Trafficking Essay -- Legal Issues, Human Trafficking

Human trafficking has become a major problem worldwide which affects many people. An estimated 600-800 thousand people are moved unwillingly between international borders each year (Kristof, et al, pg. 10). There is an even larger number of 12.3 million people who are estimated to be forced to work in agriculture, manufacturing, and the sex trade (Shepherd, pg. 94). A majority of the people forced into labor, especially into the sex trade, are children, most of which are women, at an estimated 1 million children per year (Kristof, pg. 9). There is a large amount of violence and abuse involved in sex slavery, many times leading to death. Globalization seems to have played a major role in the rise of sex slavery and the sex trade but has also played major roles in efforts to stop it. There has been speculation that the way that human trafficking has been constructed over time is a major problem in the scheme of trafficking. Barbara Sullivan writes that as the debate over trafficking evolved â€Å"women were seen to have a 'vulnerable sexuality' that was readily exploited by men; trafficking always involved prostitution and women's consent was irrelevant† (Shepherd, pg. 91). She argues that this shaping of the issue has also â€Å"erased the possibility of women being active agents in their own lives, for example by migrating to undertake lucrative paid work in the sex trade.† She continues in her writing to attribute these same problems to the way that anti-trafficking agencies present the issue as well. This viewpoint and argument is irrelevant to the issue and the construction of trafficking has much less of an effect on women's rights than the problem itself. Prostitution in itself, even if willing, involves a person sell... ...any have a hard time once released (Kristof, pg. 35-45). If girls in regions like Cambodia become educated they are more likely to be employed and are more likely to eventually be able to escape the lower status of being a poor woman. Since poor people have fewer chances at income and education in poor countries and are less likely to fight back against oppressive conditions, they are preyed upon by human traffickers (Shepherd, pg. 95). Since both of these things are true of women as well they have a double strike against them and are even more likely to be preyed upon. Even though globalization played a major role in the increase of human trafficking by making it easier for people to move from one place to another it also has played a role in allowing people who are more well off to assist those who do not have the resources or the freedoms to help themselves.