Human Trafficking

            This year the month of January has been declared by President Barack Obama as “anti-trafficking month.”  This is the reaction of the fact that there are about 14,500 to 17,500 people being trafficked only in the U.S. annually, that’s not taking into account all the others that are enslaved around the world. Unfortunately slavery didn’t end with the Emancipation Proclamation, the slave holders and recruiters got sneaky and started to go underground with the trafficking. Of the three major international crimes committed, illegal drugs, arms trafficking, and human trafficking, human trafficking alone generates about $15.5 billion and that contributes to the $32 billion that all three generate annually.

            When post people think of slaves they think are people that slaveholders have captured from Africa and that are forced to work in plantations or be servants to the owner and or his family. But the uniformed definition of slavery or human trafficking is forced labor, bonded labor.  CNN determines if it slavery if one person has complete control and ownership of another person or people.

            While most children and adults here in America love to eat chocolate, most don’t wonder where it comes from or who even makes it, all they care about is if it tastes good and how much we can get our hands one. But most 2^nd and 3^rd world countries are forcing children to pick cocoa beans and make them into chocolate. They continue doing this even though it is stated and “enforced” that there is no child labor that goes into the process of making chocolate but you should still check the label to make sure it has the fair trade label. Most of those child slaves never eaten a bar of chocolate, some don’t even know what the word means.

            Chattel Slavery is when the slaves are treated as personal property. This was slavery in the first most basic form. But when they go across borders into different states or countries then it transforms into human trafficking, especially if they are expected to do sexual services for money for the owners.

            I think that the most important facts are that Slaves work in ­fields, brothels, homes, mines, restaurants—anywhere slave owners can feed their greed, they aren’t just forced to work on plantations like they were before. 27 million slaves are in the world today, which you would figure would be less considering that slavery is supposedly ended in the word. The majority of slaves can be found in India and in African countries, this is to be expected since they are considered to be more 2^nd and 3^rd world countries where people aren’t given the basic rights like education and basic human rights.