National Human Trafficking Awareness Day

Wednesday, January 11, 2023.

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The issue of human trafficking became a distinct pulse on the monitor of human rights in the 1990s due to the growing concern about the violation of human rights through the practices of abduction, coercion, and exploitation.    This concern was expanded upon by The Protocol, generated by the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime in 2000.  Its function was to not only define the nature of human trafficking, but to actually identify the nature of exploitation.  In addition, it provides authority for legal action against traffickers once the protocol was ratified by a participating country.  As of September 2021, 179 out of 193 countries (that is, member nations of the United Nations), have signed The Protocol (UNDOC).

The Protocol states with specificity what human trafficking is:

“’Trafficking in persons’ shall mean the recruitment, transportation,
transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force
or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse
of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of
payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over
another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a
minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual
exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery,
servitude or the removal of organs;”

Organized crime outlets have become increasingly sophisticated in their acquisition and consignment of the abducted.  Collaboration within organized crime groups has multiplied and interwoven travel routes as well as expanded marketing opportunities.  These alliances have gained intimacies with governments/politicians, law enforcement and amongst bureaucrats, so much so that the vastness of corruption impedes the process of legal action which includes substantial financial sanctions.   These public servants charged with the protection of citizenry are actually complicit in the ongoing and increasing problem.

Human trafficking is a global, borderless offense against humanity.  It not only happens within a region, but crosses borders. Ashamedly, the United States holds the prominent distinction as being a leader in the sex trafficking trade.  It is perplexing that a country seemingly taking the lead on human rights issues is right in the thick of the problem. 

The vassals of human trafficking include women, men and children who are targeted because of their age and/or economic, refugee, and political status.   Additionally, natural disasters, global warming and instability/conflict play a role in creating susceptible populations.  All of these individuals are in some way highly vulnerable, leaving them as naïve targets for exploitation.  Major factors influencing the dramatic increase in trafficking are increased penetration of capitalism into global markets and the restructuring/failure of governments leading to migration, displacement and refugee status.  Globalization  is the prime mover of escalating inequities in global economies and that these differences provide the human innocents for trafficking. 

With vulnerability comes desperation and it is that desperation that leads an individual to make choices that seem reasonable under the circumstances.  A perfect storm of desperation and a desire for a better life opens a window of opportunity for traffickers to skillfully seduce, mislead and deceive individuals whose only need was to have a “better life”.  Often the individual finds themselves sold and resold, never able to extract themselves from their circumstances as their identity has been compromised by abuse, shame, isolation, threats and violence. 

While supplying women for sex is often seen as the face of trafficking, there are other markets in play which include including sex tourism, child pornography, forced marriage, adoption, organ trafficking, criminal activities (i.e., smuggling drugs), forced labor (i.e., domestic, agricultural, sweatshops) as well as military actions (i.e., children recruited for armed conflict, terrorism funding,  insurrections).    

D. Brewer suggests, “…forms of slavery and human trafficking are not just outcomes of globalization; they are part of the globalization process itself that involves a functional integration of dispersed economic activities.”   According to the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, drugs, human trafficking and gun sales hold the top three positions in profitability for organized crime.  In 2008, $32 billion was the estimated amount of trafficking profits.  As of 2020, that increased to $150 billion.    These numbers vary depending on the source and even then, there is the issue of money laundering which warps the actual bottom line. 

Human trafficking is not only a violation of human rights treaties established over the years by democratic societies, it is complicit in creating health crisis within that population including:  PTSD, AIDS/HIV and STDs as well as sterilization after abortions due to unsanitary conditions; residual infections from organ transplants.  For children, debilitating injuries and even death are caused when they are forced to become “camel jockeys” and “child soldiers” or are disfigured by doctors to become effectual beggars.

A cloak of invisibility overlays the issue of the suffering and inhumanity caused by human trafficking.  Even after twenty years and although the United Nations, the US Department of State, Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings and organizations such as The Protection Project, The Polaris Project and Human Rights First have laid groundwork to inform the public, convalesce the wounds of having been a human commodity and establish legislative and punitive deterrents to trafficking, there remain those that have fallen through the cracks. 

From a structural functionalist perspective, a society can be understood through the macro lens of interrelated parts and their contributing function to the whole.   In  human trafficking, there are many moving parts contributing to the phenomenon:  the economics of supply and demand creating the need for “labor” as well as the situations that “create” the laborers (i.e., environmental and agricultural devastation, political and bureaucratic instability, societal/cultural hostilities).  In human trafficking, there is no doubt the exploited make a contribution however, it is at their expense and without their explicit permission. 

On this day bringing awareness to human exploitation, I’d invite you to think about what you can do create a more humane world.

Resources:

Archer, M. (2013).  Trafficking in human beings: modern slavery.  Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.  http://www.endslavery.va/content/endslavery/en/publications/scripta_varia_122/archer.html

Brewer, D. (n.d.).  Globalization and human trafficking.  Topical Research Digest:  Human Rights and Human Trafficking.  https://www.du.edu/korbel/hrhw/researchdigest/trafficking/Globalization.pdf

Counsel of Europe.  (n.d.) https://www.coe.int/en/web/anti-human-trafficking/home

Luttrell, T.  (2020).  Human Trafficking: Closer to Home Than You Think. ABA Risk and Compliance.  

https://bankingjournal.aba.com/2020/01/human-trafficking-closer-to-home-than-you-think/

Mattar, M.  (2006).  The Protection Project.  Comprehensive Legal Approaches to Combating Trafficking in Persons: an International and Comparative Perspective.  John Hopkins University.  https://www.icmec.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/The_Protection_Project_Comprehensive_Approaches_to_THB.pdf

https://polarisproject.org/human-trafficking/

Shelly L.  (2010).    Human trafficking:  A global perspective. Cambridge.   https://refugeeresearch.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Shelley-2010-Human-trafficking-A-global-perspective.pdf

U.S. Department of State.  (n.d.) https://www.state.gov/reports/2020-trafficking-in-persons-report/