Diminishing Child Prostitution and Trafficking
Introduction:
Trafficking is world’s fastest growing crime. Yearly $150 billion is earned through trafficking in the entire trafficking business. On global scale, child trafficking has not been eliminated in a single country. There are a total of 21 million victims of which 29% consist of men and boys, and 71% consist of women and girls. Unfortunately the number of children who are victimised by child trafficking are higher than 8 million meaning they form one third of the people affected by this. The children who are mainly affected come from countries where poverty is taking over their lives. Their parents will be unable to take proper care of them due to lack of in home resources caused by an insufficient income. The children end up taking care of themselves and are found on the street by traffickers who lure them into jobs guaranteeing them with a future that will eventually never be given to them leading to them forcefully having to do other jobs. A total of 54% end up in sexual exploitation, 38% in forced labour, and the final 8% are being trafficked in other ways, such as organ trafficking.
The current situation of affected countries:
Central African Republic: Most children affected here are young girls who are exploited within their own country. Traffickers find these girls and force them into marriages, sexual slavery, international prostitution and domestic servitude. Their international office of migration has already developed a community awareness campaign to improve the awareness of human trafficking for individuals and communities that are at risk of being trafficked.
Eritrea: Since many young women and girls in Eritrea don’t have a future in their country of origin they find themselves to look for domestic work in other countries such as Israel, Sudan, South-Sudan or the Gulf states. Unfortunately when looking for domestic work they end up to become victims of sex trafficking. They will be kidnapped by international criminals and set up in refugee camps near the Sudanese border. But the Eritrean military and police officers join these criminals in committing these crimes instead of preventing its spread and arresting the traffickers.
Syria: With the civil war still going on and the terrorist group ISIS being active, many young women and girls are forced into marriages and are subjected to systematic rape and sexual violence. ISIS also orders the girls to undergo a virginity test before they are being sold in slave bazaars. The girls that do manage to escape to Europe via illegal smugglers also end up with the risk of being caught by traffickers in Europe.
Venezuela: Out of all victims of trafficking 26% are young girls. They are often promised well paid jobs, but are then taken to the Caribbean where they are forced into sex trade or domestic services. The Venezuelan government does very little when it comes to punishing or preventing trafficking. Since 2013 a shocking amount of only 3 people have been arrested and prosecuted for their crimes, though there are many strict laws surrounding trafficking.
Un actions to stop/prevent trafficking in the US
In the US UNICEF is able to eliminate child trafficking and prostitution fastest since we have the ability to interfere with the government. The UN has the power to:
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provide a living wage for the parents of the children affected by trafficking to prevent the children from ending up in working places;
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lobby the government to develop laws to strengthen child protection systems;
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Work with communities and faith-based organisation to change harmful societal norms that make children more vulnerable;
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Support training professional that work with children to help stop trafficking.
UNICEF has also started a project in the US called “The End Trafficking Project” to try limiting trafficking in certain states where traffickers are very active.
Bibliography:
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/slideshows/5-of-the-worst-countries-for-human-trafficking
