Human Trafficking

Causes and Targets of Human Trafficking 

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CAUSES:

Conditions facilitating recruitment of women include:- economic desperation and disadvantage- lack of a sustainable income, and poverty--all of which are preyed on by recruiters, traffickers and pimps.

Reported push factors were:

Economic and oppressive conditions in countries of origin. In some families, girls were seen as burdens and liabilities, and lack of family support, or direct family pressure or coercion, precipitated women’s entrance into the sex industry. Sometimes, older brothers or uncles acted as conduits for recruitment.
-Traffickers and pimps recruited a significant number of international and U.S. women. Recruiters or pimps promised money.-Pimps recruit young, vulnerable U.S. women in malls and clubs by befriending and creating emotional and drug or alcohol dependencies to entrap them. Pimps are also adept at preying upon women’s vulnerabilities. Coercion and violence are also used.
Targets:
  • An estimated 17,500 foreign nationals are trafficked annually in the United States alone. The number of US citizens trafficked within the country are even higher, with an estimated more than 200,000 American children at high risk for trafficking into the sex industry each year.3 Victims of trafficking often come from vulnerable populations, including migrants, oppressed or marginalized groups, runaways or displaced persons, and the poor.4
    Trafficking affects both people from the US and not from the US. Sometimes the victim came, of her/his own accord, to the country and then fell into trouble; sometimes victims are duped from the very beginning; sometimes they are from the US. A victim of trafficking does not speak a particular language or have a particular race; a victim of trafficking can look like anyone.
 It is likely that these women, with no economic stability or education that are now subject to violence and no possibility of negotiation of reproductive health, will be at higher risk for all of the adverse health effects that plague women in the developing world. With no social network for support, they are likely to be at increased risk for mental illness, particularly depression. They are likely at extremely high risk for sexually transmitted infection, including HIV, and unwanted pregnancy. If a women working abroad in the commercialized sex industry becomes pregnant, she may be at much higher risk of seeking illegal abortion, as pregnancy would most likely result in her loosing her job. A woman at risk for becoming involved in the commercial sex industry represents all of the characteristics that place women at higher risk for adverse health outcomes.