"Sex trafficking is the most lucrative of trafficking efforts and involves sexual exploitation in prostitution or pornography, bride trafficking or the commercial or sexual abuse of children. Millions of innocents are victimized each year in this contemporary form of slavery; thousands are trafficked within the U.S. alone."
The U.S. State Department's "Trafficking in Persons Report," issued in June, estimates that some 12.3 million people are enslaved in forced labor, bonded labor, sexual servitude and involuntary servitude at any given time around the world. That includes the U.S., where the FBI estimates that human trafficking generates $9.5 billion annually.
Actually, human traffickers "could be making much more money" in the United States than suggested by government estimates, which are based only on information from traffickers who have been apprehended, says Andreea Vesa, a senior legal analyst working on human rights issues with the ABA's Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative. The victims, she notes, "are people who are trafficked into the U.S.-from Mexico to the southern United States and Asia to California, and by the Russian mafia into New York."
The US State Department report notes that the victims of human trafficking "are as diverse as the world's cultures. Some leave developing countries seeking to improve their lives through low-skilled jobs in more prosperous countries. Others fall victim to forced or bonded labor in their own countries. Some families give children to related or unrelated adults who promise education and opportunity -but deliver the children into slavery for money."
In 2004, ABA-Africa started a two-year campaign against human trafficking that focuses on East Africa, particularly Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The project concentrates on educating judges, lawyers and human rights advocates in the region about the trafficking problem, highlighting the issue in the news media, and helping provide legal aid to victims. The project also convened the first-ever conference in East Africa on the humantrafficking problem.
The project is exploring possible legislative initiatives as well, says Vernice I. Guthrie-Sullivan, the staff director for ABA-Africa.
"There is no overarching trafficking law in any of the East African countries," says Guthrie-Sullivan. "A law has been introduced in Kenya, and we are working to support a law in Uganda and eventually in Tanzania."
Beyond its tragic toll on individuals, one of the greatest dangers of human trafficking is its insidious nature. Human trafficking, experts say, is not a stand-alone crime. Often it is intertwined with money laundering, drug trafficking, document forgery and human smuggling.
Traffickers "are people who are also part of organized crime groups and could be doing other unauthorized activity," says Vesa of CEELI. "We're not able to list how many traffickers are out there. There are those who peddle their own kids. India is a big place where that happens, as are Cambodia, Laos and Thailand."
Traffickers tend to target an area repeatedly once they succeed in obtaining their first victim there.
"The profits from trafficking allow the practice to take root in a particular community, which is then repeatedly exploited as a ready source of victims," notes the State Department's "Trafficking in Persons Report."
At the same time, many countries, including Ecuador, lack the necessary social services infrastructure to help human-trafficking victims rejoin society, say Cicero and other experts.
"Ecuador is not set up to accommodate these people," Cicero says. "There are no shelters, no programs to help them reinsert themselves into society. These people are vulnerable," which only makes it possible for traffickers to victimize them again. Traffickers search for victims "the way lions look at a herd," he says. "They look for the easy target."
The U.S. State Department's "Trafficking in Persons Report," issued in June, estimates that some 12.3 million people are enslaved in forced labor, bonded labor, sexual servitude and involuntary servitude at any given time around the world. That includes the U.S., where the FBI estimates that human trafficking generates $9.5 billion annually.
Actually, human traffickers "could be making much more money" in the United States than suggested by government estimates, which are based only on information from traffickers who have been apprehended, says Andreea Vesa, a senior legal analyst working on human rights issues with the ABA's Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative. The victims, she notes, "are people who are trafficked into the U.S.-from Mexico to the southern United States and Asia to California, and by the Russian mafia into New York."
The US State Department report notes that the victims of human trafficking "are as diverse as the world's cultures. Some leave developing countries seeking to improve their lives through low-skilled jobs in more prosperous countries. Others fall victim to forced or bonded labor in their own countries. Some families give children to related or unrelated adults who promise education and opportunity -but deliver the children into slavery for money."
In 2004, ABA-Africa started a two-year campaign against human trafficking that focuses on East Africa, particularly Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The project concentrates on educating judges, lawyers and human rights advocates in the region about the trafficking problem, highlighting the issue in the news media, and helping provide legal aid to victims. The project also convened the first-ever conference in East Africa on the humantrafficking problem.
The project is exploring possible legislative initiatives as well, says Vernice I. Guthrie-Sullivan, the staff director for ABA-Africa.
"There is no overarching trafficking law in any of the East African countries," says Guthrie-Sullivan. "A law has been introduced in Kenya, and we are working to support a law in Uganda and eventually in Tanzania."
Beyond its tragic toll on individuals, one of the greatest dangers of human trafficking is its insidious nature. Human trafficking, experts say, is not a stand-alone crime. Often it is intertwined with money laundering, drug trafficking, document forgery and human smuggling.
Traffickers "are people who are also part of organized crime groups and could be doing other unauthorized activity," says Vesa of CEELI. "We're not able to list how many traffickers are out there. There are those who peddle their own kids. India is a big place where that happens, as are Cambodia, Laos and Thailand."
Traffickers tend to target an area repeatedly once they succeed in obtaining their first victim there.
"The profits from trafficking allow the practice to take root in a particular community, which is then repeatedly exploited as a ready source of victims," notes the State Department's "Trafficking in Persons Report."
At the same time, many countries, including Ecuador, lack the necessary social services infrastructure to help human-trafficking victims rejoin society, say Cicero and other experts.
"Ecuador is not set up to accommodate these people," Cicero says. "There are no shelters, no programs to help them reinsert themselves into society. These people are vulnerable," which only makes it possible for traffickers to victimize them again. Traffickers search for victims "the way lions look at a herd," he says. "They look for the easy target."
No comments:
Post a Comment