Illegal Trade of Individuals

According to the Constitution of the United States, the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in 1865. However, many Americans have discovered an illegal way to recapture moments in history by forcing human beings into slavery.This process is known as human trafficking. The reality of human trafficking has been in motion for thousands of years. Human trafficking can even be traced back from the ancient times of the Greeks, to present day America (“Timeline of Human”). This exploitation is possible because illegal transactions are organized between tacturned companies and individuals.

Human trafficking is one of the most heinous yet lucrative crimes today. By law, it is an illegal act because individuals are sold into slavery against their will. After the slaves are purchased, it is common for them to be forced to perform laborious tasks and sexual deeds. Over the last few years, partnerships have made profitable increases through the following forms of human trafficking: domestic servitude, forced marriage, child soldiering, forced begging, forced criminal activity, and organ trafficking.

Domestic servitude is a type of enslavement in which people are forced to become the “live-in” help. For thousands of years, woman have been the target group because they are more vulnerable than men. Women are often are forced to be become maids, housewives, and nannies. The women are housed inside the home of the human traffickers as if they are apart of the family. Even though food, water, and shelter is provided, the living circumstances are not completely made to be comfortable. Traffickers give victims just enough comfort so that they are able to maintain adequate health to carry out their daily activities.

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Victims are entrusted in the trafficker’s home because enough verbal and physical abuse is used day to day to implement fear in their hearts and minds so that commands are not disobeyed. There have been many cases where human traffickers lure immigrants into enslavement by deluding them to think that they can waive their passage into the United States in exchange for labor (“Domestic Servitude”). Ideally, immigrants will believe that their debt is repayable, but in reality the debt is never ending because they have sown themselves into slavery. Immigrants do not have legal documentation that will allow them entrance into the United States, nevertheless maintain a comfortable and suitable lifestyle.

The second type of human trafficking is forced marriage. Forced married is a violation of the human rights because both parties in a marriage have to willingly consent. In some countries forced marriage is coerced by parents, families, and even religious figures. In third world countries adolescents as young as 8 years old are promised to men and sold into a marriage (Lee, 2011). According to statistics, 1 in 5 girls are forcefully married before the age of 18. This means that over 650 million women today were married as an adolescent (“Girls Not Brides”). However, studies prove that women are not the only victims of forced marriage. As reported by the Bureau of Consular Affairs, roughly 15 percent of forced marriage cases involve male victims. It is commonplace for sexual abuse, mental abuse, and emotional abuse to occur in these types of marriages.

The third form of human trafficking is child soldiering. Child soldiering is the process in which children under the age of 18 years old assume the role of militants. Most people would assume that the army of children would be composed of only young men, but that is not always the case. Amongst a group of children soldiers, approximately 10 to 30 percent of the children are young ladies under the age of 18 (“11 Facts About”). Human traffickers are easily able to persuade and kidnap children because the children that live in third world countries are more than likely living in poverty. Alongside of impoverishment, most third world countries like Syria and Iraq are constantly at war. Living in impoverishment and a war zone will make a child’s living circumstances non bearable to a certain extent. The vulnerability of the adolescents allow militants to taint their minds. After war, children often feel the need to take care of wounded family members as well younger siblings. The children that are soldiers take initiative to perform life threatening labors in exchange for food, water, shelter, and even money. For means of protection, human traffickers train young children to use weapons, fight in wars, and to commit heinous acts of violence. In the last two years, large groups of children soldiers were exploited into at least 18 different world wide wars (“Children Soldiers In”). Many of these children have been enticed by human traffickers making deals or promises to give them a better life.

Another type of human trafficking is forced begging. Forced begging is a way to conduct manipulative behaviors so that strangers are coerced to give money to the poor and disabled. It is one of the most famous types of human trafficking in world wide countries today. Forced begging is extended through countries such as Argentina, Algeria, Thailand, and even the United States (“Forced Begging 2017”). Human traffickers are well known for telling individuals that they will make a profit of off their begging. However, that is never the case because human traffickers are generally conniving individuals.Workers are mislead and are never paid for their services. It has been proven that younger children gain more attention from strangers because they often become sympathetic when they are alert that children are forced to live in impoverishment. In the end, a stranger’s sympathy makes an employer’s job easier because they are able to make reliable profits. It is notable that human traffickers operate their businesses through cunning behaviors. Often times the children are demanded to bring props to the common grounds where they are known for begging. Props may include crutches, wheelchairs, or even cups to place money in to. Beggars are accustomed to being beaten by their employers when their daily quota is not met. At the end of a long and hard working shift, the beggars are forced to hand over all of the profits that they made throughout the day.

Forced criminal activity is one of the most intense types of human trafficking today. In 2014, Boko Haram, a jihadist military consortium, abducted a total of 276 girls between the ages of 16 and 18. These young women were abducted from their schools in Nigeria to become suicide bombers (Ochab, 2017). There is not a specific gender that is targeted for this type of human trafficking. Traffickers will target anyone who is physically able to commit the crimes upon their demand. Criminal acts may be as minor as pocket picking and shopping lifting, or as intense as drug selling and armed robbery. Traffickers often threaten labourers before they are released into the world to commit a crime. Traffickers implement fear into minds and hearts of labours just in case the criminal acts does not go as planned. If the labourer is caught while carrying out the criminal activities, they have already been conditioned to not tell any law authority who is behind the operation. The labourer is forced to take all the blame for a crime they did not wish to commit. Victims of forced criminal activity live a hard life because there is no way out of the exploitation. It is very difficult for authorities to identify victims of forced criminal activities because their number one task is to remain private and obscure. A victim’s fear indicates whether each criminal activity is carried out because traffickers can be very manipulative. Abusers become prevalent to using the victim’s family and friend’s safety as a threat and to pressure the victim into obeying their commands.

The final form of human trafficking is known as organ trafficking. Organ trafficking is the trade of human organs and other portions of the body in order for a transplant to occur. Under the National Organ Transplant Act, it is illegal to buy and sell organs in the United States. Human traffickers make an annual profit of approximately $75 million in the illegal sell or trade of organs. On the black market, the kidney is the most popular branding item. On average, the kidney is worth $5,000 alone (“Value of the”). Human traffickers are commonly referred to as “body snatchers” because they are known for abducting young adults who are in healthy condition to sell their organs. In most cases, victims are not even given the pleasure of sedation. They are compelled to face blunt force trauma. As of today, November 28, 2018, there are 14,545 people that are waiting to be placed on an organ donor list. Statistics have proved that for every ten minutes that goes by, another name has been added to the waitlist. Furthermore, a total of 10 people die each day in hopes of receiving an organ transplant (“Data, 2018”). The demand for organ transplants in the United States in ragingly high, therefore many rich people travel across the country in hope to buy an organ and have it transplanted. When human traffickers become aware of the given circumstances, they set out to find people to abduct so that they can harvest their organs. In this context, organ harvesting is also an illegal act because according to the National Organ Transplant Act, only certified surgeons are allowed to conduct organ transplants from one patient to another. This process is categorized under human trafficking because victims are forced to give away their organs without giving consent.

In conclusion, human trafficking is the illegal trade of individuals who are commercially exploited to perform laborious or sexual acts. Traffickers are able to make a profit through domestic servitude, forced marriage, child soldiering, forced begging, forced criminal activity, and organ trafficking. Human traffickers are both greedy and conniving individuals because they abuse another person’s human rights in to order to pursue their own happiness. Because human traffickers do not target a particular age group, gender, or race, it is important to be aware of our surroundings because anyone can fall victim of human trafficking.