Human trafficking has been an issue in some form or another since the beginning of civilization. Conquerors of a society would enslave or otherwise take the freedom away from those who were conquered. Although slavery as one would traditionally define it is no longer a regular occurrence, the United States Department of Homeland Security (2014) describes human trafficking as modern day slavery. The victims of this type of crime are “forced into prostitution, involuntary labor and other forms of servitude to repay debts” (United States Department of Homeland Security 2014).
The right to an individual’s freedom was established as a cause worthy of defending during time period when slavery was abolished. However, at this time, the occurrence of human trafficking is alarmingly greater than the systems in place to prevent this heinous crimes. Two areas of international human trafficking that are currently in the news for violating the victim’s right to freedom include sexually related and war related human trafficking.
The first area of international human trafficking that generally comes to the mind of the public is that of sexually related human trafficking. Most individuals connect the crime of human trafficking with crimes such as prostitution. The United States Department of Homeland Security (2014) defines sexual human trafficking as “sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age.” This area of human trafficking often involves young children who are sold to the traffickers by the families in a region of extreme poverty or individuals who pay to be taken to a better life and then find themselves the victims of human traffickers (United States Department of Homeland Security 2014).
Attempts to prevent additional victims and to protect those who are already in the system of the international human traffickers, are being made by many obvious branches of international law. There are other organizations which are becoming involved in the prevention and detection of sexually related international human trafficking. One of these organizations came on board with the cause when the founder was originally investigated for and cleared of international human trafficking. Michael Ocello, the owner of a St. Louis based strip club was unaware of the extremities of the international human trafficking scene in relation to the adult club establishments until after he was personally under investigation.
He connected himself personally to the cause once he grasped the severity and “organized a group called COAST — Club Operators Against Sex Trafficking — and has hosted more than 40 training sessions across the country, involving 200 clubs, run by Homeland Security agents and social service providers” (Sweeney, 2014). Although there are still many clubs that are involved in the sexually related international human trafficking, the cooperation of club owners such as Michael Ocello has helped to allow authorities into the establishments and to eliminate many areas of opportunity for the traffickers (Sweeney, 2014).
An area of internatonal human trafficking that often gets less attention than those that are sexually related is the area that involves supplying countries with soldiers to fight in wars. The United States Department of Homeland Security (2014) defines this form of international human trafficking as “The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage or slavery.” For example, the Crisis in Syrian has brought about several opportunities for international human traffickers to profit through supplying rebel units with soldiers. This practice was recently exposed in the news by a mother whose son was a victim of international human trafficking.
Fleeing from Talbesa, the mother and her son, Mohammed, found themselves in Egypt. Once there, the mother was befriended by a woman who said that she would “take Mohammed to Turkey for better medical care. Instead the woman sold him into servitude, to a rebel fighting brigade” (Al-Dimashi, Al-Dimashi, and Leigh, 2014). The woman has recently been receiving assistance from the United Nations officials in Turkey. In addition to individuals being involved in these crimes, the Syrian government is recorded to be seizing children under the age of eighteen and using them for informants and other areas of military involvement. These war related international human trafficking occurrences are becoming a standard among the nations at war (Al-Dimashi, Al-Dimashi, and Leigh, 2014).
Whatever form that international human trafficking takes, the results are the same for the victims of this crime. The victims go beyond the individuals who are directly victimized through the loss of their freedoms and the requirements placed upon them by their captives. The families of the victims, as seen by the story of Mohammed’s mother, are also placed in a situation where they feel victimized. The industries, that are frequently used to used by the human traffickers, and honest business owners, such as the strip club owner, Mike Ocello, are also negatively impacted by this criminal activity. Although there are many resources that are available to the victims, the prevention of the crimes is rarely successful. As long as there is a “need” there will be a source and an opportunity. However, the fact that slavery has been abolished gives hope that the international human trafficking rings will eventually meet the same fate.
