Human Trafficking: Modern Day Slavery

Human trafficking is another form of modern day slavery and is a violation of basic human rights. It is a major crime and has become the world’s fastest growing criminal enterprise. This crime involves the kidnapping, abduction and the illegal transportation of individuals by force, who are used for, sexual exploitation, various forms of labor, body organ transplants, and for criminal activities which benefits others financially. But the two most popular type of trafficking’s are sex trafficking and labor trafficking. Estimates show that approximately 1,000,000 people are trafficked every year worldwide and that between 20,000 and 50,000 are trafficked into the United States. Human trafficking affects both men and women, and most of all children.

In Ancient Egypt the enslaved were forced into labor where they built the pyramids and would work as domestic servants. In the fifteenth century there was a dramatic increase in slavery when Portuguese sailors began to sell and transport slaves into European countries. The Europeans later began have colonies in America and the slaves were sold off to work on plantations. Then in the mid-1800s women and children were being sold off to different countries for sex related purposes, it wasn’t until the twentieth century that the selling of humans for exploitation became a recognized problem. A majority of human trafficking occurs in the poorest parts of the world. Many families’ sell their children off to traffickers because they cannot afford to take care of them. Many of these victims are abducted and are either forced to work in factories or as servants without any pay, and others such as women and children are forced to work in the sex industry so that they could pay off the trafficker’s debt, living cost, medical cost and their

The United States and other countries need to make an effort to work toward the elimination and prevention of human trafficking, which will make this world a safer place and environment to live in by giving and insuring every one of their human rights. In Cambodia, women, men, and children are being trafficked every day. The men are being trafficked into labor and are forced to work in construction industries, or work as fishers forced to work in factories and as servants. Statistics concluded that thirty-five percent of Cambodia’s 1,5000 prostitutes are children. Every day there are young girls being taken from their villages and brought into brothels in phenom penh. They are sold into the sex industry where they are forced to work as sex slaves, prostitutes, participate in pornography, and perform sexual activities, by having sex with business men and government officials for sexual fulfillment. Human Trafficking occurs in Cambodia due to multiple factors such as poverty, political instabilities and corruption. In Cambodia there are more than twenty percent of people living in poverty. They don’t receive a lot of money no matter how many hours a day they work or even how