Category: Human Trafficking

With respect to the individual, it has been argued that migration causes many social, psychological and socio-cultural problems on individual migrants. Different studies have showed that migrant returnees report that they seek psychiatric treatments for their mental illness as a result of social isolation and abuses of any kind (Girum 2013). Migrants also return with other health and physiological problems such as kidney infection, HIV/AIDS, physical disability, etc. Furthermore, migration affects individuals socially for example, difficulties of readjustment with family and the community (Gashaw, 2014 and Yemisrach, 2015).

Hagos (2014) stated about the factors that make individual migrants to choose illegal ways of migration was, lack of awareness about the difficulties of trafficking takes the significant share and migrants choose illegal routes to enter to another country than legal ones merely depending on the wrong and appealing information they have received from the brokers. As studies indicated majority of human trafficking victims in Ethiopia are from country sides or remote rural villages where access to modern technologies that disseminate information about trafficking are rare and limited. Nevertheless, when the researcher requested the key participant informant about their awareness about the socio-economic impact of human trafficking on account of illegal migration, almost of them replied that as having awareness about the socio-economic impacts of human trafficking in the study areas societies. On the other hand, even though most of the trafficked people have known how about the impact of human trafficking but their way of understanding is very weak. They have seen it on one side that is; even they lost their assets for a time being and temporarily, but their assumption is recovering within a short period of time by getting better job in the destination countries. Thus, such types of cost benefit analysis perspective concerning for the illegal activities exposed them for different problem through the process of their journey till their reach the destination countries.

Regarding socio-economic consequence types of human trafficking in the study areas, majority of participant informants of the study area confirmed that loss of human resources and assets was the first problem of the study area, this loss of human resources from source communities may result reduction in economic development due to fewer productive workers to care for children and the elderly. Wheaton, et al. (2010) states that, at this time the global economy is negatively affected by human trafficking due to the loss of the labour force from countries of origin, and the cost of undocumented migration that falls on transit and destination countries. Besides, the other few participant informants confirmed that unemployment was the second problem of the study area, this related with victims until to get the chance to work aboard they did not engaged the presence of job opportunity in the study area in addition to this when thy back to home absences of marketable skill and knowledge they did not active competent.

Besides, the researcher inquired participant informants about the major difficulties of trafficked people imposed social problem during their journey and in the destination countries. Accordingly, the participant trafficked victims exposed for lack of social service, beat, and rape and threatens, stay without any job, absence of daily consumption and overwork. Due to this difficulties the informants has become disability, they develop filling of loneliness and inhumanity, physically and psychological affected they became hopeless, when back to their homeland they fall down to drug addiction. Bezabih (2008) revealed that all the victims of trafficking face extensive exploitation and abuse during different stages of trafficking. The most prevalent forms of exploitation and abuse experienced by Ethiopian women, men and children are emotional, physical and sexual in nature.

There are many issues around the globe that affect the modern world. The society today is changing rapidly, which means there are more problems that range from being economical to social, political and environmental. One of the issues that this society is dealing with is the social issue, human trafficking. Human trafficking is the trade in people, but it doesn’t mean the movement of a person from one place to another. Every year there are millions of women, children and even men being trafficked in the United States. This can happen in any community and is happening to victims no matter their age, race or gender. Traffickers lure victims into these situations by violence, manipulation, or untrue promises of well paying jobs or romantic relationships. They force their victims into labor or commercial sexual exploitation. People all around the world are victims of human trafficking, and because this is such a wide spread issue, it is becoming harder to address it with just a set of laws and policies. The traffickers look for people who are psychologically or emotionally vulnerable. The people who are being trafficked are so traumatized that most of them don’t think of themselves as victims and they will not ask for help. That is why people around the globe need to help victims of human trafficking speak up and solve this issue in this society. There are many different things that people can do to help join the fight to end this modern day slavery. A few solutions to stop human trafficking could be to start fundraisers, advocate, and stay informed about the situation. People need to speak out and let this issue be known so that human slave trade will come to an end.

To begin solving the issue for human trafficking, everybody needs to start fundraising. Raising money for this issue will not only help by bringing awareness to this modern day slavery, it could help prevent it. Donations are relied on to help maintain nonprofits that help shelter homes for victims.

There are anti-trafficking organizations around the world. To help build these organizations, people can conduct fundraisers which will maintain shelter homes that take in and support the victims who have been rescued from trafficking. Usually the victims do not have a place to go after escaping this modern form of slavery. Whenever they are rescued, the shelter homes allow victims to have a safe place to stay and provide food, water, and a place to sleep. Communities can even volunteer and provide essentials by donating clothes, toilet paper, bath essentials, etc. Basically, community members can donate items for the victims basic needs and necessities for their everyday life. People from the community can also volunteer their time to work in shelters or help with fundraising, which is a great way to keep up the fight against human trafficking. The more volunteers, the bigger the outreach can be. These efforts will make an immediate impact on the lives of trafficking victims. Volunteers can help them until they are stable enough to get back on their feet and go back into the world and start a life of their own. Volunteers can help them find jobs, internships, homes, and provide other opportunities for trafficking survivors as they transition to their new life. Taking care of these victims will allow people to learn their stories of their tramatic experience, which will help society develop ways to combat human trafficking and learn the types of people they target and all of the different ways that the traffickers approach their victims. People can have events to raise awareness and get more people involved in the fight against human trafficking. It could make a chain reaction, bringing more people in to educate about this issue.

Advocating is crucial in the fight to stop human trafficking. It is important to address issues, help people understand the views of trafficking, and to have their support. In the United States, states control their own legislation, enforcement and related appropriations for anti-trafficking policies. People from communities need to meet with or reach out to local, state, or federal representatives to inform them that their constituents are passionate about the fight against human trafficking. This increases the chance that law-makers will do something about this problem in the society. For example, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 was the cornerstone of anti-trafficking legislation in America, but it expired in 2011. Anti-trafficking nonprofits all over the country joined together to advocate for its re-authorization, which was granted in 2013. Corporations and government supply chains should be free from human trafficking and slavery, but many products are touched by slave laborers throughout the world. Not only do people need to inform government officials but they should also work in schools to educate and inform children so they can recognize the signs and protect themselves from human trafficking.

Teaching children in schools will help them become aware of their surroundings and prevent them from becoming a victim of human trafficking. Social media is a big factor trafficking. The traffickers target a lot of younger children on social media. They act like a kid their age and earn their trust and will eventually ask the child to meet them somewhere. When the child leaves there home to meet with the trafficker is when he or she instantly become a victim of human trafficking and don’t make it back home. At home and in school, children used to learn “Stranger Danger” but through the years it has gradually died off. Teachers and parents need to bring back that slogan and inform their children about this modern day slave trade and let them know that they could become a victim. There are videos and articles all over the internet to inform people more about trafficking. These articles people know that slavery still exist and can be in your community. Traffickers live in nice neighborhoods, in nice houses, and blend in really well with the rest of the community. Nobody would ever suspect them of keeping kidnapped woman and children who have been forced into slavery in their home. Children who ar victimas of human trafficking could even be going to school just like everybody else. That is why students, teachers, bus drivers, and other school community need to learn the indicators of the crime, warning signs, and how to respond whenever a student is a victim. The school can play a big role in fighting human trafficking, but school personnel should not be the only ones to address this problem. The communities law enforcement and the students family and friends need to also work to increase awareness. They should develop policies, protocols and recognize the possible indicators to prevent exploitation of children.

Even though there are many global issues that are economical, social, political or environmental, human trafficking is a major global issue in the world today. It is one of the fastest growing activities of criminal organizations. People are being held against their will and are forced to work or provide services to the trafficker or others. There are many different ways people can fight against it and help those victims. Learning more about it and recognizing all of the signs the first step in identifying victims. Not only does communities need to work to defeat human trafficking, but law enforcement and government officials also need to step up and take acrtions to help stop this modern day slavery.

Introduction

This article considers the reasons that, despite efforts, human trafficking persists around the world. The factors that enable human trafficking to occur vary and are interdependent and interconnected (Stop Violence Against Women (SVAW), 2008:1; Truong, 2001:34-35; Van Impe, 2000:p117-118). Human trafficking is a fastest growing forms of widespread transnational business (Shelley 2010, Rosy,2013) and a complex, multifactorial, and inconstant phenomenon (Acharya, 2008, Couto & Fernandes, 2014). Human trafficking is the third most lucrative illegal criminal activity (U.S. Department of State 2004, p14, ILO, 2014), estimating that globally it generates $150 billion in illegal profits a year, $99 billion from sex trafficking and $51 billion from labour trafficking, surpassed only by guns and drug trafficking (ILO, 2014). So, combatting human trafficking cannot be fully conceived without understanding how the problem of trafficking is conceptualised by different actors and by the diverse perspectives (Firman, 2007). Another report of ILO in 2017 shows that, 40.3 million people subjected to modern slavery, where including 24.9 million engaged in forced labour and 15.4 million in forced marriages (ILO, 2017). For the reason that, human trafficking is a threat to human security on many levels, and considered a global concern (Clark, 2003).

Globally, since the mid-1990s, the increase in attention to human trafficking corresponded with growing attention to this crime in mainstream news outlets in the United States, Canada, and other Western countries (Bruckert & Parent, 2002; Jahic & Finckenauer, 2005; Johnston, Friedman, & Shafer, 2012). By the 1990s, women from Eastern and Central Europe had become the new focus, and trafficking in women for work in the sex industry loomed as an issue of increasing concern as it gained attention and media coverage (Goodman,2015).At the United Nations Conference on Human Rights in 1993, the Global Campaign for Women’s Human Rights, made up of more than 950 women’s organizations emerged as the strongest and most effective lobby for trafficking issues (Alan Riding, 1993). Besides, well-known international anti-trafficking organizations in the non-profit and nongovernmental sector were founded between 1994–2007 (e.g., The Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women in 1994; La Strada International in 1996; Free the Slaves in 2000; Polaris Project in 2002; and Not For Sale in 2007). Earlier these initiatives, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948 adopted by United Nations Organization (UNO), none was against this historic document, clearly stated that, “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms” (UDHR, 1948, article-4, p-10). Later in 2000, UNO adopted a protocol to prevent, suppress and punish human trafficking, was also globally accepted, that emphasised essentially a comprehensive international approach to promote cooperation and combat against human trafficking. The UN Protocol-2000 provides the first international definition and obligatory criminalization of human trafficking (UN Protocol-2000, Bruch, 2004) but international cooperation is only an optional measure (Ikeora,2018).

In the last decade, Combatting human trafficking has gained significant momentum as the top of the global agenda in leading towards finding real solutions to the growing modern slavery today (Ikeora,2018). It is a crime of such magnitude and atrocity that cannot be dealt with successfully by any government or agency alone so, this global problem requires an integrated global and multi-stakeholder strategy. An integrated or holistic global strategy means ‘a human rights-based approach’ that supported by many scholars as an effective instrument for tackling human trafficking (Inglis,2001, Rijken,2009). Victims of human trafficking have a right to be treated with humanity and respect for their dignity and human rights (UNHR, 2014). Agustin (2003) and Anderson et.al (2011) supported this issue on the extension of human rights, especially in relation to migrants and Van de Anker (2013) recommends a ‘cosmopolitan approach’ as part of extending the human rights-based approach, she asserts that the boundaries of nation-states are not boundaries of morality, and duties of justice are owed to all human beings. The approach has highlighted the human rights of trafficked persons e.g. calls for victim support, including housing, legal aid, reflection period, counselling and education and emphasis on not a person’s legal status but their experiences of human rights violations (van den Anker, 2013). This approach insists to move beyond statism and build in international duties of support to countries of origin. This imply that, when victims of trafficking are identified accurately, then destination states have the immediate responsibility to take practical measures to protect victims from harm, along with additional support required.

This article addresses that absence of a holistic approach and global cooperation with respect to human trafficking and further suggests that working from within a human rights framework would require this cooperation. Also, this paper coalesces problems of a holistic or integrated approach from various aspects and further emphasis on the process of cooperation with merging of concepts from diverse disciplines (Lutya & Lanier, 2012). Before turning to explanation of problems of a holistic approach, we will briefly review literature based on the secondary analysis focusing to the key factors of human trafficking, why global concern is essential and what are problems of government and cooperation in international level.

Factors of Human Trafficking

Conceptually, many explanation on human trafficking exist (Aronowitz, 2004). Many scholars pointed out two factors ‘push’ and ‘pull’ that facilitate this crime of human trafficking (Bales, 2007; Couto, 2012; Couto & Fernandes, 2014; Europol, 2016; UNODC, 2016). Push factors of human trafficking, in brief, are a combination of reasons that incite or force a person to move voluntarily, in contrast, pull factors attract the individual or group to be vulnerable. Van Liemt (2004) identified the most prominent pull factors of trafficking as language, cultural affinity, labour shortages, and the existence of networks, negative selection and the existence of an underground economy where irregular immigrants readily find work. Van Liemt (2004) also argued that both political and economic factors play vital roles as push factors, and Gunatilleke (1994) addressed the major push factors as inequalities in living standards between the more-developed and less-developed countries, and rising expectations that induce people to migrate in search of opportunities for a better life. Mahmoud and Trebesch (2010) argued about relative deprivation as a major push factor, and that human trafficking will be more prevalent in areas with high rates of emigration trafficker’s benefit from lower recruitment costs and the free-riding opportunities. Shirk and Webber (2009) identified pull factor that traffickers often target people who are desperately searching for ways to find employment and better their lives. These individuals tend to be easier to control (Flamm, 2003).

Many scholars suggested prominent features of the reasons of human trafficking from their empirical studies. Akee, Basu, Chau, and Khamis (2010) examined the determinants of human trafficking with an emphasis on the potential roles of ethnic, religion and language fragmentation, and conflict. Akee, Bedi, Basu, and Chau (2014) mentioned that countries that grant legal amnesty to immigrants have an increased likelihood of experiencing human trafficking. Akee et al. (2011, p.29) discussed the influence of domestic and international trafficking activities reciprocal as domestic legislation can spill over to impact international trafficking. Human trafficking occurs evidently in illegal markets that promote criminal activities (Jones et al., 2007; UNODC, 2016) but also could be happened in restaurants and hotels as a legal form (Payoke, 2014, Jones, et al., 2007).

Concern for Protection and Reintegration

This article emphasizes human trafficking as a very serious problem and the reason of human rights violation. Because, the consequences of human tracking to victim is a melancholy picture of victim life far away of normal expected life as a human being. The circumstance during trafficking to a victim is vicious particularly to women as they are bound to engage in sexual activities to benefit the trafficker (Outshoorn, 2005) that is the worst and most pervasive form of human rights violation (Ruhi 2003). The report of UNODC-2012 shows a large numbers of victim who trafficked for sexual exploitation accounted for 52.5 percent to 61.9 percent of the total number of victims and 98 percent of all persons trafficked for sexual exploitation are women and girls (ILO 2008: 3). The most prominent exploitation conditions of the all victims identified by Kask and Markina (2014,p285-291) these are including “no work in the destination country”, “actual work differs from the promised one”, “no written contract or double contract system”, “sub-standard housing conditions”, “threats”, “physical violence”, “sub-standard wages, delayed wages or no wages”, “long working hours”, and/or “retention of passport”. Moreover, it is common to treat the victim unequally based on the gender issue when they get back to their community for example, women who come back after trafficking are often considered as ‘prostitutes’ and are not welcomed in society and they are treated as a social evil or as a threat to religious or cultural values (Gazi, et.al, 2001). After coming back, stigmatization excludes victim from the mainstream society and survivors come back is not appreciated by the community members and families (Shamim and Kabir, 1997). Rosy (2013) mentioned that trafficked persons, generally go through severe physical and psychological violence that hamper their socio-economic well-being. Patterson (2012) noted it as modern forms of slavery that breaks all the rules of the declaration of the human rights. Therefore, the concern for protection and reintegration is a pressing issue in global platform as a part of humanitarian agenda (Anderson and Andrijasevic, 2008). Trafficked persons are entitled to the full range of human rights even if they are outside their country of residence, they cannot be discriminated against simply because they are non-nationals (Pearson, 2002). In most cases of human trafficking, victims have an immediate need for safety, shelter, and medical care (Clawson, Dutch, Solomon, & Grace, 2009, Hodge, 2014). Consequently, the victims of sex trafficking often have physical ailments, including headaches, fatigue, back pain, memory problems, dental problems, stomach pains, pelvic pain, skin conditions, and sexually transmitted infections (Oram, Stöckl, Busza, Howard, & Zimmerman, 2012). Furthermore, victims of sex trafficking require counselling and social support together with the provision of basics necessities (Reid, 2008). Appropriately, in order to reintegrate the victim of sex trafficking into the community and society, they need to be separated from their former situations ensuring shelters that must be physically safe places where care for victims with providing them emotional and mental safety. Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health condition experienced by victims (Ide and Mather).

Undeniably, human rights is to every human being must have the articulation of the need for equality, mutual respect, and human dignity in all of their activity. Kennedy (2003) emphasized on basic rights of people including certain civil liberties and political rights, the most fundamental of which is the right to life and physical safety to be sustained under any circumstances. This indicates equal rights, protection and access to state facilities not as privileges by the vulnerable people but as the full range of human rights. This merely support the concept of victim protection aspect which means assisting and supporting and, ultimately empowering those who have been trafficked, and enabling them to address the violations they have suffered (Pearson,2002). Weber, Fishwick, and Marmo (2014) argued, in relation to it based on the welfare liberalism or socialist philosophies that, human rights as an agenda of individual entitlements to receive support from the state in relation to health, education and employment, and protection of the classic civil liberties. In 2002 United Nations Guidelines for the Prevention of Crime emphasised on four types of approaches to crime prevention including prevention through social development or social crime prevention, locally based crime prevention, situational crime prevention and reintegration programmes (UN 2002: Annex II, Point 6).

Problems of Forming a Holistic Approach of Victim Support

It is pointed out by Cepeda and Sánchez (2014) that, the world is now a completely unequal and under clearly asymmetric power relationships and system of unequal exchanges among countries to come into being, and has discriminating the pre-existing domination of gender and social class. This situation indicates that human trafficking has been evolved from certain culturally specific prototypes, from certain territories, to a new sophisticated and globalised model. Remarkably, human trafficking is a dynamic concept and its parameters are constantly changing to respond to changing economic, social, and political conditions (Ruhi,2003). A holistic approach is essential at national and international level in order to reintegrate the human trafficking victim because, specialised criminal organisations operate and involve in human trafficking with each other and at each phase of the business for example, the departure, journey, destination and the final exploitation of the victims are organised in detail. The methods used by these criminal organisations vary, depending on the context of arrival or transit (Cepeda and Sánchez, 2014). But, the problems of combating human trafficking is widespread into various aspects. Therefore, in this article conceptualize the difficulties in holistic or integrated strategy into three fold, these are, ambiguity or inconsistency of study as academic concern, limitations of the government initiatives and deficiency in cooperation in international level.

First, from the academic point of view, there is a strong demand for solid empirical research to develop policies on human trafficking, but in spite of a large number of publications, still a long way to go to satisfy the policy demands (Tyldum, 2010). A very few publications contained original data and most treated as “sources” or “evidence” the assertions of government agencies and international organizations, even though these bodies had failed to reveal their sources (Zhang 2009). Research on human trafficking, much of these, produced fails to satisfy to academic standards common in other fields of research (Salt, 2000). In the past, research on human trafficking had mostly been on sexual exploitation (Chuang 2010; UNODC 2006, 2012). Even though, the scholarly domain is presently more nuanced than it has been in the past, there are still new facts to be discussed (Erokhina,2007). The reason for this, anti-trafficking efforts has emerged in recent years within social science, legal, and policy literature, (Emmers, Greener-Barcham, & Thomas, 2006; Friesendorf, 2006, 2006; Schuckman,2006). Research on human trafficking usually focuses on some aspects of trafficking as a social phenomenon and viewed either as a matter for the social sciences or as the subject of a legal inquiry pertaining to the more narrowly defined crime of trafficking (Gallagher,2001). It is common, while doing research on human trafficking, to know the size or boundaries of the group of victim, traffickers or offender, or the study population that is why, Tyldum and Brunovskis (2005) refers it as “hidden populations” and

(Weitzer, 2014) indicates as “the clandestine nature of trafficking”. The Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM)[footnoteRef:1] identified several points in the research on human trafficking such as, limited understanding of the characteristics of victims and their trafficking trajectories and, poor understanding of the operations of traffickers, their networks, also lack of evaluative research on the effectiveness of governmental anti-trafficking policies and the efficiency of rescue programs (Elzbieta,2008). The difficulty plagues in the measurement of victims in research, due to the absence of clear and accurate information about this phenomenon. Moreover, there is also a substantial lack of knowledge about how to develop policies targeting all types of trafficking exploitation or addressing gender issue like, a male victim exploited in forced labour or for sexual purposes (Arsovska and Janssens 2009; Sidoti 2010). [1: It was founded in 1998 in Washington D.C with purpose is to apply the best in social science research and policy expertise to understanding international migration and its consequences.

Second, human trafficking is such a crime that affects several areas of state responsibility including security, migration, health, social security, development, education, labour, gender equality, and human rights (Dominica, 2014). Some scholars pointed out that individual states no longer can handle it because of the nature of globalized and organized trafficking crime (Vogel, 2002). For the reason that, traffickers are capable of quick adaptation to new environments and able to change their strategy. Naturally, and rightly so, criminal laws do not work that way, formulating a law by the government is followed by a systemic process which need drafting, discussion and amending to be taken into consideration. In addition, proper agencies must be consulted, and the consequences of the suggested amendment must be carefully evaluated (Dominica, 2014). Another problem is that, the corruption of government authorities, who play a critical role in anti-trafficking operation, allows trafficking to continue (Surtees, 2008). Government corruption supports trafficking in different ways, through document falsification, illegal border crossings, overlooking prostitution venues in identifying victims, compromising criminal investigations, lack of investigation and judges dismissing cases or imposing minimal sanctions (Council of Europe 2005: 53; Lazaroiu et al. 2004: 34; Schloenhardt 1999: p,212-218; Shelley 2000: 71; Transcrime 2003). Sometimes, government authorities offer only short-term and limited protection services, which are not enough for victims to return to normal lives (Copic and Simeunovic-Patic 2012: p-280) and also, many trafficked persons reject victim status and decline offered assistance (Brunovskis and Surtees, 2007, Tyldum, 2010, Surtees and Babovic, 2007). Besides, many trafficked persons are left out of the support system, reasons for this, government authorities only identify sex trafficking victims and female victims, and many victim return to communities without reporting their cases to service providers (Copic and Simeunovic-Patic 2012; Surtees 2013). Moreover, some problems are common in government initiatives, identified by (Sidoti 2010: 39-40), such as: “many victims of trafficking are not identified and treated”, “many victims decline assistance offered”, “the safety of trafficked persons is not always taken into due consideration”, or “risk assessments are not always conducted”. The anti-trafficking endeavour of the government hampered due to lack of capacity and resources (Laczko and Gramegna 2003), especially in some individual developing countries, struggle with certain political, economic and administrative malfunctions that hamper anti-trafficking efforts.

Third, many scholars focus on international cooperation as a key element in effective victim protection (Adepoju 2005; David et al. 2011; Lee 2005; Rankin and Kinsella 2011; Toktas and Selimoglu 2012; Winterdyk and Reichel 2010). But, there is as of yet no common understanding of the trafficking phenomenon (Ikeora,2018). Scholars such as Gallagher (2001), Dominica (2014) offer several critical analyses on the process involved in articulating the UN convention, known as the Palermo protocol. Contextually, some scholars and activists contend that the way in which the description has been framed is vague and problematic (Gallagher,2001). Jordan (2002) criticises that ‘intentional ambiguity’ as some of the vagueness within the definition of human trafficking given in UN protocol, does not prevent governments from making their own definitions. For instance, it has continually proven difficult to reach an international consensus regarding the interpretation of ‘exploitation’, given that its severity varies, generating a range of experiences across victims of trafficking. It fails to define “abuse of power,” “vulnerability,” and “control” (Weitzer, 2014). It is difficult to apply the Palermo protocol in practice and document cases where the distinction between smuggling and trafficking is blurred as smuggling involves vulnerability and exploitation but not deception or coercion (Skilbrei and Tveit 2008). As it stands, the UN protocol does not break ‘new grounds or grant new rights’ nor significantly guarantee the responsibility of states to protect trafficked victims (Gallagher,2001). This is the reason of poor cooperation between or among the countries or agencies to exchange trafficking information (David 2006; Aronowitz 2009). Furthermore, traffickers are regularly responding and adapting to the social, economic and political arenas in which recruitment and trafficking take place, which makes it imperative that anti-trafficking actors are equipped with detailed and up-to-date information about traffickers and their activities (Surtees, 2008). Undeniably, applying international law to an offender or trafficker who resides in another state is a costly and complex endeavour because the vast resources needed to make the officers able to properly enforce anti-trafficking laws (King, 2008). Also, human trafficking usually violates several laws but building a case against traffickers can take a great deal of time, resources, and energy (King,2008). At some points, language barrier is often making information-gathering problematic between enforcement officers and the victims since victims are usually not in their country of origin.

However, at international level, it is important to be agreed on the issue of what human trafficking constitutes, so that all states operate and cooperate on the same basis (Ikeora,2018). Anti-trafficking efforts do not only require state responsibilities within its territory, but also require shared efforts in addressing the problem across their borders. Supporting this view, Duong (2014) illustrated three dimensions of collaboration, namely multi-level partnership, public-private partnership, and international partnership. International cooperation is essential to establishing effective immigration policies in destination countries (Adepoju 2005; Lee 2005). There are several ways to classify partnerships at various levels, for example, project partnership, problem-oriented partnership, ideological partnership, and ethical partnership are four types of partnerships defined by Carnwell and Carson (2005). Project and problem-oriented partnership have immediate benefit to the country of origin and destination to tackle the problem of human trafficking. Usually, the project partnership on human trafficking may be on two phases, a research phase and a programming phase which will consist of a series of program activities to address the need and demand identified by the research. However, the problem-oriented partnership is a close working partnership of between or among the countries or agencies, with local community people focusing on the root causes of a problem of human trafficking to come up with an effective solution. Successful human trafficking partnership enhances the impact and effectiveness of action through combined and more efficient use of resources and builds a strong commitment between or among the countries. Therefore, a good partnerships must explicitly define “respective roles and cooperative mechanisms”, need “good communication between partners involved”, need to be “monitored routinely and evaluated regularly”, need the “understanding and sharing difficulties between partners” and must “place staff development and training at the core of activities”. Also, all activities “must be well-coordinated and be consistent with partnership goals” (Duong 2014:p,171). International and inter-agency cooperation is therefore required professional trafficking prevention, prosecution, and victim protection (Adepoju 2005; Aronowitz 2009; David et al. 2011; Lee 2005). Alvarez and Alessi, (2012) give first priority on victim treatment such as cognitive therapy, trauma counselling, and social support in the case of anxiety and disorders. They also emphasized on awareness campaigns of as a tool of anti-human trafficking. Aronowitz (2009), and Gallagher and Holmes (2008) recommends that governments should establish and implement a ‘National Action Plan on Human Trafficking’ or similar instruments and make convenient way for joint response by all stakeholders, including police, prosecutors, NGOs, civil society and media. In that case, the organizations which providing services to victim need to have a clear understanding of the factors that contribute to creating a successful programs (Ide and Mather).

Conclusion

This article emphasized a holistic strategy at the national and international level followed by human rights-based strategies and also explained why this is not yet seen globally. The problem of human trafficking has exponentially increased due to globalization, poverty, organized crime, government corruption, and the growth of the global commercial sex industry (Kathryn Cullen-DuPont 2009: 3-9.). The problem of human trafficking cannot be solved simply by changing the behaviour of victims (Surtees,2008), rather both global and regional responses are required to stem the growth of human trafficking problem (Shelley 2010). Also, it is necessary to raise awareness levels and provide official training for governmental staff, establishing clearer cooperation procedures, improving communication between countries or agencies (Aronowitz 2009; David 2006; Sun-Suon 2014). Bosco, Di Cortemiglia, and Serojitdinov (2009) suggest that appropriate national structures and inter-governmental cooperation should provide effective psychological, social, and legal supports to the victim of human trafficking. In addition, inter-government or agency cooperation is needed with particular attention to its effect on improving policy and legal frameworks, strengthening specialist trafficking response and information exchange, providing effective support services to victim and official training, and developing the capacity of law enforcement institutions in investigating and prosecuting human trafficking (David 2007; Kneebone and Debeljak 2012;Rankin and Kinsella 2011; Sidoti 2010; Surtees 2013).An integrated framework helps enhance the prevention and control strategies utilized to reduce human trafficking (Lutya & Lanier, 2012). When governmental institutions collaborate to establish good referrals within a country, victims can access comprehensive services during their integration process. Having basic needs met and gaining skills and resources for the future, victims also need social support to assist with emotional and relational trauma associated with trafficking. Although this is a more time-consuming approach, in the longer term it is arguably more effective for an anti-trafficking measure.

Reference

1. Lutya, T. M., & Lanier, M. (2012). An integrated theoretical framework to describe human trafficking of young women and girls for involuntary prostitution. In Public health-Social and behavioral health: InTech.
2. van den Anker, C. (2013). Cosmopolitanism and trafficking of human beings for forced labour. In Sex as Crime? (pp. 159-177): Willan.
3. Weitzer, R. (2014). New Directions in Research on Human Trafficking. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 653(1), 6-24. doi:10.1177/0002716214521562

Introduction to the Global Crisis of Human Trafficking

“Worldwide trafficking projections range from 350,000 to 1.5 million victims, with, again, the vast majority being women and children…In addition, as many as 50% of all trafficking victims are said to be children or adolescents, both girls and boys” (Schauer and Wheaton). Human trafficking can be traced all the way back to slave trading which was usually with African Americans, men, and children. It was also popular through white slavery which was between white women and children. Of course human trafficking back then was more of slavery, labor work, and prostitution. In this day and age, there are even more different kinds of human trafficking such as sexual exploitation, domesticated servitude, organ harvesting, and forced labor. Human trafficking has become a growing issue in the United States, especially with children. Bigger saving graces like the use of technology could put an end to trafficking and smaller help like informing people on the issue better, learning human trafficking signs, and volunteering for trafficking organizations could put an end to this horrible issue. With the help of the national government, the local community, and individuals this issue can be taken over and cease to exist entirely.

The Silent Crime: Vulnerability and Exploitation of Children

Human trafficking is a silent crime that is so successful because it leaves victims feeling voiceless and helpless, and giving the traffickers an easy way out. Of course, there are plenty of other reasons why human trafficking has grown over the years and why children are such easy targets. Many problems have arisen through the increased establishment and use of technology. Making new friends online through social media and gaming poses a risk towards children because they are easy to manipulate emotionally and physically. Making friends seems harmless to children even if they do not know the user. Once a trust and foundation is built, the user could lure the child to meet in real life and then the child is stolen away for profit. Kendall Wolz, assistant director of Baptist Friendship House, a shelter for trafficking victims stated, “A majority of the girls we work with were lured through social media” (Talamo). It is easy in today’s day and age for children and younger teens to come in contact with people over social media and be tempted with money or a goal they have, such as modeling. Even without technology, all it would take is a shiny new toy, candy, or sweet talk for a child to go for and be snatched up. Not to mention if the trafficker is someone the child knows personally, it can be easier to trust the trafficker. Human traffickers and victims can be anyone from well known people in the community to strangers on the street who are just trying to make money. One reason for trafficking a child could be that some children speak different languages than their trafficker does and traffickers try to appeal pleasantly and reel in the child. If a post trafficking child has been saved and speaks another language it is already scary enough what the child went through, but trying to speak about it is hard especially when no one understands the child. After going through whatever the victim goes through, it can be hard to trust anyone even though the people are trying to help the victim. Victims lose trust and fear law enforcement, doctors, family, or friends. The suffering a child goes through during trafficking can be difficult to imagine for anyone.

Traumatic Impact on Victims and Societal Consequences

Human trafficking has a huge and horrifying impact on victims that unfortunately are dragged into this crime. Human trafficking survivors were divested from their human rights and have to learn how to live a normal life again. A child that has experienced trafficking is likely to go to jail, accept abuse from others easily, have a difficult time completing their school years, and struggle in relationships. Many long-term effects can include physical complications and mental illnesses such as anxiety, depression, fatigue, gastrointestinal and intestinal issues, suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and weight loss. According to a cross-sectional study done by multiple doctors and researchers, the main outcome of the study proved, “Children and adolescents in post trafficking care showed high symptom levels of depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder, which are strongly associated with self-harm or suicidal behaviors” (Kiss et al. 1). Children have excellent memory and minds, which means they are able to remember everything that happened to them while in the possession of their trafficker. Nightmares and insomnia can have a lasting effect because children remember the pain they survived. Most trafficking children do not socialize with many people, especially other children through their captivity which can be damaging to a child’s social skills. It is difficult for victims to live their life normally again. Not only does trafficking affect the child victim but it is painful for the family and friends who lose that child. It can be hard to cope with and creates depression throughout the family and sometimes lead to divorce with the parents. Human trafficking not only effects people but also effects societies. Human trafficking increases the act of organized crime, encourages corruption, and can be damaging to the governments authority, while in local communities it can create depressed wages, an undereducated generation, and shortage of people to care for others (Davidson). It hurts the economy by money theft and also funding other illegal crimes such as theft and robbery. If human trafficking is not tackled as a whole, it will only grow into a bigger problem with more children and families hurting and traffickers profiting.

Legal Frameworks and Technological Interventions Against Trafficking

There are multiple laws and acts that have been created over the years. Some have worked better than others but attempts have been made to combat this serious crime. Over twenty years ago, the United Nations proceeded to pass the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, which helped mainly women and children and raise more concern to the public outlook (McGhee 5). The United States along with other countries ratified and uses the protocol now. Many states across the United States have different legislation on human trafficking. Obviously there has not been much notice towards human trafficking because it is still a huge, ongoing crime but through the help of the people there can be more done. Individuals should educate themselves on local and state laws pertaining to human trafficking and asking representatives what they are doing about it. Additionally, the use of technology has increased with the help of tracking down traffickers. Law-enforcement can pose as a child on the internet, leading the trafficker right into their trap. The child trafficker communicates with whom they believe to be a young child or minor, who once again are easy to prey on, and is set up to meet in an undisclosed place. This method has worked on multiple occasions and even last year. Homeland Security Investigations was able to remove over 3,500 traffickers in the community which was up 18% from the previous year (ICE HSI). Establishing national-level task groups online to fight against more traffickers should be a bigger deal that helps the end of human trafficking. Since children are more prone to being lured online, they need to learn internet safety and not to talk to anyone because of what it could possibly lead to. Setting up stricter websites that do not allow the selling of human beings should be made and put into effect as soon as possible. There are sites online mainly on the dark web that sell people but there has been little done to ban the sites. There should also be something done about the dark web, since it is a good hiding spot for traffickers to sell their victims and get away with no punishment. The dark web is a terrible place where children are exploited and child pornography can be sold which is another reason it should be shut down. There are many good and bad aspects of technology but using it to track down human traffickers is one way to put an end to human trafficking.

Community Engagement and Individual Responsibility in Combating Trafficking

In local communities, individuals should be more informed on what is going on with trafficking and understand the issue that this is happening right now all over the United States. There are campaigns across the board on helping victims and taking down human trafficking as a whole. Individuals can volunteer their time and effort at a number of different anti-trafficking campaigns locally around communities. If people do not have as much time to give to these campaigns, there is always the option to donate money towards those campaigns. People should be taught about what each of these signs look like in victims and trafficking and know there is a human trafficking hotline to call for any suspicious activity or signs. Suspicious signs can include dependency on a person usually their employer, physical signs of abuse, restriction to basic rights, avoiding eye contact, and in poor condition or malnourished (Dettmeijer-vermeulen 219). Showing dependency is the biggest one because the victim wants to please and listen most likely so they are not punished or hurt by their trafficker. Of course this is a huge issue that can not be abolished overnight but coming together and working to end it could be how this is taken down. This problem is happening across every state in the United States and there has to be more done to stop this crime.

Conclusion: A Unified Approach to Eradicate Human Trafficking

Human trafficking with children has only grown as an issue over time and will only become a bigger, more dangerous issue if it is not dealt with. There has been much progress throughout the years to take a stand on this issue and try to dismantle it, but there definitely has to be much more done. If the community and individuals came together and volunteered the time to learn more about human trafficking there could be more people with knowledge on the issue who can help combat the problem. Human trafficking happens everywhere across the United States. Having the government, local communities, and individuals care and come together will put steps toward ending human trafficking and saving lives. Many people do not realize how huge and serious human trafficking has become. Knowing and realizing the signs of human trafficking could save someone’s life.

Works Cited

1. Currie-McGhee, Leanne. ‘Human Rights in Focus: Human Trafficking.’ 2018. SIRS Issues Researcher, https://login.proxy071.nclive.org/login?url=https://explore.proquest.com/sirsissuesresearcher/document/2260156839?accountid=11048.
2. Davidson, Tish. ‘Human Trafficking.’ Gale Encyclopedia of Public Health, edited by Gale, 1st edition, 2013. Credo Reference, https://login.proxy071.nclive.org/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/galegph/human_trafficking/0?institutionId=5106.
3. Department of Homeland Security. “ICE HSI Helps Remove More than 3,500 Sexual Predators from Community, up 18% over Last Year.” ICE, 2019, www.ice.gov/news/releases/ice-hsi-helps-remove-more-3500-sexual-predators-community-18-over-last-year.
4. Dettmeijer-vermeulen, Corinne. ‘Trafficking in Human Beings. Ten Years of Independent Monitoring by the Dutch Rapporteur on Trafficking in Human Beings.’ European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, vol. 18, no. 3, 2012, pp. 283-302. ProQuest, https://login.proxy071.nclive.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1032944314?accountid=11048, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10610-011-9162-y.
5. Kiss, Ligia, et al. ‘Exploitation, violence, and suicide risk among child and adolescent survivors of human trafficking in the Greater Mekong Subregion.’ JAMA pediatrics 169.9 (2015): e152278-e152278. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abstract/2430958.
6. Schauer, Edward J., and Elizabeth M. Wheaton. ‘Sex Trafficking Worldwide.’ Encyclopedia of Adolescence, Roger J. R. Levesque, Springer Science+Business Media, 2nd edition, 2018. Credo Reference, https://login.proxy071.nclive.org/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/sprgstv/sex_trafficking_worldwide/0?institutionId=5106.
7. Talamo, Lex. “Victim: I was 4 when my dad started trafficking me.” Shreveport Times, 23 May 2016, https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/watchdog/2016/05/23/victims-sex-trafficking-share-their-stories/83538332/

Under U.S. law, human trafficking is defined as a child or adult induced by force, fraud or coercion into performing a commercial sex act or being used for physical labour. Trafficking is a sadistic business in which exploiters, disguised as a kind neighbour or businessman, force young women, children or men to sell themselves for labour and sex. Trafficking is a form of modern slavery, victims may die in the business, or if they’re a lucky survivor they leave with such terrible physical and emotional damage it may well lead to suicide. Human trafficking must be recognised, and put to an end.

Human trafficking is not widely recognised because it is not visible in everyday life, however as hidden and secretive as it may be; it still exists and is the bane of many people’s exist. Trafficking second largest criminal enterprise in the world, 24.9 million people world wide are forced to give labour services, one in four of these victims are children younger than 15. These children are stuck under the shadow of domestic slavery, unable to leave until they are rescued, or die. Exploiters, or predators, are often hidden in places you would least expect. Disguised as a saviour, a generous aid coming to help or a man of business- they prey on less fortunate adults who may be struggling financially or young children who feel out of place or are abused at home. First these exploiters act as a friend, they generously offer love and help, with promises for an amazing future of travelling, employment or safety. Using these tactics, victims stumble straight into the inescapable clutch of slavery, unaware of the years of abuse and rape they are now to face.

Anyone can be cast under dark shadow of modern day slavery: Karla Jacinto, only 23 years old, is a survivor of 4 years of human trafficking. Karla, 12 years old at the time, was forced with threats against her family, into a business of prostitution. Having not even hit puberty yet, she was forced to sell herself for sex to 30 men a day 7 days a week- this went on for 4 entire years. The demons of fear and violation that chased Karla were inescapable, at barely 15 years old she gave birth to a baby girl that was immediately taken from her and sold to another trafficking business. At age 16, Karla finally fell into the hands of of a Mexican Anti-Human Trafficking organisation, were she was rescued along with 3 other girls, however the 4 years, 1460 days, 35040 hours of abuse and torment that she endured have stuck with her ever since.

Trafficking victims are at a great vulnerability, even after they are rescued. Just think about if for a second, being sold into a business of trafficking, you could be as young as 10 years old- while other kids your age are going to school, playing sports and then coming back home to a loving family, you are being abused and beaten into giving labour services to anyone who might want. The physical and emotional scarring would be inevitably horrific, years later you might still be in pain; this is of course if you made it out of the trafficking business and back to your family alive. Children can loose their childhoods to trafficking, their lives as well.

People think there isn’t much they can do to prevent human trafficking, they don’t realise that everyone could very well be profiting the trafficking businesses just by going grocery shopping. Think, where do most your clothes come from? China is ranked second on the list of countries with the highest human trafficking rate, by buying clothes produced through cheap labour, you are paying the trafficking exploiters, encouraging them to capture more victims. Everyone has the capability to help prevent or minimise trafficking worldwide, including students like you. Next time you go shopping, I encourage you to look at the tag, where was this product really made? Is the brand ethical or could it be linked back to abused factory workers on the other side of the world? There is always something that can be done, whether this is donating to anti-human trafficking charities or watching what you buy; there is always a way.

The prevalence of end-stage renal disease requiring transplantation in india is calculable to be between 151 and 232 per million population (Modi and Jha 2011). If a mean of those figures was taken, it is calculable that nearly 220,000 individuals need kidney transplantation in india. Against this, currently, only 7500 kidney transplantations are performed at 250 kidney transplant centers in india (Shroff 2016). Kidney sellers in india hail from urban slums as well as from drought-prone farming districts close to the cities where transplant surgeries are performed (Cohen 2003). A study was conducted on 305 kidney sellers from Chennai in 2002, of that seventy one were females and the average age was thirty five years. in the case of forty seven participants, both spouses had sold their kidneys. In 70% of the cases, middlemen were also taking part in the commercialism of kidneys. 96% of them sold their kidneys to pay off debts that came from food, household expenses, rent, healthcare expenses and wedding expenses (Goyal 2002). According to Goyal (2002), “The amount promised for selling a kidney averaged 1,410 USD (range: 450-6,280 USD), while the amount actually received averaged 1,070 USD (range: 450-2,660 USD). Of the 292 participants who sold a kidney to pay off debts, 216 (74%) still had debts at the time of the survey.”

However, negative health, economic, social, and psychological impacts for victims of organ trafficking have become apparent according to studies released in 2002 (Goyal 2002) and 2003 (TT Bureau 2011). Results in these studies show that a sale of a kidney in India has not been linked to an improvement in economic status but rather with an eventual decline in household income. Only four victims (4%) of those interviewed whose debt led them to the kidney sale indicated that they were able to settle the debt from the payment. Interactions of experts with kidney recipients from India unveiled that not only the sellers but also the buyers are at risk. Having spent a huge amount of money on buying a kidney and the transplant procedure, many of them are not able to keep up with the long-term immunosuppressant therapy which is essential in preventing the rejection of the transplant by the recipients’ body. More often than not, recipients misjudge the long-term expenses and their monthly income cannot support these unforeseen costs, which eventually leads to kidney failure (Cohen 2011). According to Dr Lawrence Cohen (2011), “scandals of trickery and unfair payment to kidney sellers tarnished the reputation of many of the five-star hospitals in India and resulted in the passing of the Transplantation of Human Organs Act (THOA) in 1994.” THOA (1994) has significantly decreased organ trade in India. However, the Coalition for Organ-Failure Solutions India (COFS) has pointed out 1,500 victims of organ trafficking in Chennai and Erode in Tamil Nadu and regards this number as just “the tip of an iceberg” taking into account the flourishing kidney market in Chennai, Kolkata and Bangalore (Cohen 2011).

Reasons for Human Organ Trafficking

Individuals interviewed in the above mentioned study reported that debt was the main reason to sell a kidney (98%), and they had recoursed to the sale with the hope of putting an end to their debt and rise above poverty. Wedding expenses, healthcare, food, and household expenses were the most common origin of these debts as stated in the 2002 study in Chennai (Goyal 2002). Dr Cohen’s observations also support this. In his own interviews with social workers, journalists and 30 kidney sellers in Ayanavaram, one of the slums in Chennai, he discovered that people sell their kidneys to pay off their debts, but gradually fall back into the cycle of debt. He also noted that the remaining money after repayment of their debts is used for wedding expenses, healthcare costs, legal fees and education of their children.

Furthermore, he mentions “Kidney zones emerge through interactions between surgical entrepreneurs, persons facing extraordinary debt, and medical brokers. As a region becomes known to brokers as a kidney zone, their search for new sellers intensifies”. Hence, the decision to sell a kidney is not just due to a natural state of poverty, but also associated with a debt crisis alongside the availability of a kidney market (Cohen 2003). Unfortunately, none of the victims had information about the dangers resulting from the procedure, nor did they receive the full amount that was promised (Budiani-Saberi and Columb 2013).

In a sociological perspective, the concept behind human organ trafficking can be explained by Karl Marx’s theory of class. In Capital, Marx states that in a developed capitalist society there is only a capitalist class and a proletarian class. Capitalists, who are also called the bourgeoisie, are described in the Communist Manifesto as ‘owners of the means of social production and employers of wage labor.’ The proletariat are said to be ‘the class of modern wage-laborers who, having no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labor-power in order to live.’ (Ollman 1968). According to Rummel (1975), “Class is thus determined by property, not by income or status. These are determined by distribution and consumption, which itself ultimately reflects the production and power relations of classes. The social conditions of bourgeoisie production are defined by bourgeois property.” Class is therefore a hypothetical and institutional relationship among individuals. The modern economic system promotes high levels of poverty in India. The International Monetary Fund suggests that a third of the population in India lives below the government’s poverty line (International Monetary Fund 2012). Victims of organ trafficking who were interviewed in this study fair worse than the average Indian with a mean monthly salary of 3119 INR or 59 USD. The goal of organ trafficking is set on profit maximisation, which benefits the higher end of the hierarchy, but victimises the rest. This can be supported by Dr Cohen’s study. According to Dr Cohen (2003), “Given the complex scenario in India, the so-called ‘ethical’ organ trade may help the organ brokers and debt brokers, rather than helping the poor sellers.” Furthermore, impoverished people who live in the kidney-selling zones often regard their kidneys as a commodity, sometimes as the only valuable asset they own in order to bring themselves out of their debts (Farhat Moazam, Riffat Moazam Zaman and Aamir M. Jafarey 2009).

How globalisation contributed to the escalation of Human Organ Trafficking

According to the international business literature, human organ trafficking has been accelerated by economic globalization. Goble (2000) mentions that “human organ trafficking has become the fastest growing type of organized crime under economic globalization.” Scheper-Hughes (2000) adds that economic globalization has encouraged the spread of human organs across national borders. Traffickers treat human organs as just economic commodities in a globalized economy (Goble 2000). Economic globalization may aggravate the illegal circulation of human organs around the world. Therefore, it is believed that economic globalization is closely tied with trafficking. Globalisation through the advancement of technology has also allowed for transplant tourism. “Transplant tourists” are traveling to well known destinations to receive easily accessible organs for transplantation, available from the impoverished people of that destination country who sell mostly kidneys, but in some cases, a lobe of the liver or a cornea (Delmonico 2009). Prior to this, organ brokers were restricted to harvesting organs from people in close proximity to them. But now, through the use of advertisements on the internet under the guise of a company selling consumer products or holiday packages, they are able to connect a recipient and a donor from two different countries and even arrange for the surgery to be done in an entirely separate country. This makes it difficult for governments to trace the individuals who are involved (Hill 2014).

Charles Hurst (2016) reveals an unfortunate reality on the commodification of human organs, “In the world of globalized capitalism, all objects lose distinction. They stand apart merely on the basis of their relative equivalence, each with a price, or rather an exchange value.” Each country needs an independent system of organ transplantation to cease the inequity that portrays the healthcare system presently. A transnational crime like human organ trafficking has shed light on the movement of resources from the Global North to the Global South, from the wealthy to the impoverished; and this movement must come to an end.

REFERENCES

1. Cohen, Lawrence. 2003. ‘Where It Hurts: Indian Material For An Ethics Of Organ Transplantation.’ Zygon® 38(3):663-688.
2. Shroff, Sunil. 2016. ‘Current Trends In Kidney Transplantation In India.’ Indian Journal of Urology 32(3):173.
3. Modi, Gopesh, and Vivekanand Jha. 2011. ‘Incidence Of ESRD In India.’ Kidney International 79(5):573.
4. Goyal, Madhav. 2002. ‘Economic And Health Consequences Of Selling A Kidney In India.’ JAMA 288(13):1589.
5. TT Bureau. 2011. Retrieved October 2, 2019 (http://www. telegraphindia.com/1111113/jsp/7days/story_14743553.jsp).
6. Cohen, Lawrence. 2011. ‘Migrant Supplementarity: Remaking Biological Relatedness In Chinese Military And Indian Five-Star Hospitals.’ Body & Society 17(2-3):31-541.
7. Budiani-Saberi, Debra, and Seán Columb. 2013. ‘A Human Rights Approach To Human Trafficking For Organ Removal.’ Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 16(4):897-914.
8. Ollman, Bertell. 1968. ‘Marx’s Use Of ‘Class’.’ American Journal of Sociology 73(5):573-580.
9. Rummel, Rudolph J. 1975. Understanding Conflict And War. New York: John Wiley.
10. International Monetary Fund. 2012. ‘India: 2012 Article IV Consultation-Staff Report; Staff Statement And Supplements; Public Information Notice On The Executive Board Discussion; And Statement By The Executive Director For India.’ IMF Staff Country Reports 12(96):i.
11. Farhat Moazam, Riffat Moazam Zaman, and Aamir M. Jafarey. 2009. ‘Conversations With Kidney Vendors In Pakistan: An Ethnographic Study.’ Hastings Center Report 39(3):29-44.
12. Goble, Paul. 2000. ‘World: Analysis From Washington — Globalization Of Slavery.’ RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. Retrieved October 2, 2019 (https://www.rferl.org/a/1095273.html).
13. Scheper-Hughes. 2000. ‘The Global Traffic In Human Organs.’ Current Anthropology 41(2):191.
14. Delmonico, F. L. 2009. ‘The Hazards Of Transplant Tourism.’ Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
15. Hurst, Charles E. 2016. Living Theory: The Application Of Classical Social Theory To Contemporary Life. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge.
16. Abraham, Mathew. 2015. Endslavery.va. Retrieved October 2, 2019 (http://www.endslavery.va/content/endslavery/en/publications/acta_20/abraham.pdf).
17. Hill, Julianna. 2014. ‘The Organ Black Market.’ GLOBALIZATION: The Fuel For The Organ Trade. Retrieved October 2, 2019 (https://juliannalindahill.weebly.com/).
18. Cho, Hyuksoo, Man Zhang, and Patriya Tansuhaj. 2009. ‘An Empirical Study On International Human Organ Trafficking: Effects Of Globalization. Innovative Marketing.’ Pdfs.semanticscholar.org. Retrieved October 2, 2019 (https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/4d4f/929ddf53d5d3ce9b94c5537c6b89aca57766.pdf).
19. Budiani-Saberi, D., Raja, K., Findley, K., Kerketta, P., & Anand, V. (2014). Human trafficking for organ removal in India: a victim-centered, evidence-based report. Transplantation, 97(4), 380–384. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.TP.0000438624.83472.55

We sleep in a very world that has accepted man’s absolute management over another. The undue trade and enslavement of persons inside the twenty initial century reflects a degenerate state of affairs that confirms that the most effective ethical challenge facing the globe these days is human trafficking. Human trafficking involves the utilization of human deception to require advantage of the vulnerable through forceful husking of their dignity and self-worth. It portrays a distinct image of distinction among equals with connectedness the right of every individual over his or her life, as trafficked victims are compelled to sell their inherent freedom and are subject to powerful subjugation. Their need help is sunken inside the ocean of constant oppression and general sense of apathy that has been continued for many years.

Human trafficking might be a international development that manifests inside the type of sex trafficking, thrall, and organ trafficking. economic condition lies at the center of human trafficking. In sex trafficking, women and youngsters are simply reduced to the standing of a gratifying sexual commodity. it’s become associate organized billion dollar trade and has at its core, investors, unscrupulous recruiters and corrupt public officers as principal participants. economic process has born to a business entirely dedicated to providing transportation, solid documents, legal, financial and accounting facilitate. crime in Kamathipura, India’s largest dominion, generates $400 million with 100,000 prostitutes United Nations agency are kidnapped and trafficked from India’s rural areas.

Exploiters profit of the broken setting of victims and lure them with false guarantees of a a lot of sturdy life. throughout the trafficking technique, victims are subjected to ‘grooming’ through constant physical and crime therefore on force them to submit. Blind faith leads victims to Hell of darkness as caution is compromised because of desperation. Cops usually conspire with traffickers reciprocally at no cost sexual favors. This hypocrisy among the upholders of justice deters victims from seeking facilitate.

Sometimes of us, desirous to repay their debts, sell their ladies to bagnio householders reciprocally for a paltry total. this is often often notably seen inside the ‘Dalit’ or untouchable community in country. In Belize, school-aged minors are forced by their own of us to provide sexual favors to loaded older men stated as sugar-daddies, in exchange for school fees. Daughters in country are oversubscribed as brides to repay the narcotic debts of their fathers. as a result of the globe progresses, usually the gift of parentage is oversubscribed out.

The most brutal quite sex trafficking is that the commercial exploitation of youngsters. Sadists take advantage of the favored belief that having sex with a virgin would cure them of sexually transmitted diseases. little ladies are raped associated tortured to such Associate in Nursing extent thattheir system is permanently broken depriving them of their natural right to maternity. The incidents of sexual exploitation among young boys are seldom detected of because of the full failure on our 0.5 to acknowledge its existence that’s further fuelled by the gender-biased assumption that there’ll ne’er be male victims. The apply of bachcabaazi in country and laundanach in Asian country, where boys dress up as ladies and entertain men, provides associate insight into the world of male sex slavery and crime.

Under the appearance of religion, the medieval Devadasi system remains rife in country where young ladies are trafficked and married off to a ‘temple divinity.’ they’re then forced to provide sexual services to monks and higher caste ‘devotees’ with no hopes of a real wedding. The double standards of people are despicable. Men United Nations agency degrade the lower caste Dalits don’t hesitate to possess sex with their women. Traumatized and discredited by this fashion of life, these women eventually leave their name and identity.

Failure to include victims of sex trafficking in society is partly due to the social stigma connected to their previous means. Those victims United Nations agency are rescued are usually ostracized by the thought society. Standing on pedestals, created by our own holier-than-thou minds, we tend to tend to make a decision trafficked sex-workers with disgust and contempt, as we tend to tend to fail to grasp that nearly all of them were oversubscribed into the flesh trade by their families and friends. This social isolation is one altogether the reasons that drive victims into the flesh trade. Another damaging aspect of human trafficking is that the transformation of female victims into exploitatory traffickers themselves as their conscience is marred by the luxuries provided by instant cash. it’s imperative to grasp that prostitutes aren’t criminals, but victims of the society that has allowed crime.

The unjust, previous apply of thrall, where labor is provided as a technique of compensation of loan with very little or no pay, is predominantly rife in developing countries. Descent and caste-based discrimination, poverty, illiteracy and lack of presidency welfare schemes lie at the center of this contemporary quite slavery. a kind of descent-based slavery exists in Nigeria where women and young women are oversubscribed as unofficial wives stated as wahaya and subject to domestic and sexual slavery.

In India, secured labour is even on the grounds of sophistication structure, i.e. the belief that not all men are born equal and some are forever meant to be at the mercy of another. What saddens North yankee nation is that the reluctance on the a vicinity of our government to acknowledge the large-scale existence of this apply. Many, in addition as public officers, hold the prejudiced scan that this is often often a social development exclusive to villages, and will be overlooked despite a legislation that abolishes this technique. The textile mills in Madras, a southern state of country, mask a recent quite slavery inside the type of Sumangali theme, whereby daughters of low caste families unknowingly fall prey to bondage reciprocally for a wedding advance. as a result of the journey towards wedding seventh heaven looks to be a torturesome one, one cannot facilitate but marvel at however exploiters have left no stone right-side-up in their mission to need advantage of the poverty-stricken. The condition of domestic servants, in addition as children, is frightful, as they’re created to work for hours, with nominal food and routinely subject to physical abuse. Foreign domestic workers, significantly inside the geographical region, are constantly intimidated by powerful brokers and face severe legal and financial hurdles if they dare to escape from their employers.

One of the ugliest manifestations of debt bondage is forced child labor seen in mining, beedi, silk, and carpet industries of country and as artiodactyl mammal jockeys in United Arab Emirate [UAE] countries. children are gullible and will be merely vulnerable or manipulated. they’re forced to need up their parents’ responsibility of compensation of debt and are below the belt denied education throughout their nurturing years. In war torn countries, children are kidnaped and created to affix militias. These child troopers are robbed of their childhood, are reworked into savage animals, and are brainwashed into basic cognitive operation killing is correct.

Organ trafficking might be a relatively new violation that has overrun the world. Demand for human organs means exceeds the availability resulting in emergence of conniving middlemen or agents United Nations agency theme with unscrupulous medical professionals to cheat the poor. These of us are unaware of the medical consequences of organ donation and provides their consent out of desperate would love for money.

Human trafficking could be a ton of or less a structured trade with every demand and supply sides. limiting demand, i.e. those finance such illegal operations, will facilitate in edge human trafficking. Countries can collaborate to make a standardized information for information on human trafficking. Embassies have to be compelled to become victim friendly. Security at international borders have to be compelled to be tightened to counter international trafficking. coaching job sessions have to be compelled to be provided to social control agencies in handling rescue operations and addressing victims of sex trafficking.

Lack of political will to instantly address the idea causes of human trafficking has end in its enlargement. Governments ought to perceive that every individual has the right to life, which includes right to food, education and employment and therefore ought to produce provisions for the same. In country and totally different developing countries, to combat slavery, it’s crucial to possess a deep understanding of the financial, political and cultural power structures in society. States can discovered commissions, beside NGOs, to conduct comprehensive surveys and establish of us involved in all forms of human trafficking. this could facilitate inside the rescue and rehabilitation processes.

Every person can contribute towards this cause by being alert in his section and coverage suspicious activities to authorities on hotline numbers.Only when we tend to tend to started researching did we perceive fully the seriousness of this disadvantage. it’s necessary to create awareness among students through seminars and workshops.

There is very little doubt we tend to tend to sleep in a very world that creates a speciality of constructing broken of us day by day. We’ve reached a degree where eradicating human trafficking isn’t any further restricted to few willing folks and organizations. Anyone, in any manner, can facilitate in minimizing this criminal condition. It merely comes all the means right down to whether or not or not we tend to tend to are willing to need that opening.

Most people have probably heard of those horror stories. Blacking out, and the next thing you know, you are in a bathtub covered in ice. A laceration of the side of your body. A missing organ. Organ trafficking is defined as the “practice of using exploitation, coercion, or fraud to steal or illegally purchase or sell organs” () A lesser-known form of trafficking, organ trafficking has played a huge impact on the world because of the consequences that come from the profits people can make out of selling organs. The relatively low amount of available organs compared to the high number of people who need them, fuels a demand for organs that people are willing to pay any price for. Organ traffickers use this knowledge to help boost their market, as they sell the organs of the young and the old. Organ trafficking is a form of trafficking that goes by under the radar and should be brought to light because of the severe repercussions it can spawn.

Organ trafficking is the reason for many kidnappings and murders in a lot of countries. The desperate need for organs charges many traffickers to take advantage of the situation and earn money. In many cases, they decide to go to extreme lengths to get these organs, some lengths include murder and abduction. Jiayang Fan, a writer for the New Yorker detailed the heartbreaking story of a little boy from China named Guo Bin, who was subject to these horrible crimes. The Guo Bin. had awakened to a dark world in front of him and a bloody face. His eyes had been gouged out. “The boy told his mother that the last words spoken to him by the still-unidentified woman who kidnapped and drugged him were ‘Don’t cry, and I won’t gouge your eyes out’” (Fan). Organ trafficking was an extremely prominent illegal business in China. My research has led me to articles and documentaries about how China would forcibly harvest organs from prisoners and around that period the organ market was booming at 1 billion dollars even though there were not that many donors on the official lists (Perry). Kidneys, hearts, livers, and corneas were all trafficked around the world for profit, leading people to believe that Guo Bin had fallen victim to one of these crimes. Corneas would be up to 30,000 US dollars, making them extremely profitable especially if they were healthy eyes. This is a clear motive for someone to attack young Guo Bin and steal his eyes. He was not the only one. There are many stories of people being trafficked to get their organs harvested all over the world. More people have experienced similar stories. For example, “an African girl (who) was kidnapped and rescued in the UK before her organs could be harvested” (Perry). However, despite what I thought there were not as many recorded cases of organ trafficking as I had expected. Yet, many articles detailed that large numbers of people meet the same fate as Guo Bin. But, there are not many records of what happened. This goes to show just how organ trafficking goes under the radar a lot of the time and is not discussed enough. People are still physically forced to give away their organs against their will in many countries. However, more commonly people are coerced into agreeing to traffic their organs in many places.

Organ Trafficking targets and manipulates vulnerable populations all around the world. This is a common pattern seen in all kinds of trafficking, organ trafficking not being excluded from the list. In many countries struck by poverty, people are compelled to do anything to get them money. This is discussed in the BBC News article, “Iraqi families sell organs to overcome poverty”. In the article, the author, Ahmed Maher details the story of a poor Iraqi family who contemplated selling their kidneys to get money to support their family. He discusses how people were taking advantage of poor families for their benefit. In the article, there is an interview with a human rights lawyer named Firas al-Bayati. Firal al-Bayati tells Maher, “‘I have personally dealt over the past three months with 12 people who were arrested for selling their kidneys. And poverty was the reason behind their acts,’” (Bayati qtd in Maher). Human organs have a high price, especially organs such as the corneas, lungs, and perhaps the most popular of them all the kidneys. Kidneys are known to be sold for around 10,000 and 60,000 US dollars. Knowing that poverty has struck many places, organ traffickers have an easy target for people who are desperate for money and have found a new way to profit. “Gangs, offering up to $10,000 (£7,000) for a kidney, have increasingly targeted the country’s poor, making it a new hub for the organ trade across the Middle East” (Meher). This is a major issue because many poor people are desperate and will do anything to get money to support their families. They are easily manipulated into selling their organs and taking part in organ trafficking. As a result, the poor easily become simple targets to be exploited.

Although some may argue that organ trafficking can give money to people who need it, in reality, many people do not receive the money that they had expected to receive leaving them in an even worse state. A prime example of this is the story of Sundar Singh Jatav, a migrant worker from India. Jatav was looking for a way to pay off his family’s debts when his boss told him to sell his kidney for $10,000. According to the PBS news article discussing Jatav’s story, after Jatav had given up his kidney, “Jatav was never paid, so he leaked part of the forged transplant application, which stated, incorrectly, that he and the recipient of his kidney are relatives, as required by law in India” (Holmes and Sagalyn). Jatav’s story is only one of many, where the poor are taken advantage of so that organ traffickers can get money. Furthermore, in the BBC News article, Iraqi families sell organs to overcome poverty, Meher got access to an Iraqi prison where they interviewed a man who had been caught in organ trafficking. After discussing what he had done, the man, Mohammad had said that he “initially did not feel guilty,” but he soon began to look at what he did differently. “‘I used to look at it as a humanitarian cause, but after a few months in this trade, I started questioning the morality – mostly because of the miserable conditions of the organ sellers. It broke my heart seeing young people doing this for money” (Mehmer). Muhammad clearly explains that people were already in such a bad condition, but by selling their organs it only became worse.

Ultimately, organ trafficking is a silent form of trafficking that needs to be regulated more to prevent more people from getting hurt. Our history has clearly shown the way that organ traffickers physically and mentally manipulate people into doing things that will forever hurt their bodies so that traffickers can get cash. Whether that be from actually kidnapping and killing people to preying on people who are subject to poverty, organ traffickers know exactly who to target. Despite the so-called “stealthy” way organ trafficking happens, there are ways to prevent things like this from happening. The government has resources that could help regulate organ trade more, but there is still more room for improvement. The first step is talking about it more and making people more aware. We might live in a secure place but you never know that the next place you travel to, you could end up waking up in a bathtub, with an organ missing.    

Methodology of the study

Description of the Study Area and population.

Dodola woreda is one of the 18 woreda’s of west Arsi zone, which is, found in the central part of Oromia in Ethiopia. It has a total area of approximately 143246 heckter with altitude ranging from 2370 to 3500 above sea level, which is almost within the range of 95% dega and 5% waina dega climate zone. The annual mean temperature oscillate between 13oc-26oc, while the average annual rainfall is between 800-1200mm. It is bordered to the south by Adaba woreda, to the northeast by Kofale, to the north -west by Kokosa and to the West by Nansabo woreda. Currently this woreda has 23 Rular kebeles and has 4 rural towns and on the basis of 2007, CSA, the woreda has a total population of 186, 907, of which, 92,471 were male and the left 94,436 shows female sections. Out of this total population, 30,250 indicate the urban residents or inhabitants of Dodola district. Here, majorities of the inhabitants (80.65%) were Muslim where by 17.89% followed by 1.3% indicate the followers of Ethiopian Orthotics Christianity and protestant respectively. Among the 23 woredas of west Arsi zone, it is one of the best woreda being characterized by having comfortable weather condition for life in general and fertile land for farm. Here, the study populations are the entire group of people to which a researcher intends the results of a study to apply (Aron & Coups, 2008).Therefore, the subjects of this study was victims of human trafficking, families’ of victims, policy officer, labour and social affair office, youth and sport office of dodola woreda and brokers.

The study was conducted in the Dodola district, West Arsi, Oromia region in Ethiopia. The reason for selecting Dodola as my study area is the following factors. As, data obtained from labour and social affair office from 2014-2018 there were the highest number of migration among West Arsi zone, Dodola were the second level in returns. Second, it is because of the researcher’s personal experience and familiarity with the language and culture of the region. The study was select focus on Edo, and Heraro town, as well as Barisa, and chare-kachama kebales because of the occurrence of a higher level of trafficking in persons than in the other kebales of the woredas. For instance, from the 2014 deportees from Saudi Arabia the highest numbers, and Kowet, Berut were small cases of trafficking victims were found respectively (Dodola woreda office of Labour and Social Affairs, 2018).

Figure 5. Map of study area description

Map of Dodola woreda Map of West Arsi zone

Source: (Dodola woreda administrative office, 2018)

Research methodology

In chapter two of this proposal, the relation between existing body of knowledge and important issues involved in assessing the causes and effects of human trafficking. This chapter explained the methodology that used in this research and different techniques that utilized while collecting data including how the primary and secondary data collected. The study was employed both qualitative and quantitative research approach.

Design and methodology of the thesis.

Research Design

The method of this research was used both descriptive and explanatory research designs. The reason to choose this research design is that, it was enables to describe and explain the intended objective of this study. In order to address these stated objectives the researcher was use both quantitative and qualitative (mixed) research approaches. However, the qualitative data type given more attention since, it is important to study research participants’ in-depth/details. As to Marshall and Ross man (1995), the strength of qualitative methodology lies in its use in descriptive research since it often employed for deeply rooted studies that attempt to interpret social reality. The issues related to human trafficking are one aspect of human problem; qualitative analysis believed to provide sufficient understanding of the subject (Roger, 2003).

Methodology of the thesis.

This method allows the researcher to investigate initial participant responses by using open-ended questions ask why or how with full freedom and flexibility. The reason why such method is used is to enable informants express their ideas in their own words and get the full picture of the problem. Hence, the researcher was primarily use the statements of the trafficking of young aged returnees to establish a pattern of the experiences, treatments and problems they face throughout their passage and in destination. Quantitative and qualitative research methods combined as complementary rather than as rival camps in data collection, analysis and interpretation. The quantitative and qualitative methods complement each other when used in combination and allow for more complete to analysis. Hence, methodological triangulation was employed in this study to understand the whole process of causes and its effects of human trafficking. The qualitative method was employ in investigation of the problem and the researcher used both first hand and second hand sources of data collection (Green et.al, 1989).

While designing mixed methods of study, the following issues need consideration: priority, implementation, and integration (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2007). This study was use sequential explanatory mixed methods design, consisting of two distinct phases. In the first phase, the quantitative (numeric) those statistical data was collected through questionnaires. In the second phase, a qualitative data was gathering through structured and semi-structured interviews, focus group discussion, and documents studies. The qualitative data analysis was refine and explained results by exploring participants’ views more in depth.

According to Lofland (1995), sequential mixed methods of data collection strategies involve collecting data in an interactive process whereby the data collected in one phase contribute to the data collected in the next. Thus, in this study the informants was quantitatively, to obtain the categories of the respondents depend on those returnee from abroad by the act of human trafficking was identified and the frequency of the values to determine the level of the causes. while qualitatively, get to know them personally what have experienced in their life by using questions such as how, and why is happening, what are challenges, and what are key driver? To answer the how, what and the why questions, one should focus on people and settings, looking for the meanings that existed in, emerged from, and were consequential for, those settings. Because of these, the sequential mixed research method selected by the researcher to determine the frequency of the factors, compared the variables, focus on underlying reasons, opinions, feeling, perception, on problems of the human trafficking.

Sample size and sampling technique

Purposive sampling is used to select participants or specific sites for the study intentionally by the researcher (Kothari 2004:59 and Singh 2006:91). Hence, the researcher in relation to the specified criteria that were assumed important for a particular research question (Kothari 2004:59) purposefully selected participants of this study. Police officers, victims of trafficking and their families, officials from the labour and social affairs offices and representatives of the youth and sport affairs, and districts court judges’ were selected by purposive sampling technique.

Snowball sampling, which is part of purposive sampling, was used to get the target group of trafficking victims. The main strategy of snowball sampling involves identifying people with relevant attributes and asking them to pinpoint other people who have similar characteristics or challenges (Bruce 2001:33).

By purposive sampling in informants were chosen for an interview. During the selection of participants for an interview, the researcher was look into consideration the respondents’ age, expertise, social and educational status, and gender.

The total numbers of respondents for this research were 50. Out of the 50 respondents, 33 were males and, 17 were females. Among this 32 were rights holders who were victims of trafficking and the families of victims. From this, 25 of the participants was from the victims of trafficking groups; out of which 9 was females, and 16 was males, who came back from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The families’ of victims was 7; from this, 5 males and, 2 females. The majority of the sampling was from the rights holder at the age of 18 up to 28. The remaining 18 samples were from the relevant of duty bearers. 6 respondents out of the 18 duty bearers was females; and 12 was males. Among these 7 Police officers, from these 5 males and 2 female, and 6 officials from the labour and social affairs offices 4 male and 2 female; and, 2 from youth and sport office and both were 2 females; and, 3 from districts court’s judges 2 male, and 1 female.

Data gathering tools

The type of data that was be used for this study is quantitative and qualitative. Because through these techniques the numerical value of the sample and clear description and explanation of the past and current factors have been discussed. The first hand and second hand source of data was available in this study. The primary data were gathered via questionnaires, interviews and focus group discussion while the secondary data was collected through published and unpublished relevant documents, materials, reports of conference, and researches result. Data collection tool for this study treated as a matter of design that was boost the construction of both internal and external validity as well as reliability of the study that were started by planning for data collection, distribution of questionnaires and conducting of interviews. The data gathering tools employed in this study are as follow:

Questionnaires

Taylor (1998:55) explained, “Questionnaires are preferred in the study because they give respondents complete freedom of response. Both open ended and close ended questionnaire were applied to collect necessary data. The questionnaires were mainly used because it is appropriate to obtain varieties of options from a large population with in short time. To make respondents understand the questionnaire, it was prepared in English and translated in to Afan Oromo. The questionnaires were designed for Police officers, and representatives of the youth and sport offices, and districts court judges’ to get information on the nature, scale, socio-economic aspects of human trafficking and as well as its constraints.

Interview

The most common sources of data collection in qualitative research are interviews, and review of documents (Holt-Jenson, 1999:11). This study was conducted via person-to-person interview format during data collection. Interviews highly structured style were conduct, for in whom officials from the labour and social affair and the close-ended questionnaire were used primarily to gather socio- demographic information. For the most part, however, interviews are more open- ended and less structured. Frequently, the interviewers asked the same questions of the same categories of participants (For example victim of trafficking, labour and social affair officials) but the order of the questions, the exact wording, and the type of follow-up questions were varied considerably.

The researcher were used both structure and unstructured interview in which carefully worded questionnaire were administered in structured; however, the interviewer did not follow rigid form in case of unstructured. This was encouraged to capturing of respondents’ perceptions in their own words and this is desirable strategy in qualitative data collection. This allows the researcher to identify the causes and effects of human trafficking from the experience of respondent’s perspective. The interviewers was seek to be encouraged, free and open responses, and there is a tradeoff between comprehensive coverage of topics and in depth exploration of a more limited set of question. The Interviewers has also trained to deviate only minimally from the question wording to ensure uniformity of interview. Interviews were conducted with officials from the labour and social affairs offices and to get information on policy issues, challenges they faced in applying anti human trafficking, its goal is to elicit rich, detailed material that can be used in analysis.

Focus Group Discussion (FGD)

FGD was conducted with selected local community of returnees’ family members. Totally, there were seven FGDs of eight discussants. The analysis was base on the transcripts of taped interviews in Afan Oromo and converting into English. Then it was be analyzed by the researcher thematically.

Document analysis

As Lincoln and Guba (1985: 16) defined a document as ‘any written or recorded material’ not prepared for the purposes of the evaluation or at the request of the inquirer. This technique is preferred because of its ability to provide supplementary information and flexibility, which help in producing descriptive information. For the purpose of this study, Public records such as census and vital statistics reports were observed. Both published and unpublished literatures on causes and effects of human trafficking as well as internet sources were consulted. Through this study the researcher was attempts to review of the relevant written documents about subject (causes and effects of human trafficking) the written documents was consisted of Dodola district labour and social affair recorded documents, publication, reports presented at conferences, internet, and government documents.

Methods of data analysis

Mixed data analysis is a complex process that involves moving back and forth between inductive and deductive reasoning (Merriam, 1988). Data collected by qualitative methods are usually voluminous and the analysis does not involve using a set of formula like it does with statistical analysis used in quantitative methods. Therefore, in this study, the researcher was employed mixed data analysis strategy much like to go about organizing, analyzing, numerating and interpreting data. The first step in analyzing this research involved organizing the data for this purpose which essentially means analysis using of the following as data, words derived from interviews, notes of description, from questionnaires, and documents where by the methods of organizing such data was different depending up on the research strategy or data collection technique. The interview data, for instance, were organized by grouping answer together across respondents. The questionnaires were analyzed, and compared tabulated by frequency and supported by explanation.

Data analyses of this study were based on inductive analysis, which means that the patterns, themes and categories of analysis produced from the data. These were emerge out of the data rather than being decided prior to data collection and analysis via understanding, examining, tabulating or recombining the problem to identify the cause and effects of human trafficking in Dodola woreda by 2018. The report data examined and analyzed based on data collected from the distributed questionnaires, policy documents and interviews with participants. The responses of the subjects was categorized in score tables, with varying percentages calculated interpretations and drawing conclusions is done in accordance with number of each item. For the case of qualitative data, field notes have been written and work edited at the end of each working day to ensure accuracy in recording consistency information given from the respondents. After the questionnaire designed, the data was reviewed to test its validity and relevance. In addition, the data gathered in questionnaire were analyzed using descriptive statics. Its importance descriptive frequency, percentage were computed. Therefore, the collected data were presented for the reader mainly in statement format, and tabulation, Finally, Summary of findings, conclusion and recommendation was made based on data collected.

Ethical Consideration

A strict code of conduct must adhere to while doing research. Because there are varying opinions across cultures and countries on what defines ethical behavior, the ethical clearance was obtained from University of Aksum. Permission had obtained from Dodola labour and social affair offices. Informed oral consent was obtained from the study participants after explaining the purpose and objective of the study. The respondents were told that they have the right to withdraw from giving response at any time during the interview. To ensure confidentiality and privacy of participant’s names or codes that led to identify the respondent for the third party were not recorded throughout the study.

This essay will include my reflections on my experiences from medics against trafficking including my thoughts and feelings about each lecture, books and websites I have read and films watched during my self-directed learning, reflections from group work carried out and reflections on how what I have learnt and experienced in this module will impact my practice as a future doctor.

When selecting my student selected component for this semester I put this module as my first choice. I put this module as my first choice because I completed women’s global heath SSC in September where I gained some knowledge about trafficking and how this is becoming an issue in the UK which interested me at the time, so when I seen this module I felt I wanted to study it as I had an interest in the subject. I feel that trafficking is an issue in the UK, as a result I feel for my future practice as a doctor this module would help me to identify patients who could be trafficked and what to do if I suspect trafficking. Also I felt this module would be useful as there is no other modules that I do as a medical student where information about human trafficking is taught and so this was an opportunity to learn about an area that I wouldn’t learn about in any other area of the course. When I found out that I had been allocated medics against trafficking I was pleased as it had been my first choice. I felt excited about what I was going learning over the next 3 weeks especially regarding trafficking in UK and what the PSNI are doing to prevent trafficking. After reading the study guide initially I felt a bit nervous about the group work sometimes people do not always pull their weight in group projects and I may end up doing more than my fair share of the work.

Before taking this module I thought that human trafficking was forcing people to move away from their home with the promise of a better life but when the person got to the new country or place they were forced into sex work and were not paid for it, however after completing this module I now realise that trafficking is not just forced sex but can also include forced criminality, domestic servitude, forced marriage, forced organ removal and even forced labour (1–3). In the module study guide a link was provided to a website that calculated how many slaves work for you based on the information provided, after providing my information the website calculated that I had 65 slaves, I felt extremely shocked and this made me realise that I had never considered where my clothes or shoes or electronics etc that I own came from and I had never considered that someone who made these things could be trapped in slavery (4), after completing this I feel that I will think more carefully about where my clothes, food and electronics come from and how many people have potentially been subject to forced labour for me to have these things and I feel it will make me think twice in future when I am buying those items.

Our first session involved an introduction to human trafficking I found this session very interesting before this session I thought to be trafficked a person had to be forced to leave their own country and moved to another where in fact it is actually just being forced from one area to another not necessarily crossing a country border (5,6). I also found this session extremely enlightening about the problem of human trafficking in Northern Ireland, in 2016/17 there were 34 victims, in 2017/18 there were 36 victims of trafficking in Northern Ireland and in 2018/19 there were 59 victims of human trafficking in Northern Ireland (7–10), I felt shocked as I didn’t expect there to be so many cases in Northern Ireland, and those were just the cases that were reported there potentially could be many more cases unreported or undetected. The 2019 UK annual report on modern slavery (8) shows that the majority of people who are victims of human trafficking in UK are exploited for labour (8), I felt surprised as previously I thought that most people were trafficked for sexual exploitation, this made me realise that many people could be trafficked and forced into labour in Northern Ireland and it may not seem that obvious as they are working on farms etc, after this I felt that I needed to be more vigilant for forced labour in Northern Ireland.

In our second session Women’s Aid came to speak to us to tell us about their role in human trafficking in Northern Ireland, before this session I didn’t know what to expect because I didn’t know what women’s aid did. I felt the session was extremely useful and I learnt that women’s aid are a charity that help women who are survivors of domestic abuse or human trafficking by giving them emotional support and helping them get their lives back on track (11). I feel that this session was extremely useful as I feel that when I am a doctor I will be able to use this information in my practice and I will be able to signpost women to women’s aid if I ever suspect a women is a victim of human trafficking. There was also a talk from migrant’s aid, again before this I wasn’t sure what to expect as I didn’t know what they did. I felt this talk was extremely useful and I now know that migrants aid help support adults and children who have been victim of human trafficking by providing accommodation, healthcare and financial assistance (12). After both of these talks, I now feel that should I come across a victim of human trafficking in my practice as a doctor I will know that I can refer them to women’s aid for women or migrant help for males, and they will receive the help they need.

Doctor Linda Agnew gave a talk on working with traumatised patients, she talked about how doctors can experience problems after hearing a patients trauma and where doctors can go for help if it is needed, I felt this was useful as should I experience anything like this I now know where to go for help. I also feel that is it useful for her to let us know its ok for doctors to not be ok and we need to look after our own mental health as well as patients, when I am a doctor I will ensure I look after my own mental health by making time for activities I enjoy and spending time with family and friends outside of work. During the session doctor Agnew talked about the complex nature of trauma faced by victims of trafficking and how it takes time to try to help the person process the trauma and move on, I felt this was useful for my future practice as a doctor as if I come into contact with a person who has been a victim of trafficking I now have a better understanding of this type of trauma and how to begin to deal with it.

International justice mission (IJM) gave a talk during the module, before this talk, I had no knowledge of IJM so I felt keen to know what they did. IJM explained to that they are a global organisation that works with local justice systems to try to end trafficking and help victims of trafficking (13). IJM gave information about bonded labour in India, I knew nothing about this previously and I found this very interesting to hear about. Bonded labour is a type of forced labour, the person is forced to work to repay a debt of some kind (14–16). IJM carried out a study along with Rural development and panchayat raj in India in 3 districts and found that 33% of labourers surveyed where bonded labourers and 64% of these bonded labourers were illiterate and didn’t understand their labour contract (13,14,16,17). After this I felt that such a high level of illiteracy makes these people vulnerable to being forced into bonded labour. I feel that if the government could try to increase literacy rates the number of people in bonded labour would decrease as they would understand their labour contracts and also have a chance at better jobs. IJM also talked about their work in Ghana where children as young as 3 are forced to work on lake Volta to catch fish, I found this extremely shocking as this was considered normal in their culture but this would not be considered normal in UK (13,14).

Love 146 gave a talk during the module about their work. Before this I had never heard of them and so I felt excited to learn about their work in human trafficking. I learnt that this organisation works with children and young adults who have been the victim of human trafficking, they provide support and accommodation, the organisation also acts to raise awareness of the global problem of human trafficking and try’s to educate the public on signs to look out for in trafficking victims (18). I feel this was very useful to me as a future doctor as I know the signs to look out for in potential victims (18).

Flourish NI gave a talk during the module, before this I felt interested to know what this organisation was doing as they are a local organisation and I was keen to find out what was happening in the local area. I learnt that Flourish support victims of human trafficking via their trained caseworkers and help victims to rebuild their lives (19). Flourish have six key areas that they try to help survivors build on and these include their independence, well-being, professional life, finances, community and looking to the future (19). Flourish also explained problems that survivors may face and I felt this was extremely useful because if I understand what problems may be faced I can in my future role as a doctor try to help any victims I come into contact with face these problems and reassure them that they aren’t the only person who has experienced these problems (19).

In 2015 the ‘Human Trafficking and Exploitation Act” came into force in Northern Ireland (8,10,20), this introduced the offence of human trafficking (8,20), twith the aim to target human trafficking in Northern Ireland (8,20). This act also resulted in PSNI forming “The modern slavery human trafficking unit” dedicated to targeting traffickers and preventing trafficking (20). If the PSNI receive reports of human trafficking they removing the victim to a safe place, take statements, they will ask the victim for consent to refer them to National Modern Slavery Human Trafficking Unit (MSHTU) and if consent is given the PSNI will refer victims via the national referral mechanism and finally open a criminal investigation (8,20). I felt this was useful because in my practice as a doctor if a victim approaches me for help, I can explain what the PSNI will do once it is reported to them. The PSNI has introduced training for all officers on human trafficking to help educate all officers on the signs of human trafficking (8). The officer also told about how the PSNI have a reactive and a proactive team and the proactive team follow up on tip offs to try to help those who are too scared to come forward for help and the officer discussed issues faced by the police when meeting these victims such as lack of trust. I feel that it was very beneficial having the PSNI coming to talk to us as it helped me to understand all the processes that a victim has to go through and also if a victim wants the process explained I now feel that I could do this. I also feel after this talk, I have an appreciation of how difficult the PSNIs job is to get convictions as often victims are too scared or traumatised to prosecute traffickers.

Throughout the course of the module I watched a number of videos related to human trafficking, one was made by the “No more traffick” movement and included information about spotting the signs of human trafficking (21,22). Signs that indicate a person may be a victim of human trafficking include having no form of identification, they don’t know their own address and fear authority (21–24). I feel this video helped me to learn and to recognise signs that should lead me to suspect a person is being trafficked, I feel this will improve and change my practice as a doctor in the future as I will be aware of the signs of trafficking and if I see them I can act to try to help that person. During class we also watched a film called “Not my Life” I found this eye opening to all the different areas around the world and I feel it has made me consider more where I get my food and clothes etc and to consider if slavery is involved (25).

As part of the module there was a group work assignment that involved picking a country and presenting information about human trafficking in that country and how it was being tackled. Before the group work, I felt nervous in case not everyone in the group pulled their weight, but I needn’t have worried as I found the group work very enjoyable and everyone shared the work fairly. The group choose Romania. I felt interested to find out more about the problem in Romania, as many Romanians are trafficked to UK and particularly Northern Ireland so I felt interested to learn about a local issue (26). Overall, I felt the group work was enjoyable and I feel it helped further improve my teamwork skills as I worked with my team to divide up work equally and to bring all our information together and present it.

During this module I read several books including “sex trafficking: inside the business of modern slavery” by Siddharth Kara (27), I found this book eye opening; the book states that there are 28.4 million slaves worldwide (24,27) I felt shocked as I thought in this modern age there were very few of any people who were slaves. This book also opened my eyes to how profitable human trafficking is, in particular sex trafficking, as a person who is trafficked for sex can be sold many times with some women being sold for sex up to 15 times a day, the book states that sex traffickers make around $600 million profit each year (24,27), I felt the idea of being forced to have sex many times a day horrifying and I can’t begin to imagine how terrified and traumatised those women are. The book suggests several reasons why sex trafficking worldwide is increasing these included underfunding for charities and organisations trying to combat the issue, often countries have no or very poorly enforced laws against sex trafficking and often coordinating an international response can be very difficult (24,27–29), this helped me to understand the huge issues that must be overcome before sex trafficking can be stopped, huge changes in laws against sex trafficking are needed and I felt this was going to be extremely challenging and could take a long time meanwhile these people who are trafficked continue to suffer which I feel is extremely sad and unfair to these people. The book also has a chapter on Italy, Italy has a high issue with people being trafficked to the country for sex which I felt was shocking and something I was completely unaware of, a huge problem is villa brothels that can have up to 26 women who are forced to have sex many times a day (24,27), I felt this was appalling as Italy is one of my favourite countries to visit and I never expected that it was a country that has such a problem with sex trafficking.

During the module I also read “not for sale: the return of the global slave trade and how we can fight it” by David Batstone (30), the book starts off by telling how the author who lives in San Francisco discovered that at an Indian restaurant where he went regularly there were women who had been trafficked for labour which he was unaware of for years until one of the women unfortunately died (23,30), this made me feel shocked and made me realise that for all I know a local restaurant that I go to could have the same situation and that trafficking is not always obvious and can occur without you ever realising which I feel is very sad and shocking as I like to think I would recognise it but these situations can seem so normal and everyday life and chances are I may not recognise it. The book also discusses how in the united states alone 120,000 people are enslaved and each year 17,000 people are trafficked into the country (30–32), these statistics are shocking and made me feel appalled as this is not something I expected in the United States of America, I thought in a country such as this human rights would have been extremely important and the authorities would be on top of trafficking. The author of the book discusses how he believes the global problem of slavery can be ended; the author thinks this can be done by every individual making a contribution to try to stop this (30). The author believes that even by just asking if someone is ok if you believe they could be trafficked is enough to make a difference (30). I believe that the author of the book is correct in saying that to try to end global slavery everyone needs to make a contribution (30) and I feel that even just asking someone if they are ok can make a difference as maybe no one has ever asked that person if they are ok and that small act may be all it takes for that person to open up and ask for help. This book also helped me to realise how important the role of the health care professional is in human trafficking and how much of a difference health care professionals can make to a victim of trafficking and to the global problem of trafficking. I feel that after reading this book I am more equipped to know what to look out for with respect to potential victims of human trafficking and I feel that this has changed how I look at people in my daily life and it will change how I look at patients and their behaviour and what it might mean in my practice as a doctor.

In conclusion I feel this module was very useful to my future practice as a doctor as I now feel that I would be able to recognize signs that may lead me to suspect a person was a potential victim of human trafficking. I also feel that should I come into contact with a victim of human trafficking I am aware of who to contact and where to sign post that person to get the appropriate help and information. In future I would like to keep up to date with the human trafficking picture in northern Ireland and so I will regularly check PSNI and government websites for updates on who’s affected by trafficking in northern Ireland and who is most at risk so I can watch for victims in my day to day practice.