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Human Trafficking: Where Our Eyes Are Open

Human trafficking is a deadly disease globally, hitting hard in South America, Asia, Middle East and spreading across Europe. The trafficking of humans is an illegal crime that is growing worldwide and is seen as a business of selling human beings. This crime is ranked number three in the world after fire arms and illegal drug smuggling.

There are five types of human trafficking: Bonded labor, forced labor, sex trafficking, child labor and the trafficking of children. According to the dictionary, Trafficking means the trade of buying and selling goods from one area to the next. In society the normal concept of trafficking would be the trade of fish or grains, but the conflicting mechanism would be not humans, as thousands upon thousands of children and adults from Africa, Asia, South America and Europe are sold in this deadly organization every year.

In the United States, movies like Taken, Trade, Hostel, and documentaries, news programs, T.V shows such as Law and Order and a 2005 show called, Human Trafficking have touched and tried to inform people of this disorderly conduct. When it comes to the United States, people are clueless to the fact that sexual exploitation and labor exploitation are happening from coast to coast. It’s sad to imagine children, young boys and girls, men and women being treated with no respect and are seen a property and not people of meaning in a modernized world.

As a Criminal Justice major, I find the trafficking of humans disturbing as should all people, but just the fact that my classes such as Sociology and Criminology have sparked awareness and dug a little deeper on the subject of trafficking humans, is taunting to say the least. Watching documentaries and hearing such horrid stories about the lifestyles these people go through is unbearable in its own content that I can’t fully understand or explain.

Sex trafficking and child trafficking are the two most common happening in all 50 states, according to The U.S Department of Education on the human trafficking of children in the United States. I decided to talk more about this from the U.S because that’s where I’m currently living, but like I’ve stated before, this happens everywhere.

Poor economic conditions and social problems create a climate which is favorable to human trafficking. Victims are consistently exploited from any ethnic and social background. Children, runaway teens, and the homeless are easily suck into vulnerability and gullibility, especially children who are under the age of 18 and are from conflicting atmospheres that attracts them to supporting figures, later to be classified as pimps and traffickers. For the sex traffickers, their victims are seen as value on the market as demands are met for people who have the money to do whatever they please with these children. Common incidents that occur a lot throughout cases like these are families that are poor and exploiting their loved ones for money.

I personally believe everyone should feel some sadness when reading or seeing something to the extent of this subject. I haven’t been studying human trafficking for a long time, but the question that always comes up in my mind that I don’t necessarily find an answer to, is what happens after a person who has gone through being raped, tortured and worked half to death do once being found from not being lost anymore. The story always seemed to end just there with no questions fully answered and left me wondering. How do you rescue and restore someone who has gone through something like that?

It’s an inhumane thing to view people as merchandise and should be stopped nationwide. The websites below are sites and campaigns talking more about the affects of human trafficking, more than I could explain and grasp the full context of.