Sandoval !

Keyly Sandoval

Dr. Santosh Khaki

English 113B

21 October 2019

Global Effects of Human Trafficking

When we think of human trafficking the first thing that may come to mind is a group of

people being forced to cross international borders against their own will. Human trafficking is

about moving people across borders but since it is against their own will it is a form of exploita-

tion. Exploitation is the action or fact of treating someone unfairly in order to benefit from their

work. Here are a few more ways besides forced labor or sexual exploitation one can be trafficked

like commercial sexual exploitation, forced marriages, organ extraction, and surrogacy. Slaves

were being exploited by their owners to do hard labor or to perform sexual acts against their will,

just how woman and children right now all around the world are being exploited sexually by

their traffickers. Human trafficking is the present-day version of what slavery was back in 1619,

it is really sad and we have to tell others about it. It is crucial we spread awareness to help the

women and children who are being trafficked.

Human trafficking is the exploitation of the vulnerability of not just children or women

but also men. Everyone who walks in this planet is a target for human trafficking, some more

than others. Traffickers mainly target people who either look vulnerable or are in severely unsafe

environments. Anyone who is a drug addict, alcoholic, immigrant, has a juvenile/criminal record,

impoverished people, runaways, children in foster care, and victims of sexual or physical abuse

in any part of the world, run a bigger risk of being targeted. This is why human trafficking is a
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global crisis since it affects every country in the world. Everyone I know either knows someone,

is that someone, or has a family member that falls under one of these categories. Aria Finger is

the chief executive officer of DoSomething.org and she has an article that is based on human

trafficking. According to the article on her website, there are between 20 million and 40 million

people in modern slavery today. Human trafficking is one of the fastest-growing global crisis and

not enough is being done to stop it, provide resources, or enlighten people about it.

I decided to conduct some research on my own and made a human trafficking survey. I

sent it to all of my contacts and was able to receive 33 responses back. The first question was

“Were you aware that human trafficking is a global crisis?” Out of those 33, 9.1% said they were

not aware that human trafficking was a global crisis. Because of that 9.1% out of the 33 respons-

es I believe that that percent would increase massively if we asked every single person on earth

this question. This is why it is crucial we spread awareness on human trafficking. My second re-

search question was “Do you know how to protect yourself from being trafficked?” The feed-

back scared me to my core. 75.8% out of the 33 responded no and that means more than half had

no idea how. Again this is why it is important to shine more light human trafficking. How are we

supposed to combat it if we do not even know how to protect ourselves first? With that being

said, my third research question was “Do you know how to help and fight against human traf-

ficking?” 78.8% out of the 33 responded with no which is also more than half. If we compare the

questions we are able to notice the reason more than half the people who took this survey marked

no because they are lacking information on the subject of human trafficking and what revolves

around it. If we were able to give out all the correct information on how to protect ourselves and
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our loved ones it would make a huge difference. We will not only make others feel safer but en-

lighten them on how to able to identify the signs of someone who is being trafficked.

Susan Segal is the current president and the chief executive officer of Americas Society/

Council of the Americas website. She has an article called “Weekly Chart: Human Trafficking in

the Americas.” This is where I got the following charts from.

Victims of Trafficking by Age and Sex

This here is a pictograph that up into two categories, age and sex. The image gives us some sta-

tistics on what human trafficking victims looks like depending on their gender and age. More

than three-quarters of the victims in this chart are women. Women in society are viewed and

treated differently so it makes them bigger targets. Women in the past have not had the correct

resources or given the same opportunities as men. Women have also been told to stay quiet

through out time and it is another big reason why women do not speak up when being trafficked

because it is embed in them. These women are being exploited sexually and domestically. Al-

though people tend to forget that males and minors are still targets to human trafficking. The men

in this chart are either being forced into hard labor or begging.
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Forms of Exploitation

In this chart we go in depth on the most common types of exploitation. Sexual exploitation is the

highest in percentage while forced labor comes second. Coming for someone who has been a

victim of child abuse I can say that sexual exploitation can cause a lot of damage to a persons

physical and mental state of mind. I had to take years of therapy to be able to fully overcome this

issue but even now sometimes things then to resurface every once in a while. Once again human

trafficking is trading humans for the pure evil purpose of sexual exploitation or forced labor. Ear-

lier I mentioned how some people are targeted for trafficking depending on their background and

environment. Traffickers target specific countries that are underdeveloped, for example third

world countries or the ones who are extremely corrupted.

Modern Slaves
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I chose this image because it is a perfect representation of what it means to be a human traffick-

ing victim now. This image is very powerful and moving. This woman is facing away with her

clothes off while trying to cover herself up. When someone turns away is because they are alone

and afraid. Women have often felt alone and afraid in our society for not having the right re-

sources. On her left shoulder she has a bar scannable barcode that has the word slave in all caps.

They made the entire image dark on purpose except for the section where the barcode is so it

could catch the viewers attention. This is a way to bring awareness on how the victims feel, they

feel like modern slaves.

In the article, Victims of Human Trafficking Hiding in Plain Sight by Melissa Byrne,

Bridget Parsh, and Courtney Ghilain, they give us even more shocking statistics. It says“ …

Children are sexually exploited each year, with over 200,000 minors from the United States at

risk for being victimized… 199,000 youths are lured into human trafficking every year with the

average age of entry being 12 to 14 years.” This is the world we live in and instead of turning

away or shoving these repulsing statistics under the rug, we need to raise more awareness on

human trafficking to be able to keep the children safe. Another thing I read that I found very in-

teresting was that this article said that everyday people are being starved, beating, forced to work

as prostitutes and take migrant jobs and do not get paid for it while still being smuggled or traded

like slaves. As an American citizen who lives in the United States I was not aware how “human

trafficking brings an estimated 25 to 30 billion to traffickers each year, with the United States

being a main point of destination," according to the Victims of Human Trafficking article. Back

in the day they use to sell slaves or trade slaves for land and other things. They would exploit

them for profit so I do not see much of a difference now. This article stated that people all around
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the world are mostly being trafficked to the United States. That makes the United States the

number 1 consumer of sex . It also says that most of the victims weren’t moved from other states

or countries but are being exploited in their own home towns. On Susan Segal’s article it also

proves or shows that the victims aren’t traveling far but are being exploited in near by areas, take

a look at my last chart.

Trafficking Flows by Geographic Distance

This chart shows how far the victims are being moved and the majority of them are keep in either

the same place or moved to a close by, short distance location. The ones who travel the longest

are Central Americans.

There are a lot of things the U.S. has done to help combat human trafficking. They have opened

organizations, support groups, 24 hour hotlines, and much more but it is still not enough. As I

was researching more about what can be done to help combat human trafficking I came across
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Olivia Enos. Olivia Enos is a writer that focuses on international human rights and national secu-

rity. Enos wrote an article for Forbes magazine called “Three Steps The Trump Administration

Can Take To Combat Human Trafficking.” This article intrigues me because she is gives us three

great ways to help target the traffickers. She says that the presidents administration could be do-

ing much more to help combat the issue. The three steps the administration should take into con-

sideration are by developing quantitative and empirical methodologies to document the preva-

lence of human trafficking and success of anti-trafficking efforts, Focus resources on specialized

law enforcement and judicial training programs, and Target traffickers and their profits.

Human trafficking causes a lot of physical and metal damage. If we start to share our

knowledge with one another we can help combat modern slavery. We can help millions of chil-

dren, men, and women by simply giving them the right resources on how to protect themselves

from human trafficking. Since it is the fastest growing crisis we will not be able to save everyone

but we can learn to identify the signs of a victim. Human trafficking does not just affect the vic-

tim but it affects everyone around them. If we do not take any sort of action this crisis will keep

growing and the next victim may be you or someone you know. Help us save each other from all

the exploitation around the world. Be an advocate and help stand up against human trafficking.
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Works Cited

1.) ”11 Facts About Human Trafficking." DoSomething.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2019.

2.) Enos, Olivia. "Three Steps The Trump Administration Can Take To Combat Human Traffick-

ing." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 11 Jan. 2017. Web.

3.) Healy, Meg. "Weekly Chart: Human Trafficking in the Americas." AS/COA. N.p., 02 Aug.

2017. Web. 04 Nov. 2019.

4.) Keiper, Andrew, and Perry Chiaramonte. "Human Trafficking in America among Worst in

World: Report." Fox News. FOX News Network, 23 June 2019. Web. 04 Nov. 2019.

5.) “Victims of Human Trafficking: Hiding in Plain Sight : Nursing2019.” LWW, journals.lww.-

com/nursing/Fulltext/2017/03000/Victims_of_human_trafficking__Hiding_in_plain.14.aspx.

6.) WeitzerDepartment, Ronald. “Human Trafficking and Contemporary Slavery.” Annual Re-

views, www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-soc-073014-112506.