Human Trafficking-The Major Victims and Causes

Human trafficking has many faces and its popularity has risen over the years. A large number of the victims are powerless vulnerable minorities in a specific region. Often, they come from poor regions where opportunities are few they can also be ethnic minorities or displaced people such as refugees or runaways. While this is the case, it is ideal to note they trafficked people can come from any class, race or social background. Women are especially at great risk to fall victims of sex trafficking. Criminals who participate in this promise victims better opportunities by making promises of better paying jobs, and study opportunities.

To dupe victims, they can even make arrangements for travel and escort their victims to the final destination where they later discover they were fooled. These problems affects people from different countries and has become a many faced predicament that majority of governments have to deal with. The trafficked victims are often forced to work in different capacities and more often, they live in inhumane ways to fulfill the needs of people who own them. For instance women are forced to get into sex trade, children are forced to become child soldiers and others are forced into the drug world and they live in abusive and coercive environments where they don’t have any control over their lives.

Human trafficking is a lucrative industry and in areas such as Eastern Europe, Japan, Colombia, Russia and Hong Kong the industry is controlled by criminal organizations. While this is the case, most trafficking cases are carried out by small specialized groups which specialize in specific areas such as transportation, retail, advertising or recruitment. What is more, criminals prefer to venture into this industry for the simple reason cases of prosecution are low and the capital needed for startup is considerably low.

Factors Contributing to Human Trafficking

There are a couple of major factors that contribute towards human trafficking and these can be divided into two major categories. These include universal and local causes. It is ideal to look at these two aspects separately.

Local Causes

In this case, trafficking is done as a result of the following.

- Lack of social, political and economical stability.
- Lack of realistic and reasonable prospects.
- Oppression, domestic violence, family structure disintegration and gender discrimination.
- Lack of proper education and access to information on the importance of respecting other human beings.

Universal Factors
When human trafficking occurs on a universal level, it is often as a result of obstacles or limits to migration channels that are legal to countries which have stronger economies. Lack of creating awareness on the effects of trafficking and its increased frequency also contributes to this since many people are not aware of what they need to do in order to protect themselves and loved ones. Another aspect that contributed to trafficking on this level is lack of proper legislation against human trafficking since some governments prefer to look the other way and pretend that the predicament is not a problem within their locality.

In order to deal effectively with cases of trafficking strict laws need to be put into place to warn those who participate in the trade. Governments should look for ways to protect its citizens and people should be advised on how to safeguard themselves and loved ones against cases of trafficking.

It is a fact that women and children are the main victims of human trafficking. Click here to buy products from fashion brands, supporting charities working towards eradicating human trafficking, and join the fight against sex trafficking.