Human Trafficking, The Modern-Day Slavery
If you think that slavery has been eradicated, think again. Modern-day slavery takes place in the form of human trafficking which involves forcing, pressuring or defrauding victims into labor or sexual exploitation. In some cases, people are snared into trafficking by physical force, while in other cases, they are lured in by false promises of job opportunities. It is shocking that about 600,000 to 800,000 people (mostly women and children) are trafficked annually across national borders. These numbers exclude the millions of people trafficked within their own countries. Human trafficking is an issue that affects the entire human race, not just a particular gender or ethnicity.
The Situation
If we look at the trafficking of children, which accounts for about one third of the detected trafficking victims, we will see that it particularly affects low-income countries, where it is correlated to the global problem of child labour. Children as young as 12 have been trafficked in South Asia to work in brick kilns, the textile industry, hotels and agriculture. While in Sub-Saharan Africa, children have been trafficked to work in mines and quarries, on farms, as market vendors and in plantations. South America has also reported child trafficking for forced labour in plantations.
The Cause
Figure (1) below illustrates the pre-existing factors that human traffickers have taken advantage of. It shows clearly that the highest factor is the victim’s economic need which represents 51%.
Another statistical graph – in Figure 2 – illustrates the shares of detected trafficking victims by age group and national income. It clearly shows that in high-income countries, the percentage of adult victims exceeds the minor victims with a ratio of 6:1. The lower the income, the more minor victims are involved in human trafficking, where it reaches a ratio of 1:1 in low-income countries.
Another graph demonstrates the relationship between the GDP per capita in Venezuela and the number of identified Venezuelan trafficking victims reported outside Venezuela due to cross-border trafficking. The graph shows that in the five years between 2008 and 2013, as the GDP increased, the number of trafficking victims made a slight increase and was at some point stable. However, after 2013, the graph shows clearly that the relationship is inversely proportional, for as the GDP showed a sharp drop, inversely, the number of trafficking victims showed an alarming increase.
While the trends of forced labour trafficking differ by economic sector, one factor remains consistent: it is almost always the product of a decline of labour rights, such as lower wages, longer working hours, less protection, and informal jobs. Also, it is primarily a cross-border phenomenon, particularly in high-income countries – UNODC examined dozens of court cases involving hundreds of victims of forced labour trafficking, and the majority of them included a cross-border aspect. Victims were taken away from their homes in much greater numbers than in any other form of human trafficking. Map 1 shows an illustration of the main detected transregional human trafficking flows.
Victims have been found in Western and Southern Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East as a result of trafficking flows out of Sub-Saharan Africa. Victims from Sub-Saharan Africa have been found in North America and East Asia as well. The majority of victims found in this subregion are trafficked within their own countries or across borders.
In the region, four countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have legislation that specifically criminalises child trafficking, while one country has no such legislation. After 2009, several other countries in this subregion implemented particular offences based on the United Nations concept of human trafficking. In comparison to the rest of the world, the number of convictions per 100,000 people reported in Sub-Saharan Africa has been generally lower. Furthermore, over the last 15 years, the conviction rate per 100,000 has fluctuated between 0 and 1 human, with no discernible increase. Since the United Nations Trafficking in Persons Protocol went into effect, the number of victims detected per 100,000 in Sub-Saharan African countries has risen. However, in comparison to other countries, the number of detections remains significantly low.
The Consequences
Human traffickers view their victims as an object that can be used and sold for monetary benefit, regardless of their dignity or rights. Profits are made at various stages by human smugglers. Victim recruitment organizations benefit from selling victims, the price of which is determined by their willingness to negotiate the monetary value per victim. On the other hand, at the exploitation phase, profits are made from the sale of abused services to third parties or from the elimination of costs resulting from the victims’ unpaid services.
Between 2007 and 2017, 15 countries in six different regions globally reported data on the monetary values exchanged between the traffickers in the process of trafficking. According to the results, women victims were purchased for as little as 36 USD and as much as 23,600 USD. Single traffickers’ comparatively low earnings demonstrate how little victims are respected in the illegal trafficking industry. Victims of human trafficking are sold as goods. According to reports, victims are valued at as low as a few hundred dollars, which roughly equates a few grams of methamphetamine.
The following illustrations compare the monetary values given by traffickers in different criminal acts, in the European region and East Asia respectively.
Although the size of the human trafficking industry may be lower in terms of monetary value than other criminal markets, the damage caused by human trafficking has no equivalent indicators.
