The Role of America

America plays a large role in human trafficking. Most Americans were unaware but the United States is one of the leading countries in Human Trafficking destination. This means that although many slaves do not come from the United States, a vast majority of them are brought here to be sold and enslaved. This chart shows the countries of origin and destination. The dark blue and the light blue are countries with a high number of people brought into them to be enslaved. The countries in red and origin are countires of origin. This chart was taken from the website endexploitation.org a website that tries to bring awareness to the cause of Human Trafficking.

Why is it that America claims to be the leaders in civil liberties when in reality, our country is one of the least active governments in combating this problem?

America has instituted the T-VISA which allows people who have been rescued from human trafficking the ability to stay in the United States for a certain length of time as long as they cooperate with the district attorneys in prosecuting the 'johns' and the 'pimps'. This process can be downright humiliating and shameful for these women. Many East Asian and Middle Eastern cultures shame women who are not virgins when they are married. By forcing these women to recount their stories, they are often put in the position of being shunned by their families and their communities. This program also provides no counseling, no housing, and no safety net for these women who have been so entirely abused. Why then, does America claim that it can set the standard for all other countries?

America impliments the Tier system. Each year the government publishes a list of countries who don't meet the minimum standards for aggression against this human rights violation. Throughout the years, however, this list has turned into a list of people that America has as allies and people that America holds as enemies. For example, Denmark is on the First Tier, meaning there are no political or economic sanctions to this country despite the fact that they hold prostitution as a legal profession and do not combat illegal trafficking. Iran on the otherhand is a Tier 3, meaning it has fallen way below the minimum requirements for combating human trafficking, although Iran has one of the most innovative plans for attacking this problem head on. America lags way behind in enforcement of the law in this case, yet we continue to set the standard.

It doesn't seem right. What do you think?

Video and Great Website

If you have time, please please please watch this video.  It is about fifteen minutes long and truly shows the implications of human trafficking.

Click Here For The Video

Also,

an absolutely amazing organization dedicated to stopping human trafficking is the not-for-sale campaign.  Here is their website: Not For Sale

I used one of their books in a lot of my research.  They combine statistics, personal stories, and government accounts to create stories and to create a campaign that could get the most cold hearted person to feel compassion.

Unjust

The United States is one of the only countries that continues to prosecute the 'prostitutes' and not the 'johns'.  For all of you who don't know, a 'john' is the name that is used to describe the man who purchases these women and children.  In most countries, the law is that the john's are punished harsher than the women; however, in the United States, the opposite is true.

I recently watched a short documentary on the Oxygen channel called 'Sex Workers or Victims?'  It dealt with trafficking within the United States.  It went through the recruitment of these young girls, their life under the control of a pimp and then for many of them, their arrests, trials, and jail life.  How can these girls be punished and the men who abuse them, use them, and traffic them within our United States go free?

News

YouTube video on Human Trafficking

please watch that^^ Also, click on some of the links on the side of other videos.  There are many touching and informative videos dealing with the trafficking of children and the trafficking of people in general.

In recent news:  Mayor Spitzer of New York has recently resigned from office because of his involvement with a prostitution ring.  Often times these prostitution rings are actually organized crime units dealing with human trafficking.

were you aware that between 600,000 and 800,000 people are trafficked between international borders every year? this number does not even include the millions of people who are trafficked within their own country.  Unfortunately, many countries do not do anything to prevent this vicious crime.  Infact, some countries' police forces actually work with traffickers to smuggle these people in.  These police officers often take part in rapeing and exploiting the young women who are trafficked. 80% of those trafficked are women and 50% are under the age of 18.  

questions

Where do all of the slaves origionate from? How, today, are people still bought and sold without anyone knowing? How do these slaves become slaves and how do they not escape, knowing full well it's illegal?