Human Trafficking

Human Trafficking Legal Assessment
Forms of slavery
There are 3 different forms of slavery. They are:
Sex Trafficking
Forced Labour
Debt Bondage
1. An example of Sex Trafficking is the case of Vicky F., a young woman from Mexico, came to the United States with her husband, Jorge. They left their young son back home with Jorge's mother. Jorge convinced Vicky to work as a prostitute so that they could save money to build a house back home. He kept all the money she earned and sent it directly back home to his family. Vicky was not allowed to keep a dime. He told her that if she did not work as a prostitute, she would never be allowed to see their son again. He threatened her with physical abuse and hit her when she disobeyed him.

Vicky's mother grew suspicious after she did not hear from her daughter for an extended period and contacted the authorities. She had a telephone number for Vicky that was traced to an apartment in Queens. Law enforcement investigated and located Vicky, who broke down and told them what Jorge was forcing her to do. They helped Vicky find a place to stay and referred her for counselling. Vicky cooperated with the prosecution in the case against Jorge. He received one of the longest sentences for human trafficking to date. Vicky now has a T visa and has been reunited with her son.
2. An example of Forced Labour is the case of Nasreen where at the age of 15 she was sent by her family to live with her uncle in New York after experiencing severe financial troubles. Before she arrived her uncle promised that he would sign her up for school and she would work for him part-time in his corner store. But when she arrived she was forced to do domestic work in her uncle’s home for long hours and was made the cashier in the store until late night. He never offered payment for her work.
She lived like this for 2 years and whenever she asked when she would be allowed to go to school, she would be punished by preventing her from speaking to her family in her home country. Nasreen soon ran away and took refuge in a local homeless youth organization after meeting some runaway youths at the piers. She was taught to speak English and given an education. Nasreen has been able to reconnect with her family and hopes to visit them soon. In the meantime she is attending College.
3. An example of Debt bondage is the case of Alena P. Who was a dancer and performer in Russia. She came to the United States on a visa for cultural performances to work in a theatre troupe. When she arrived, she was taken to an apartment in New Jersey and told that she was to work as a stripper to pay off the debt that she accrued from coming to the United States. She was physically threatened and her passport was confiscated.

She worked for almost a year, only receiving about $50 a week that she had to use to pay for meals. Every day, her traffickers picked her up from an apartment, which she shared with other young women who also worked at the strip club, and brought her directly to work. She was not told how long she had to work there to pay off her debt. The total amount that she owed was not clear either because her traffickers deducted rent, transportation, and costume fees from her income.

One day, one of her roommates ran away, escaping from the apartment through a window, and went to the police. Her traffickers were arrested. Alena cooperated in the investigation of her traffickers, who were successfully prosecuted. She now has a T visa, is married, and is the mother of a young son.
People who benefited from the victims above
1. In the first case the people who benefited from the exploitation of Vicki was her husband, Jorge. The profit made by Vicki, who was forced to be a prostitute to raise money, was all taken by her husband who was apparently saving it for a house back home.
2. In the second case of Nasreen, the person who had benefited from her exploitation was her Uncle, who had used her as a domestic slave and made her the cashier for his store.
3. In the third case of Alena, the people who had benefitted from her exploitation were her traffickers and employers.
Efforts of the UN and the ILO
Some of the Efforts made by the UN are:
In 1949, the first international protocol dealing with sex slavery was the 1949 UN Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and Exploitation of Prostitution of Others.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has further assisted many non-governmental organizations in their fight against human trafficking.
The United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UN.GIFT) was conceived to promote the global fight on human trafficking
The ILO has made several international treaties against Human Trafficking. They are:
ILO Forced Labour Convention, 1930
ILO Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957
ILO Minimum Age Convention, 1973
ILO Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999
Role of the media, NGO’s and non-legal responses
The media helps the public know of human trafficking processes that are taking place. Millions of people would help take action against human trafficking if they knew it existed. The media uses news programs to help spread the word of human trafficking and what is currently happening in today’s society.
NGO’s play an extremely important role in combating human trafficking by reporting on and exposing abuses, by researching and informing public and governments on incidents and patterns of abuse, or by working to combat causes, incidents of or effects of abuse. Some NGO’s include Anti-Slavery International and American Anti-Slavery Group.
There are many international and domestic responses to human trafficking that aim to combat the causes, organisation and execution, and effects of human trafficking worldwide. Some international responses to human trafficking is the Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UN.GIFT) and the Special Action Programme on Forced Labour (SAPFL). Some Domestic Responses to human trafficking are the Trafficking Persons Report, Anti-Slavery Project and Human Trafficking Working Group in 2008.
These groups all help in legal measures that take place as they help in accessibility and inform the community, help report on abuses, and create many responses to combat human trafficking internationally and domestically.
Effectiveness of legal and non-legal responses to human trafficking
Legal and non-legal responses’ effectiveness on human trafficking are affected by the causes and drives of human trafficking. Globalisation causes a need for mass production and cheap labour, which may be satisfied through people being trafficked. The gap between the rich and the poor creates millions of vulnerable people who live in poverty and lack education. They are naive and desperate, which therefore leads them to being tricked into being trafficked. It is hard for legal and non-legal responses to deal with human trafficking as they are hard to track, hard to gather data on and there are jurisdictional issues and state sovereignty. Demands such as Sex Tourism will always need to be fulfilled in countries and the different jurisdictional laws, resources and policies may be lacking. The global network of highly sophisticated organised crime syndicates know the laws and how to avoid them, pay off officials such as cops, judges and the prosecution, work with the officials in some cases and see human trafficking as more profitable as nothing is wasted. Therefore legal and non-legal responses to human trafficking are very ineffective.