An Illicit Act Such as Human Trafficking, Is One of the Major Global Concern and Challenge

In today’s modern society, issues such as smuggling drugs (smuggling), prostitution, terrorism, slavery, deprivation of human rights amongst others are some of the major global issues, which are becoming prevalent in some parts of the world. Human trafficking is defined as the trade of humans by force and obviously, without their consent for money (Human trafficking). Basically, human trafficking is not the same as smuggling in the sense that they benefit from their illicit activities of exploitation. Smuggling is about importing or exporting a prohibited product illegally. In human trafficking, victims such as young children, teenagers, both men and especially woman, are subjected to sexual exploitation, forced labor, and fraud. In my opinion, human trafficking aims more at forced sexual exploitation of woman and in forced labored slavery. This essay will be discussing about the aspects of human trafficking such as sexual exploitation, slavery and selling of human organs, the causes and actions being done to stop it.

Some of the aspects of human sex trafficking includes sexual exploitation, prostitution and pornography amongst others. Sexual exploitation is in terms of making a sex commercial act with teenagers under the age of 18, making them exploiting their body using force and being brutal to them. According to recent statistics, 500, 000 people every year in Europe, mostly women and young girls are being forced into prostitution (Human Trafficking 2). Prostitution is defined as the act of practicing sex for money. In my opinion, sex trafficking happens mostly in poor countries through abduction and parents selling their child in order to be able to manage economically. Since woman and teenage girls are forced into sexual relationships for money, they would be compelled to involve in pornography which is defined as sexually explicit pictures in a well defined obscene scene and as well as in writings. Moreover, the US States Department stated that “80% of victims trafficked across international borders are female and 70% of those women and girls are trafficked for sexual exploitation” (Human Trafficking 2.) According to me, I think that this is really disturbing by the fact that despite being in a modernized nation where women are fighting for equality, the image of women is still degrading globally. Moreover, the trafficker is taking away the victims rights by stealing the individual’s freedom, controlling the latter’s body. I think that those people are experiencing torture and that they must be living in a prison without walls and being deprived of their rights to freedom and to have a life of their own. Also, the trafficker is making profits while the women are being physically and sexually abused. The fact that AIDS are prevalent in Africa and in other poor countries clearly explains the consequence of human trafficking.

Slavery is another factor of human trafficking. It was established by British and French in the past and was later abolished. Nowadays, in our modern world, slavery still continues to exist but with virtual chains. Slavery is defined as forcing people to work in labor situations without their consent. From my point of view, this is also the case where humans are deprived of their right to gain freedom since they are being forced to do the job and they are not being given a proper salary. One of the proofs that slavery is still occurring today is in Northern China, where 28 people have been jailed because of their views and positions at the slave labor outrage at the brick factories and one of the person has been sentenced to death for killing one of the workers (BBC News). I think slavery happens in some countries due to large abundant land but less skilled workers who demands large sum of money and where technology is expensive. After recognizing that slavery is still being practiced silently in the world and that people are suffering, the state of Virginia (in February 2007) and the UK government (September 2006) issued apologies and their regrets in the role of slavery (Wikipedia). Moreover, in slavery, families are being separated from each other and being transported to far away places from each other. Children are often uprooted from their families and left in poverty with no idea of their origin. Thus, slavery too is one of the major characteristic flaws in human trafficking because people are suffering silently and children are being separated from the families and deprived of the childhood experience.

Another type of human trafficking is the sales of human body parts and this can happen with or without the consent of the person. One example of organ sale without the human’s consent is when poor Brazilian people were being abducted and surgeries were being performed on them to extract their kidneys or heart (Anthropology). A missing organ can result in some failure in the human anatomy as some function will not be carried out and may even lead to death. Moreover, in the year 2004, in April "For the first time in investigations of human trafficking, doctors are being arrested and hospitals cited," (Anthropology). This organ business take place because there is a category of people trying to save their own life at the expense of someone else’s, hospitals or private operations making money through research and sales of the organs. However, in some part of the world where poverty is a major issue, selling of organs can occur with consent, just for them to manage economically. In Brazil, this crime is punishable up to eight years in prison according to a law made in 1997. If organs are extracted from a dead person informally, the punishment is up to twenty years in prison (Brazil). Therefore, human organ sales are another horrible aspect of human trafficking where a person can be involved in.
Many countries are involved in human trafficking, ranging from one hundred and twenty- seven countries involved in slavery and one hundred and thirty- seven countries involved in exploitation. The destinations of human trafficking are in wealthy countries such as Western Europe, North America and Middle East. The victims are mostly from Eastern European countries including Lithuania, Russia, Albania and Ukraine. Others are from the Far East, South America and Africa (BBC News). The ages of the victims subjected to human trafficking varies from eighteen to twenty ' ' four years of age, mostly woman. It was also discovered that those victims were from poor countries with no education at all (BBC News). The cause of such act is because of one, not being able to sustain oneself economically in his country. Families willing to sell their child can also be due to, unemployment and the lack of education and awareness of human rights. “To prevent human trafficking, it would be important to change attitudes toward children and give them access to education, property inheritance, and better sustainable well-being, especially to young girls,” (Articles). I think that these are some of the effective ways to prevent human trafficking because it mostly occurs in poor countries and the victims are mostly people with no education. Thus, providing education including issues such as human rights and violence to all children would greatly change the occurrences of human trafficking. According to me, if domestic violence is to be eliminated and man and women live with equal rights, government should invest massively in education. One of the listed causes of human trafficking was also because of unemployment. This issue can be partly solved through education and accompanied training for manual jobs where necessary ad technology can also play against the creation of employment. These action will eventually decrease the rate at which woman are being trafficked. Also, if human trafficking decreases, AIDs and other sexually transmitted diseases will decrease as well. Moreover, the Vital Voices Partnership is raising the awareness of Human trafficking and trying to combat it by giving woman the trainings they need (Vital Voices). Governments from countries to countries are introducing legislation aiming that human trafficking is illegal (Vital Voices). In the year 2000, the international law was passed that which is Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, which punishes people involved in human trafficking and preventing it from actually occurring. I think that with all the forces working together, fruits of the actions taken will be harvested and future gnerations will live in a better world.

While doing this research essay, I learned a lot about human trafficking and that the governments and representatives from many countries are also taking actions to prevent it from occurring. Human trafficking is a really illicit and forced activity from which traffickers make profits. The movie “human trafficking” release in the year 2005 reflects reality about what is occurring silently in the modern world. Moreover, I learned that the three main aspects of human trafficking are sexual exploitation, slavery and human organ sales. If quick actions are taken, this will eventually stop.

Bibliography:
Human trafficking: Star, "Human trafficking definition and facts." November 30, 2005 July 18th 2007 .
Human trafficking 2: "Human trafficking ." july 18th 2007 .
BBC news: "BBC News." convictions in china slave trial July 18th 2007 .
Anthropology: Maclay , Kathleen . "UC Berkeley anthropology professor working on organs trafficking ." 30 April 2004 19-07-2007 .
Brazil: Osava , Mario. "BRAZIL: Poor Sell Organs to Trans-Atlantic Trafficking Ring." 2004 19-07-2007 .
Articles: " preventing human trafficking." 26th December 2004 19-07-2007 .
Vital voices: "Human Rights." 26th December 2004 19-07-2007 .

Bibliography: Human trafficking: Star, "Human trafficking definition and facts." November 30, 2005 July 18th 2007 . Human trafficking 2: "Human trafficking ." july 18th 2007 . BBC news: "BBC News." convictions in china slave trial July 18th 2007 . Anthropology: Maclay , Kathleen . "UC Berkeley anthropology professor working on organs trafficking ." 30 April 2004 19-07-2007 . Brazil: Osava , Mario. "BRAZIL: Poor Sell Organs to Trans-Atlantic Trafficking Ring." 2004 19-07-2007 . Articles: " preventing human trafficking." 26th December 2004 19-07-2007 . Vital voices: "Human Rights." 26th December 2004 19-07-2007 .