Human Trafficking Around The World

Each region on the globe is affected by human trafficking. Human trafficking affects 27% of all children globally, with girls representing two out of every three reported victims. 

The exploitation of girls and boys, especially for coerced labour and sexual abuse, is referred to as child trafficking. Whether sold by a member of the family or a companion, or enticed by hollow promises of education and a "better" life, the actual fact is that these trafficked and exploited children are kept in slave-like circumstances with insufficient food, shelter, or apparel, and are frequently horribly abused and cut off from all contact with family and friends. 

Children are frequently trafficked for sex trafficking or labour, such as domestic labour, pastoral labour, manual labour, and mining, or they are forced to engage in wars. The most destitute children, notably immigrants and refugees, are prevalently used, and their aspirations for an education, a better livelihood, or a better quality of life in a new place are constantly abused. 

The ILO believes that human trafficking is a $150 billion industry, with youngsters accounting for the vast majority of victims. According to the 2018 version of the biannual Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, 30 per cent of all identified victims of trafficking in the 142 countries examined were minors. 

UNODC Report On Human Trafficking 

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has presented a Global Report on Human Trafficking, which reveals new facts on a felony that disparages the whole of humanity. It provides the first worldwide evaluation of the scale of human trafficking and what is being done to combat it, based on data collected from 155 nations. It provides an analysis of trafficking tendencies, legislative responses, and country-specific statistics on recorded occurrences of human trafficking, victims, and indictments. 

As per the Assessment, sexual exploitation is the most incessant type of human trafficking (79 per cent). Women and girls are disproportionately victims of sex trafficking. Surprisingly, women account for the majority of traffickers in 30 per cent of the nations that disclosed figures on their gender. Women trafficking other women is the standard practice in various parts of the world. Labour trafficking is the second most prevalent type of human trafficking (18 per cent), albeit this figure may be deceiving because forced labour is less commonly found and documented than trafficking for sexual exploitation. 

Although human trafficking appears to involve people migrating across countries, the majority of the victimization occurs close to home. According to data, intra-regional and domestic trafficking are the most common types of human trafficking. 

The United Nations Protocol Against Human Trafficking, the most significant global accord in this field, went into effect in 2003. According to the Assessment, the number of Member Countries sincerely administering the Code has more than doubled especially in recent years (from 54 to 125 out of the 155 nations covered). However, many nations continue to lack the requisite legal frameworks and political resolve.

Trafficking In India 

Child trafficking is prevalent in India. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, there have been several examples of children just disappearing overnight, as many as one every eight minutes. Children are sometimes abducted from their families to be purchased and auctioned in the market. The problem has been further complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

On March 24, 2020, the Indian government enforced the world's strictest lockdown on its 1.4 billion inhabitants, putting millions of migrant labourers and daily income employees out of jobs. Faced with a gloomy future, these hordes trudged hundreds of kilometres back to their native places. 

According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, more than 12 crore individuals in India had lost their livelihoods only in the first two months of the lockdown. Seventy-five per cents were modest shopkeepers and day workers. 

Children suffered the brunt of the crisis as their jobless parents fled from locked metropolises and workplaces. Heartbreaking stories of children being sold for money quickly began to circulate. In one such instance, an unemployed father in Bihar sold his four-month-old toddler to an affluent couple without his wife's knowledge. With the aid of several neighbours, the mother interfered at the last instant to rescue the infant. The man acknowledged that unemployment and the incapacity to feed his family had forced him to despair. Over the span of 11 days, 92,000 incidents of child abuse were registered to a federal helpline at one time during the lockdown. 

Trafficking In The US 

Trafficking in human beings is a scourge in every state in America, to varying degrees. This is a domestic issue that necessitates a nationwide societal resolution. Data from the National Human Trafficking Hotline reveal a 25% surge in human trafficking incidents from 2017 to 2018. This involves sex trafficking as well as labour trafficking. In 2018, one in every seven runaways reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was most likely a victim of child sex trafficking. 

Numerous observers believe that the bulk of victims of human trafficking in the United States is unauthorized immigrants. In practice, however, the majority of victims of human trafficking in the US are American citizens. 

According to the Department of Justice (DoJ), in addition to American citizens, often overseas victims come from countries plagued by poverty, volatile politics, and fragile economies. Youngsters from these regions are considered as easy prey by traffickers because they endure a lack of education, minimal professional opportunities, and dire economic circumstances at home. It is not unusual for a trafficker to force a foreign victim under false pretences. The kid is informed that in the United States, they would have a brighter future or have more possibilities. Once in The US, however, they are dragged into a world of sexual exploitation by traffickers. 

A survey on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking (DMST) was done by Texas Christian University, and results were collected from a variety of DMST survivors. They discovered that victims are regularly instructed on what to say if apprehended by a law enforcement officer or questioned by a healthcare professional. Their trafficker would frequently use their credit cards, buy vehicles, or lease residences on the victim's name, making it more difficult for the victims to flee. 

A sufferer does not always identify as a victim in some scenarios, called the Romeo Pimp situation. They are often ashamed or fault themselves for bringing this person into their own lives. They believe their predicament is the effect of their own decisions. Survivors in this condition frequently create a trauma bonding with their exploiter and may harbour strong loyalty and favourable impulses for their trafficker. 

Conclusion 

Human trafficking is a global epidemic that affects every country on the earth. Every year, millions of individuals are forced to flee from their homes, families, and lives under the false pretence of a better home, a better job, and a better quality of life in general, only to fall into the dark and never-ending abyss of human trafficking. Human trafficking, along with the illicit weapons industry, is the world's second-largest crime syndicate today, and it is the quickest expanding. 

Human trafficking victims are routinely placed into debt-bondage, usually to pay for logistics costs in the destination countries. Traffickers frequently threaten victims with severe abuse or death, as well as the wellbeing of the victims' families back home. Traffickers frequently confiscate victims' immigration documents and alienate them from any support structure in order to make fleeing increasingly arduous. 

44 per cent of survivors revealed that no one reached out to them and decided to offer them assistance getting out of "THE LIFE," with yet another 26 per cent reporting that they were seldom offered support. We must do better as a society. It is time to educate our community and be courageous to speak out when we observe anything strange. 

These observations also serve as a reflection that, while the use of technology is increasing in trafficking, it is still an intrinsically social offence in which interpersonal communication is paramount. Children are most susceptible when they do not have strong, compassionate relationships. Traffickers use this yearning and inflict an indelible impression on their victims. Successful interventions must not tackle all cases of trafficking as the same, and rehabilitation initiatives must take into account the severe psychiatric suffering that survivors incur.