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English 10 Gahan-F
Due Date: April 6, 2009
Human Trafficking, a Travesty of Mankind
Four miles off the coast of Venezuela, Reinaldo swam towards his freedom from
Cuba, his home country. The last fifteen years of his life had been spent rebuilding an old,
clunker, 1974 Ford Mustang into a hot sports car, which he sold for five-thousand dollars.
In Cuba, that is a decent chunk of money and he could flee to the liberty of the United
States. Leaving his family, he got on board a small boat with twenty other Cubans headed
towards their freedom and away from Cuba. The boat dropped him off four miles from
the coast of Venezuela, and he swam the rest of the distance. Forty year old Reinaldo then
Salvador, Guatemala, and finally Mexico. In each of these countries he was stopped by
police or by human traffickers who threatened to kidnap him or send him back to Cuba.
Every time he paid them off with money bribes. Carrying his five thousand dollars in
numerous places on his person, like in his socks and the soles of his shoes, allowed him
to avoid giving away all his money at once, but every time they would ask for a different
amount and he would have to haggle to escape them. After months and months of
hardship, walking by night and sleeping by day, struggling just to survive, Reinaldo
reached his destination, America, by crossing the border into Texas. In Cuba, Reinaldo
was a civil engineer, but because there were no jobs for him there it was as if he only had
the title but it meant nothing. He came to America for a better life and to support his
family. Many Cubans are similar to Reinaldo because they come to America for work, but
unlike Reinaldo’s adventure, many Cubans are swindled and captured by the human
traffickers. The captured are made to do forced labor or are pressured into sex slavery
and finding a job that yields enough money to provide for a family is rare (Cuba). The
Cuban economy has been declining as their major export, sugar, has majorly decreased in
decide to leave Cuba to find a new life in a new country. But many, being naïve in their
efforts, believe the lies that human traffickers tell and are pulled into a web of deception
and deceit. The United States Department of Justice, executive director, Noeleen Heyzer
pronounced that “many of the people are trafficked because they are provided with
basically false information. They are promised a different kind of work and they end up
with something else”. Thinking they will be transported somewhere else and then freed,
the group of immigrants are lured onto a ship or boat of some kind, ready to leave the
island of Cuba and head towards a freedom that they will never get to experience because
they will be stuck with the traffickers. The fall of the economy, lack of jobs, and scarce of
money flow has made people want to believe that things can improve and they become
When someone tells a Cuban that a person will take them away from Cuba for
free and maybe even give them a job, the Cuban will most likely jump at such a generous
offer, desperate to get a job. However, once the destination country is reached, the
traffickers will tell them that they have to work for the transporters in order to pay off the
cost of travel (Cuba (Tier 3)). The transportees, thinking that this makes sense, agree to
work off their arrears. Then, the traffickers pay the workers little to nothing and make it
impossible for the workers to pay off their debt. This way, citizens of Cuba fall into the
trap of human trafficking and are stuck in a vicious cycle of hardship and poverty.
Worsham 3
English 10 Gahan-F
Due Date: April 6, 2009
The crime of human trafficking, which according to The United Nations Office on
Drugs and Crime, is defined as “the acquisition of people by improper means such as
force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them”, may seem to have one upside;
a positive effect on the economy. Some ask how the illegal transportation and
exploitation of humans can have a good effect on the economy, and the answer is that
there is no positive effect overall, but it does have a few advantages. Cuba is a main
destination for sex trafficking in the world (Cuba (Tier 3)). As a result, there is more
money flow to Cuba because those people have to eat, stay in hotels, and find a way of
transportation. All of these expenditures on the tourist’s part help to boost the economy
because someone is getting paid for those jobs. However, what is not thought of is the
effect that prostitution has on the people involved, who are mentally and physically
harmed. Furthermore, many of the prostitutes may have diseases, which they are
spreading around and not only have the diseases harmed them, but other men or women
as well. These men and women spread it to even more men and women and eventually
increase the total amount of disease in the world. This chain reaction creates an overall
negative effect on the Cuban’s and the world’s economy and consequently shows that the
poverty.... What they mean, but do not say, is that prostitution is an acceptable
solution for women living in poverty. Seldom do we see proposals that poor men
should make their way out of poverty by welcoming the insertion of penises and
Worsham 4
English 10 Gahan-F
Due Date: April 6, 2009
other objects into them on a regular basis or dance naked on a stage in front of
ogling and masturbating males. The prostitution industry exploits to its advantage
the fact that most women and children who are in prostitution come from the most
This quote explains one of the many reasons why prostitution should be illegal, because it
way to feed their families, there has to be another way for women. Prostitution may seem
to be a suitable way to earn a living and put food on the table for a family, but it plainly is
not. The Cuban government needs to punish those who traffic women through
The Cuban government is on the “Tier 3” list, which means that “the government
of Cuba does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of
trafficking and it is not making significant efforts to do so” (Cuba (Tier 3)). Prostitution is
happening inside the country of Cuba and the forced labor of Cubans is taking place
outside the country as well, alongside prostitution on the inside. It’s even legal for a
person over the age of sixteen in Cuba to be a prostitute. Also, the trafficking of adults for
forced labor is not currently prohibited under Cuban law. The Cuban government needs
The first step to eliminate human trafficking is to educate people. The same way that sex
abusers of children are marked, human traffickers should be marked in the same way
(Millar Micheline R). The United States Department of Trafficking in Persons advises in
enforcement; take greater steps to prevent child prostitution and child sex tourism;
If Cuba takes all of this advice, they will not only improve their current standings, but
eventually end up on Tier One as well, where human trafficking is illegal. There are still
27 million slaves around the world today because people do not realize the full extent of
the problem and are not aware of what they can really do to fix it (freetheslaves.net). If
everyone in the world just learns everything they can and stands up to the politicians and
government and demands stricter policies on human trafficking the number of slaves will
decrease, hopefully to zero one day. The world must realize how much of a problem