Human Trafficking
An Article by Sarah Leech
Each year, criminals
around the world collect billions of dollars in profits by compelling the
service of other human beings through fraud, force and coercion in order to
exploit their labor. Their victims are slaves, who today number somewhere
between 10 million and 30 million people across the globe. The victims include
people like Tola, a toddler in Southeast Asia who was sold to beggars to redeem
a debt his father could not pay, and forced to beg on the busy streets of a
Cambodian border town at the age of two; freckle-faced, blonde, blue-eyed
American teenagers who’ve run away from bad home situations, only to find
themselves pimped out at truck stops and street corners across America; Latin
American families hoping for work who get tricked out of their property rights
back home, transported to “el Norte” and trapped by debt into working for no
pay in construction companies, in domestic servitude, on farms or in factories.
Worldwide, slaves
harvest and process the cacao that goes into much of the chocolate we eat. They
mill rice, bake bricks, mine precious metals, assemble electronic devices,
labor on fishing boats and farms. They are domestic slaves, sweatshop workers,
and restaurant workers. Some have been forced to become child soldiers, mail
order brides, even organ donors. And multitudes have been forced into
prostitution.
How did these who
bear God’s image become enslaved?
Some were abducted –
snatched from their families or schools. Some were deceived. A reliable-seeming
stranger – or even a trusted relative or friend - came with a job offer, a
promise of education and better life. They took that offer, and found
themselves trapped. Some were sold or sent away to help their family survive.
Many were lured or taken from their own country or region by recruiters,
deprived of identification papers, sold, isolated from family and community
support, kept under constant watch, trapped by ever increasing debt for their
food, transportation and lodging, and forced to work under threat of injury or
death, for no pay and with no way of escape.
All of these people were
enslaved through human trafficking,
which the UN defines as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring
or receipt of a person by such means as threat or use of force or other forms
of coercion, of abduction, or fraud or deception for the purpose of
exploitation.”
Global Scope of Human
Trafficking
Each year traffickers
smuggle 600,000 to 800,000 people across international borders and traffick
millions more within their own countries. Approximately 80 percent of those
trafficked trans-nationally are female, and half of these are children. The
majority of these victims are forced into the commercial sex trade. Forced or
bonded labor awaits most of the males and females trafficked within their own
countries’ borders.
This tragedy is
happening in every country in the world, including the United States. The
United States is a destination country in the slave trade. About 17,500 people
get trafficked into the US each year. They come largely from poor countries,
mostly from Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe, with a smaller percentage coming
from Latin America. There are US citizens trafficked within US borders as well.
Worldwide, trafficking typically moves people from poorer countries in the
global South and East, and Eastern Europe, to richer industrialized nations in
the West, the Pacific and the Middle East. Within countries, traffickers typically move their victims
from poor rural areas to prosperous urban areas.
If it is illegal, why
does it persist?
Trafficking is illegal
in every country of the world, but it persists because it is profitable. The UN
estimates the slave trade generates $32 billion in profits globally each year,
bringing in more than the illegal arms trade. Because human trafficking is so
profitable, there is a huge black market in human beings. They are cheap, in
ready supply and endlessly renewable. Slaves cost the traffickers very little –
about the price of a pair of athletic shoes. They can be resold many times, and
everyone who handles them profits. Potential slaves are in ready supply because
so many people around the world are desperate for work and opportunities to
improve their lives. Such people are likely to migrate, and their desperation and
naiveté feed the trafficking industry.
Trafficking is part of
the economic systems of the countries where it operates. This is especially
true of Southeast Asia, where tourism accounts for 8.2% of GDP and sex tourism
is an openly promoted part of the industry. It’s also true in consumer cultures
like those in the West. The goods slaves make are in high demand because they
are cheap. Things consumers eat and use every day, from coffee to cotton
underclothing to electronics, may have involved slave labor. The demand for
cheap products fuels the demand for cheap labor, incentivizing traffickers to
trade in human beings.
Other factors that
enable human trafficking to persist include: cultural attitudes toward girls
and prejudices about minorities that make it a low priority to protect victims;
community tolerance or ignorance about trafficking, and government corruption,
or ineptitude - or simply lack of resources - that make it easy for traffickers
to operate with impunity.
Who is vulnerable,
and why?
People from all walks of
life are vulnerable, but overwhelmingly it is people who are poor, desperate,
undereducated and marginalized, who are in the most danger. Poverty and lack of
economic opportunity make parents and young people susceptible to offers of
jobs or education in faraway cities. Gender discrimination plays a role, for
girls are less likely to be educated than boys and first on the list to be sold
or sent off to earn money. Marginalized ethnic and religious minorities, who
often live outside the protection of the law, and can’t gain access to
services, are easy prey for traffickers. And youth suffering from domestic
abuse, parental drug use and alcoholism who are desperate to get out of a bad
situation, are vulnerable as well. Such people are easy targets for
traffickers. Their lives can be destroyed, and chances are high that nobody
will notice, or do anything to stop it.
What can we do?
There is a great deal
faith communities can do to combat human trafficking and the damage it causes
its victims. Grounding our actions in faith, we can:
· Educate ourselves about the issue of human
trafficking, how it plays out in our own communities as well as around the
world, what the red flags are that indicate a possible trafficking situation,
how consumer choices may support trafficking, and how to report a suspected
trafficking case or obtain confidential help and information (contact the
National Human Trafficking Resource Center Hotline, 1-888-3737-888).
· Advocate for laws that protect and restore
victims and make it easy to apprehend and prosecute traffickers; urge
corporations to adopt policies and practices to keep slave labor out of their
supply chains; boycott products produced by slaves; use websites and smart
phone apps to empower justice-based consumer choices.
· Serve trafficking victims directly or through
local agencies to provide medical advocacy, translation, counseling, housing,
job placement and similar services; reach out to migrant communities in our
area; educate doctors, nurses, hospitals and schools in our area about the
signs of trafficking, and raise community awareness through op-ed pieces,
events and campaigns.
· Pray for trafficking victims & survivors,
perpetrators, law enforcement, corporations, and governments, and for
abolitionists, grassroots organizations and NGOs that work to prevent, protect
and restore victims or to prosecute traffickers.
· Team up with others in our communities and
denomination who are working on the issue of human trafficking; work together
and share resources; develop relationships with organizations doing global and
/ or local anti-trafficking work, including those providing services to
victims; find out what their needs are, and explore partnership with them
· Give as generously as we can and raise funds
to support local & global projects that combat trafficking.
· Believe that God cares and is already at work,
and that we are invited to join God in proclaiming release to the captives, recovery
of sight to the blind, and in letting the oppressed go free.
Resources
Human
Trafficking: Freeing Women, Children, and Men, a booklet from Anglican Women’s Empowerment that
provides a concise overview of human trafficking, suggestions for a Christian
response, and information about trafficking-focused initiatives and resources
across the Anglican Communion. www.anglicanwomensempowerment.org
Trafficking
in Persons Report 2011, US Department of State – a snapshot of what’s happening related to
human trafficking in 184 countries around the world, including the United
States. http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2011/index.htm
The National Human Trafficking Resource
Center (NHTRC), a service of Polaris Project, is a national,
confidential, 24-hour, toll-free hotline, available to answer calls from
anywhere in the United States. 1-888-3737-888 The hotline is not a government
entity, law enforcement or an immigration authority. It is a safe place to call
and report a tip, access resources, request training, or receive referrals. The
resource center website offers downloadable materials to help individuals and
groups learn how to identify, prevent and combat human trafficking in the
United States. Items available include educational handouts and presentations,
information on legislation, materials for public awareness raising and direct
outreach to potential victims, educators, professionals, and public servants. http://www.polarisproject.org/resources
The Not
for Sale campaign
offers and creates tools to engage grassroots groups (including churches),
businesses, and governments “in order to incubate and grow social enterprises
to benefit enslaved and vulnerable communities.” One of these tools is the
Community Abolitionist Network. http://www.notforsalecampaign.org
The
Freedom Registry, a
web resource to “share and discover what advocates and organizations are doing
to address human trafficking and exploitation across the United States.” http://freedomregistry.org/
World
Concern’s Women of Purpose Human Trafficking Resources, a list of books, films, discussion
guides, training resources, prayer resources about human trafficking, its
causes and solutions, and of some organizations working to combat human
trafficking. For a free copy of the resource list, email womenofpurpose@worldconcern.org.
Sarah
Leech, volunteer, is Director of World Concern’s Women of Purpose program, Shoreline,
Washington.
For the Gospel Grapevine, parish newsletter of Saint Alban's Episcopal Church, Edmonds, WA
