Human Traffic
Rachael Stace, with the support of Just Focus
Imagine being a child sold by your parents not knowing where you are going, or what lies ahead, the only thing you do know is that you will probably never see your family, your neighbourhood or anything that you have grown up with, and care about, ever again. Or imagine being a woman with no work and no money, leaving your home because of promises of a better life, just to find out that you have been sold into slavery.
Human trafficking is the movement or sale of people by others (called traffickers), often through the use of force, threats and violence, and with the purpose of exploiting the victim. It affects every continent and most countries, with approximately 2.5 million people trafficked every year.
2.5 million people, REALLY? 200 hundred years ago the British Empire put an end to the slave trade, so why, in today’s modern society, are people still bought and sold like commodities?
Living in poverty greatly increases your chance of being a victim of human trafficking. People who are struggling to survive and don’t have a lot of money are desperate for a way out and traffickers can, and do, exploit this, offering false promises of money and good jobs. Men and women who lack better options locally are persuaded by the prospect of better jobs in other regions or countries and agree to migrate. Parents may be offered a brighter and better life for their children, who they cannot afford to look after anyway, so they sell their children, hoping for a better future for them. Orphans are sold by orphanages to traffickers and sometimes children off the street are simply taken.
Human trafficking is at its most extreme during times of hardship such as natural disasters, for example droughts, famines, floods, earthquakes or tsunamis (eg: the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami) because when people, already dealing with poverty, are distressed or in panic they are at their most vulnerable. They are fooled or easily persuaded and when separated from their families are easy pickings for traffickers. Orphaned children especially are easily kidnapped.
Victims of human trafficking become slaves and are forced to do things such as hard physical labour, prostitution, become mail-order brides, work in the military forces (e.g.child soldiers), become domestic workers, fish in dangerous areas or work in factories or sweat shops.
Trafficking is worth about US$32 billion a year! The UN attribute the rapid rise in trafficking to globalisation, with the flow of information and better communications making it easier to lure poor people with unrealistic promises. Open borders in regions like Europe make it easier to move people around.
To try and fight trafficking the UN developed the Protocol Against Trafficking in Persons which was ratified in 2003 and signed by 117 countries. It makes trafficking an international crime. But law enforcement in many countries is ineffective and the punishment quite light. Trafficking is one of the world’s most lucrative crimes, with US$32 billion at stake, unfortunately the potential gain well outweighs the risks.
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Sokha, Cambodia
Girls as young as five are trafficked from Cambodia over the border into Thailand. Sokha’s mother was ill with a liver complaint and the family needed money to pay for drugs to treat her and to buy land to build a home. Sokha and her friend Makara were sold to a trafficker who promised good jobs for them in Thailand. But reality turned out to be very different. Sokha explains how she and Makara were given jobs selling fruit, but with their bosses taking most of the money for themselves, they were not able to survive or send any money home. Soon their bosses forced them into sleeping with men to pay their way. Sokha’s mother died within a year, and with no more resources the family still couldn’t afford to buy land.
Fortunately their parents contacted a group, Cambodian Hope Organisation, who found and rescued the girls, bringing them back to their families and offering them support and training.
Not everyone is this lucky.
Source | Tearfund
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Human trafficking is a personal horror, a family’s misfortune, a community’s grief, a country’s despair and a world tragedy. All human beings are born equal, so why it is that some work and live in situations that are often too gruesome for others to even think about?
But we HAVE to think about it, because it affects us all. Even here in Aotearoa New Zealand. The globalisation process which makes trafficking easier, also means that products made by the victims could easily find their way onto your table, or into your wardrobe, through the chocolate you eat or the shoes you walk in. You may be contributing to the problem without even knowing it.
Don’t despair about the problem, take action and be part of the solution!! Check out the websites below to learn more about the issues and for some ideas on how to get involved.
Learn More
www.tradeaid.org.nz
www.stopthetraffik.org
www.antislavery.org
www.hrw.org
www.savethechildren.net
Take Action
- Join Just Focus www.justfocus.org.nz
- Get involved with Trade Aid’s campaign to fight modern slavery www.tradeaid.org.nz
- Join Amnesty International and help fight all human rights abuses www.amnesty.org.nz
- Watch Amazing Grace, a film which follows the life of William Wilberforce, the driving force behind the abolishing of the slave trade in the British Empire
- Talk to your friends and family
- Sign the petition at www.antislavery.org
- Check out the international campaign at www.stopthetraffik.org
A version of this article was published in JET Magazine.
