Human Trafficking

Human trafficking is defined as the recruitment, transport, transfer, harbouring

or receipt of a person by such means as threat or use of force or other forms of
coercion, of abduction, of fraud or deception for the purpose of exploitation
Trafficking in Persons Protocol. This effectively means the illegal movement of
people, typically for the purposes of forced labour or commercial sexual
exploitation.
Due to the illegal and covert nature of human trafficking solid data on how many
people are actually effected and how much profit is made by the human
traffickers varies wildly between sources and due to this, this report will primarily
use data sourced from the U.N. due to its consistency over time
Human trafficking is one of the largest social issues facing our society at the
present time, affecting the lives of millions of people throughout the world, who
have either been victims or are related to some. Not only is it a pressing social
issue of the modern world, but also a significant criminal issue facing the worlds
governments, due in large part to the tremendous profit the human trafficking
business brings in, more than $32 billion, second only to the international drug
trade. The U.N. estimates that $10 Billion of this profit is derived from the initial
sale of the trafficking victim, with the remainder taken from the activities
undertaken and the goods produced by the victims of this crime. This doesnt
take into account the international and organized nature of human trafficking in
that the illegal industry surrounding the practise is closely entwined with other
criminal businesses such as drug trafficking, document forging and money
laundering, where human trafficking often fuels the others through labour and
profit.
The profit derived from this industry is only expected to rise with the ever
increasing amount of people trafficked each year, with current U.N. estimations
placing as many as 2.5 million people being trafficked around the globe at any
one time, and the minimum number of people involved in servitude is estimated
to be a minimum of 12.5 million reaching as high as 30 million in some cases.
There is no other point in human history which has seen more slaves and human
trafficking than the era in which we now reside. Of these vast amounts of human
trafficking victims the two main categories into which they are sorted, are those
slated to be used as forced labour, primarily older and younger males, as well as
females deemed less attractive. This forced labour will be utilised in any number
ranging from factories producing cheap goods, to farms of either normal crops or
drugs. The other category is that of the sex industry where victims of trafficking
will be forced to become prostitutes and sex slaves lest they be killed, sold many
times over to any number of buyers, forced into brothels with many clients a day.
A further division of the trafficking victims is the inherent demographic of those
trafficked, with 75% of overall trafficking victims being woman and more than
90% of these entering the sex industry. There is also the divide between children
and adult victims, with children making up between 20% and 30% of those
trafficked. The labour and sex markets are only the main reasons for this illegal
trafficking, there exist others such as forced organ removal, forced marriage,
child soldiering though these are a minor aspect when compared to the labour
and sex markets. As mentioned earlier, due to its covert nature human trafficking
is hard to accurately track and as such many of the above figures are the lower
end estimates of the trafficking industry, with some sources indicating the true
scope of the trafficking industry to be much larger.
The main driving force behind the ever increasing human trafficking industry is
greed on the part of the traffickers and the demand for cheap labour and cheap
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thrills that is present across the world. The more people they can traffic the more
profit they acquire simple business as one trafficker puts it. As more and more
of the world is further urbanized and third world nations develop into tomorrows
superpowers the demand for cheap labour to produce goods, increases year by
year. Human Traffickers seek to help meet this demand by supplying plenty of
cheap labour. This forced labour keeps costs down for the business whilst still
allowing them to run at a profit. The sex industry is equally created by the
demands of consumers from across the world looking to have fun at a low cost.
This means that in the current ever changing social climate it is likely it will be a
very long time before human trafficking us truly a thing of the past.
In terms of commonly used language in regards to global human trafficking,
words such as destination, source and origin take on an altered meaning.
Destination refers to the final location to which a trafficking victim is transported,
with many victims seeing many, many destination locations during their time as
slaves. Origin/Source refers to the location from which the victims of human
trafficking are taken to be transported to the destination. In terms of the wider
patterns of human trafficking across the globe clusters refer to groupings of
regions, cities or countries that close together and effected to the same degree,
whereas concentration refers to a specific area that sees a lot of human
trafficking whether that area is a country, city or region.

The first pattern (1) I have identified on my map is the Cluster of Western
European countries situated in Europe in the North Western Hemispheres. This
cluster primarily consists of France, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Italy and the UK.
These Countries are primarily destination countries with trafficking victims
mostly coming from Eastern Europe and the Middle East, and more specifically
Syria. As this cluster represents Destination countries in Western Europe we can
also see that the trafficking in this area is a regional manifestation of the wider
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pattern of trafficking from LEDCs to MEDCs. The Lower Economically Developed
Countries (LEDC) of Eastern Europe have found a market for their human
trafficking in the More Economically Developed Countries (MEDC) of Western
Europe.
The second pattern (2) shown on my map is a concentration around the
Countries of Lithuania, Belarus and Poland of both Source and Destination
locations for human trafficking. The above map indicates that this region of
Eastern Europe serves as both a destination and a source of human trafficking.
This is due to the regions central location between the cluster of Western
European Countries and the traffickers of Eastern Europe. This central location
means that Poland. Lithuania and Belarus serve a gateway locations, where
victims are often sold and then trafficked onwards by different groups.
The Third pattern (3) shown on the above map is the Cluster of Eastern European
Countries opposite Western Europe. This cluster represents a primary pattern
due to how it is linked with Western Europe as a destination, being the primary
source trafficking into these destination countries of Russia, Bulgaria, Romania
and the Ukraine. These countries follow the general overall trend of Eastern
trafficking finding a destination in the Western world
The Fourth pattern (4) indicated on the above map shows the overall linear
pattern concerned with the equator and how the majority of prevalent trafficking
takes place in the Northern Hemisphere. This pattern is self-evident from the
map alone where we see all of Europe and Asia at medium to high levels of
human trafficking compared to the relatively few countries displaying prominent
levels of trafficking below the Equator. This pattern also follows the wider trend
of trafficking from LEDCs as a source to MEDCs as destination as the Northern
Hemisphere contains far more MEDCs than the Southern.
The Fifth pattern (5) evident in the above map is the concentration/clustering
seen throughout Asia, but specifically China and India. Both China and India are
indicated to be source and destination countries like the Clustering around
Ukraine, however this area differs in that the source and destination trafficking is
primarily internalised within the countries. Victims from rural areas are trafficked
into urban areas for labour and sex slaves. The cluster pattern can be seen in the
grouping of larger countries involved, China, India and Myanmar while the
concentration pattern can be seen in the specific regions within the countries
that are the most effected, the poorer more rural areas. This pattern also follows
the wider trend as we can see these Eastern Hemisphere countries are primarily
source countries with trafficking ties to the Western World
Pattern (6) six can be seen in the Outlier concentration of Nigeria. Nigeria is an
outlier due to both its distance from other primary trafficking zones and its
relative isolation among its neighbours. Part of this is no doubt due to the
general lack of information on trafficking in the region as well as due to the
relatively closed trafficking market. While Nigeria follows the larger trend of
LEDCs as the Source countries and MEDCs as the destination countries, Nigeria
is also the centre of a cluster of increasing human trafficking between the
countries of Cameroon, Benin, Niger and Nigeria.
Pattern (7) seven is the larger pattern of LEDCs to be the source of trafficked
people while MEDCs were the primary destinations. Pattern seven also notes the
general trend of Eastern Hemisphere Countries to be primary sources to the
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Wests Primary destination, this is due to the higher amounts of MEDCs in the
Western world compared to the Eastern worlds.
The final pattern (8) shown on my map is the concentration of the U.S. serving as
one of the worlds primary destination countries. This follows both of the wider
trends mentioned in pattern seven. Occupying The North Western Hemisphere
the United States while containing a fair amount of source trafficking, the main
type in the region is destination trafficking.

Task 2
Factors and Processes
Human trafficking is a complex issue that is influenced by social, political,
economic and environmental factors. Many of these factors are specific to the
individual trafficking patterns and to the regions in which they occur. However
there are a number factors that common to trafficking in general and are found
in a wide range of different regions, patterns or cases. One such factor is the
vulnerabilities that the traffickers prey upon and exploit, a common desire of
victims to migrate leveraged into control over the victims only to later be
replaced by more coercive and forceful measure once the victim has been
moved. E.g. the Honey trap method used by European gangs as well as
trafficking rings in India. Another common factor is often the poor local
conditions, such as poverty, oppression, conflict and lack of real prospects for
youth in the region. Factors such as these exert pressure upon victims, pushing
them into migrating and into the control of human traffickers.
In 2014 the estimated total revenue of the Human Trafficking industry stood far
in excess of $32 billion, with some studies reporting figures as high as $100
billion. This puts human trafficking as the worlds second most lucrative criminal
enterprise only behind drug trafficking, which itself may not last as human
trafficking is the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world today,
combining high profit margins (as much as $100,000 per woman in the sex
trade, per year, depending on the country) with a low risk of getting caught
(estimated to be 1 in 800 in UK).
The Global trade in persons, human trafficking is based on both the supply and
demand for these trafficked persons, for there to be a profit in this enterprise
worth the risk there must be a high demand. This demand is seen in the fact that
more and more people are trafficked each year to fill the slave labour
requirements of illegal factories, farms and other businesses. In 2006 an
estimated 1.2 million people were trafficked at any one time around the world, as
of 2015 this has risen to 2.5 million people being trafficked at any one time, with
an approximate minimum total of 25 30 million people worldwide victimised by
human trafficking.
In recent years the demand for both forced labour and the sex trade has
increased dramatically, especially in countries such as China and India,
developing powers with vast sprawling economies and a lack of solid policing in
key areas such as more rural regions to cut down the high rates of human
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trafficking. Cheap labour isnt just in demand in these regions, but also in others
such as Britain where companies need to compete against cheaper foreign
goods, an example of such being the use of trafficked Lithuanian labour in U.K.
egg farms. In recent years the sex trade has also seen large increases due to
economic development meaning more people have a larger amount of
disposable income they wish to spend entertainment, an example of this being
that more than 10% of British males have admitted to having paid for sex.
Another economic incentive related to human trafficking is that of organ
transplants, as the average life span increases so too does the wait list for
healthy organs for those in need, as such organ trafficking using living humans
has become a much bigger deal than in years past with a healthy heart fetching
as much as $250,000, with as little as %5 of that actually returning to the donors
family.
The overall pattern of trafficking from LEDCs to MEDCs is borne out by this
economic factor, as one of the primary reasons for victims of trafficking to seek
migration in the first place is to achieve a better life, which is easier in a more
developed country with better prospects. This coupled with the common
trafficking technique of luring victims into the country then trapping them as well
as the large markets for both labour, sex and organs that can be found in
destination countries such as the U.S. or the U.K. mean that many individuals are
trafficked into MED countries.
The vulnerability of certain groups of individuals around the world mean that
these areas and groups are often targeted by human traffickers looking for easy
money. Key examples of this can be seen in West Bengals source region,
Myanmars Rohingya people, and Chinas own rural provinces. West Bengal in
particular is a vulnerable place for traffickers to prey upon not only due to the far
more rural and tribal communities but also due to the lack of police presence and
the strict traditions of the locals. The rural nature of the region means a general
lack of proper education as well as a lack of prospects for the many young
people in the region. This leads traffickers preying on the youth of the area using
honey traps and other false offers of marriage or a better life. This has gotten
so bad in the region that in some villages every family has lost a child. As well as
this the local police estimate that 25 000 children went missing, though the local
populace say it is far higher, roughly at 100 00o missing children in 2014. An
added benefit of this region once again for the traffickers is the devaluation of
woman and girls in society, making them disproportionately vulnerable to
traffickers, this coupled with the strict local taboos about pre-marital sex mean
that trafficked girls who escape are afraid to go home for fear of death. This
devaluation of woman permeates the entirety of Indian culture so much so that
every 21 minutes a woman is raped, and every hour one is murdered for.
Another key factor in Indias struggles against human trafficking the rampant
corruption that penetrates the local government from the bottom to the top as
well as the severe lack of man power to police any region, a poignant example of
this being that there are 13 detectives to investigate all the human trafficking
incidents throughout West Bengal, a region with a population of 90 million
people. The corruption and incompetence of the government in the region and
others is so bad its estimated that more than a 100 million people throughout
the entirety of India are directly involved in Human trafficking, many of them
doubtless involved in the government.
Chinas own rural provinces face a similar problem of manpower, corruption and
vulnerability to traffickers. The Rohingya people of Myanmar also face a similar
problem in that they are a minority within the country that is not truly supported

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by the government nor are they well-liked by other groups within Myanmar, as
such they oft find themselves targets of human trafficking.
This vulnerability is a common theme throughout key source regions such as
Nigeria, Lithuania, Bulgaria and the others mentioned earlier with the map.
The Environment also plays a role in this vulnerability to trafficking as extreme
events such as tsunamis, monsoons or earthquakes can have an effect on the
safety of the people there long after they have passed. The Nepal earthquake
(2015) is a key example of how natural disasters can have an impact on human
trafficking, destroying houses, businesses and important infrastructure meant
that many wanted to leave the country or had no place to stay and as such they
became vulnerable to traffickers who could offer them a way out.
These factors interlink to form the core reasons behind human trafficking, the
supply and demand aspect of the human trafficking market, the availability of
victim and the high profit margins available. Along with these other factors is the
very low risk of conviction, a recent (2013-14) study by the U.N. estimated that
about 1 out of every 800 cases of human trafficking made it to court in some
areas and as little as 1 out of a 100 000 cases in other areas, notably the west
Bengal region. This low risk coupled with the high profits makes the human
trafficking business and attractive one to crime syndicates the world over
Significance Why is this important?
The significance of human trafficking as a modern societal issue cannot be
understated, as the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world and an illegal
industry that sees millions imprisoned the world over in the sex trade as well as
forced labour. The brutal reality of this modern day slave trade is that many of
the people now victimised will never be able to leave, trapped in foreign
countries or trapped with few skills and lacking education many will be forced to
continue working for whatever money they can, whether thats in the sex
industry or elsewhere. Fundamentally human trafficking violates the universal
right of humans for life, liberty and a freedom from slavery in any and all forms,
being forced into slave labour or the sex trade tramples the right to be free from
abuse and exploitation.
Human trafficking represents a basic a breakdown in social structure, the loss of
everything they know in the form of family and community support networks,
leaves trafficking victims even more vulnerable to the demands and threats of
traffickers, contributing in several ways to a breakdown of fundamental social
structures. Profits made from human trafficking allow the practice to take root
within a community, a community which is then repeatedly exploited as a source
of future victims. This preying on communities can lead to adverse effects such
as losses in education, valuable psychological build up and future economic
opportunities because of it. Recovery from the trauma of human trafficking can
take a lifetime or not happen at all.
Human trafficking has the additional effect of funding all manner of other
criminal enterprise, such as money laundering, drug smugglings, document fraud
and others. This leads to the flourishing of organized crime, undermining the rule
of law and the authority of the government. Despite more than 20% of human
trafficking being directed into the illegal labour market, trafficking as a whole has
strong negative effect upon the labour market of any given country, further
contributing to an unrecoverable loss of human resources. Some more obvious
effects include, depressed wages, which in turn leads to a loss of future
productivity and earning power.

Human Trafficking
Additionally to this long term economic cost there is the cost to the overall public
health, victims of trafficking often must endure extremely harsh conditions,
physical, sexual and mental trauma, along with a multitude of diseases such as
HIV, tuberculosis, and various inflammatory infections. These physical ailments
are likely to be accompanied by a variety of psychological issues, such as PTSD,
anxiety, insomnia or depression, creating a weight that the public health systems
of any one country would struggle to bear.
Governments typically struggle to fully control the national territory they preside
over, particularly where corruption runs rampant such as in India. Natural
disasters, tense politics between tribes and armed conflict can create
populations of displaced individuals (such as the refugees from the war in Syria),
straining the governments authority over the country or a region, human
traffickers serve to undermine this authority even more.
Human Trafficking will have a variety of short and long term effects such as the
ones mentioned above, with these impacts having different effects on each main
group, the traffickers, the trafficked/victims and globally as a whole.
The main effect to take away from this in regards to the effect on traffickers is
that of a positive one for them as much as it is detrimental to the rest of the
world, human trafficking as it stands is a very successful criminal enterprise with
little risk of getting caught and high h profit margins ($32 billion), human
traffickers have a large incentive to continue in their line of chosen work. It can
only be hoped that the long term effect upon traffickers will become negative as
governments work together to abolish human trafficking, as it currently stands
though, due to the lack of tax, the lack of policing and the lack of any regulations
such as a normal business might hold, human trafficking will likely remain a large
part of the criminal world for years to come.
Human trafficking is one of the most significant issue currently facing our
society, it represents a great deal of future strife as the number of trafficking
victims increases each year as well as also representing an even greater loss to
both the human resources of the countries effected but also the culture and
society of those countries and regions effected such as West Bengal where tens
of thousands of people fall victim to trafficking each year. The vast majority of
the impacts it has upon the victims of trafficking and the world as a whole are
negative, the only true positive effects that human trafficking has are for the
traffickers themselves in the form a criminal enterprise with high profits and little
chance of imprisonment.
Of the consequences of human trafficking mentioned above there are a range of
short and long term effects for all groups involved. As mentioned the main effect
on the traffickers themselves is profits with an eventual increase in policing
against their crimes which are both short and long term effects. Another key
consequence that is both beneficial and likely to be long term for the traffickers
is a greater level of crime in other areas due to the funds provided by their
human trafficking operations. The short term effects upon the trafficking victims
are most likely to be both psychological and physical, the end result of the
trafficking and both are negative for the victims. The physical effects may lead
on to long term health defects due to diseases such as HIV/AIDS and the victims
themselves may never recover fully from the psychological. The longer term
effects upon the victims are likely to continue to be negative as at this point in
time many of the source and destination countries do not yet have adequate
measures in place to deal with the large amount of trafficking victims they have
to be with the main example of this being the treatment of trafficking victims in
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the majority of India. Of the impacts mentioned earlier the societal, economic
and political effects are long term as it will take several years for any such
change to come into effect. Though the effects on the public health systems are
already likely being felt in some areas such as hospitals within India. The
consequences on a global scale are long term in that they will take a number of
years to truly be felt, one such example being an increase in organized crime
due to the funds provided by human trafficking.
Of all the impacts I have mentioned the one that I believe to be the most
important is the possible effect of increasing human trafficking will have on the
societies and cultures within the countries most effected and the more direct
effect on those who personally know those who have been trafficked, either as
friends or family. This is one impact that is likely to have a very wide ranging
effect and one that will not easily be solved with the application of better policing
methods or more funding, but will instead require a concerted and focused effort
to stave off the negative effects human trafficking might have upon society
Overall human trafficking is one of the key issues facing our society and the way
in which it is dealt will help to define our modern world for years to come.
Michael Davidson
Bibliography
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=22009#.Vf6uYnCqqko
Ross Kemp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzF3lvnYmfU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WejaPpwuO4
Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/ng-interactive/2015/jul/28/mapcountries-worst-humantrafficking
https://www.worldvision.org.nz/media/72259/the_global_sex_trade.pdf
http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2014/index.htm?
utm_source=NEW+RESOURCE:
+Trafficking+i+Persons+Report+2014&utm_campaign=2014.07.16+NEW+RESO
URCE:+Trafficking+in+Persons+Report+2014+&utm_medium=email
https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/frontpage/2014/November/trafficking-inchildren-on-the-increase--according-to-latest-unodc-report.html
U.N.
https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-andanalysis/glotip/GLOTIP_2014_full_report.pdf

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