confronting, which is mostly depreciated, or even obscure to many is of human trafficking. In the contemporary world, human trafficking is tantamount to modern slavery. Slavery is forced labor under a threat of brutality that traces its lineage from the era of colonialism and imperialism. Racism, which was the subliminal base of slavery, is still very much active in the present times and strengthens the ethnic perplexity.

Human trafficking usually refers to a process under which individuals are placed or maintained in an exploitative condition for economic upkeep and violation of human rights. Every country in the world is vulnerable to human trafficking. Millions of kids, adult females, and men remain to be trafficked every year in all regions and in many countries of the world. Victims may be trafficked within the country or across a border for various uses. It includes forced and manipulative labor in agricultural fields, farms and private homes; forced marriage; sexual exploitation, and organ dismemberment. Around 40 million people are shackled in the chain of modern slavery worldwide, in which the Asia-Pacific region has almost 56% of trafficked persons. Women and girls are the prime victims of the market for human trafficking. According to 2018 report of Global Slavery Index, the countries which are home to the modern slaves are North Korea with 10% of its population, Eritrea (9.3%), Burundi (4%), Central African Republic (2.2%), Afghanistan (2.2%), Mauritania (2.1%), South Sudan (2%), Pakistan (1.7%), Cambodia (1.7%), and Islamic Republic of Iran (1.6%) respectively. These countries suffer from income inequality, discrimination in class, sects, and entrenched corruption.

So, one’s mind must be curious that why this menace has clutched the world with such an immense extent. The answer has multiple driving factors behind it, as human trafficking is a highly lucrative crime and produces $150 billion per year. Human trafficking takes place on many purposes, such as demand for cheap labor including the child or forced labor, demand for sexual exploitation, and demand for organs removal to name few.

The United Nation Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report identifies that the most vulgar strain of human trafficking is sexual exploitation. Sex trafficking prey is maneuvered or forced against its consent to absorb in the sex exploit or to be prostituted for the money. Sex traffickers often use threats, violence, and the promise of love and affection to lure the victims. Such exercises frequently transpire at motels, rest areas, individual halls, street corners, and truck stops. Out of $150 billion, sex trafficking within the prostitution industry yields $99 billion.

Forced or cheap labor occurs in many forms, like the application of coercion or deception or force. The victims are induced to work for mere less or no money as their earnings. Labor traffickers often make hollow commitments of a high-paying job or impressive education or travel possibilities to entice people into awful working conditions. These victims can be found in manufacturing plants, farms, brick kilns, and building sites.

Multiple factors lead to human trafficking and vary from country to country according to the conditions and affairs of the state. Though, on common ground; privation of human rights, poverty, disequilibrium in social and economic affairs, political upheaval, natural disasters, and, civil unrest attribute to human trafficking. Wars, conflicts between countries, civil strife commence displacements of masses making children orphans and leaving them susceptible to human trafficking. Most of the times, parents contribute to human trafficking too. On the score of impending poverty, parents merchandise their children with this notion that their children might access the bright future.

The menace of human trafficking accommodates devastating repercussions economically and socially. On societal fronts, it undermines family ties and child neglect, and the victims who manage to escape from the trafficking often plague stigmatization. From the economic aspect, the countries which are reeling under the vicious cycle of human trafficking they lose the human resource. According to the US Department of State, child labor negatively influences their future productivity which would otherwise be put into good use.

Human trafficking affects not only the social and economic specters but also affects the health of individuals which undergo it. Adult females and children trafficked for the intentions of Sexual exploitation are at the risk of HIV/AIDS; with this when they are exposed to violence and barbarism, they sustain severe injuries which impede their mental and physical development.

To curb human trafficking the UN and the world countries have taken multiple steps. The Global Action to Prevent and Address Trafficking in Persons (GLO.ACT) and the smuggling of migrants is a four-year (2015-2019) joint initiative by the European Union (EU) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). It is implemented with a conglomeration of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The UNICEF accepts donations and provides training manuals on the subject of human trafficking.

Along with it, there are several functioning organizations worldwide that help citizens fight against human trafficking. However, despite the active roles of numerous organization of the world, the menace of human trafficking persists. To eradicate this menace, individuals and their government must cooperate with each other, so that future generations can be saved.