Introduction
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With the increase in interactions between people and entities worldwide that have been necessitated by globalization, there has been growth in economic integration, cultural awareness, and political understanding. Globalization has enabled communication and movement across borders, and in turn, humanity has experienced development unlike any other seen previously.
Globalization is not all about positives because there have been many aspects that have negatively affected populations today. Deviant globalization is characterized by inconsistent rules and different value systems on what can or cannot be traded within the various markets.[1] Another definition of deviant globalization is the economic routes or networks that allow for the movement, consumption, and production of illicit activities, products, and services
Looted artwork, narcotics, counterfeit goods, wildlife, toxic waste, and the movement of dirty money are some of the things that move in these networks. Illegal sexual activities and undocumented work also form the wide range of informal and illicit industries and services seen in the shadows.[2] They operate illegally but openly and are known by economists to challenge the traditional notions regarding power, wealth creation, and development. For this research paper, human trafficking will be scrutinized, and it has resulted from deviant globalization examined through the definition and synthesis of available information.
Meaning of Human Trafficking
It is the trade of human beings for sexual exploitation, sexual slavery, and forced labor for other people by the traffickers themselves.[3] It can occur domestically or internationally and is classified as a crime since it violates fundamental human rights. It relies on preying on vulnerable people, children, and women through coercion or the use of force. It is carried out by criminal organizations operating through their networks or by legal entities hiding in plain sight.
International Labor Organization lists that as of 2019, forced labor was responsible for 150 billion dollars in profit in the world. In the same year, it was explained that more than 20 million people were trapped in what they termed as ‘modern-day slavery. The breakdown was that at least 14 million were being exploited for their labor, more than 4 million for sexual activities, and more than 2 million under state-sanctioned forms of labor.
Irregular immigrants, minorities, and child workers were at a higher risk of being exploited in the extreme cases that were investigated. The 215 million underage workers are seen in dangerous sectors such as street begging and commercial sex activities. Marginalized entities and minorities work in the challenging and most exploitative industries, such as quarry work, mining, and leather tanning.
Of all criminal activities, human trafficking is ranked as the 3rd largest because it only follows arms and drug trafficking. It is considered to be the fastest-growing activity for trans-border criminal entities too. According to the existing international human rights conventions, illegal activity violates different fundamental human rights. In the following sections, other aspects of human trafficking are explained while also looking at the locations where it is most rampant in.
Types of Human Trafficking
Children Trafficking
It involves recruiting, transferring, transporting, harboring, and underage reception people to exploit them for commercial purposes. Trafficking of children usually takes many forms, and the activities they are forced into include being caused to work, exploitation for sex, and being instituted into child pornography. Other results of child trafficking are illegal adoption programs, being forced into early marriages, or being used for unlawful organ donations or harvesting.
“According to the International organization for Migration, 35 percent of trafficked persons it assisted were less than 18 years of age, which is roughly consistent with estimates from previous years. It was reported that Thailand and Brazil were considered to have the worst child sex trafficking records.” [4]
Traffickers use many methods to acquire the target underage people. They can exploit the poor economic standards of parents. In some parts of the world, parents sell their surplus children because they cannot take care of them to gain additional income or pay off accumulated debts.[5] Sometimes, they give their children away after being deceived about their children’s prospects of a better life. Scholars encourage researchers to not focus on the evil but on the political and socio-economic contexts surrounding the issues to understand how this happens.
The processes involved in adoption, both legal and illegal, have been scrutinized to be used by child traffickers to conduct their illicit activities. Babies are sometimes stolen from hospitals, or women are transported to be impregnated and their offspring sold to the adoption rings. There have been scandals about adaption that have broken into the mainstream, with the recent ones being between the United States and India.
It is because of the international loopholes in the systems that have provided vulnerabilities exploited by criminal enterprises. Countries have tried to address such an issue through the Hague Convention on the Protection of Children.[6] Many United Nations countries founded this convention to prevent child trafficking related to inter-border adoption.
Sex Trafficking
Victims of sex trafficking have found themselves in such situations through coercion and by being forced into them. According to the United Nations, about 4 million people are affected globally, and they can rarely escape such situations because it is dangerous and difficult. Putting a number on the people who have been or are still being trafficked is problematic because of the circumstances explained in the portion below.
The definition of sexual exploitation has made the accuracy of determining the numbers harder. Previously, it was thought to be the movement of trafficked people within and between countries through deception, coercion, and bondage. The United States Trafficking Victims Protection Act passed in 2000 changed the definition to stating that there does not have to be moved.
Contentions arose in the elements that make up sex trafficking because many questions remain unanswered when coercion is removed from the equation. In the United Kingdom, the parameters of what makes up sex trafficking allow for definitions that do not require force or coercion to be used.[7] People who have entered the country to carry out sexual activities are regarded as having been trafficked even though it had been consensual.
In most nations, minors involved in commercial sexual activities are classified as victims of sex trafficking. This is even if there was no use of fraud, force, or coercion. Part of why such a definition has been adopted is that many children and women find themselves in such scenarios after being tricked. Traffickers promise them a better life in many industries but take them to work as sex workers under their organizations. Their identification papers and passports are confiscated, and in most cases, they are locked up, beaten, or forced into drugs so that they are compliant.
Forced Marriages
It involves marriages where one or two of the participants are married off without consent. In the human trafficking sense, it is known as servile marriage because the individuals are transferred, sold, or inherited into unions. It can also involve elements of child trafficking and has been observed to be legal in some countries of the world, and in others, the laws are not observed strictly.
Depending on the jurisdiction, forced marriages have been explained to be forms of human trafficking. It is hard to crack down on the vice because nations do not have uniform regulations. Even when the Palermo protocol was being drafted, the transnational brokering of marriage partners was never regarded as an item in human trafficking.
Trafficking for Labor Purposes
There are times when people are moved within and out of countries, resulting in being forced into labor. It has many elements, such as involuntary servitude, child labor, bonded labor, and domestic servitude. Some industries are notorious for labor trafficking, such as agriculture, entertainment, domestic work, and manufacturing.
In most countries where labor trafficking has been studied to have been conducted, indigenous groups of people and migrants are the portions of the populations at risk the most. Middle Eastern countries are notorious for such forms of labor, with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia being the prominent features of such activities. Qatar was recently accused of such exploitative practices because of the workers used to construct facilities required for the 2022 World Cup.[9]
People that are used for such labor are most of the time coerced through attractive terms of payment and perks. Once they get to these countries, they realize that the brokers require a portion of their income to pay off transportation debt and a finder’s fee for the job connection. Others have no option after their identity papers and passports are confiscated on arrival and thus have to do the bidding of the people who bring them in.
Organ Trade Trafficking
For many years, trafficking in organs has been an element of human trafficking. Depending on the jurisdiction, many ways are used to acquire the organs that are traded both legally and illegally. The traders compel some victims to give up their organs through many methods. The victims can agree to sell their organs at a specific price because of economic issues or other instances.[10]. The technique described is prevalent in third-world countries of Africa, Asia, and South America because of the poverty levels experienced.
There are many other instances where victims are unaware of their organs being removed. Syndicates usually operate in collision with medical experts in hospitals. A person can be operated on for other problems that might be realistic or orchestrated, and their organs are removed without their permission; to be sold off in black markets around the world.
Criminal organizations have also tuned their operations to target vulnerable portions of the population. Homeless people are kidnapped, immigrants who are poor and looking for opportunities are coerced, and in hospitals, illiterate persons are most targeted. Several offenders come together for organ trafficking to be successful: recruiters, transporters, medical staff, contractors (who also act as middlemen), and buyers.[11]
Some of the most lucrative body organs are the liver, middle ear, cornea, and kidney. First-world countries and wealthy individuals form the most willing buyer lists because of the long waiting lists in many nations.[12] Such people rarely have a chance to survive and, in other instances, cannot wait for long. Such reasons are why criminal organizations are still operating, no matter how much law enforcement entities try to stop the problem.
Reasons why Trafficking Exists
Globalization and Poverty
Lack of opportunities for employment affects a large portion of the population. With some people having low education levels and failing structures, some have to seek ways to earn money. As described above, this can lead to a desperation that criminal entities prey upon by offering a way out. Then they find themselves being trafficked for other reasons.
Globalization has led to borders opening up for increased exchange of goods, services, and products. This means that inter-border migrations have also increased, and human traffickers constitute a large percentage of the human movement. Migration is mainly from the less developed nations with little to no opportunities for liveable remuneration. Thus they decide to exploit globalization but end up being the exploited ones.[13]
Thriving black markets have exploited globalization to carry out different forms of human trafficking. One such is the described waiting lists seen throughout Europe and in the United States for the organs in demand. Human traffickers usually harvest body organs and sell them to desperate people and their families.[14] They target those from rural areas who are illiterate or the poor with little to no options besides selling their organs.
Part of the issue with the illegal trade in organs is that the entities involved do not use proper medical facilities and personnel. Their only concern is profits, and they bend the rules in favor of extracting the organs. Without regard to the safety and health of the people donating their organs, there have been cases of people dying or never recovering from medical operations.
Internet Usage
An increase in the usage of internet technology has given allowed human trafficking to increase. Human traffickers use some websites to target vulnerable people and, in some instances, to also sell in plain sight. Classified platforms such as Craigslist are under scrutiny for facilitating sex work and sex trafficking rings in the United States. Human sites usually create websites to recruit people and sell to clients seeking out similar services.
“Studies have identified the Internet as the biggest facilitator of the commercial sex trade. Traffickers and pimps use the Internet to recruit minors since the internet, and social networking sites usage has significantly increased.” [15]
However, scholars on human trafficking are at hand to question the extent that the Internet and social media play in human trafficking. This is because the vice existed even before these platforms became popular. Caution is given against generalizations that have been made about internet usage, and more research has been recommended on the issue.
Institutional Problems
Governments and their agencies should be on the frontline of combating human trafficking. Inadequately trained and corrupt police forces that have turned a blind eye, are unable to tackle, or are complicit have enabled the growth of human trafficking.[16] Reports and investigations into different forms of human trafficking indicate that there are countries where law enforcement is a part of the problem in the methods mentioned above. This means that until such institutions undergo the required change, the world will still witness the vices above.
Some different organizations and groups are involved in anti-trafficking activities. Conflicts arise because of differing objectives regarding what should be done about human trafficking. Movements involved in sex worker rights advocate for establishing unions or entities that will seek to eliminate trafficking. On the other hand, law enforcement wants to eradicate the evil and, in the process, can implement procedures that trample on sex workers’ rights.
Legal mandates that are set up in the form of legislation also affect human trafficking. Criminalizing aspects such as sex work can result in criminal organizations taking center stage in providing the services in demand. It has been proposed that with legalization, some existing illegal enterprises will lose their market, and thus human trafficking will be avoided or curbed entirely.
Political situations are also responsible for human trafficking. Social conflicts and civil wars that have plagued many locations have been the source of human rights abuses and causes of trafficking and Migration. These countries affected by the wars are usually poor; thus, human traffickers prey on such victims.[17] From these hotspots, such victims are transported to external markets and put to work for criminal organizations or are sold off.
Demand for Sex
Economists have explained sex trafficking as the supply and demand attribute that enables the growth of the vice. With demands for prostitutes being experienced in the market, sex trafficking is fostered, and in turn, the activities involved in acquiring the victims are also enacted. Through the domino effect, traffickers become the suppliers for a market that demands people to exploit. There is a direct link between human trafficking and commercial sex, even though questions have been raised over the viability of such factors because they have never been proven in empirical studies.[18]
Consequences of Human Trafficking
Victims are under a constant cloud of violence from most people they interact with. This includes traffickers, brothel owners, pimps, and even police officers. Most have complicated legal situations and thus cannot seek help from authorities for fear of victimization and being arrested. Language barriers are also involved for most victims since they are in foreign lands where they do not understand their spoken languages.
The challenges persist even if the victims are rescued from the scenarios they find themselves in. Emotional trauma is hard to treat, and in many instances, it follows them for life. Post-traumatic disorders are part of the challenges experienced, and this leads to a myriad of other issues. Alienation from social settings, exclusions, and stigmatization is a common elements for most of them.[19] Away from these examples, many are charged with criminal offenses even though they were being exploited.
Control by traffickers is achieved through emotional and psychological control. The victims remain stressed and acclimatized to emotional violence even when they are taken away from such environments. Traffickers also rely on manipulation to ensure that their victims are under their command, and such victims rarely have everyday lives after being in the human trafficking world.
Complexities from emotional, psychological, and physical trauma have been recorded. Violence, sexual abuse, being forced into prostitution, and rape gives birth to such. The trauma gives rise to anxiety, depression, self-hate, and substance abuse. Other victims get into self-destructive tendencies and dissociation from the realities that surround them. There are cases where the persons used in sex trafficking rings get HIV/AIDS, which adds another layer of difficulties.[20]
How to Fight Human Trafficking
Indicators of human trafficking should be taught to the population to learn how to identify the victims and perpetrators. This can be done through raising awareness and training conducted for law enforcement officials, civilians, and first responders. Part of the venture is to ensure that there are ways that authorities can be contacted in case someone suspects that human trafficking is occurring within their vicinity.[21] Hotlines can be established to this effect to aid the relevant authorities.
Participating in anti-trafficking initiatives is a sure way of combating societal evil. Most organizations involved in the effort are underfunded and require resources to carry on with their objectives. Raising money is thus one of the ways that a person can ensure the success of such an organization. One can also volunteer for the activities that are entailed in the process of combating human trafficking.
Civic action is what can best combat human trafficking. Citizens should clamor for better legislation about the issue so that those involved do not find loopholes in the systems to exploit.[22] At the same time, existing laws should guarantee severe punishments so that those caught can be a lesson to others. In many countries, current anti-trafficking laws are not strong enough to address the challenges posed.
The media plays a crucial role in checking society. Investigative journalism can bring much-needed attention to law enforcement’s human trafficking rings and complacency. Opinions can be shaped against human trafficking organizations, while governments can be spurred into action through published pieces or air. Responsibly reported stories on the issue can enable society to be involved in anti-trafficking activities within the
Summary and Conclusion
Globalization has enabled communication and movement across borders, and in turn, humanity has experienced development unlike any other seen previously. It is, however, not about the positives only because many aspects have negatively affected populations today. Deviant globalization is characterized by inconsistent rules and different value systems regarding what can be traded or cannot be traded within the various markets.
Illegal sexual activities and undocumented work also form the wide range of informal and illicit industries and services seen in the shadows. Looted artwork, narcotics, counterfeit goods, wildlife, human trafficking, toxic waste, and the movement of dirty money are some things that move in these networks. In the paper, human trafficking is scrutinized, resulting from deviant globalization, and examined through the definition and synthesis of available information.
Human trafficking is ranked as the 3rd largest because it only follows arms and drug trafficking, and it takes up many forms, such as sex and child trafficking, organ trafficking, forced marriages, and forced labor. It is considered the fastest-growing activity for trans-border criminal entities too. According to the existing international human rights conventions, the activity violates different fundamental human rights. Of all criminal activities, human trafficking is ranked as the 3rd largest because it only follows arms and drug trafficking.
Bibliography
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