The Truth to Trafficking
Background Information Out of all the victims to human trafficking 71% of them are the female population. Poor young girls get kidnapped right off the street they live on to work a lifetime of labor. Global profits state 150 billion dollars a year go to traffickers, and 99 billion of that is from commercial sex exploitation. (Facts about Human Trafficking) These things have only become familiar to more people throughout the last five years, and people want to make a change. It all began with an organization funding for the children of Iraq to find peace, now all over the internet there are websites, fundraisers, and protests trying to raise money and awareness. But does this work, and why is it that girls get trafficked more than boys?
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals I have been working towards are number five, which is Gender Equality, and number three, which is Good Health. Gender Equality plays a very big part due to the amount of complication gender roles play in human trafficking. Good Health is also very important because due to the lack of health many people go through when they are being trafficked.
The fact that the female population gets trafficked far more than the male has become a huge problem globally; some of the causes of this are websites being on the internet with a primary goal of selling young girls, another is that girls are seen as a lot weaker and cannot seem to fend for themselves, lastly there are so many girls in the world that have yet to be educated about safety and such topics as this one.
What is human trafficking?
Human trafficking continues to reinforce male superiority in an already gender-biased society. Human trafficking is a large line of people partaking in a “business” that stretches all over the world. In this so-called business, people kidnap kids, teens, and even adults. While they have them, they consistently rape, beat, and labor them. There are millions of these websites all over the internet. They have tried to be shut down various times by the police but there are so many users and so many people managing the website, it’s merely impossible for police and detectives to get hold of it. Additionally, a lot of these apps and websites are used for just social media like Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook, so many have good meaning to them. (Human Trafficking and Social Media) trafficking the most.
Data Chart 1- Here is a map showing the places around the world suffering from trafficking the most
The charge for human trafficking is a demand for cheap labor, services, and commercial sex. These human traffickers employ force, fraud, and coercion in victimizing others in desire of a huge profit. The only goal people have from this is the money, many people will go to a high extent just for the profit. There have also been many occurrences where people form groups together, so they can sell girls to each other and labor them with a guaranteed penny in their pocket. (Human Trafficking and Money Laundering) It’s truly devastating how many young girls spend their whole life being victims of this business. Traffickers like to take their victims from places in poverty, due to the lack of security cameras and a very weak police force. Therefore, most girls who get taken in places surrounded by poverty are hard to find in such short times, this is what leads to a lifetime of labor. Police are usually on it for a few months, but the same cases keep occurring, so they end up giving up. This often leads to an endless cycle and lifestyle of suffering for many girls in our world. (Poverty’s Contribution to Trafficking)
This young girl finally feels free
Along with all this information about trafficking, there are also many true stories that brave young woman have decided to share. Brave young woman could be the new face of our future. Recently in many towns and local neighborhoods in the United States young girls have been a lot braver to share about their trafficking experiences. Many people feel that it is important to assure their children and their students of safety and knowledge that they can be open with others. It’s only been throughout the last few years that people have felt comfortable sharing about this due to the amount of sexism and gender inequality our world had faced in prior years. Girls and young woman have been coming together and forming protesting groups, some of the larger cooperation’s are Safe America, Love Justice International, and Raising Tactical Daughters. These mainly contain girls who are trafficking survivors, have a family or friend who is a survivor, or just a girl that wants to support for justice. On all these websites there are many young survivors here to tell their story. (Training and Educating).
Picture 1- This is a group of woman protesting for justice.
There was a girl named Shamere McKenzie, she had a student athlete scholarship at Saint John’s University in New York. She was out one night and met a man, she got lured in by his charm and slowly started trusting him more with her personal business including what troubles she was getting into financially. She had just recently gotten injured, so she needed a new way to pay off her tuition balance, because student loan and living in New York were not making it easier. This man offered her to live in his apartment, but she would have to work at a strip club. This being her only choice she agreed. All she needed was 3000 dollars and she would quit immediately after, and luckily within 2 weeks she had her profit and was ready to leave. Except as she was walking towards the door, she heard footsteps trailing behind her, he punched her in the face multiple times until she blacked out. The next morning, she woke up in the man’s apartment covered in urine. Every night she was hit, choked, and raped. He continuously threatened her saying he would kill her family if she spoke to anyone about the things he had done to her. This was the moment she knew she had been set up. As soon as she spoke out, he was locked in jail. Even though she still faces years and years of emotional trauma, as she said so herself, she finally feels free. (Shamere McKenzie)
The world’s contribution to end trafficking
Now because of these stories they have really influenced people to want to make a difference. Solutions that have been implemented like organizations and funding money do not help bring trafficking victim numbers down, however education has shown it might.
Graph 1- This is a chart showing the number of trafficking cases throughout the last 15 years
From 2014-2017 the number of victims to trafficking skyrocketed, therefore many people in local cities and states tried to make a difference. Ever since then there have been many organizations, protests, and websites where you can fund money and support to bring trafficking to a stop. However, this did not work the way people thought it would. Numbers have been pretty like what they were in 2017, but technology is only getting stronger and funding money simply is not going to help. Statistics show that many of the girls who get trafficked are not even aware of what it is. So many girls don’t realize what unsafe situations look like, therefore, educating young girls about human trafficking might really help. Unfortunately, some of the girls who get trafficked do not even have access to education or school. (Human Trafficking in Africa) Therefore, something that has been spoken about enforcing upon these big organizations is using the money they receive to help educate these girls with no school about safety and trafficking. For the people who do have access to a school, adding a part to their curriculum which discusses trafficking and safety would be a great solution. Throughout the last couple of years, there have been some schools that teach about this, even for the faculty. Certain schools that have taught about safety have shown many students being very precautions and understanding of this matter, even in local areas many infographics show lowering in number. People say if we can stretch this education worldwide and normalize it, this could make a colossal difference in the number of trafficking victims. (Training and Educating)
Takeaway
We have seen many goals in trying to stop trafficking because it enforces male superiority, but education seems to be the only one that might help. Overall, trying to educate many girls with only a few people’s help may be very challenging, but if you can take the time to fund money to an organization that can help spread education, talk to your school about adding trafficking to their curriculum, or even simply telling a friend or classmate about safety, we will be sure to see those trafficking numbers lower. These are just things proven to help live a safe and happy life.
Works Cited
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