Humans are being sold to other people, just like slaves.
Many of these victims are sexually abused, forced to do work, and sometimes even used for removal of their organs (“Human trafficking.”). Human trafficking is the third largest criminal business in the world, and it is rapidly growing ("Institute for Trafficked, Exploited & Missing Persons (ITEMP)"). The majority of the victims who are trafficked are women, but around 20% also include children (“United Nations Office On Drugs & Crime.”). Up to 79% of these trafficking incidences are for sexual reasons (“United Nations Office On Drugs & Crime.”). According to Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, “ … Mahidol University’s Institute for Population and Social Research found beatings, sexual assault, forced labor without pay, sleep deprivation, and rape to be common.” Many of the victims who are used for sexual exploitation usually are unidentified or not discovered. Therefor, some have no way of rescue once they are sold and can be someone’s property for years. Human trafficking is a huge injustice in our
world.
Many people are more vulnerable to being trafficked because of their race or ethnicity, and sometimes because of poverty or unemployment (Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia). They also target women and children in places where they are considered less valued than men (Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia). Traffickers will sometimes kidnap the victim or threaten them, but many are told a lie or bribed into a fake job or some sort of opportunity (“Human trafficking.”). This is extremely common in eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, and Africa (“Human trafficking.”). Victims suffer a variety of both physical and mental problems after being trafficked in any form like anxiety disorders and sometimes even sexually transmitted diseases ("Institute for Trafficked, Exploited & Missing Persons (ITEMP)"). Women, men, and young children are being abused in physical and mental ways, and will have to forever live with the traumatic experiences they suffered.
Completely stopping human trafficking from happening any longer might be close to impossible, but we can at least cut down the number of victims. Each year one million people are trafficked around the world, but we can decrease that number greatly (Human trafficking.”). Already, the United States and Europe have made laws that say no human being can be bought or sold (Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia). If every country made laws against human trafficking, people would realize that it is an extremely illegal act and might stop. Since trafficking has a low risk of persecution, the laws being made need to provide a bigger penalty, and we need increase enforcement ("Institute for Trafficked, Exploited & Missing Persons (ITEMP)"). This won’t stop every case, because some people will continue to break the law, but it would cut down the number of incidences. Also, if people are self aware of what they’re getting themselves into, they can avoid being trafficked. Since poverty makes a person more vulnerable to being a victim of trafficking, we need to make it mandatory to have an education and protect against poverty ("Institute for Trafficked, Exploited & Missing Persons (ITEMP)"). The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) helps to create laws against trafficking in foreign governments, strengthens investigations, and prosecutes offenders (“Human trafficking.”). The TVPA needs to be available around the globe to prevent more cases of human trafficking.
Although slavery was history, it never fully disappeared. In its new form, we can call that human trafficking. Human trafficking is a huge problem in our world and is continuing to grow bigger and bigger, so we need to stop this illegal act as fast as possible. Women, girls, boys, men… they all are being abused for no reason, some are even beaten until they die. Just think how lucky you are to not be one of those million victims each year being trafficked. That could easily be you, so let’s all just jump in and stop this terrible act. How much longer are we going to let innocent people be sexually assaulted or abused? About 30,000 victims die each year from neglect, abuse, disease or torture (“Human trafficking.”). Not one human being deserves to be treated this terribly.