Human Trafficking

Brad P
Eng 100
Mr. T, Sec 1630
12-8-10
                    Traffic Jam
Think about a normal day, what comes to mind? Slink out of bed into the shower, grab a quick coffee and you’re out the door. Being groggy is the worst in the morning, but for hundreds of thousands of people each year, their day starts off with pain and torment. An estimated four million people are trafficked each year, mainly in African and Asian countries such as India, Thailand and Bangladesh, the majority of them being women and children. The problem is, many of these countries depend on human trafficking for the money, as it keeps their country economically afloat. According to the state department of the US, between 600- and 800-thousand people are trafficked specifically for sexual uses worldwide every year, 80% of them being women and children. The remaining 20% is obviously men, which are sought after to fill what are referred to as ‘three-D jobs’: dirty, dangerous, and difficult. Taking that into account, we must act on this horrible trade if we want to have any hope in stopping it in the near future. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was written as a collaborative effort by 48 countries in 1948 to declare what we think is right and wrong about the subject. Article 5 deals with how no person should ever be subjected to torture or any type of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. We need to figure out a way to stop the trafficking of innocent civilians and get those developing countries back on their feet.   By disregarding Article 5 of the UDHR, these countries are destroying these children’s lives before they even begin.
The United Nations estimates that “[…] human trafficking generates between $7 billion and $10 billion a year globally…”(2, 2facts.com), which is very significant in these developing countries. Even the United States is part of the problem, with experts estimating that 18,000 people per year come into our country illegally, mostly from... [continues]

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