Research Propectus

RESEARCH PROSPECTUS

Thesis Statement
Today in our society Human Trafficking is bigger than ever men, women, and children are being stolen and traded for sex every day. As a society we need to stand up and fight against the Traffickers. Human Trafficking needs to be brought to the attention of everyone, we need to implement a plan to stop trafficking of humans, and provide help for people who have been trafficked. I believe that humans by nature a resources and children gift for tomorrow. If nothing is done about the cream of the nations resources, valuable lives will be wasted. I believe children and humans are leaders in their own special way and must be valued and respected being giving the right to live life. Nothing drives the passion and stirs the emotion, especially in the United States, more than the horrendous stories of modern-day human slavery. Whether sexual, domestic, or labor, the terror and horror that human trafficking victims have endured defies the scope of our sensitivities.
The United Nations defines human trafficking to mean, "the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs...The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation shall be considered “trafficking in persons” even if this does not involve any of the means set forth in subparagraph above. Human trafficking is the fastest increasing criminal industry in todays world, coming in second after illegal drug-trade. This type of slaver has been traced back to the ancient Mesopotamian and Mediterranean civilization and has continued to grow. What is human trafficking? Commonly referred to as "modern-day slavery" is the illegal trade of human beings for forced labor or for exploitation. Exploitation referring to the using others for prostitution or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery, or the removal of organs. Woman and young children living in poverty are the ones who usually fall in the trap of the traffickers. Due to poverty many woman are not educated and are no employed leaving them with no choice but to sell their bodies to provide for their families. An approximate of 17,500 foreigners are trafficked each year in the United States alone, the number of United States citizens trafficked within the United States are even higher. Human trafficking is a near-guaranteed death due HIV and AIDS woman are infected with. Government around the world are just beginning to address this problem and have realized just how strong this type of slavery has become.
Poverty is the leading cause in human trafficking. It has been documented that poverty leads to a lack of education leading to no employment and that leading to sex trafficking By fighting poverty many believe that there will be an end to sex trafficking too. Woman living in poverty countries will not be looking into sex driven businesses for employment. "Trafficking is inextricably linked to poverty. Wherever privation and economic hardship prevail, there will be those destitute and desperate enough to enter into the fraudulent employment schemes that are the most common intake systems in the world of trafficking." (The United States Agency for International Development) In Kenya, It has been reported that parents have sent their daughters into town for prostitution because they were desperate for money to feed their families. More then 1,500 girls under the age of 18 and as young as 12 in Kenya have been reported to be working prostitution in bars.
It is acknowledged that woman and girls who are trafficked to commercial sex are the ones who will most likely be infected with HIV/AIDS. The threat of the disease among the prostituted woman has not made sex trafficking and prostitution less likely to occur, but has increased the numbers of younger girls being traded. Clients sense that these younger girls are "virgins" and are uninfected by the virus, making them more popular. BBC News reported South America and India are leading with the highest numbers of infected people with HIV/AIDS in the world. South Africa being the first, having 5.1 million living with the disease and India being second by having a rapid increase in numbers of infected woman due to sex trafficking. BBC News reported: "In big red light districts, such as Sonagachi in Calcutta, where at least 10,000 prostitutes make a living, some men continue to insist on sex without condoms.", "The trafficked girls are forced to oblige. Many come from rural villages and do not know what Aids is before they are sold to pimps.", "And as they are moved around the country they can unwittingly spread the disease."
The United States government is committed to fight against human trafficking at home and abroad. The Trafficking victims Protection Act was signed in the year 2000. Stated on humantrafficking.org this Act: "enhances pre-existing criminal penalties, affords new protections to trafficking victims and makes available certain benefits and serves to victims of severe forms of trafficking.It also establishes a Cabinet-level federal interagency task force and establishes a federal program to provide services to trafficking victims." The U.S is also helping countries abroad by providing many anti-trafficking and development programs. Millions of dollars were provided to organizations all over the world to provide programs so human trafficking can be fought. The programs contribute on informing people the dangers of trafficking and strengthening the numbers of non-government organizations. Also stated on www.humantrafficking.org that: "The U.S. has assisted countries to enact anti-trafficking legislation, trained law enforcement officials, prosecutors, border guards and judicial officers on detecting, investigating, and prosecuting traffickers, and protecting victims and provided start-up equipment for new anti-trafficking police units." The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act came out in 2003, dedicated to provide aid to approximately 20,000 victims that are trafficked into the U.S each year. President Bush had signed into law in early January the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005. The United Stated had started monitoring people who were being trafficked in 1994, and is continuing to do so until human trafficking is prosecuted.
All in all, human trafficking is a serious crime that not many people are informed about. Young woman and children are forced into this sickening business everyday. Woman and children living in poverty do not know the meaning of human trafficking due to the lack of education. The highest percentage with people carrying the HIV/AIDS virus is for woman on this planet, many believing part of the percentage is because of human trafficking. Not many woman and children know the risks they are taking when they have no choice but to sell their bodies. Government all over the world should be providing information on human trafficking because no nation is immune from this crime.
We live in a world that has accepted man's absolute control over another. The unjustified trade and enslavement of human beings in the 21st century reflects a degenerate state of affairs which confirms that the greatest ethical challenge facing the globe today is human trafficking. Human trafficking involves the use of human deception to exploit the vulnerable through forceful stripping of their dignity and self-worth. It portrays a contrasting picture of inequality among equals with regard to the right of every individual over his or her life, as trafficked victims are compelled to sell their inherent freedom and are subject to coercive subjugation. Their cry for help is drowned in the sea of constant oppression and general sense of apathy which has been continuing for centuries.

Human trafficking is a global phenomenon that manifests in the form of sex trafficking, bonded labor, and organ trafficking. Poverty lies at the heart of human trafficking. In sex trafficking, women and children are merely reduced to the status of a gratifying sexual commodity. It has become an organized billion dollar industry and has at its core, investors, unscrupulous recruiters and corrupt public officials as principal participants. Globalisation has given birth to a service industry entirely dedicated to providing transportation, forged documents, legal, financial and accounting assistance. Prostitution in Kamathipura, India’s largest red-light district, generates $400 million with 100,000 prostitutes who have been kidnapped and trafficked from India's rural areas.

Exploiters take advantage of the broken environment of victims and lure them with false promises of a better life. During the trafficking process, victims are subjected to 'grooming' through constant physical and sexual abuse in order to force them to submit. Blind faith leads victims to the pit of darkness as caution is compromised because of desperation. Cops sometimes conspire with traffickers in return for free sexual favors. This hypocrisy among the upholders of justice deters victims from seeking assistance.

Sometimes parents, desperate to repay their debts, sell their girls to brothel owners in return for a paltry sum. This is particularly seen in the 'Dalit' or untouchable community in India. In Belize, school-aged minors are forced by their own parents to provide sexual favors to wealthy older men called sugar-daddies, in exchange for school fees. Daughters in Afghanistan are sold as brides to repay the opium debts of their fathers. As the world progresses, often the gift of parenthood is sold out.

The most brutal form of sex trafficking is the commercial exploitation of children. Sadists feed on the popular belief that having sex with a virgin would cure them of sexually transmitted diseases. Little girls are raped and tortured to such an extent thattheir reproductive system is permanently damaged depriving them of their natural right to motherhood. The incidents of sexual exploitation among young boys are seldom heard of because of the complete failure on our part to acknowledge its existence which is further fuelled by the gender-biased assumption that there can never be male victims. The practice of bachcabaazi in Afghanistan and laundanach in India, where boys dress up as girls and entertain men, provides an insight into the world of male sex slavery and prostitution.

Under the guise of religion, the medieval Devadasi system is still prevalent in India where young girls are trafficked and married off to a 'temple deity.' They are then forced to provide sexual services to priests and higher caste 'devotees' with no hopes of a real marriage. The double standards of people are despicable. Men who degrade the lower caste Dalits don't hesitate to have sex with their women. Traumatized and ashamed by this way of life, these women eventually forsake their name and identity.

Failure to reintegrate victims of sex trafficking in society is partly due to the social stigma attached to their previous lifestyle. Those victims who are rescued are often ostracized by the mainstream society. Standing on pedestals, created by our own self-righteous minds, we judge trafficked sex-workers with disgust and contempt, as we fail to realize that most of them were sold into the flesh trade by their families and friends. This social isolation is one of the reasons that drive victims back into the flesh trade. Another damaging aspect of human trafficking is the transformation of female victims into exploitive traffickers themselves as their conscience is marred by the luxuries provided by instant cash. It is imperative to realize that prostitutes are not criminals, but victims of the society that has allowed prostitution.

The unjust, age-old practice of bonded labor, where labor is provided as a means of repayment of loan with very little or no pay, is predominantly prevalent in developing countries. Descent and caste-based discrimination, poverty, illiteracy and lack of government welfare schemes lie at the heart of this contemporary form of slavery. A kind of descent-based slavery exists in Nigeria where women and young girls are sold as unofficial wives known as wahaya and subject to domestic and sexual slavery.

In India, bonded labour is justified on the grounds of caste system, i.e. the belief that not all men are born equal and some are always meant to be at the mercy of another. What saddens us is the reluctance on the part of our government to acknowledge the large-scale existence of this practice. Many, including public officials, hold the prejudiced view that this is a social phenomenon exclusive to villages, and can be overlooked despite a legislation that abolishes this system. The textile mills in Tamil Nadu, a southern state of India, mask a modern kind of slavery in the form of Sumangali scheme, whereby daughters of low caste families unknowingly fall prey to bondage in return for a wedding advance. As the journey towards wedding bliss turns out to be a torturous one, one cannot help but marvel at how exploiters have left no stone unturned in their mission to take advantage of the needy. The condition of domestic servants, including children, is horrible, as they are made to work for hours, with minimal food and routinely subject to physical abuse. Foreign domestic workers, especially in the Middle East, are constantly intimidated by powerful brokers and face severe legal and financial hurdles if they dare to escape from their employers.

One of the ugliest manifestations of debt bondage is forced child labor seen in mining, beedi, silk, and carpet industries of India and as camel jockeys in United Arab Emirate [UAE] countries. Children are gullible and can be easily threatened or manipulated. They are forced to take up their parents' responsibility of repayment of debt and are unfairly denied education during their nurturing years. In war torn countries, children are abducted and made to join militias. These child soldiers are robbed of their childhood, are transformed into savage animals, and are brainwashed into believing killing is right.

Organ trafficking is a relatively new misdemeanor which has plagued the world. Demand for human organs far exceeds the supply resulting in surfacing of conniving middlemen or agents who scheme with unscrupulous medical professionals to cheat the poor. These people are unaware of the medical consequences of organ donation and give their consent out of desperate need for money.

Human trafficking is more or less a structured industry with both demand and supply sides. Restricting demand, i.e. those financing such illegal operations, will help in curbing human trafficking. Countries can collaborate to form a uniform database for information on human trafficking. Embassies should become victim friendly. Security at international borders should be tightened to counter transnational trafficking. Training sessions should be provided to law enforcement agencies in handling rescue operations and dealing with victims of sex trafficking.

Lack of political will to immediately address the root causes of human trafficking has led to its expansion. Governments must realize that every individual has the right to life, which includes right to food, education and employment and therefore must make provisions for the same. In India and other developing countries, to combat slavery, it is crucial to have a deep understanding of the financial, political and cultural power structures in society. States can set up commissions, along with NGOs, to conduct comprehensive surveys and identify people involved in all forms of human trafficking. This will help in the rescue and rehabilitation processes. Every person can contribute towards this cause by being vigilant in his locality and reporting suspicious activities to authorities on hotline numbers. Only when we started researching did we realize the absolute seriousness of this problem. It is necessary to create awareness among students through seminars and workshops. There is no doubt we live in a world that specializes in creating broken people every day. We've reached a point where eradicating human trafficking is no longer restricted to few willing individuals and organizations. Anyone, in any manner, can help in minimizing this condemnable condition. It just comes down to whether we are willing to take that first step

What are some types of trafficking? What factors contribute to human trafficking? What is the impact of human trafficking in the United States? Which ethnic populations are most prone to trafficking? Should the United Nations enforce sanctions on countries with lenient trafficking regulations? What is the difference between human trafficking and smuggling? How does the trafficking of women and children contribute to sex tourism? Has much changed to combat trafficking since the enactment of The Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000?