Crestanello 1

Mercedes Crestanello
Grammar and Research
Human Trafficking

There are nearly 21 million victims of human trafficking worldwide (I Totally

Followed). Human trafficking is the trade of people illegally and most of the time
against their will. Nationally, 50% of trafficked victims are children and
overwhelmingly, most of them are girls (HUMAN TRAFFICKING).
Human trafficking is the modern day slavery. Human trafficking uses
vulnerability of victims to transport them and bring them into the trade (Human
Trafficking). Victims of human trafficking are held in conditions similar to the ways
slaves in the earlier centuries were treated. The victims are taken into human
trafficking are given no choice of what work they will perform. They are paid little or
nothing for preforming, and they are confined under threats and violence (Cullen-Du
Pont). The majority of human trafficking in the USA is sex trafficking (HUMAN
TRAFFICKING).
If victims, when they are transported, have passports or other official
documents these papers are often taken from them, leaving them without proof of
identity or ability to travel (Cullen-Du Pont). The profit of modern day slavery is
significantly more profitable than slavery in the earlier era. The business of human
trafficking brings in approximately 32 billion dollars annually. All cases of human
trafficking begin in a community and end in a community. Every case of human
trafficking can ultimately be prevented (HUMAN TRAFFICKING).

Crestanello 2
The people in charge of the human trafficking ring rely on the vulnerability of
the victims too capture them. Some conditions that make people vulnerable are
poverty, threats, violence, and ethnicity or gender discrimination. The conditions
that make people vulnerable encourage migration to a country that offers more
opportunity. The lack of customs and security for migration it makes it easier for
human traffickers to traffic people. Some causes are more personal. Children are at
particularly at risk of being trafficked because they have unstable family situations
or because some are homeless. However children who do not have a home or a
specific state are extremely vulnerable to commercial sexual exploitation (HUMAN
TRAFFICKING).
Another component that human traffickers thrive on is globalization, the
growing trade interaction around the world. Illegal businesses keep labor cost low
by using workers who are modern day slaves. Slaves in the 1850s could be
purchased for $9,500 or $11,000 at a global weight. But today slaves sell for a
global weighted average of $420 (HUMAN TRAFFICKING).
Some believe that not only the race and ethnicity contributes a risk factor of
trafficking, also it may determine the treatment the victims undergo. The Bureau
Justice Statistics show that 77% of victims in alleged human trafficking incidents
that have been reported in the US were of colored people (HUMAN TRAFFICKING).
Studies have shown that most human trafficking victims are of color and from third
world countries.
Victims of human trafficking have typically been tricked, lied to, threatened,
assaulted, raped, or confined. People get involved with human trafficking for many
reasons. Some reasons are they simply seeking a better life, a promising job, or

Crestanello 3
even an adventure. Others sometimes they may be in poverty and forced to migrate
for work or they may be marginalized by their society. Traffickers usually instill fears
in the victims to ensure their control. Many victims do not even know that the abuse
they suffered is a crime and they may hide from authorities because they fear
punishment, arrest, or deportation. Victims after escaping trafficking is unlikely to
even know how to gain access to services for complex government systems. And to
have knowledge that a victim referral mechanism exists. Governments that put in
place victim protection structures cannot idly wait for victims to come forward on
their own to seek protection (HUMAN TRAFFICKING).
After victims of human trafficking escape they need help in areas such as
protection from traffickers, food, clothing, housing, medical and health care, legal
services, assistance in public benefits, public transportation, language skills, job
training, and family reunification (HUMAN TRAFFICKING). The FBI lead a nationwide
sweep in July 2013 targeted at human trafficking rings in 76 cities. Agents arrested
18 pimps in metro Detroit, which is the most of any of the 76 cities they targeted.
That same sweep rescued 10 children from the sex trafficking in metro Detroit.
According to the 2013 Michigan Commission on human trafficking report, the
children were recovered from private homes in Flint and Romulus and motels in
Madison Heights, Farmington Hills, Southfield and Detroit (A Bar of Soap).
As a victim of human trafficking, Holly Austin was 14 years old in 1992 when
she ran away from her family. She was running away from a future at Pinelands
Regional High School that frightened her, and former friends who bullied her. During
Hollys summer between 8th and 9th grade she met a man in his early 30s at the
Hamilton Mall in Mays Landing. She spent three weeks confiding in him about her
fears of high school and her problems with friends. He told her she was beautiful

Crestanello 4
enough to be a model, and he talked about a glamorous night life he enjoyed with
famous people. He promised her a new life if only she would run away with him.
That summer she accepted his offer, but it did not take her to the night clubs of Los
Angeles. Instead Holly was on the streets of Atlantic City. Holly remembers how a
woman in a motel room dressed her for what she then thought would be a night at
the clubs. Reality hit when the man returned to the room and told her she had just a
few hours to make $100. And when she was threatened of physical violence she
realized she was being put into prostitution. Two days after Holly left home police
arrested her for prostitution in Atlantic City. This changed Hollys view on life (I
Totally Followed).
To avoid modern day slavery the trafficking cycles should recognize explicitly
the connections between trafficking, migration, poverty, gender, and racial
discrimination. Raising awareness and increasing access to education of the
dangers amongst the people most vulnerable and help people build lives free from
the risk of human trafficking. An organization called Stop The Traffik threw a
campaign called Freedom Tickets for Life, which is supporting community groups in
trafficking hot spots around the world (HUMAN TRAFFICKING).
Human trafficking can happen anywhere. Human trafficking is the trade of
people illegally. Human trafficking violates all human rights because the victims are
treated like property; they are disrespected, and sometimes beaten. Human
trafficking is a very controversial. Some people are against the trafficking but some
support it because they survive on it.

Crestanello 5

Works Cited
"A Bar of Soap Could Save A Life." eLibrary. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2015.
<http://elibrary.bigchalk.com/elibweb/elib/do/document?
set=search&searchType=natural&dictionaryClick=&secondaryNav=&groupid=1&reques
tid=lib_standard&resultid=13&edition=&ts=72561EF37C383757BE9A46852ACC3CEF
_1426128588813&start=1&publicationId=&urn=urn%3Abigchalk%3AUS%3BBCLib
%3Bdocument%3B231959099>.
Cullen- Du Pont, Kathryn. Human Trafficking. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

Crestanello 6

"Human Trafficking." SIRS Issues Researcher. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Mar. 2015.
<http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SOH0847-09846&artno=0000307204&type=ART>.
HUMAN TRAFFICKING; ED. by DEDRIA BRYFONSKI. DETROIT: GREENHAVEN PRESS,
2013. Print.
"I Totally Followed Them Like A Sheep." eLibrary. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Mar. 2015.