Human Trafficking: What it is and Why it Should Be Stopped

Human trafficking takes several forms. There are women and children trafficked as sex slaves for brothels where they are sold by the hour, by the service or outright. There are also men, women and children being moved across borders against their will for forced labor in factories, agriculture, and domestic servitude. Some women and girls are sold as brides. Lastly, there are men, women and children being snatched and having organs removed for the very wealthy who have need of an organ. The victims human rights and health needs are never a factor.

Both psychological and financial controls are used by traffickers to control their victims.

For example: A woman wanting a better life for herself and her fatherless child may be enticed to go to the United States with a man she believes to be her new fiancé with the promise of a great job and the ability to send for her child once settled in their new home. It may all seem very reasonable to her but once she arrives in the U.S., she realizes that her "fiancé" has sold her to sweat shop and informs her that if she tries to escape, her child or another relative, which is still in her home country, will be harmed or even killed. Having no contact with her family, no money and no passport, the woman is a captive in the new country with nothing else to do but believe that her ex-fiance really will do harm to one of her loved ones.

Another example is a man who cannot provide for his family and answers an ad for agricultural workers with the promise of enough money to support his family. The man is smuggled into another country and forced to work for little to no wages. The threat of bodily harm to his wife or children keeps him there.

People such as migrants, those who are marginalized, runaways, homeless and poor are most likely to be preyed upon by traffickers.
Traffickers aren't just the single white males one may expect. They come in all races and sexes and include families and organized criminal groups. They supply distribution centers, retail companies and consumers like us.

Trafficking is happening everywhere and all around us. Some countries are suppliers and others are receivers or merely stops in transit. Regardless of what part of the trafficking is happening in a country, the fact that it is happening at all establishes the complicity of that country in the overall crime.

Allowing the practice of human trafficking is morally reprehensible. What gives us the right to buy, sell, abuse or even murder other human beings? Can you live with the knowledge that human trafficking happens every day - even here in the United States?