Twenty-seven million, according to professor Anthony Talbott, there are over twenty- seven million people in the world suffering from human trafficking, and 200,000 of them are in the United States. In over 160 countries this form of modern day slavery has taken place, and all 50 states in the United States have had at least one criminal conviction. Professor Talbott introduced the basic ideas of human trafficking, and raised a question; why does human trafficking keep happening and what can we do to stop the problem? Through the debate, we were able to gain some knowledge about human trafficking and come up with a few ideas to help solve the issue.
Human trafficking is “the illegal practice of procuring or trading in human beings for the purpose of prostitution, forced labor, or other forms of exploitation” (Dictionary.com). An easier definition for human trafficking is a modern day slave trade. One thing that I did not realize before the discussion was that the victims of human trafficking do not have to be moved/transported to other places. Victims can be trafficked in their own rooms. As the definition of human trafficking by Dictionary.com has shown, the major types of human trafficking are sex trafficking and labor trafficking. However, the statistics of sex trafficking that professor Talbott has shared were incredibly shocking to me. The statistic showed, 100,000 children in the United States are involved in prostitution, and the average entering age to prostitution was between twelve and fourteen. The fact that the common joining age of prostitution for children is so young, stunned me, because I have cousins who are in that age group and I could not picture them falling into prostitution.
Professor Talbott has also shared the development of recruitment strategies for human trafficking. Instead of kidnapping, which requires too much risk, recruiters often offer seemingly legitimate opportunities to people who are desperate to work. Also they offer food, housing, clothes and drugs in exchange for sex. They even purchase kids from guardians who are willing to sell their children for money. Because of recruiters’ developed trafficking strategies, most victims would willingly go with traffickers and yet deny they are the victims. Also, human trafficking is extremely hard to convict because it requires witnesses’ testimonies to prove the trafficking. Since victims are often manipulated by the trafficker into not thinking of themselves as victims, human trafficking became hard to prove. However the strategies have been evolving, and human trafficking continues to become more popular.
To prevent and stop human trafficking in the world, professor Talbott suggested to us, as students, to ask for engagement and mobilization from faculty and other students concerning the human trafficking issue. Also, he encouraged us to critique and evaluate the problem of the causes of human trafficking and reactions of society. I think the American government should reach out to vulnerable people so that they are not economically desperate and feel forced into human trafficking. Also, the government needs to fund and support the victims who are rescued from human trafficking so that they can adjust themselves into human society again.
Work Cited
Belser, Patrick “Forced Labor and Human Trafficking: Estimating the Profits”. Cornell University ILR School. 2005-03-01. Retrieved 2011-06-25
“human trafficking.” Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 21 Oct. 2014. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/human trafficking>.
