What is a Person Worth?

“A woman or child sold into prostitution can earn up to $150,000 annually for a crime boss,” according to a 2003 report by Melvin Levitsky titled Transnational Criminal Networks and International Security . No wonder the crime is so prevalent and attractive to criminals that it earns $10-12 Billion dollars a year!

 

Going to the Olympics? So are Human Traffickers…

The Olympics, The World Cup, and other grand-scale sporting events are magnets for human traffickers because of the enormous international tourist populations who travel to attend.  The May 2008 Issue of the Stop Trafficking Newsletter highlights problems of Human Trafficking connected with the Olympics. The Stop Trafficking Newsletter is an excellent monthly source of information about Human Trafficking, both in the US and internationally.    Read the May 2008 issue, or visit the main site to see archived issues.  You may contact the author of the newsletter to join the mailing list and get the monthly updates directly.  Highly recommended!

Carl’s Note (6/8/2009) – Some estimates prior to the 2006 World Cup predicted that as many as 40,000 victims of human trafficking would be brought to Germany to provide a ready supply of sex workers for the influx of tourists and football fans.  This estimate is contradicted, or at least not supported, by a report provided by IOM (International Organization for Migration).  According to the IOM report, Research on Human Trafficking and the 2006 World Cup in Germany, “All data, information and experts’ statements that are available to date strongly indicate that an increase in human trafficking, during and after the World Cup did not occur (my emphasis).  It was concluded that the 40,000 estimate was unfounded and unrealistic.”  I don’t think this quote means that major international events like the World Cup don’t have any effect on human trafficking.  Rather, I think that it merely means that there were no statistics to indicate a particular increase in human trafficking in Germany immediately around the time of the World Cup, and that this is probably due to many reasons, including a well-documented, significant effort by Germany to combat and detect human trafficking in conjunction  with the Cup.  South Africa can learn from Germany’s example, but it will remain to be seen if the South African government has the resources and will to fight HT in 2010 as Germany did in 2006.

1 weapons, 2 drugs, 3 people – nightlightbangkok.com

We’re number three! Illegal sales of weapons and drugs are the most lucrative criminal enterprises worldwide.  Human trafficking is third.  Perhaps worth more than $12 billion a year.

I’ve heard this statistic other places, but I specifically got this and other helpful information from the following excellent site:

http://www.nightlightbangkok.com/trafficking.htm

“Trafficking in human beings is now the third-largest moneymaking venture in the world, after illegal weapons and drugs. In fact, the United Nations estimates that the trade nets organized crime more than $12 billion a year” (Victor Malarek, The Natashas: Inside the New Global Sex Trade, 2003).

Check out their list of books and other resources.

The Countertraffickers – William Finnegan

Stories are powerful. William Finnegan has written an article in the current issue of The New Yorker titled The Countertraffickers.  He tells of a modern-day Harriet Tubman in Moldova, the diminutive but powerful Stella Rotaru.  Ms. Rotaru gets calls from Moldovan victims of human trafficking from various parts of the world, including Dubai, and she helps them escape. 

Stories like this inspire me.  People like Ms. Rotaru remind me that the slavers are NOT going to win.  They just got a head start, and we’re catching up.

What is Human Trafficking?

Human Trafficking is modern day slavery.  It comes in many forms.  Forced prostitution, bonded debt labor, child soldiers, domestic servitude.  Can’t believe it’s still around?  Actually, it’s bigger today than ever before. 

Why? Well, it’s complicated. The highly interconnected global economany, ease of transporting people across borders, sophisticated criminal networks, grinding poverty and disenfranchisement of potential victims, and demand for cheap goods and services combined with thoughtless spending by the wealthy — all of these are probably significant social and economic factors. 

But slavery couldn’t exist if there wasn’t an incredible capacity in the soul of a human to completely disregard the soul of another.

Let’s shine a red light on human trafficking and stop it in our generation.