Child Trafficking Persuasive Speech

Throughout history the trafficking of humans and children has been widespread, not just in the past or in 3rd world countries, but around the world and to this day. Picture this: your family is extremely poor, all members share a room, and there's never enough food, add to that the possibility of an abusive family member and you’d be surprised how much worse life could be if sold into slavery. Working as a slave could mean long days with no breaks, verbal abuse, little food or time to eat, and harsh punishments if you can't keep up. This is the unfortunate reality for many, and that's only one possible form of exploitation.

The underestimation of the scope of child trafficking, inconsistent or outdated laws in many countries, language barriers,

We have very little data on the actual numbers, and what we do have is usually outdated, and it's almost always mentioned that the actual numbers are probably much higher. Data collection is one of the biggest challenges of child trafficking; how can you say it needs more support when it’s unclear who and how many are being trafficked? You can't easily tell if someone's a victim of abuse or trafficking as the signs of each are extremely similar. Both should be helped but these situations make accurate data collection difficult. Determining whether someone is a victim or not is complicated by the victims themselves usually being unwilling to admit that they are, especially if the exploitation was sexual. Captors often brainwash victims into distrusting anyone who could help, threatening to make their situation worse if they tell

Policy directives and conventions to control human trafficking were initiated soon after which suggests that increased attention helps. Child trafficking needs more publicity in order to improve the related protections; it would provide more manpower, money, and training to help civilians and law enforcement recognize the signs of a victim. Without publicity the issue will only grow as more people are lost and never found with far too few repercussions; according to the International Labor Organisation human trafficking has an estimated total market value of 32 billion US dollars and 26% of victims are under 18. One of the first steps that should be taken is making the laws universal, especially in places lacking specific laws and protections toward trafficked children. Another improvement would be an increased force looking for victims and following smuggling networks back, it's been estimated by A21, a NGO, that only 1% of victims are rescued which is far too low. Seeing the current flaws makes me wonder, are there any plans in the near future to improve it