As an American, and a Criminal Justice major, I think the American government should do something more with the issue of Human Trafficking. Yes our law enforcement agencies are all involved, but I believe if the rest of the American Government were to get involved I personally believe we can slow this industry down, or finally bring it to an end. Bringing this 42.5 billion industry would be a great success, people, parents, and especially children wouldn’t have to be afraid anymore, or be scared to do anything anymore.
How this all starts or the process of someone being trafficked is, is that the victim is promised jobs, great opportunity, and this life that better than what they had. As soon as they accept this job (which turns out to be false) they are just stripped of everything rights, dignity, and even pride. But when they are not servants even as so much as one attempt to escape, this people who abduct for a living do an extensive background check on the entire family. So they threaten the victim trying to escape you leave, we kill your family. So in the end they stay, and are subject to more violence.
According to the National Human Rights center in the United States alone, there are 10,000 forced labors, around one-third of whom are domestic servants, and some portion of them children. This people who are in modern day slavery are from everywhere, Mexico, Europe, and Asia, and just as we receive people from other countries, people here in the United States are being shipped across various international borders.
In past years government help has been useless to some people. In 2000 Congress passed Trafficking Victims Protection Act, promising 5,000 temporary visas each year for survivors. Only about 450 persons have received the T-visas or other benefits. Another reason why so few are taking advantage of the opportunity given to them, is because when being questioned by law enforcement, it’s a painful thing to talk about it, and especially with children, who come here alone, when they’re being ask what happened often they are too traumatized to talk about, and so then authorities have no proof of a kid being a survivor of trafficking. Also to much is being focused on the sex slave part of trafficking, instead of the forced labor, yes the sex slaving part is worst, but to put an end to it all we’ve got to take care of the whole thing not just one over the other.
In conclusion, I think efforts to be this industry down need to be sky high. In 2009 Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, started a campaign entitled “Hidden In Plain Sight” trying to bring this to an end. I believe the lack or trying to do anything about this issue is just as the campaign slogan says “Hidden In Plain Sight”, most people don’t see it so they go on thinking there is no problem, but there is and it‘s a major problem. I believe this government has all the tools necessary to bring this issue to a halt, and I know we’ve got issues else where but this is here at home, these are innocent fragile people MOST of whom are kids.
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This article about human trafficking is really concerning, but some of the issues the writer writes about will never be resolved. I wish there could be an end to this problem, but it’s been around as far back as people have been around. There’s always going to be forced prostitution, forced laborers and domestic laborers.
ReplyDeleteAmerican government can get involved all it wants and, sure it might help some of the problems, but the evil that draws the business of trafficking will always see dollar signs.
As Wikipedia notes: “over half of the states now criminalize human trafficking, though the penalties are not as tough as the federal laws” – it’s too bad that the penalties can’t be harsher. What really hurts are the innocent kids that probably will never have the chance to live a normal life.
This is a booming industry sadly, but there’s so much of it. The writer does show good examples of statistics and backs up his thoughts of this terrible exploitation. It’s a well written article but far reaching in hoping that something will ever be accomplished by more countries getting involved. It’s a cruel world but chances are, nothing will bring this business to its knees.
I can see why you are concerned and want more government involvement when it comes to this topic. The only problem is, how do you propose the government handle this situation? The people who are involved in these acts are good at what they do and make it difficult for people to recognize that anything is wrong, thus making it difficult for the government to step in.
ReplyDeleteDon't get me wrong, I would love to see this industry go down in flames and never resurface again. The fact is, it most likely won't happen soon, if ever.