Human Trafficking: A Global Issue

800 Words2 Pages

As the fight for equality rages on, one issue continues to lose progress: human trafficking. In of 2000, sex trafficking was declared illegal in the United States under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (https://polarisproject.org/current-federal-laws). However, this horrible trade still occurs today, and remains the “second largest criminal industry in the world,” according to CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2009/OPINION/11/25/carr.human.trafficking/). Globally, there is an estimated 600,000 to 4,000,000 victims of human trafficking each year, with most of these cases being victims of sex trafficking. (Sex Trafficking: A Global Perspective; p. 42). But this is more than just a global issue; it’s very common in the United States, and has been normalized and hidden enough to happen in plain sight. Many victims are lured with offers of real jobs; others are promised marriage, educational opportunities, or are sold into the trade through acquaintances (http://www.soroptimist.org/trafficking/faq.html). The victims are degraded, and …show more content…

One way is by holding buyers accountable for their actions, which fuel the sex industry. If there are no consumers to purchase the goods, demand will go down, freeing millions of people in the process (http://www.equalitynow.org/traffickingFAQ). Another way you can help is simply through raising awareness for the problem. In addition, learn to recognize signs of human trafficking, and be on the lookout for them, so you are able to identify potential victims of trafficking. Be sure to report any suspicions of human trafficking to either 911 or the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline at 1-888-373-7888 (https://www.state.gov/j/tip/id/help/). Finally, you can get involved in many charities and organizations dedicated to ending sex trafficking, including Polaris and Equality Now. Human trafficking is a real, and current problem, and needs to be stopped

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