What are Officials Doing to Fight Human Trafficking Since it is a Violation of Human Rights?

Officials are working to make more effective laws and anti-trafficking methods to help stop this enormous issue. The Trafficking of Victims Protection Act is one example of the legislation being passed to help with the impediment of human trafficking. This act enabled law enforcement with new tactics to use for arresting and actually prosecuting human traffickers. It also increased the human trafficking penalties and began a program to help victims around the globe. Another program was created because of this act that economically helped the women in danger of human trafficking.    

The government was also requires to evaluate other countries efforts to stop human trafficking by taking note of how many people were allowed into their borders that were being trafficked. Human trafficking could be portrayed as the definition of a violation of human rights.

For instance one of the most significant bill that was passed at an international level was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It was established by the United Nation’s General Assembly in 1948 after the second Word War. Word leaders came together to create the Universal Declaration of Human Rights because they did not want history to keep repeating itself. This bill bounds countries that signed it to combat human trafficking and respect the people’s basic human rights. Article four of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the save trade shall be prohibited in all their forms” (United Nations). Word leaders around the world that are part of the United Nations must uphold this law.

Throughout the years officials have passed countless laws, policies, bills, and even initiated programs to help combat human trafficking as well as to aid the survivors. The National Defense Authorization Act of 2003 was established to limit any governments’ affiliations with organizations that could be using human trafficking. This helped funding go to the right organizations that helped actual human trafficking survivors. The PROTECT Act of 2003 (Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to End the Exploitation of Children Today) which started The Amber Alert System along with other similar alerting programs for missing, abducted, and exploited children. This act also gives grants to programs that provide housing for children victims. The PROJECT ACT also increases the punishments for human traffickers. A much older act such as the Mann Act of 1910 (amended in 1978 and 1986) one of the most significant ones because it criminalizes the act of transporting minors and forcing adults to travel anywhere for commercial sex. The punishment includes twenty years in prison with an increase if a minor was involved. Another act that was passed specifically targeting the economical side of human trafficking was the Customs and Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act that prohibited any imported goods to be from any kinds of forced labor. This in essence could reduce demand for laborers therefore less victims.

 Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, established human trafficking and any similar crimes as a federal crime with severe punishments. It also helped with prosecuting methods, prevention and protection of survivors and victims. The act also required that victims were paid for what they were forced into. The office to monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons was establish to monitor other countries and report annually what they all have done to combat human trafficking. Victims and families were given temporary resident status and were eligible to become United States Citizens through the Inter-agency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking program created by this act.

The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2003 enabled victims to sue their traffickers. The act also added human trafficking to the Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations list. Victims and their families were also protected from deportation.  The Attorney General under this act is obligated to report to congress what the United States has been doing to combat human trafficking annually.

The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization act of 2005 helped initiate programs that helped minor who are survivors of human trafficking with shelter. This act also helped expand the officials’ international reach and funded more local law enforcement to combat human trafficking and sex tourism. Five million dollars were put to fund a pilot program that helped treat victims abroad and fortified governments’ contracts to make sure the organizations they were not affiliated with human trafficking.

The TVPRA was ratified in 2008 where it now brought awareness of worker’s rights and Visas it also enabled screening foreign children to be screened for being potential human trafficking victims. The act also broaden the definition of human trafficking and increased punishment this helped facilitate prosecution.

The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2013 is parallel to the Violence Against Women Act which created and elaborated programs that make sure all goods are forced labor free and also prevent child marriages. This act also made more local help and emergency response available for victims (Polaris Project).

 Human Trafficking is an issue that as a society we have been facing for hundreds of years in various forms one of which is slavery. Human trafficking now can be viewed as modern day slavery but perhaps worse. This time slavery is much more complex; it is about control rather than owning. Traffickers go to great extent to control their victims and make them do as they please. The problem in my opinion is within the demand, if there was no demand then there would not be any need to capture young girls and force them into commercial sex. The use of technology aids traffickers in a variety of ways such as reaching victims and potential buyers. Technology however, can also help law enforcement catch criminals and rescue victims. Officials have been trying to combat human trafficking for years, but it seems to just worsen as the years go by. 

Works Cited: 

"The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UDHR, Declaration of Human Rights, Human Rights Declaration, Human Rights Charter, The Un and Human Rights." UN News Center. UN. Web. 21 July 2015.

"Current Federal Laws | Polaris | Combating Human Trafficking and Modern-day Slavery." Current Federal Laws | Polaris | Combating Human Trafficking and Modern-day Slavery. Web. 26 July 2015. 

The Stories of Human Trafficking Survivors

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children 100,000 children as a minimum are prostitute each year (Smolowe). Fortunately some victims manage to escape or are rescued from human trafficking. For example in Liz Kimbel’s case. Her home was destroyed by the death of her father. As the oldest of three she was obligated to take care of her younger sibling and manage the home while her mom who was a waitress worked. She was the one that found her dad dead, so she no longer wanted to be in her home. She started to live in houses of family and friends at the age of twelve. She later began to hang out with guys that were double her age, she smoked marijuana, and she even did cocaine. After being invited to a hotel party where she was completely intoxicated. When Liz woke up she found herself in the hands of a “pimp”. She was forced into prostitution and closely watched to endure she would not escape. Six weeks later she mildly overdosed on cocaine and after she woke up covered in her blood, Liz saw the opportunity to run away. She found her mother and stayed there for a while until she met a guy who asked her to run away with him. Liz took the offer because things back home were tense. They were on their way to Washington D.C when he kicked her out near the train tracks and gave her specific instruction on what to do and say when a car pulled over. At the time she was fifteen, but had lied to him and said she was seventeen. She thought he wouldn’t want her if he knew she was fifteen. Liz had been betrayed by the man she loved and she could not do anything but follow his orders. She eventually got arrested where she testified against her “pimp” and he was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty. Years later she was able to finally have some stability in her life. Liz married her best friend and had two children. . In this case Liz was lucky to have people in her life that cared for her. She plans to go to college and major in psychology to be able to help other victims like herself which are not as lucky.

Nashville law enforcement officers have an arising problem that involves four cities trafficking humans which are Atlanta, Memphis, Birmingham, and Nashville. Girls are transported through each of the cities. The way the girls are forced into prostitution are imaginable. Pimps hold guns to them while tied up for hours. The case of Stephanie who is from middle Tennessee was only fifteen when she was sold into prostitution. Like most girls she was approached by an older man who showed her affection and won her trust; he later drugged her. When Stephanie awoke she was being raped by a room full of men. She was manipulated by her trafficker with threats to her and her family. She was taken to an abandoned house and chained to a basement. While tied up in the basement she met another girl who was dirty and seemed scared. Stephanie was later sold to a gang member who made her dress a certain way to attract customers at a club. Policemen eventually arrested her and that’s when she was rescued from prostitution. After testifying against her pimp she went to a program called End Slavery. She is now has a job and working towards attaining a GED (Finley).  The story of Stephanie relates to the stories of many other girls across the country and even the globe. Human trafficking is becoming very prominent in big cities. The demand for commercial sex seems to have no end; taking many victims away from their homes and into the streets.  

Former Sex Slave Interview

Works Cited:

Smolowe, Jill, et al. "Selling The Girl Next Door." People 80.25 (2013): 80. Academic Search Complete. Web. 21 July 2015.
"Teen Girls' Stories of Sex Trafficking in U.S." ABC News. ABC News Network, 9 Feb. 2006. Web. 21 July 2015. 

Finley, Jeremy. "Former Sex Slave: I Was Chained in Basement and Sold." - WSMV Channel 4. Web. 24 July 2015. 

How does Technology Facilitate Human Trafficking?

Dixon explains that technology is used for the benefit of the human traffickers. He explains how social networks are used as a way of finding more victims. The trafficker contacts a person by using social networks such as Facebook or Myspace. Once the potential victim has responded to his initial contact the trafficker either offers her a career opportunity, job, or manipulates their emotions to his or her favor. Sometimes the traffickers lure girls with promises of making them starts while other times traffickers established “relationship” with the potential victims. Once the traffickers establish the relationship and gains trust, he starts suggesting locations away from home. After the victims fall prey to the traffickers they limit their communication with the outside world. Often these victims are beaten and threatened by the traffickers if they do not do what they tell them to do (Dixon 16). For instance in Rose's case, a fifteen year old who was contacted by an older man on social media. Rose was lonely and had a very low self-esteem when a much older man approached her through Myspace. He told her exactly what she wanted to hear, bought her designer items, took her out to eat, and took her to salons. Rose coming from a broken home later left her house to move in with him. Then he moved her out of her hometown and isolated her from her friends and family. He later forced her to have sex with men and would beat her if she did not comply. Rose lived that life until she found a church that helped her leave her pimp (Callahan). 

This picture shows how a typical ad for prostitution would look online.
It demonstrates how phones are used to see these ads.
Image from Inquisitir.com

The technological revolution has facilitated our lives in a variety of ways. We can now talk to people from around the world at the touch of a button. Sharing pictures and videos can be done instantly now. Also, let’s not forget the ability to use video chat unlimitedly. This technological innovation has made the world smaller and our reach much larger.  or any of us it is the most amazing thing that can happen to us. If we are far away we can connect instantly with our family back home. Technology has huge benefits, but what are other of its uses? Unfortunately, being able to connect to more people from all over the world is not always a good thing. Human traffickers use every aspect of technology to their advantage for commercial sex. Internet use enables traffickers to sell people around the world. As of 2010 over two billion people use the internet 79% of which use social networks (Latonero 12).             
 “The Internet spreads across the globe and consists of countless networks and computers, allowing millions of people to share information. Data that travels long distances on the Internet” (Tech Terms). The internet gives almost everyone the opportunity to be anonymous in one way or the other. You can be anyone on the internet and it would be very difficult to prove otherwise. The immensity of the internet and the amount of users makes it really impossible for officials to track every single cybercrime. A cybercrime is any crime that happens via the internet (Skykiotou).  Cybercrime is very difficult to catch since there are millions of users on the internet and many ways the criminals can hide in the web. Also, if the criminals are connecting to the internet in a country that does not have the advanced technology to track them or does not corporate with other countries to help them track the criminals, then it would be nearly impossible to catch them (Skykiotou).   

Sites such as craigslist are used to advertise women. Under its section ‘Adult Services’ or 

This image is an example of how a
prostitution ad would look like on
craigslist.
Image from skyvalleychronicle.com

‘Erotic Services’ women were sold in various cities across the globe. Anyone can post on craigslist using pseudonyms or no names at all. What is posted is not monitored as extensively either. Although this is the case officials manage to catch criminals from time to time. For instance, the FBI arrested a man in Las Vegas who was advertising underage girls as escorts on the website Craigslist. Two women in Chicago were also arrested for selling young girls of the age of fourteen on Craigslist. The girls were advertised via ads on websites such as Craigslist; sometimes the girls themselves are forced to advertise themselves. Like in the case of Jennings where she was convicted of prostituting five minors. She forced them to advertise themselves on Craigslist by posting ads then she would drive them to hotels to meet with their buyers or “johns” (Latonero 13). Just as the internet is used to advertise, sell, and buy, it is also used to lure in victims. The most common method is through social networks. The increasing use of social network has opened a plethora of opportunities for traffickers to reach more victims, specifically the younger population. For instance, in a Texas case a girl of the age of fourteen who was recruited through the use of Myspace. She was then forced into prostitution for six months until she was rescued in Arizona (Latonero 13).

This image shows how some prostitution ads may look like varying by website.
Image from gizmodo.com

Donna Hughes an American trafficking of women and children researcher states that the global trafficking market has been facilitated since 1997 by the internet. She also states how the violation of the human rights of women and children specifically has been aided by the creation of new technologies. Unites states as one of the most advanced countries has to fight cybercrime more than other countries. Technology is being used more in the United States to trafficking humans than other countries. The reason for this is because people in the United States have more access to computers and the internet. In the United States using the internet is part of daily life (Latonero 14).

Works Cited:
"Internet." .Tech Terms. Web. 25 July 2015. 
Skykiotou, Athanassia. "Cybercrime and Human Trafficking." Vienna Institute for International                  Dialogue and Cooperation. Web.25 July 2015. 

Dixon, Herbert B., Jr. "Human trafficking and the Internet: (and other technologies, too)." Judges Journal Winter 2013:  36+. Academic OneFile. Web. 20 July 2015.

Callahan, Marion. "How Teen Was Lured into Sex Trafficking World." NBC 10 Philadelphia. Web.         1 Aug. 2015. 

Latonero, Mark. "Human Trafficking Online: The Role of Social Networking Sites and Online Classifieds." USC Annenberg School of Communication; Data & Society Research Institute (2011): 1-56. Print.

Who Are Targeted and How?

This image shows all the women and children that have gone missing

and are suspected to be in the sex slave industry.

Image from arabsola.com

Human trafficking affects both men and women, but women and children seem to dominate the victimology demographics (Stoica). Stoica explains how infants are target because they are defenseless. They are kidnapped off the streets and taken into captivity most times smuggled out the country. They are manipulated to participate in child pornography, prostitution, or begging and theft (Stoica). According to Hepburn and Simon, women make up 98% of human trafficking victims forced into sex slaves while men make up only 2%. Children on the other hand make up between 40-50% of the sex slave industry. The International Labor Office and other organizations concluded that 12.3 million people fall victims of forced labor and commercial sex globally at any time which 32 % is for purely commercial sex (Hepburn & Simon).
           

This picture is a letter sent to young women offering them a summer job.
Which was later discovered that it was a trap to lure young girls to an empty office.
Image from Snopes.com

Victims are lured in various ways such as job offerings, modeling promises, by a lover or

even friend, and in some severe cases a family member (Miller 71). These women are most vulnerable mainly because of the situation on their countries or families. Traffickers or “recruiters” promise victims a better life at another place usually another country. They offer the victims marriage, domestic work, or any type of paid work to lure them out of their countries into another where they are forced into prostitution. Miller also claims that the use of cell phones can expand the reach of human trafficking by facilitating communication in a variety of ways (Miller 71-72). 

Works Cited:

Hepburn, Stephanie, and Rita J. Simon. "Hidden in Plain Sight: Human Trafficking in the United States."Gender Issues 27.1-2 (2010): 1-26. ProQuest. Web. 20 July 2015.

Stoica, Anghel. "Again about the Trafficking in Human Beings." Juridical Current 14.2 (2011): 121-31. Print.

Miller, John R. "Slave Trade." Harvard International Review 27.4 (2006): 70-3. ProQuest. Web. 15 July 2015.

What is Human Trafficking?

This image portrays how women are assigned a
 price in the sex slave industry.
Image from Ksoo.com

According to the  United States government as of 2006 “600,000 to 800,000 people were estimated to have been trafficked across international borders each year- approximately two-thirds are ensured in sexual slavery” (Miller71). Miller explains that statistic does not even take in consideration the victims within their own country. Human trafficking alone generates $9.5 billion US dollar in the “underground economy” (Miller 71). Statistics provides an insight into the seriousness of human trafficking. This blog is about one of the most prominent forms of human trafficking – the sex slave industry. All my work and the research I have done throughout the semester in my area of expertise will be demonstrates as I elaborate on what human trafficking is. Topics such as, the ways women become victims and how they are targeted, how technology has facilitated human trafficking among the years, and what are world leaders doing about this issue.

Human trafficking is defined as “as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons by improper means (such as force, abduction, fraud, or coercion) for an improper purpose including forced labor or sexual exploitation” by the National Institute of Justice. This definition is used across the globe to determine whether certain victims fall under this category to persecute their trafficker with human trafficking charges. The definition covers a broad spectrum meaning there is much more human trafficking happening in our daily lives which we as a society do not even notice. This means that anyone who impose any activities that related to the definition provided by the National Institute of justice will be classified as a human trafficker no matter where they are. The traffickers are often referred to as “pimps” and the buyers “Johns” (Shared Hope).

Works Cited: 

"Human Trafficking." National Institute of Justice. Web. 20 July 2015.

"Glossary of Trafficking Terms." Shared Hope International. Web. 23 July 2015. 

Miller, John R. "Slave Trade." Harvard International Review 27.4 (2006): 70-3. ProQuest. Web. 15 July 2015.