Exploiting a Person - Essay Example

There is not one sentence that clearly defines what human trafficking is. Various scholars and philosophers are attempting to include varied information in their understanding of human trafficking. One better way of describing it could be that human trafficking refers to exploiting a person or group of people in terms of forced labor or commercial sex. Such exploitation is done regardless of the person’s country of origin.

Human trafficking does not only happen within a country’s boundaries but also in the whole world making it an international phenomenon. (Aronowitz, 2009, p. 7)Human traffickers go for the weak and vulnerable members of society who are mainly women and children.

Victims of the acts include men, women, and children who are cheated and driven into trafficking, grabbing from them their power as human beings. Human trafficking has been recorded as one of the best income-earning businesses worldwide by organized groups of criminals. For example, the business makes more than $3 billion in Europe to the traffickers per year. (Aronowitz, 2009, p. 16)

Human trafficking around the world is mainly on sexual exploitation and a relatively small percentage on forced labor. Women are the most affected group of victims as false promises of employment easily lure them. Children are preferred as laborers due to their quick motion and swiftness. Men form part of the team providing forced labor. (Aronowitz, 2009, p. 39)A fifth of the victims worldwide are children with greater numbers of children higher in poorer continents like Africa and countries where the children are trained to pickpockets.

As a global problem and crime, statistics have it that there are more than 2.4 million who are victims of human trafficking with forced labor having a bigger share of the menace. These statistics indicate that the whole world is involved in crime. The victims are subjected to various forms of mistreatment including being denied access to their passports leaving them helpless.

Approximately all the countries in the world have reported cases of human trafficking with a state acting as the source, destination, or transit of the victims. (Bertone, 2008, p. 43)This makes human trafficking both a domestic and a regional or global problem. Such an observation has been made in East Asia in which there has been location and movement of victims among more than twenty countries.

Human trafficking, being both a national and an international phenomenon, a number of mechanisms have been deployed to curb human trafficking at various levels. (Bertone, 2008, p. 40)Countries have set aside anti-human trafficking legislation as part of their constitution. Such countries also have anti-human trafficking police units that create law and order and spy on traffickers.

At the international level, legislation by the United Nations was passed by the general assembly and put into force that protected, prevented, and combated human trafficking among the countries of the world. The legislation earned mass support with up to 150 countries abiding by its provisions and adopting it as part of the constitution. (Bertone, 2008, p. 44)

To achieve the full realization of the dream of kicking out in the face of world human trafficking, not only the authorities should be involved but also each and every individual citizen. The ordinary man should always be alert wherever he is and report anything strange to the authorities. Being aware of the existence of the bodies fighting human trafficking and supporting such organizations also plays a vital role.