Every once in a while the news revisits the topic of human trafficking,
saying how terrible it is, how many victims there are, or how hard people are
trying to prevent it from happening. And although I found these news to be
interesting, they usually don't do that great of a job in helping me recognize
the seriousness of the issue. It's usually the same "cops busted a human
trafficking scheme", "the head of a human trafficking group was
captured and is now awaiting for trial", "girl got kidnap and sell to
another country years ago survived and returned"...These news only give us
surface information, things that don't really shows how terrible this issue has
become. So I decided to dig a little bit deeper to see what really happen
inside human trafficking, how big is it in today's society, and why is
everyone, especially parents, are concerned about human trafficking?
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| There are an estimated 27 million slaves in the world today. That’s the
highest recorded number of slaves in history |
So let's start from the beginning: What is human trafficking? It's basically
the same thing as slavery. You kidnap someone, bring them with you, and then
exploit them for your own needs. The only thing different is that these perpetrators
now have ways to lure poor, innocent people into their trap by promising them
of a "bright future". Those people then got sell off to some foreign
countries where they are forced to engage in commercial sex or provide labor.
In fact, those are the two main things human trafficking is involved in: sex or
labor. One other, less common, one is organ harvesting. But today I’m going to
mainly focus on the most common thing that human trafficking involved in: sex
exploitation.
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Approximately 80% of trafficking involves sexual
exploitation, and 19% involves labor exploitation.
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So what really happened to girls who got taken away against their will to
then be sexually exploited? Well first they got captured by dealers. Then they either
get sold to someone right after that, or they have to go through the “training
phase”. This is when someone would beat and raped them so they can learn sex
techniques. When they are ready, dealers would force them to become
prostitutes, where they have to have sex with other people even if they want it
or not. If they disobey, sex traffickers would use a variety of ways to bring
them under control, which includes “subjecting them to starvation, rape, gang
rape, physical abuse, beating, confinement, threats of violence toward the
victim and victim’s family, forced drug use, and shame”. This results in
numerous victims either died during the process or commit suicide to escape
their life.
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| ”An estimated 30,000 victims of sex trafficking died each year from abuse,
disease, torture, and neglect.” |
Since human trafficking is a hidden crime, it’s hard to obtain accurate statistics.
But one thing is certain: human trafficking is a huge industry. “Human
trafficking is the third largest international crime industry (behind illegal
drugs and arms trafficking). It reportedly generates a profit of $32 billion
every year. Of that number, $15.5 billion is made in industrialized countries.”This
is incredible. People are making billions of dollars from exploiting other
people. And half of this money came from industrialized countries. Wow! Who
knows rich countries contributes so much into human trafficking. It’s amazing
how a business that is considered illegal and violated the most basic of human
rights can create that much money. Oh where has our society come to?
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| “Human trafficking has been identified as the
largest human rights violation in the history of mankind” |
Now we’re getting to the scary part. Do you remember
back when you were young and your parents always said “Don’t follow strangers,
honey!” and you would never listen because your mind is busied elsewhere? Well
it’s a good thing you are still here today because the age group target for
human trafficking is getting smaller and smaller. This means that these
traffickers are looking for younger girls to kidnap and to turn them into sex
slaves. That’s right! You’ve heard me. YOUNG FREAKING GIRLS!!! As in little
middle school students who haven’t even fully developed yet. And human
traffickers are targeting them? That is just sick and wrong is so many many many
ways. I’m actually feeling really uncomfortable typing these words out.
Freaking little kids! And it’s not just one or two kids; it’s an estimate of 13
million worldwide. 13 million kids around the world are being forced to engage
in commercial sex right now. Just imagine the damage it can bring to those
sweet, innocent minds. They may be scar forever because of this. Some might
even think about ending their own lives. A part of humanity who is involved in
human trafficking might have already lost their human features because they
make kids have sex to gain money. It’s depressing to hear how some people can be
so low to even do such a thing. It’s just unbelievable.
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According to a 2009 Washington Times article, the
Taliban buys children as young as seven years old to act as suicide bombers.
The price for child suicide bombers is from $7,000 to $14,000.
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So how can you stop something that big and that
horrifying? Well as a student, I don’t think there is much we can do except
spreading the knowledge and donating for organizations who fought everyday to
prevent human trafficking from happening to as many people as they can. I think
the best thing we can do now as students is to inform everyone about the human
trafficking and make sure that everyone is well-aware of the danger. Doing this
can help people avoid being victims to this horrible tragedy. Even if we can’t
save people who already got caught up in human trafficking, we can still
protect our family, our friends, and our love ones from falling into the hands
of these evil, cold-blooded, inhumane, money-crazed, and disgrace people we
call human traffickers.
Facts about human trafficking:
What you can do to help?
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