Human Trafficking

Human Trafficking is very much in relation to sweatshops. Human Trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, harbouring, or receipt of people for the purposes of slavery, forced labor (Sweatshops for example)and servitude which is another word for slavery. I'm sure you've seen movies where the teenager is mad at their parents the run away. They desperately need an escape from their overbearing, 'harsh' parents. At the end of the movie they are reunited with their parents in a swell of music. They met people, learned about life and themselves. The sun shining down on them making them seem angelic. Running away seems like the perfect idea. They still have their cellphone and know where there homes are.

Here's the reality: Some of those teens never return home. Running away almost seems like a luxury for some. To be able to come back when they want. Some warmly welcomed back into the arms of their parents. For others in more precarious situations it is an escape from a nightmare. Human trafficking is a horror most do not understand nor could even fathom what some go through. People both young and old are trafficked. Some are sold into slavery by their own families, most of the time for money or to pay back a debt. Others are taken from their home. Extreme violence can be involved as well.

According to the 2004 U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 600,000 to 800,000 men, women, and children are trafficked across international borders. 70 percent of those people are female. 50 percent are children. This isn't just an international epidemic, it happens in the United States as well. According to the U.S. Government Efforts to Combat Trafficking in Persons in Fiscal Year 2003, an estimated 14,500 to 17,500 foreign nationals are trafficked into the United States.

People are trafficked for money, sex, slavery and labor. These are just reports the government has discovered. Who knows how many people are still being trafficked as I type. The number is no doubt much larger. A thought that makes me shiver.

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/ncvrw/2005/pg5l.html