Human traffickers use fraud, and force to persuade victims to cross national borders for better opportunities and jobs. The victims are then forced into some sort of labor. Since the majority of these victims are woman and children, the most vulnerable members of society, they are often forced into prostitution.
Some of these women are forced into prostitution as young as 7 years old.
Human trafficking is the one of the fastest growing criminal activities.
According to estimates by the U.S. government, 600,000 to 800,000 victims are trafficked globally each year. Some might argue and say that people are more worried about illegal immigration than women being abused and violated. In Germany, the government attempted to curtail Human Trafficking by making prostitution legal. But no matter how you look at it, woman are still being abused and taken advantage of. These women can’t tell anyone what is happening to them because then they would be killed. How can we stop it? Are we even aware that it’s going on? In 2000, the U.S. congress passed the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act. But is it still occurring here in the United States? Many anti-trafficking initiatives have increased public awareness, more efforts are needed to stop this terrible crime.
-Sassy Pants
6 comments:
I believe human sex trafficking is a major issue in the world today too. This summer I went to a CIY conference where they showed us the horrors of sex trafficking. In Cambodia girls as young as 4 years old are being sold by their parents and end up in a brothel house. The men can do anything to these girls and the girls have no way out. There is a brothel on almost every corner marked by a red light. Unfortunately, Cambodia isn’t the only place this is going on. I believe it could be going on in the U.S too; just not as severely. Organizations like the Rapha House (http://www.freedomforgirls.com/) in Cambodia are helping to stop sex trafficking by helping the victims of the brothel houses. It needs to be stopped. 2-4 million girls will be forced into prostitution in the next year. Two thirds of them will be sold. The total market value of human trafficking worldwide is estimated in an excess of $32 billion. It’s sickening.
Here is a trailer for the story I heard at my CIY conference. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhl8jUblfro
The fact that such barbaric acts as human sex trafficking still happen in the 21st century is concrete evidence of the moral depravity of mankind. Granted, some people are worse than others in some areas, but when locals turn a blind eye to such heinous violations of human dignity, one must wonder: Why? Why are so many people so selfish that they would not even think to help their fellow man when there is any possibility that they may be harmed? I am very grateful that there are at least a few people with enough of a moral compass to start acting, but with a problem as widespread as human trafficking, a vocal minority simply is not enough. Until a majority of the locals in these affected areas or the government decide to act, we will still see such indecent acts occurring in our midst.
I have heard this issue years ago from a family friend. She was hired in Jordan as a maid by a business man but soon she became one out of thousands victims. She tried all she can to get out of the country. She even went far as to jump out of a 5 story apartment building. She got into the Embassy and ask for help but instead of helping her she was turned back in. It took her 3 years to get back home when she constantly escaping the apartment building. She was abused and raped during those course of 3 years. She also said she's not the only one. There are maybe thousands of them.
This is really serious and most of the government in some countries doesn't even care or consider the problem.
dear funky monkey.
i too went to ciy.
i want to name my first daughter sophea.
when we got back from ciy our youth group wanted to help out the rapha house in some way. we wanted to write letters to the girls there. but they said they have thousands of letters pouring in but very few translators. i guess all we can really do, and maybe ill get in trouble for posting this, is pray for them. that by God's grace they will be well. and somehow someway find hope.
What is CIY?
CIY stands for christ in youth. an amazing orginazation. every summer they have youth conferences all over the country. you go with your youth group to this week long conference. every year they pick a different mission to support. this year it was the rapha house in cambodia.
you can check out the ciy website at http://www.ciy.com/
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