Megan Floss
Jul 20, 2017 · 3 min read

The thought that slavery still exists in the 21st century seems almost unbelievable but unfortunately true. Human Trafficking is basically modern day slavery. The horrors associated with this, is frankly frightening which makes it weirder that some people still know nothing about it. I do hope this article will be able to bring into light how alarming Human Trafficking is.
Human Trafficking according to the Trafficking Protocol is the "recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion for the purpose of exploitation". To make it simpler, Human Trafficking is essentially the trade of humans. The purpose or use of these humans varies. They are sometimes used for labor, sexual slavery, forced marriage and also for the extraction of organs. Human Trafficking can be done within a country or across countries. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO) as of 2014, forced labour alone generates an estimated value of $150 billion per annum.
I recently saw a series "Chicago Med". Two particular episodes brought into focus what people being trafficked go through. The guy was first made to become addicted to drugs so he will depend on them for survival. Soon after, a chip was inserted into his neck, so they will be able to trace his whereabouts. He was constantly tortured to the point of learned helplessness. The awful part of it all is that, that is just a small piece of what they actually go through.
One scary part of human trafficking is particularly "Child Trafficking". Bob Mueller said "I’m still trying to wrap my head around the idea of someone buying and selling children in the twenty-first century». The process of adoption is incredibly strenuous, so instead of going through it, some set of people prefer to buy children and also because there will be no record of the trade. Josephine Butler writes "about seeing thousands (yes, thousands) of little girls, some as young as four or five in the illegal brothels of London, Paris, Brussels and Geneva...The children had a life expectancy of two years, yet the brothel owners frequently women seemed to have unlimited supply of clean children". The selling of children unfortunately brings about a lot of money which makes more people go into it. William Kamkwamba said "A man in the trading center was caught trying to sell his two young daughters. The buyers had informed the police". Most of these children are being sold and placed into horrible situations where they are constantly overworked and raped. Kailas Satyarthi said "Child slavery is a crime against humanity".
One other scary part of it all is sexual exploitation. They are given drugs not only to make them addicted but also to arouse them sexually. For example Viagra is given to the males. The sexual intercourse is usually in the form of BDSM which is simply Bondage Discipline Sadism and Masochism. If you have seen Fifty Shades of Grey, an idea of BDSM should come to mind. It is usually a lot more unpleasant than what was shown in the movie when done towards them.
Another part is the extraction of organs and tissues. The list of people in need of different organs is really long and moves painfully slow (I do wish my organs will be viable when I die, in order for them to be donated). Their organs are being extracted and harvested in order to be sold which is obviously horrible.
The last part I will be writing about is the "forced labour". Kevin Bales said "Slavery is not a horror safely confined to the past world, even in developed countries, across the world, slaves work and sweat and build and suffer". At this point I will be really focusing on Nigeria. The buying and selling of maids is also a form of human trafficking. It is crazy that there are still people that go to villages to take girls and boys in order to sell them in the city as maids.
Finally, we should understand that there are people out there in painful situations. Valerie Owens said "To talk about a struggle, you are likely to forget it. To be shown a struggle, you are likely not to forget it. But to live through a struggle, you will understand it". It is hard to write how I truly feel about this and I wish I could do something more to stop it but for now, I will settle with the fact that I shed a little light on "Human Trafficking".

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    Megan Floss

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    finding myself in writing

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