English – 12th Year

2011/2012

Human Trafficking

Teacher: Maria José Marques

By Cindy Mendes,

N. 26053, 12.B
 Introduction
Robert Alan Silverstein once said: “Slavery was abolished 150 years ago, right?
While it is true that slavery is illegal almost everywhere on earth, the fact is there are
more slaves today than there ever were…”. One of today’s biggest human rights crises is
the international trafficking of women, boys and children into sex slavery, among many
other forms of human trafficking.

Basically, trafficking in persons is the acquisition of people by improper means

such as force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them. It is the third largest
criminal industry in the world, outranked only by arms and drug dealing. Virtually, every
single country on earth is affected by this crime.

The first article of the Declaration of Human

rights says: “All human beings are born free and
equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with
reason and conscience and should act towards one
another in a spirit of brotherhood.” It is a
fundamental human right to be free of any
exploitation in all its forms; however, more than
12.5 million people completely lost all their rights.
Activists have identified a large number of human
rights violations that may occur in the context of
trafficking. Civil and political rights are violated: the Eliminado: may be

right to personal liberty and autonomy, the right to

integrity, the right to freedom of movement and
expression, the right to freedom from torture or
other cruel/inhuman treatment, the right to be free
from discrimination, forced labour, and slavery. It
also violates women’s social, cultural and economic Eliminado: may

rights, such as health, free access to education and Eliminado: violate

information and favourable working conditions. Eliminado: woman’s

Apparently, slavery is, indeed, alive and well in our own backyards. How is this
possible? How do we stop human trafficking? What are the global implications of this
atrocious crime against the human security? I will try to answer those questions and other Eliminado: on

points concerning the topic throughout this written assignment.

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 Overview
Human trafficking is the illegal trade of human beings for the purpose of exploiting
them. The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially
Women and Children (also referred to as the Trafficking Protocol) was adopted by the
United Nations in Palermo, Italy in 2000. The aim of the Protocol is to facilitate
convergence in national cooperation in investigating and prosecuting trafficking in
persons. An additional objective of the Protocol is to protect and assist the victims of
trafficking with full respect for their human rights. The Trafficking Protocol defines human
trafficking as:

(a) [...] the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by

means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of
deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or
receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over
another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum,
the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced
labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of
organs;
(b) The consent of a victim of trafficking in persons to the intended exploitation set forth
in subparagraph (a) of this article shall be irrelevant where any of the means set forth in
subparagraph (a) have been used; (c) The recruitment, transportation, transfer, Eliminado:
harbouring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation shall be considered
“trafficking in persons” even if this does not involve any of the means set forth in
subparagraph (a) of this article;
(d) “Child” shall mean any person under eighteen years of age.

The Trafficking Protocol entered into force on 25 December 2003. By June 2010,
the Trafficking Protocol had been approved by 117 countries and 137 parties.

In other words, human trafficking is a crime against humanity. It involves an act of

recruiting, transporting, transferring, harbouring or receiving someone through a use of
force. The victims lose their autonomy, freedom of movement and choice, and face various forms
of physical and mental abuse. It is considered as a modern-day form of slavery.

There are many forms of trafficking:

Bonded labour, or debt bondage, is the least known form of labour trafficking
today but it is the most widely used way of enslaving people. A person becomes a bonded
labourer when their labour is demanded as a means of repayment for a loan. The person Eliminado: mean
is then tricked or trapped into working for very little or no pay at all, often for seven days
a week. The value of their work is superior to the original sum of money borrowed. Eliminado: than

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 Forced labour is a situation in which victims are forced to work against their own
will, under the threat of violence or some other form of punishment. People completely
lose their freedom. This type of Human Trafficking can globally generate $31bn according
to the International Labour Organization. Forms of forced labour can include domestic
servitude; agricultural labour; food service, begging and many others. At least 12.3 million
people around the world are trapped in forced labour.

Child Labour is a form of work very dangerous to the physical, mental, spiritual,
moral, or social development of children and can interfere with their education. The
International Labor Organization estimates worldwide that there are 246 million exploited
children (more than 20 times the population of Portugal) aged between 5 and 17 involved
in debt bondage, prostitution, pornography, the illegal drug trade or the illegal arms trade.

Sex Trafficking. Women and children from developing countries, and from
vulnerable parts of society in developed countries, are seduced by promises of getting a
good job by leaving their homes and travelling to what they consider will be a better life.
Victims are often provided with false travel documents and an organized network is used
to transport them to the destination country, where they find themselves forced into
sexual slavery and held in cruel conditions and constant fear.

Homeless individuals, runaway teens, displaced homemakers, refugees, and drug

addicts are easily targeted by traffickers. Traffickers force the victims to become
prostitutes or work in the sex industry; this includes prostitution, dancing in strip clubs,
performing in pornographic films and other forms of involuntary servitude.

Trafficking in humans for the purpose of using their organs is a rapidly growing
criminal activity. In many countries, waiting lists for transplants are very long so criminals
have taken this opportunity to exploit the desperation of patients and possible donors.
The health of victims, even their lives, is at risk as operations may be done in clandestine
conditions with poor medical conditions.

What is the most common form of human trafficking?

According to a range of various reports, the most common form of human

trafficking is sexual exploitation (79%). The victims of sexual exploitation are
predominantly women and girls.

The second most frequent form of trafficking is forced labour (18%), although this
may be a misrepresentation because forced labour is less frequently detected and
reported than trafficking for sexual exploitation.

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What it is not?

Human trafficking differs from people smuggling. People request or hire a person,
known as a smuggler, to secretly transport people from one location to another. This
generally involves transportation from one country to another, where legal entry would
be denied upon arrival at the international border. After entry into the country and arrival
at their ultimate destination, the smuggled person is usually free to find their own way.
The word "trafficking" includes the word "traffic," which means transportation or travel.
However, while the words look and sound alike, they do not have the same meaning.

Where does it occur?

Every year, thousands of men, women and children are victims of human
trafficking, in their own countries and abroad. Every country in the world is affected by
trafficking, whether as a country of origin, transit or destination for victims.

Eleven countries score very high as countries of origin for trafficking

victims: Belarus, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine, Albania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Romania, China,
Thailand, and Nigeria.

Human Trafficking Industry

Trafficking is a lucrative industry. It has been recognized as the fastest growing

criminal industry in the world. Some sources say that it is the third most profitable illegal
industry in the world. But others say that it is the second, so we can see that it is
increasing very fast.

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 Young women can be sold to brothel (prostitution house) owners in North America
for as much as US$16,000 each. Traffickers use Women to pay their debts. Women
sexually serve dozens of men per day.

In 2004, the total annual revenue for trafficking in persons were estimated to be
between USD$5 billion and $9 billion and in 2005, $31.6 billion. In 2008, the United
Nations estimated nearly 2.5 million people from 127 different countries are being
trafficked into 137 countries around the world.

Global Implications

The mental, physical and emotional impact of this crime on the human security of
the countless victims is obvious. The additional impacts on human security as a collective
international concern may not be so obvious. They include:

- Threats to border integrity, as millions of people are transported annually across Formatada: Com marcas + Nível: 1 +
Alinhado a: 0,63 cm + Avanço: 1,27
national boundaries under false pretences (lying about who you are or what you cm
are doing); Eliminado: lied

- Threats to human health, through the spread of HIV/AIDS and other STDs to the Formatada: Com marcas + Nível: 1 +
Alinhado a: 0,63 cm + Avanço: 1,27
victims, their clients, their clients’ wives, and so on; cm

- Threats to national and international security, since it is believed that many of the Formatada: Com marcas + Nível: 1 +
Alinhado a: 0,63 cm + Avanço: 1,27
world’s major sex traffickers are connected to organized crime groups, which may cm
then use their profits to finance other criminal activities such as terrorism;

- Threats to the health of our global human conscience, since slavery – often proudly Formatada: Com marcas + Nível: 1 +
Alinhado a: 0,63 cm + Avanço: 1,27
thought as having been wiped out in the 19th century – is actually alive and well, cm
right in all of our own backyards.

The Anti-trafficking Policy Index

The '3P Anti-trafficking Policy Index' measures the effectiveness of government

policies to fight human trafficking based on an evaluation of policy requirements
prescribed by the United Nations Human Trafficking Protocol.

The policy level is evaluated using a scale. It is available to up to 177 countries. The Eliminado: for
outcome of the Index shows that anti-trafficking policy has overall improved over the
2000-2009 period.

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 In 2009, seven countries demonstrate the highest possible performance in policies.
These countries are Germany, Australia, the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, Sweden and the
US. The worst performing country in 2009 was North Korea, followed by Somalia.

Human trafficking in Portugal

Portugal is a destination country for women, men, and children subjected to

human trafficking, specially forced prostitution and forced labour. Trafficking victims in
Portugal are from Brazil, Eastern Europe, and Africa. According to one NGO, a number of
Portuguese girls are subjected to forced prostitution within the country. Men from
Eastern European countries and Brazil suffer from forced labour in agriculture,
construction, hotels, and restaurants. Children from Eastern Europe are forced to beg, Eliminado: ,
sometimes by their own families.

The Government of Portugal does not entirely fulfill the minimum principles for
the abolition of trafficking. However, it is making some efforts to do so. It increased its
anti-trafficking training, improved national data on trafficking, and provided shelters and
assistance to trafficking victims. Despite these efforts, the government didn’t provide
complete data on the general number of trafficking criminals sentenced, nor indicated the
jail time received by the majority of traffickers —a long-standing problem in Portugal.

Authorities identified 272 potential victims during 2008 and 2009, confirming 48 as
official victims during this two year period.

The government funds NGOs which assist trafficking victims, they received a fixed
subsidy from the government for each victim. One NGO received approximately 80
percent of its budget from the government. However, NGOs report overall funding is
inadequate in order to provide critical specialized care required for trafficking victims.

Organizations that fight against Human Trafficking

Numerous organizations fight against human trafficking: The United Nations that
include – The UN Office on Drugs and Crime and The United Nations Global Initiative to
Fight Human Trafficking. The Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in
Human Beings, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and NGOs are Eliminado: NGO’s
other organizations that fight for this cause.

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) Eliminado: ’

A nongovernmental organization operates independently from any government.

There are many NGOs around the world that fight against human trafficking. It provides
counselling and support services such as shelters, educational and vocational training, job

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placement, and financial assistance for women and children who have been victims of
trafficking, especially those involved in prostitution.

Prevention

The prevention of human trafficking requires several types of interventions. Some

are of low or moderate cost and can have some immediate impact, such as awareness
campaigns that allow high risk individuals to make informed decisions. Strong laws that
are enforced are an effective means of prevention. However, serious law enforcement is Eliminado: mean
expensive.

The "Be Smart, Be Safe" brochures describe the tactics criminal groups use to
traffic women, the risks of trafficking, what women can do to protect themselves and how
women can get help in the United States.

Through its Global TV Campaign on Human Trafficking, the United Nations Office
for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (ODCCP) warns millions of potential victims about
the dangers of trafficking.

Prosecution

As human trafficking has a very high clandestine nature, the great majority of
human trafficking cases go unreported so criminals remain free. There are reports that
many human traffickers are associated with international criminal organizations and are,
therefore, difficult to prosecute. Sometimes members of the local law enforcement
agencies are involved in the lucrative business of illegal exportation or importation of
human beings. Surprisingly, in 30% of the countries which provided information on the
gender of traffickers, women make up the largest proportion of traffickers. In some parts
of the world, women trafficking women is “the norm”. Comentário [mjm1]: Why do you
think this happens?

Prosecution is further complicated because sometimes victims of human

trafficking are afraid to testify against traffickers as they are afraid of losing their lives and
their family members'. Eliminado: lives

In order to combat the globalisation of this criminal behaviour, international Eliminado: globalization
policies and practices that encourage civil participation and cooperation with trafficking Eliminado: behavior
victims in the prosecution of traffickers have to be developed. Human trafficking laws
must provide serious penalties against traffickers, including provisions for the confiscation
of property and compensation for victims. At the same time, training is needed to ensure

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that an insensitive investigation and prosecution process does not further traumatize
trafficking victims.

Reintegration

NGOs provide counselling and support services such as shelters, educational and Eliminado: ’

vocational training, job placement, and financial assistance for women and children who
have been victims of trafficking, especially those involved in prostitution.

Victims frequently face serious problems when they return into their home
communities. Victimized women may have been treated by law authorities as criminals,
either for prostitution or illegal migration, and, therefore face additional problems of
employment or other forms of reintegration.

Assisting victims to resettle and start a new life is a real challenge for concerned
governmental agencies and NGOs. In addition to psychological and social considerations,
the victim faces financial difficulties. In many source countries, reintegration resources are
not available in communities to assist the victim or to provide financial support during the
transition period. However, there are some positive examples of government agencies,
international donors, and NGOs working together to establish programmes that provide
practical assistance and help returning victims reintegrate and become productive
members of their communities.

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 Conclusion
Human trafficking might not be something we think about on a daily basis, but this
crime affects the communities where we live, the products that we buy and the people
who we care about. It is now considered as a modern-day form of slavery, although it is no Eliminado: instead of
longer upheld by law, which happened in the past, victims are still trapped physically, Eliminado: being held
psychologically, financially or emotionally by their traffickers.

Stories about human trafficking are often set in distant places, like cities in
Cambodia, small towns in Moldova, or rural parts of Brazil. But human trafficking happens
in cities and towns all over the world, including our own country. Traffickers do not
discriminate any race, age, gender, or religion. Anyone can be a victim. Products we eat,
wear, and use every day may have been made by human trafficking victims. Human
trafficking is not just in our town – it is in our home, since trafficking victims are forced to
make many of the products we use everyday, according to “ProductsofSlavery.org”. Most
people have worn, touched, or consumed a product of slavery at some point. Human
trafficking has global implications as well, since it threatens human health, trough the Eliminado: , as well,
spread of AIDS or other STDs and our national and international security. Eliminado: ’

However, some people state that we can actually end human trafficking around
the world. Nonetheless, to achieve that goal, everyone needs to work together. Activists Eliminado: Although
around the world are launching campaigns to hold governments, create better laws, and
prevent trafficking in their communities. Citizens can start a campaign on “Change.org” to
fight trafficking in their community, they can volunteer or donate to organizations that
fight against human trafficking.

I cannot be certain that, one day, human

trafficking will truthfully stop, it will always depend
on the different government countries’
actions, and most of the time, we do not have a say
in it. Consequently, the real challenge for all countries,
rich and poor, is to target the criminals, who exploit
desperate people, and to protect and assist victims of
trafficking, many of whom suffer unimaginable
hardships in their bid for a better life.

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Sometimes very or even too close to your sources.

Webgraphy
 International Training Centre of the ILO, “Forced labour and human trafficking”.
Available in: <http://www.itcilo.org/en/the-centre/areas-of-expertise/labour-
rights/forced-labour-and-human-trafficking>

 “ChildSlaveLabor.com”. Available in: <http://www.childslavelabor.com/sell.html>

 The Landover Baptist, “We buy children” . Available

in:<http://www.landoverbaptist.org/news0203/childpurchase.html>

 “Stop selling sex”. Available in: <http://www.stopsellingsex.com/trafficked-teen-

girls-describe-life-in-the-game/>

 UNODC, “UNODC on human trafficking and migrant smuggling”. Available in:

<http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/>

 “Sexual trafficking facts”. Available in: <http://www.iast.net/thefacts.htm>

 US Department of State, “Trafficking in Persons”. Available in:

<http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2010/142761.htm>

 Academy for Educational Development, “Approaches to combat trafficking”.

Available in: <http://www.humantrafficking.org/updates/807>

 Anti-Slavery International, “What is trafficking in people?”. Available in:

<http://www.antislavery.org/english/slavery_today/trafficking.aspx>

 Academy for Educational Development, “Prevention”. Available in:

http://www.humantrafficking.org/combat_trafficking/prevention>

 Moju Project, “Human Trafficking”. Available in:

<http://mojuproject.com/about/human-trafficking/> Código de campo alterado

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