By: Nancy Tran

Period 4

Human trafficking is the illegal trade of humans that has

occurred for many decades and is still continuing in the

modern day. Victims of human trafficking, starting at the

young age of nine, are uplifted from their families and

homes against their wills and taken to a new environment

where they are forced to pledge their allegiance to their

new owner (pimp). Human trafficking must be stopped,

because victims are forced to preform health-damaging jobs

(ex: prostitution). We the people must come forth to stop

this heinous crime so that the victims who have lost their

control over their lives may take hold of the future that they

have remaining. Also in doing so we may put a stop to any

further spread of STD’s brought upon by sexual exploitation.

Due to the lucrative business of human trafficking the industry

makes an estimated $44.3 billion profit each year. The profit

margins can be broken into two parts of sexual exploitation and

forced labor. Sexual exploitation makes up the major portion of

profit with $33.9 billion. Owners force the enslaved victims to

become prostitutes, strippers, pornography subjects, and a few are

murdered to have their organs harvested. These jobs often provide

many health issues especially with STD’s. Forced labor makes up

the remaining portion of profit with $10.4 billion. Victims of forced

labor work primarily in agricultural settings where they are fed

little, overworked, and are not paid a dime. The working conditions

of forced labor often provide malnourishment causing the victim to

become more prone to infections and diseases.

Human trafficking causes children to leave their family at

an early age. Consequently for the act of taking a young

child away from its family the child will grow up with

psychological issues facing sexual and physical abuse.

Without having parental guidance the child will develop

emotional conflicts that will take years to erase. As the

child ages into an adult there is a large chance that the

child has HIV or AIDS. After contracting an STD the adult

is denied of health care and is isolated until death. In

short terms traffickers only care to make money and will

instantly replace the old victim with another once death is

upon the old victim.

As a result of the profound jobs offered by the victims,

sexually transmitted diseases have been elevated by

2.29% each year just from reported cases of human

trafficking. Each year somewhere between 14,500

and 17,500 people are trafficked into the U.S. for the

sex trade. As more people are trafficked for the sex

trade the number of new HIV/AIDS cases increase.

Therefore if human trafficking discontinues the

number of new HIV/AIDS cases will decline.

Regarding to those in charge of trafficking, their

prosecution of human trafficking was dealt with less time

in prison compared to those who trafficked illegal drugs. It

disgusts me to see that the possession of a chemical

substance was more severely punished than the malign

treatment of people. Human trafficking has been

undergoing for years and yet the Federal government has

little success in the capture of traffickers, this tells us that

we need to help to the best extent that we can. Putting a

stop to human trafficking is important, because restoring

human rights to those who have been been discouraged of

using them is morally fulfilling.