Slavery: Not Gone, Just Overlooked...
Trafficking in human beings is the commercial trade ("smuggling") of human beings, who are subjected to involuntary acts such as begging, sexual exploitation (eg. prostitution and forced marriage), or unfree labour (eg. involuntary servitude or working in sweatshops). Trafficking involves a process of using physical force, fraud, deception, or other forms or coercion or intimidation to obtain, recruit, harbour, and transport people. (dictionary definition of human trafficking)
So I’ve been very interested in the issue of human trafficking for awhile now, and I decided to do some research on it since the sheer magnitude/lack of government regulation of such dirty profit-making activities fascinates me. It’s not just a miniscule problem; it’s a dirty trade that involves many thousands of willing/profiting participants all over the world. What I have learned over the past few months has been very disturbing, and while I understand that the American government is making an effort to stop the trafficking of human beings, I believe more could be done, and it should be more of a priority. US State Department data “estimated 600,000 to 800,000 men, women, and children are trafficked across international borders each year, approximately 80 percent are women and girls and up to 50 percent are minors. The data also illustrate that the majority of transnational victims are trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation.” (Wikipedia) I also found that trafficking in people is increasing in Africa, South Asia and into North America. I also learned that Russia is a major source of women trafficked globally for the purpose of sexual exploitation/child sex tourism. The majority of child trafficking cases are in Asia, but human trafficking is a global problem. Due to the illegal nature of trafficking and differences in methodology, the exact extent is unknown. An estimated 14,000 people are trafficked into the United States each year, although again because trafficking is illegal, accurate statistics are difficult.” (Wikipedia) I find it amazing that such massive amounts of people are smuggled into this country, sold and exploited, and all this goes mostly un-controlled by the government. With such heightened security on what is entering our country, you’d think they would be able to regulate the selling and exploiting of people with a heightened priority. Human trafficking in the United States is prosecuted through the Civil Rights Division: Criminal Section of the United States Department of Justice. “Section 1584 makes it a crime to force a person to work against his will. This compulsion can be effected by use of force, threat of force, threat of legal coercion or by "a climate of fear", that is, an environment wherein individuals believe they may be harmed by leaving or refusing to work. Section 1581 similarly makes it illegal to force a person to work through "debt servitude". New laws were passed under the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000. The new laws responded to a changing face of trafficking in the United States. It allowed for greater statutory maximum sentences for traffickers, provided resources for protection of and assistance for victims of trafficking and created avenues for interagency cooperation in the field of human trafficking. This law also attempted to encourage efforts to prevent human trafficking internationally, by creating annual country reports on trafficking, as well as by tying financial non-humanitarian assistance to foreign countries to real efforts in addressing human trafficking. International NPOs, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have called on the United States to improve its measures aimed at reducing trafficking. They recommend that the United States more fully implement the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children and the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, and for immigration officers to improve their awareness of trafficking and support the victims of trafficking.” (The previous quatations of information taken from Wikipedia are a brief summarized version of some of the information I have come across, I encourage everyone to research through several sources for more detailed information) The information varies in reasearch, as with anything, but the fact that people are suffering finds no dispute. This is a despicable and disturbing trade. Most of the people sold and exploited are children. These children are sexually exploited, used for cheap labor, and sold like they are something other than human beings. The only thing that disgusts me more than people who are willing to profit from the sale of human beings, are people who are willing to buy other human beings. It sickens me. People are widely misguided if they think slavery has been abolished. It’s alive and well, and many people are profiting and benefiting from it. None of the people who are smuggled into America have a legal identity in the United States, and slip between the cracks when they disappear, making them easy targets for very disturbed people looking to take advantage of children who are vulnerable to their intentions. I can understand the governments tied hands when it comes to the smuggling of drugs that can be hidden in any number of places, but human beings are hard to hide, even harder when they are shipped by the thousands each year. I somewhat understand the impossibility of regulating all the human trafficking from every country, but the regulation of containers coming from certain countries which are known to be vulnerable to human trafficking is just not that difficult. We certainly have the resources being one of the top developed countries. I also understand this would be a distasteful issue for George W. Bush as he prefers to spend the money of the American people on the war in Iraq, and in the words of Kanye West “does not care about black people,” immigrants (I’m sure you know what I am talking about), children (as he takes money from our schools to buy more weapons in his quest to conquer the Middle East, and has given us the hypocrisy of No Child Left Behind which has put many children at a disadvantage). True, throughout his presidency he has demonstrated a general dislike for most anything other than the war in Iraq, and most other people except Texans, but even so…laws monitoring the trafficking of human beings would not be so difficult to achieve with a little money from the fund of “George W. Bush’s Iraqi War Bank Account,” which seems to be a bottomless pit of money. It wouldn’t kill George Bush to give a speech or two on some real issues either, instead of fumbling out the same old crap on his crusade to enslave the Middle East until they run out of oil, throwing in a few words about freedom, terrorism, patriotism, September 11th…well you know, the key words he likes to use to ensue fear and anger in the American people. I somehow always end up talking about George W. Bush, but can you blame me? My future looks anything but green. My planet is slowly catching on fire (well, not so slowly), and I, as well as you, am going to be paying off America’s national debt for the extent of my natural life, because my fellow man elected him TWICE: to raise my taxes, commit me to warfare financially, and bullshit me for 8 years. I’m a little angry. There are plenty of issues and injustices in America that need his attention. He needs to get off his high horse and do something meaningful and worth while in the duration of his presidency…
Here are two sites that have some information on Human Trafficking, but do your own research, there's a lot of information out there:
www.humantrafficking.org
The United Nations: Office on Drugs and Crime
So I’ve been very interested in the issue of human trafficking for awhile now, and I decided to do some research on it since the sheer magnitude/lack of government regulation of such dirty profit-making activities fascinates me. It’s not just a miniscule problem; it’s a dirty trade that involves many thousands of willing/profiting participants all over the world. What I have learned over the past few months has been very disturbing, and while I understand that the American government is making an effort to stop the trafficking of human beings, I believe more could be done, and it should be more of a priority. US State Department data “estimated 600,000 to 800,000 men, women, and children are trafficked across international borders each year, approximately 80 percent are women and girls and up to 50 percent are minors. The data also illustrate that the majority of transnational victims are trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation.” (Wikipedia) I also found that trafficking in people is increasing in Africa, South Asia and into North America. I also learned that Russia is a major source of women trafficked globally for the purpose of sexual exploitation/child sex tourism. The majority of child trafficking cases are in Asia, but human trafficking is a global problem. Due to the illegal nature of trafficking and differences in methodology, the exact extent is unknown. An estimated 14,000 people are trafficked into the United States each year, although again because trafficking is illegal, accurate statistics are difficult.” (Wikipedia) I find it amazing that such massive amounts of people are smuggled into this country, sold and exploited, and all this goes mostly un-controlled by the government. With such heightened security on what is entering our country, you’d think they would be able to regulate the selling and exploiting of people with a heightened priority. Human trafficking in the United States is prosecuted through the Civil Rights Division: Criminal Section of the United States Department of Justice. “Section 1584 makes it a crime to force a person to work against his will. This compulsion can be effected by use of force, threat of force, threat of legal coercion or by "a climate of fear", that is, an environment wherein individuals believe they may be harmed by leaving or refusing to work. Section 1581 similarly makes it illegal to force a person to work through "debt servitude". New laws were passed under the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000. The new laws responded to a changing face of trafficking in the United States. It allowed for greater statutory maximum sentences for traffickers, provided resources for protection of and assistance for victims of trafficking and created avenues for interagency cooperation in the field of human trafficking. This law also attempted to encourage efforts to prevent human trafficking internationally, by creating annual country reports on trafficking, as well as by tying financial non-humanitarian assistance to foreign countries to real efforts in addressing human trafficking. International NPOs, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have called on the United States to improve its measures aimed at reducing trafficking. They recommend that the United States more fully implement the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children and the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, and for immigration officers to improve their awareness of trafficking and support the victims of trafficking.” (The previous quatations of information taken from Wikipedia are a brief summarized version of some of the information I have come across, I encourage everyone to research through several sources for more detailed information) The information varies in reasearch, as with anything, but the fact that people are suffering finds no dispute. This is a despicable and disturbing trade. Most of the people sold and exploited are children. These children are sexually exploited, used for cheap labor, and sold like they are something other than human beings. The only thing that disgusts me more than people who are willing to profit from the sale of human beings, are people who are willing to buy other human beings. It sickens me. People are widely misguided if they think slavery has been abolished. It’s alive and well, and many people are profiting and benefiting from it. None of the people who are smuggled into America have a legal identity in the United States, and slip between the cracks when they disappear, making them easy targets for very disturbed people looking to take advantage of children who are vulnerable to their intentions. I can understand the governments tied hands when it comes to the smuggling of drugs that can be hidden in any number of places, but human beings are hard to hide, even harder when they are shipped by the thousands each year. I somewhat understand the impossibility of regulating all the human trafficking from every country, but the regulation of containers coming from certain countries which are known to be vulnerable to human trafficking is just not that difficult. We certainly have the resources being one of the top developed countries. I also understand this would be a distasteful issue for George W. Bush as he prefers to spend the money of the American people on the war in Iraq, and in the words of Kanye West “does not care about black people,” immigrants (I’m sure you know what I am talking about), children (as he takes money from our schools to buy more weapons in his quest to conquer the Middle East, and has given us the hypocrisy of No Child Left Behind which has put many children at a disadvantage). True, throughout his presidency he has demonstrated a general dislike for most anything other than the war in Iraq, and most other people except Texans, but even so…laws monitoring the trafficking of human beings would not be so difficult to achieve with a little money from the fund of “George W. Bush’s Iraqi War Bank Account,” which seems to be a bottomless pit of money. It wouldn’t kill George Bush to give a speech or two on some real issues either, instead of fumbling out the same old crap on his crusade to enslave the Middle East until they run out of oil, throwing in a few words about freedom, terrorism, patriotism, September 11th…well you know, the key words he likes to use to ensue fear and anger in the American people. I somehow always end up talking about George W. Bush, but can you blame me? My future looks anything but green. My planet is slowly catching on fire (well, not so slowly), and I, as well as you, am going to be paying off America’s national debt for the extent of my natural life, because my fellow man elected him TWICE: to raise my taxes, commit me to warfare financially, and bullshit me for 8 years. I’m a little angry. There are plenty of issues and injustices in America that need his attention. He needs to get off his high horse and do something meaningful and worth while in the duration of his presidency…
Here are two sites that have some information on Human Trafficking, but do your own research, there's a lot of information out there:
www.humantrafficking.org
The United Nations: Office on Drugs and Crime
posted by Gabriella @ 10:34 PM
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