Human trafficking has well and truly captured my attention and I know it’s not an issue that is going to go away, so here begins my journey into one of the darkest issues facing our world today.
There is a popular saying – “knowledge is power” – as if knowledge provides some kind of ruling force that allows us to exert influence over others, but allow me to once and for all rephrase this rather self serving line so that it better serves humanity – “knowledge creates responsibility” – feel free to quote that.
Let me explain. In my world, with the issues I focus on, knowledge does not act as some force I can manipulate to subjugate others; it does the exact opposite. In my world, increased knowledge leaves me knowing about things that I must act on, it endows me with a sense of responsibility and that responsibility involves serving others rather than ruling them with a form of power. Knowledge of human trafficking inevitably creates such a responsibility. Once one has a working knowledge of human trafficking, we become endowed with a responsibility to act.
Take this warning – if you would rather live in blissful ignorance of the world around you and don’t want to get your hands dirty; if you don’t want to turn over the shiny rock that is your life and your image of the world to see the disgusting filth that dwells underneath; if you don’t want to shed tears over broken lives; if you don’t want to live with that constant nagging that you could and should do more; if you want to leave this site feeling good about where you’re at and you don’t want the baggage of feeling like you have a responsibility to sacrifice your life in service, read no further. Click here, move away and never return, because I am going to keep coming back to this issue and my prayer is that if you keep reading, you will be compelled to do something – anything. If you don’t want that compulsion then just move on with a smile on your face. I don’t know who you are, so there’s no way I can hold it against you. This is your last chance to carry on and act like you saw nothing. If that’s you, thanks for stopping by.
For the rest of you, how many of you can relate to the following? I have had many times when I wished I had been born in another era. In the past I wished I had been born in those times when history was being shaped. I sometimes wish I had been around when William Wilberforce was working to abolish legal slavery so I could have stood up, signed the petitions and been a voice for a cause. What about Nazi Germany? Sometimes I wish I could have been there to smuggle Jews out of the country – then there was the 60’s and 70’s, with civil rights in the U.S, revolution in Cuba, the Vietnam war – all causes that the average citizen could raise their voice about.
I witnessed the collapse of the Berlin wall, but I wasn’t really old enough to “get it”. Sometimes I wish I had been around then as the person I am now, around for the momentous moments in history so I could have been a part of shaping humanity. If you have romanticized about history in the same way I have and longed for a cause you could champion, an issue you could become a part of that would shape the world for generations to come then let me tell you now, that issue exists and its scope is global. That issue is human trafficking.
Slavery has changed since one of my heroes, William Wilberforce, instigated a ban on the legal trade in human beings for forced labour. Humanity has become cheaper to purchase; in many instances, cheaper than cattle. Cheap product is expendable. Shipping human beings illegally has never been easier or quicker. Purchasing humans has never been simpler and situations where people may be willing to sell their children or themselves have never been more rife. All these factors lead to human trafficking being a very profitable industry. Demand and supply exists and thrives, and as long as these two factors are in place in the market, human trafficking will continue to plague us and grow.
For a quick definition of human trafficking, we turn to Wikipedia:
Human trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, harbouring, or receipt of people for the purposes of slavery, forced labor (including bonded labor or debt bondage) and servitude. The total annual revenue for trafficking in persons is estimated to be between $5 billion and $9 billion. The Council of Europe states that “[p]eople trafficking has reached epidemic proportions over the past decade, with a global annual market of about $42.5 billion.” Trafficking victims typically are recruited using coercion, deception, fraud, the abuse of power, or outright abduction. Threats, violence, and economic leverage such as debt bondage can often make a victim consent to exploitation.
Exploitation includes forcing people into prostitution or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs. For children, exploitation may also include forced prostitution, illicit international adoption, trafficking for early marriage, or recruitment as child soldiers, beggars, for sports (such as child camel jockeys or football players), or for religious cults.
It is estimated that 80% of human trafficking is made up of woman and children and that the vast majority are subjected to sexual exploitation.
This problem is clearly evident in the sex districts of many Southeast Asian nations where young girl’s are prostituted regularly, many of whom have been sold by their families, or taken as payment for exorbitant loans their families could not pay. The sources are families burdened by extreme poverty.
But the problem is not relegated only to the sex industry where we could ask questions about the normalization of prostitution as a contributing factor to this problem, but many of us would wash our hands of because we’re not directly involved. No, I’m afraid we can’t let ourselves of that lightly.
Human trafficking exists because we let it exist and we enable it through our lifestyles, many of us do so simply because of blissful ignorance.
Have we ever asked how the products in our homes, including the clothes that we wear, were produced? Have we ever asked how we are able to access so many things so cheaply? Have we ever asked how the businesses we support are staffed? Have we ever asked about how the chain of supply of everything is conducted? Do we think about the people we pass in the street? Do we think about the people serving us in restaurants, cafes and takeaway stores?
Remove the goggles of ignorant bliss, dig a little and a dirty, thinly veiled, secret reality in most cities around the world will reveal itself, a booming global slave trade that in many instances, we unknowingly enable.
The chocolate we eat, the coffee we drink, the clothes we wear, the red light districts, the restaurants the cheap products – they are often propped up by people caught in slavery – not just slave like conditions, but actual slavery. The slave industry is a global giant and it is growing. It is only the ignorant who live in a romanticized fantasy who think it all ended with William Wilberforce in the 19th century. We can look to the likes of Wilberforce for encouragement, but with that encouragement we must pick up the baton and fight for the rights and welfare of those whose lives are being destroyed by that industry in our time.
Poor families are selling their children who are then being used and abused in labour factories, as personal slaves in homes around the world, and in the sex industry. Men and woman are being forced into bonded labour and sex work by draconian creditors as they get caught in debt they can never pay back. The victims number in the millions and profits number in the billions of dollars. Families are being ripped apart and people are needlessly dieing – only to be cheaply replaced by more slaves.
Children are being raped and their value ripped away from them. People are being used as cattle. Human beings are being trafficked in droves as cheap products. All too often it is happening right under our noses and even if it isn’t, we have the power to do something, anything. The conditions for the propagation of illegal slavery are perfect and only human beings can change that.
Walk the journey with me as I seek to learn more about this issue. Follow that journey on this site. Share your stories, your thoughts and your emotions. Stumble and fail with me. Face the humility with me as I tackle my own hypocrisy – and don’t shy away from your own. Walk the journey with me of finding our own limitations and inadequacies, but most of all - let us together, act and speak for those who cannot; the victims.
Human beings are not for sale!
Knowledge leads to responsibility. We have knowledge of human trafficking and the devastation it is causing. We have a responsibility. I am begging with you, pleading with you to not walk away from this article and wash your hands of this situation. The victims of human trafficking, the men, women and children need people like you and I to raise our voices. They need us to take up the mantle of people like William Wilberforce and to act. We need to put our line in the sand and say this is our time and this is our issue – this is our moment in history. We have the power to cripple the industry. We have the power to decrease the supply and severely diminish the demand. Will you stand idly by and plead ignorance or powerlessness, or will you plunge your life into the darkness and offer hope even if it costs you greatly?
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My friend Sarah showed me a DVD that has opened my eyes to the reality of this sort of thing. Not the trafficking side of things, but the child slavery & prostitution. It was so recent and real that I was able to open my eyes and realise that this is actually happening. It’s happening now. It’s happening in places that are accessible to us. The DVD was ‘Born into Brothels’. Zana Briski, a New York photographer shows her way of making a difference to these children through Kids with Cameras. It’s inspiring. She took her passion, and found a way to shape it into a passage out of the horrendous life that these kids were stuck in.
If she can do that, imagine what we could achieve if we actually stopped hiding behind our excuses.
I challenge you to watch the film, and let the reality sink in. Then think what it’s like for those trafficked into such situations. Can you really walk away and do nothing? I constantly come back to that saying…’the only thing that allows evil to continue, is for good men to stand by and do nothing’.
A passionate post Frank. And an issue I’ve had a glimpse at through some borderline ’slavery’ in the viticulture industry here. Overseas workers legally brought here to prune grapes but instances such as one case where 20 workers were accomodated in one 3 bedroom house despite a massive chunk of each of their wages being taken out for accomodation. Anyway, it was exposed and a church minister here has been advocating for the workers. While most workers were well treated, some were not and now hopefully that will be remedied for the future. What I need to know is exactly what I can do in a practical sense for the slavery you write of. I think people need to be given precise action to take otherwise human nature is to procrastinate and take the easy option of doing little or nothing. I know there was a big change to ‘community action’ when our school gala went from a ‘call the school if you can help’ notice to each child taking home a specific job request for their folks – e.g could you bake a cake? (sorry if the gala comparison sounds a bit ridiculous but just wanted to explain the need for leadership & directives ; ) ) So, where do we start?
Journeying with you on this one Frank.
James
My question is, how do we begin on researching which products we are purchasing are originating from workers in slavery, and those which are not? This is something I have in the last couple of years thought about from time to time, that it would be the right thing to do, to boycott products produces from the labour of those in slavery, but I don’t know how I would begin. Any thoughts?
Jack,
Where do we start? That’s a good question and action is something I’m sure I will address as I delve into the issue.
Some quick thoughts though. The trafficking ‘industry’ as with any trade, depends on a few things to thrive – supply, demand and ease of provision of that supply to those with the demand.
Crippling any industry is about intervention in any point along that process. The supply (of slaves) is all about poverty – people selling their children to save other siblings; people getting caught in debt they can never pay back etc. The increase in the slave trade relates very closely to rates of poverty – thus poverty prevention can decrease supply.
A perfect example of action that can be taken here is child sponsorship. I sponsor a little girl in the Philippines. Her and her family have options they would not have otherwise had because of it. The chance of her ending up in a trafficking situation has been negated.
There are many programmes connected to poverty reduction – take your pick.
On demand, being more educated on the products we are using is making a difference in this area – I will address this soon.
Ease of provision from the point of acquiring a slave to the point of sale of that slave can be messed up in many ways. This is where the brave actions of a few abolitionists engaged in direct intervention is important. For those with the conviction to do so, it is here that some have rolled up their sleeves and are getting their hands dirty – literally intervening to get people out of trafficking situations.
Organisations like IJM (TEAR Fund helps the work of IJM) are engaged in this sort of direct intervention. World Vision I think, is involved in helping to finance safe houses for children brought out of slavery. They work alongside abolitionists to help provide what they need for direct intervention.
Then there is our own government. At the moment our government is putting together a plan of action on Human Trafficking. We signed on for the U.N Protocol on Human Trafficking, so we have an obligation to have policy and plans directed towards it. That is in process at the moment.
More pressure can be put on this though. One of Labour’s politicians recently floated the idea of a private members bill directed at stopping the importation of goods produced via slave labour. I’m not sure if she pursued it, but that sort of policy needs to be discussed and letter writing to politicians can be effective.
Mostly, it’s a matter of looking into those areas of supply, demand and ease of provision and working out what can be done in each area.
We’ll address these things more as the discussion continues.
Fiona,
It can feel overwhelming when trying to address our purchasing and the sheer ambiguity of trying to work out how different products were produced.
I had a conversation with someone about this straight after writing this article and suggested that they start small. I suggested changing what chocolate they buy and making sure they only buy chocolate with the Fair Trade certification logo on it – Scarborough Fair in New Zealand is a good chocolate that’s available in many supermarkets.
Gift’s for others can be a good place to work as well – use stores like Trade Aid.
If you don’t mind it – buying second-hand clothing is smart as well, on many levels. A lot of developing nation’s textile industries have been killed by developing nations flooding their clothing markets with all our second-hand clothing. We can decrease that by buying second-hand ourselves. If not, then looking for labels that use Fair Trade products is good.
My household still has a long way to go, and to a point, I think it’s near on impossible to escape questionable goods in our country – but starting small is better than doing nothing.
Awhile ago i watched a movie about Sex Trafficking where women would be tricked into leaving their homes and countries and into handing over their passports with the promise of jobs in countries like England and America. This issue especially has haunted me since, and i’ve been looking into it a little more. I was wondering if anyone knew whether efforts were being made to alert the public in the areas being targeted about these job scams?
Also, how would i go about getting involved more directly? Maybe with IJM and the people intervening directly? I know i’m probably not old enough or qualified or anything, but i’m still interested to know how i’d go about doing that.
Frank, the “Stop the Traffik” campaign site has some great resources and practical ways people can contribute to reducing the traffik trade. In particular the chocolate campaign:
http://www.stopthetraffik.org/chocolatecampaign/
I’ve also posted a link to where peeps can download a list of non-traffiked chocolate for their part of the world over at my blog.
Like you say, this needs to be tackled at all ends of the production chain. consumer choice is a great way to influence the market.
Hi Phil,
I’m a big fan of the Stop the Traffik campaign.
Thanks for the link, it should prove to be very helpful since our purchasing of chocolate is one of those things we can change relatively easily.
What I find strange is there is no organization that offers the following “If you think someone you know has been trafficked etc-email this link or call this number” But you might say wait a minute, there is that at police stations, but what if you lived in one country and the person had been trafficked to another?
Is there no global agency that acts like a global police department to investigate these matters. If not then one should be formed even by private citizens simply creating an online forum that promotes and deals with the issue.