Human Trafficking - Human trafficking is the practice of people being tricked, lured, coerced, or otherwise removed from their home or country, and then forced to work with no or low payment or on terms which are highly exploitative. The practice is considered to be the trade or commerce of people, which has many features of slavery.
Does Slavery Still Exist?
In today's society, if you walk up to a random person and ask them how they feel about slavery, chances are their response will refer to slavery as something that happened in the past. For example: "I think slavery WAS a terrible thing!" The key word here is WAS. People tend to think of slavery as a thing of the past, not something that is present in modern culture. Are people today that naive and wishful to think that slavery doesn't still exist? How can they not see the elephant standing in the middle of the room?
The answer is simple; people don't want to see the elephant in the middle of the room, so they disguise it; throw a sheet over it, put a lamp shade on it,... suddenly there is no more elephant. The same thing is done today with slavery. We don't want to think that our commodities are so cheap because slave labor was used to produce them. We want to live in ignorance where we can pretend that everyone is healthy and happy, that way we won't feel guilty about anything. With this common mentality, it is easy to ignore the existence of slavery.
However, the truth of the matter is that slavery still exists today and is found worldwide, including throughout the US. Yet, developing countries tend to have higher rates of slavery than more powerful countries, like the US, especially when the global economy declines. One country that is currently facing slavery at extremely high rates is Bangladesh.
Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries in the world. With the global economy declining and competition for the lowest sales prices rising, Bangladesh is put in a very tough position, with its citizens struggling to find work. This makes Bangladesh a prime location for human traffickers. Bengali citizens are desperate for work and have no ulterior mean of survival, leading them to fall victim to human traffickers who promise them, "A better future, with money!" The most common victims are women and children, because legal provisions to protect women and children from exploitation are not enforced due to organizational inefficiency and inadequate capacity of law-enforcing agencies.
Women Trafficking
Women are lured by men wanting to take them to a different country where they can make fortunes modeling and dancing. When the women finally consent to leave with them they are forced into prostitution. Human rights activists estimate that 200-400 young women are smuggled every month from Bangladesh into Pakistan, most of which end up in prostitution. According to newspaper reports, more than 200,000 women are smuggled from Bangladesh each year.
Child Trafficking
In Bangladesh, children are also common victims of slavery. This type of slavery is called child trafficking. According to the Bureau of International Labor Affairs, children of Bangladesh are either taken from their families or sold by their families to pay off debts, for domestic service, for marriage, for sexual exploitation, for camel jockeys, and even for their organs. When the children are taken by non-family members, it is commonly because they are unaware of their legal rights and feel like they must comply with the adults who capture them. Other times, they are convinced that they can make enough money in a few months to support themselves and their families.
Lack of Knowledge - The Major Problem
In the cases of both child and women trafficking it is easy to see that the major problem is lack of knowledge for the victims. Women and children aren't aware that they will be taken away and used/sold for slave labor. In most cases, the victims don't even know what human trafficking really is. Perhaps if they were better informed, they would not be lured into slavery so easily.
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