Why Is Human Trafficking Wrong
Lennon Martin
Casey Kadavy
Eng102
9 November 2013
Human Trafficking: Come Together to Bring Victims Justice
Human trafficking is not something to take lightly; you can call this modern day slavery. Even when you think we have it under control, think again, this is an ongoing problem all over the world and has been for years. Your own neighbor, an acquaintance, or the person you walk by in the morning on your way to work could be a victim of this crime. What can you do to put this type of wrong doing to an end? Start small, as a community we can raise awareness to those who do not know about this subject and also raise funds to those local non-profit organizations to stop this completely. On top of that, we need to support those who are a victim and help them take a stand on this problem; then take it even farther to prosecute the culprits of these horrible crimes.
There are so many myths and possible solutions to human trafficking, but first let me give you a little background on the subject. Human trafficking is a …show more content…
worldwide issue and it affects many lives. The trafficking of humans includes the buying and selling of human beings who have no say in what they do and are forced to work to make money for the people they work under (Lerner). This is a global issue but as an American community we need to start at the root of the problem. Globalization has created a higher increase for money to purchase most of our basic daily needs. Migrant workers often from well-developed Eastern countries are in high demand in other parts of the world for short-term labor contracts, which can be beneficial but may also lead to abuse, trafficking, and slavery to the workers (Aronowitz).
To get more educated on the subject there are some myths that should be cleared up. “Most victims are being trafficked into the sex industry.” This is a big no; while there are children and women being trafficked for sex, most are being trafficked for labor (Silverman). Also trafficking will not be stopped by making stricter laws at the border; recent tightening of the border laws have actually caused more trafficking by forcing frantic people to turn to smugglers (Feingold). These are only a few of the many myths that we have about the subject but should definitely be aware of them when trying to end this problem.
With more and more technology growing and the increase of smart people who would rather use their brain for the greater evil in society each year makes the chances bigger for traffickers to create an income for themselves by doing the wrong. This is horrible and completely inhumane! With the help of non-profit human trafficking organizations and funds from the government we can end this once and for all. Shutting down websites that offer sexual favors is a big deal in ending this problem also because these are the types of things today that are growing more popular for the use of the human trafficking business. Victims’ come from all over the world; places such as, Africa, Asia, and Latin America. They are promised jobs and a new life here in America, they can even be just plain kidnapped into the human trafficking business and brought to the U.S with little to possibly no pay for them. Ten to fifteen thousand people are trafficked in the U.S each year. These forced laborers are babysat by employers while working long hours and have no real knowledge of their own rights. They are raised and told that law enforcement is bad and to never to associate with them. Not all forced laborers are coming from different countries though; they are people who actually are forced into labor within the U.S. These forced laborers are usually found in big cities such as California and Texas. They work in businesses like prostitution, household services, agriculture, factories, restaurants, and hotel work (Lerner).
Organizations are great and very helpful in contributing to the stop of human trafficking as a whole; one in particular I would like to bring up is the Polaris Project. The Polaris Project is a leading organization in the global fight against human trafficking and modern day slavery; they are based out of Washington D.C, New Jersey, and New York. They have client services on how they can help victims such as, crisis response teams that help provide emotional support, legal advocacy, emergency housing coordination, and transportation assistance. Client services has helped over 150 survivors and that doesn’t even include everything they have done outside of the organization; things such as, helping the needs of survivors of hurricane sandy by having 24 hour emotional support, providing years of shelter for those homeless, and training over 2,000 new people from 15 different countries. Also they have therapeutic services, which victims can talk to a therapist on a daily basis and have group counseling so they can each support each other in the healing process. Not only do they provide these types of services, there’s more; case management, workshops, and drop in centers (Polaris Project).
This is only one part of the many things they offer to raise awareness and help victims. They have information of different types of human trafficking like sex and labor trafficking. This organization is great for victims and is highly informative for those learning about the subject. The website is always up to date. The team who keeps the website alive is the most important thing here. They have people on call for victims or anyone trying to report a trafficker and then others helping collect money that gets donated to the site. They have a vision they are trying to accomplish which I commend them on. If we can start organization like this throughout the U.S we would have better chances in lowering and even possibly ending all human trafficking going on. For this to happen we need people who are passionate and willing to make a change once and for all.
People think about convicting the traffickers, but have you thought about the hopeless victims that have charges on their record for things they are forced to do? Human traffickers are forced into illegal acts that can get them into a lot of trouble; they can be prosecuted and arrested. With a criminal record we all know it is hard to get any necessities to live as a normal human being. As another part of the Polaris Project they have helped create a vacating law, which will make sure any victim of human trafficking with a criminal record will be looked at as a victim and not criminal.
There is a major plus to the vacating law; “A vacating convictions law helps ensure that the victims of human trafficking are treated as victims, rather than criminals. On many job, loan, and educational applications, a person is required to disclose any prior convictions. Having these convictions removed from a victim’s record would ensure that the victim does not miss out on opportunities as a result of having been victimized. A clean record will give a victim confidence to move ahead and seek opportunities without having to worry about a criminal conviction for prostitution. It thus provides increased protection and a second chance for survivors of human trafficking to begin living normal lives” (Polaris Project). As you can see, organizations are a big factor in ending trafficking. They have the funds to advertise and go from community to community raising awareness. This will help people to know what to look out for and then make sure they know where to go if they see any type of this crime going on. Adding onto this, organizations are not the only help in this problem; we also need to think big and bring the government into this.
The government is going to be one of our best hopes in spreading the word and opening the citizens’ eyes in how big the problem really is; they have made big changes in the past thirteen years. The U.S government passed a trafficking act in 2000 to try and help stop the issue of forced laborers. They have a budget of eighty million annually to help enforce U.S. anti-trafficking laws, raise public awareness, and assist and protect victims. The U.S provides U-visas and T-visas for trafficking victims, which allows them to stay in the United States for three years. They are also granted eligibility for government funded programs and also refugee programs (Lerner). The U.S hopes these incentives will help the victims be able to take a stand for themselves and to also have a better future. Programs like this should be in areas that have high rates of human trafficking so the victims are aware of them. The more awareness these programs receive the better chance we have at getting victims to testify and to start having these traffickers answer for their crimes.
Helping the victims is one of the most important things in this situation. Giving victims residency here in the U.S is even better than sending them back to their home because if our government was to send these people back home they would end up right where they started again for the chance of them going through the whole trafficking process for a second time. If there were gangs involved in the trafficking they could even be threated worse and live in fear for their families and themselves (Feingold).
Since this is a problem worldwide not only are they trying to stop this in the U.S but also all over the globe.
In England they are informing nurses about human traffickers and things they need to look for to help these people. They want the nurses in England to be more aware of the victims in hopes to help stop this problem when they come in seeking medical help. They want them to recognize symptoms and signs of the patient. Traffickers usually drop off victims at a hospital when one becomes pregnant or if their health starts to get bad. Traffickers use threats and abuse victims to make sure they don’t say a word; nurses are supposed to be looking for signs of withdrawal in patients and when they don’t get to personal with their living situation. Nurses need to trust their instincts and make sure that they are watching out for these things. Nurses can be very important people and especially victims to help the situation die down
(Dean).
The problem is huge and happening everywhere we turn; each one of our countries is trying to find one way or another to help victims and stop it from happening! From here on out if we all took a step deeper into the world of human trafficking by opening our eyes, showing support to trafficking organizations, making sure our government is being funded properly for help on this issue, and raising awareness to communities and people around us we could slowly but surly end this crime.
Works Cited
Aronowitz, Alexis A. Human Trafficking, Human Misery : The Global Trade In Human Beings. Westport, Conn: Praeger, 2009. eBook Academic Collection
(EBSCOhost). Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Dean, Erin. "Rescuing The Vulnerable." Nursing Standard 27.43 (2013): 16-17. Academic Search Premier. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Feingold, David. “Human Trafficking.” Defending Human Rights 2014. Ed. June Johnson. Global Issues, Local Arguments. 2014. Print.
"Human Trafficking Goes On in the U.S., Too." Crime and Punishment: Essential Primary Sources. Ed. K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner. Detroit: Gale, 2006. 178-182. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 6 Nov. 2013.
"Polaris Project." Gale Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Detroit: Gale, 2014.Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 6 Nov. 2013.
Silverman, Vicki. “Trading Women Shatters Myths about Human Trafficking.”
America.gov 2003. Ed. June Johnson. Global Issues, Local Arguments, 2014. Print.
Casey Kadavy
Eng102
9 November 2013
Human Trafficking: Come Together to Bring Victims Justice
Human trafficking is not something to take lightly; you can call this modern day slavery. Even when you think we have it under control, think again, this is an ongoing problem all over the world and has been for years. Your own neighbor, an acquaintance, or the person you walk by in the morning on your way to work could be a victim of this crime. What can you do to put this type of wrong doing to an end? Start small, as a community we can raise awareness to those who do not know about this subject and also raise funds to those local non-profit organizations to stop this completely. On top of that, we need to support those who are a victim and help them take a stand on this problem; then take it even farther to prosecute the culprits of these horrible crimes.
There are so many myths and possible solutions to human trafficking, but first let me give you a little background on the subject. Human trafficking is a …show more content…
worldwide issue and it affects many lives. The trafficking of humans includes the buying and selling of human beings who have no say in what they do and are forced to work to make money for the people they work under (Lerner). This is a global issue but as an American community we need to start at the root of the problem. Globalization has created a higher increase for money to purchase most of our basic daily needs. Migrant workers often from well-developed Eastern countries are in high demand in other parts of the world for short-term labor contracts, which can be beneficial but may also lead to abuse, trafficking, and slavery to the workers (Aronowitz).
To get more educated on the subject there are some myths that should be cleared up. “Most victims are being trafficked into the sex industry.” This is a big no; while there are children and women being trafficked for sex, most are being trafficked for labor (Silverman). Also trafficking will not be stopped by making stricter laws at the border; recent tightening of the border laws have actually caused more trafficking by forcing frantic people to turn to smugglers (Feingold). These are only a few of the many myths that we have about the subject but should definitely be aware of them when trying to end this problem.
With more and more technology growing and the increase of smart people who would rather use their brain for the greater evil in society each year makes the chances bigger for traffickers to create an income for themselves by doing the wrong. This is horrible and completely inhumane! With the help of non-profit human trafficking organizations and funds from the government we can end this once and for all. Shutting down websites that offer sexual favors is a big deal in ending this problem also because these are the types of things today that are growing more popular for the use of the human trafficking business. Victims’ come from all over the world; places such as, Africa, Asia, and Latin America. They are promised jobs and a new life here in America, they can even be just plain kidnapped into the human trafficking business and brought to the U.S with little to possibly no pay for them. Ten to fifteen thousand people are trafficked in the U.S each year. These forced laborers are babysat by employers while working long hours and have no real knowledge of their own rights. They are raised and told that law enforcement is bad and to never to associate with them. Not all forced laborers are coming from different countries though; they are people who actually are forced into labor within the U.S. These forced laborers are usually found in big cities such as California and Texas. They work in businesses like prostitution, household services, agriculture, factories, restaurants, and hotel work (Lerner).
Organizations are great and very helpful in contributing to the stop of human trafficking as a whole; one in particular I would like to bring up is the Polaris Project. The Polaris Project is a leading organization in the global fight against human trafficking and modern day slavery; they are based out of Washington D.C, New Jersey, and New York. They have client services on how they can help victims such as, crisis response teams that help provide emotional support, legal advocacy, emergency housing coordination, and transportation assistance. Client services has helped over 150 survivors and that doesn’t even include everything they have done outside of the organization; things such as, helping the needs of survivors of hurricane sandy by having 24 hour emotional support, providing years of shelter for those homeless, and training over 2,000 new people from 15 different countries. Also they have therapeutic services, which victims can talk to a therapist on a daily basis and have group counseling so they can each support each other in the healing process. Not only do they provide these types of services, there’s more; case management, workshops, and drop in centers (Polaris Project).
This is only one part of the many things they offer to raise awareness and help victims. They have information of different types of human trafficking like sex and labor trafficking. This organization is great for victims and is highly informative for those learning about the subject. The website is always up to date. The team who keeps the website alive is the most important thing here. They have people on call for victims or anyone trying to report a trafficker and then others helping collect money that gets donated to the site. They have a vision they are trying to accomplish which I commend them on. If we can start organization like this throughout the U.S we would have better chances in lowering and even possibly ending all human trafficking going on. For this to happen we need people who are passionate and willing to make a change once and for all.
People think about convicting the traffickers, but have you thought about the hopeless victims that have charges on their record for things they are forced to do? Human traffickers are forced into illegal acts that can get them into a lot of trouble; they can be prosecuted and arrested. With a criminal record we all know it is hard to get any necessities to live as a normal human being. As another part of the Polaris Project they have helped create a vacating law, which will make sure any victim of human trafficking with a criminal record will be looked at as a victim and not criminal.
There is a major plus to the vacating law; “A vacating convictions law helps ensure that the victims of human trafficking are treated as victims, rather than criminals. On many job, loan, and educational applications, a person is required to disclose any prior convictions. Having these convictions removed from a victim’s record would ensure that the victim does not miss out on opportunities as a result of having been victimized. A clean record will give a victim confidence to move ahead and seek opportunities without having to worry about a criminal conviction for prostitution. It thus provides increased protection and a second chance for survivors of human trafficking to begin living normal lives” (Polaris Project). As you can see, organizations are a big factor in ending trafficking. They have the funds to advertise and go from community to community raising awareness. This will help people to know what to look out for and then make sure they know where to go if they see any type of this crime going on. Adding onto this, organizations are not the only help in this problem; we also need to think big and bring the government into this.
The government is going to be one of our best hopes in spreading the word and opening the citizens’ eyes in how big the problem really is; they have made big changes in the past thirteen years. The U.S government passed a trafficking act in 2000 to try and help stop the issue of forced laborers. They have a budget of eighty million annually to help enforce U.S. anti-trafficking laws, raise public awareness, and assist and protect victims. The U.S provides U-visas and T-visas for trafficking victims, which allows them to stay in the United States for three years. They are also granted eligibility for government funded programs and also refugee programs (Lerner). The U.S hopes these incentives will help the victims be able to take a stand for themselves and to also have a better future. Programs like this should be in areas that have high rates of human trafficking so the victims are aware of them. The more awareness these programs receive the better chance we have at getting victims to testify and to start having these traffickers answer for their crimes.
Helping the victims is one of the most important things in this situation. Giving victims residency here in the U.S is even better than sending them back to their home because if our government was to send these people back home they would end up right where they started again for the chance of them going through the whole trafficking process for a second time. If there were gangs involved in the trafficking they could even be threated worse and live in fear for their families and themselves (Feingold).
Since this is a problem worldwide not only are they trying to stop this in the U.S but also all over the globe.
In England they are informing nurses about human traffickers and things they need to look for to help these people. They want the nurses in England to be more aware of the victims in hopes to help stop this problem when they come in seeking medical help. They want them to recognize symptoms and signs of the patient. Traffickers usually drop off victims at a hospital when one becomes pregnant or if their health starts to get bad. Traffickers use threats and abuse victims to make sure they don’t say a word; nurses are supposed to be looking for signs of withdrawal in patients and when they don’t get to personal with their living situation. Nurses need to trust their instincts and make sure that they are watching out for these things. Nurses can be very important people and especially victims to help the situation die down
(Dean).
The problem is huge and happening everywhere we turn; each one of our countries is trying to find one way or another to help victims and stop it from happening! From here on out if we all took a step deeper into the world of human trafficking by opening our eyes, showing support to trafficking organizations, making sure our government is being funded properly for help on this issue, and raising awareness to communities and people around us we could slowly but surly end this crime.
Works Cited
Aronowitz, Alexis A. Human Trafficking, Human Misery : The Global Trade In Human Beings. Westport, Conn: Praeger, 2009. eBook Academic Collection
(EBSCOhost). Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Dean, Erin. "Rescuing The Vulnerable." Nursing Standard 27.43 (2013): 16-17. Academic Search Premier. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Feingold, David. “Human Trafficking.” Defending Human Rights 2014. Ed. June Johnson. Global Issues, Local Arguments. 2014. Print.
"Human Trafficking Goes On in the U.S., Too." Crime and Punishment: Essential Primary Sources. Ed. K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner. Detroit: Gale, 2006. 178-182. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 6 Nov. 2013.
"Polaris Project." Gale Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Detroit: Gale, 2014.Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 6 Nov. 2013.
Silverman, Vicki. “Trading Women Shatters Myths about Human Trafficking.”
America.gov 2003. Ed. June Johnson. Global Issues, Local Arguments, 2014. Print.