Introduction
Human trafficking has been a common problem in the world today. As Greer (2016) asserted, human trafficking is a form of serfdom in the modern world. Most people presume that slavery was defunct after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. However, this has not been the case since human trafficking is a form of bondage in the contemporary world where women and children are exploited and subjected to obligatory labour and sex (Ricci 2015). Human trafficking is a desecration of human rights. Importantly, it is the fastest-growing felonious activity in the world today, which generates revenue of about $150 billion every year (Ricci 2015). It is essential to understand that cases of human trafficking are often hidden. With this in mind, detecting it could be a significant challenge. With the current statistics on the rate of human trafficking in the world, one can see the need to address it. Therefore, this paper focuses on human trafficking from a global perspective and aims at raising awareness and inspiring others to reach out and provide the required assistance to the vulnerable populations trapped in this form of slavery.
Description of Human Trafficking
Migration, whether legal or illegal, poses substantial challenges to the different nations of the world. Irregular forms of migration include smuggling or trafficking of humans. According to Aronowitz (2013), government and non-governmental agencies have estimated that the number of women and children that are trafficked each year ranges from 700,000 to 4 million every year. The high number of trafficked persons can be attributed to the fact that most nations lack the require legislation inhibiting human smuggling and trafficking. Some countries, on the other hand, have legislation in place to deal with this issue. However, the law often encompasses acts of forced sexual exploitation and prostitution but disregards forced labour, which is another essential component of human trafficking.
Officials in the government and other relevant agencies have the capability of helping victimised persons. However, such people view trafficked individuals as illegal migrants. In effect, they are subjected to acts of arrest and deportation, which does not address the issue of human smuggling (Aronowitz 2013). Aronowitz (2013) proposed the need to agree that human trafficking is a universal problem. In the year 2000, The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons and the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea, and Air were formed (Aronowitz 2013). The body and the supporting protocols aided in the forming of legislation barring human trafficking. The convention defined an organised criminal group as a faction of three or more people that has existed for some time and acts in concert intending to commit one or more severe crimes. The sneaking in of migrants was defined to mean procurement of the illegal entry of a person to another state to attain a monetary or quantifiable benefit.
Further, trafficking in persons means the conscription, transfer, conveyance, and carriage of persons through means of intimidation or use of force for the sole purpose of abuse. The term exploitation, on the other hand, was defined as the exploitation of prostitution and other sexual manipulation, forced work and slavery, and servitude or removal of body organs. The United Nation’s definition of trafficking given above contains a variety of elements. They include criminal acts, which involve enlistment, carriage, transfer, harbouring, and receipt of persons (Aronowitz 2013). Another aspect covered is the means used to commit the acts given above, whether it is by use of force, coercion, deception, deception, misuse of power, or susceptibility. The last element is the goal of objective, which includes the purpose of exploitation (Aronowitz 2013). For a crime to be considered as human trafficking, one of the elements given above should apply.
Human Trafficking is a Global Problem
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) provided statistics on human trafficking. The data provided shows the results acquired after the assessment of the scope of human trafficking in 155 counties in the world today and also includes the measures set in place to solve the issue (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime n.d). Most nations are in denial, with most government heads claiming that human trafficking is not a significant challenge in their countries. In consequence, there has been neglect in matters concerning reporting and prosecution of human trafficking cases. The UNODC report shows that sexual manipulation is the most usual form of human trafficking. Women and girls are the leading victims of sexual abuse. Another shocking revelation from the UNODC report is that women made up the most significant proportion of traffickers in 30% of the nations that were analysed (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime n.d). Primarily, this means that women traffic their fellow women in some parts of the world.
Consequently, the UNODC report showed that forced labour is the second most prevalent form of human trafficking. As Greer (2016) argued, forced work could be hard to detect, which shows the real chance of misrepresentation. Asides from that, about 20% of all the trafficked persons in the world today are women (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime n.d). However, in developing regions such as Africa, children make up the most significant number of trafficked victims. Accordingly, trafficking does not necessarily entail people moving across continents. Instead, it could take place within a country. According to Greer (2016), intra-regional and domestic human trafficking is the most common form of trafficking. Since the enactment of the United Nations Protocol against trafficking of persons in the year 2003, the number of member states implementing the protocol has increased significantly (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime n.d). However, many countries are lacking the political will to address the crime. Greer (2016) indicated that the problem could be worsening without anyone’s knowledge due to the lack of data. Most governments are obstructing researches and investigations on human trafficking in various states.
In the book, Human Trafficking: A Global Perspective by Louise Shelley, the author argued on how disregarded human trafficking crime has been over the years when compared to other forms of crime. In an example given, the BBC reported a situation where women from Eastern Europe were auctioned in different regions in London (Shelley 2012). The selling happened in the open and public places such as airports. Shelley (2012) argued that if the auctioneers were involved with the sale of illicit drugs, the arrests would have been immediate. However, no arrests were made since no intervention was implemented to protect the young women who were victims of human trafficking at the time. The case study serves as an example and proof to show that human trafficking has not been viewed as a severe threat when compared to the international drug trade. With time, the United Kingdom saw the need to address human trafficking after the deaths of a large number of Chinese migrants. Few other nations in the world have tried to combat this form of organised crime, but resource allocation remains a challenge for most of them. Thus, this shows that a lot is needed to solve the issue of human trafficking.
Human Trafficking in the United Kingdom
As already seen earlier, the main reason for increased human trafficking is exploitation. Victims of trafficking are subjected to acts of prostitution, sexual abuse, forced labour, slavery, and servitude, to mention a few. In a developed country such as the United Kingdom, human trafficking is prevalent. As Turner (2015) argued, in the United Kingdom alone, human trafficking cases increased by 46% from the years 2014 to 2015. On that note, the legislative body of the United Kingdom came up with stricter rules against illegal migration. Curbing illegal immigration was among the campaign themes of David Cameron. Mainly, this shows that a greater tendency towards the crackdown of unlawful migrants through deportation techniques.
In consequence, this has led to the backlash from civil society and expert personnel with claims that stricter rules and legislation could cause increased cases of tendencies of human trafficking. Once a victim learns about the risks of deportation, for instance, they are less likely to report instances of exploitation. The United Kingdom is one of the developed nations in the world today. Some of the characteristics of developed countries include high per capita income, welfare policies, improved opportunities, and living standards. Therefore, such features make the country an attractive destination for most of the illegal migrants. Victims, thus, are likely to suffer in silence. Hence, this shows why human trafficking cases in such nations are expected to increase. Similarly, Turner (2015) argued that the legislations implemented in the United Kingdom could have a role to play in degrading the circumstances of the human trafficked persons.
Human Trafficking in Russia
Russia is the largest country in the world. In the 1990s, the country was under a spotlight due to the trafficking of thousands of women and minors (Buckley 2013). The common destinations for trafficked victims from Russia are Europe, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Scandinavia, North America, China, and the United Arab Emirates (Buckley 2013). The increased cases of human trafficking resulted after the collapse of the Soviet empire in the year 1989 that led to the economic turmoil in the region (Buckley 2013). In effect, most people who were struggling to find work opportunities were caught up in issues of forced labour. After the Soviet Union collapsed, mafia gangs made huge profits from the trafficking of vulnerable individuals. In addition to that, the tight restrictions that prevented the Soviets from travelling abroad were no more.
Job agencies in Russia invited women to work abroad as dancers, waitresses, nurses, office works, and nannies for attractive salaries. Women would go to those areas willingly and would find a different job that subjected them to threats, rape, and violence upon refusal. According to Buckley (2013), about 500,000 women and girls from Russia were trafficked between the years 1922and 2002. The political leadership of Russia decided to tackle the challenge of human trafficking. Some social scientists exposed the problem and decided to inform the public to increase awareness. In the year 2003, President Putin of Russia declared human trafficking illegal, but no special law resulted (Buckley 2013). However, the criminal code of the country was amended to include human trafficking as an unlawful activity. In Russia, human trafficking is defined as the act of buying or selling a person or other related actions with the intent of exploiting a victim through recruitment, transportation, transferring, harbouring, and receiving another individual (Buckley 2017).
