One of my favourite analogies likens us individually to the threads making up a fabric, easily expressing the transformation that happens when we group together.
Of course, it’s human nature to want to turn a deaf ear to the human trafficking problem. It appears as too big for one individual to make a difference, too ugly to cope with.
Slavery today is not neatly placed in the lap of any one country, it’s happening everywhere.
Second to drug trafficking, it’s the #2 illegal business worldwide. From the number of help resources just on the website of Polaris Project alone, we see an American state like Florida has many organizations established to battle this problem. And yet, Florida is still in the top three destinations in the world for human trafficking.
Now, this isn’t about condemning all brothels. The Netherlands and Germany are well-known examples of countries that support legalization of sex workers, promoting safer regulations and conditions for those who choose the trade.
This is about people forcibly exploited because of their vulnerability. It includes children, even under the age of 10, it includes women and men alike.
The difficulty is compounded by victims who won’t step forward. Their fear of legalities, their lack of citizenship papers or working permits can silence their protests. The trafficking set-up is also described as hard to root out because it consists of small, well-organized units, with corruption sometimes buying them cover.
As I’m now in Thailand, the subject is again evident in those driven to tackle human exploitation.
A dedicated employee in an organization working to free subjugated people, related a story about a native Thai woman who would just boldly walk into a sex set-up where a young girl was being promoted on a makeshift stage, grab her by the wrist and insist she come with her . . . that she make the choice in that moment to change her life. Talk about courage!
That’s the hard way to do it, but effective… one by one.
Today, legal consultants, police divisions and government branches worldwide are supporting anti-trafficking organizations that work against human exploitation. They promote new regulations to protect the vulnerable sectors, especially young children who are still routinely sold, sometimes by their own families. Enforcing the regulations is a daunting task, always in need of more support.
At the ground level, individuals work to educate people, especially in countries with struggling economies and illiterate population sectors. These are the people who work to free sexually exploited individuals as they can find them. It’s a tough sector to work in. They continue in this work because it’s so emotionally satisfying to free a life, to save a soul from the misery of abuse.
In Thailand, the government is also working against this problem. Humantrafficking.org notes that ‘in 2010, the Thai prime minister chaired meetings with labor and civil society organizations to coordinate anti-trafficking efforts, leading to a strategy that is being implemented between 2011 to 2016’.
We can see it as similar to the zero tolerance policy of Florida, where various organizations are joined to fight against human trafficking. With all the resources of America, the problem is magnified when we read that Florida is still one of the top three problem areas for human trafficking in the world.
No country is free of the human trafficking problem. Stats may not be readily or reliably available in Canada, but a March 2014 report by CBC news with Joy Smith, M.P., quoted her saying that even when perpetrators are caught, Canada’s laws don’t stop them.
Now that pedophilia and other sexual abuse forms were proven to be a global problem in Catholic churches for decades, can we really continue to deny that some part of our civilization ignores dysfunction within all levels of society?
After the many years of Catholic church representatives sexually abusing children without intervention to screen the mental health and personalities of church guardians, perhaps we should not be completely shocked at our blind eye and deaf ear… but hopefully, we are. Shocked enough to do something about it.
Human Exploitation – What can we do?
- Be informed. Read about the organizations that expose and work with the problem of human exploitation
- Educate others about the power of their involvement at any level, including their voice or their signature
- Join petitions organized to encourage additional government and public involvement, or start the petition! The internet makes it easy. A little research will show which organizations may utilize it effectively
- Contribute to the exposure in whatever way you can: give a community presentation, whether a local community centre, a high school or as a presentation topic for informative social gatherings
- Take it into your religious community to enlist their ideas and involvement
- Encourage ethnic groups to learn about similar efforts in their homeland, promoting education and opposition
- Support organizations financially at any level you can when giving annual donations
This is a growing problem worldwide. As part of the fabric of life, each of us can make a difference in some way.
http://www.humantrafficking.org
http://htsrq.weebly.com/statistics-and-information.html
http://ejfoundation.org/oceans/soldtotheseafilm
http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/global-initiatives/thailand/
http://www.ywamthai.org/trafficking
http://www.polarisproject.org/state-map/florida
http://www.humantraffickingsearch.net/?gclid=CK6Bx8LgqsACFZUVjgod9ScAKg
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/human-traffickers-going-unpunished-in-canada-experts-say-1.2584944
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholic_sex_abuse_cases_by_country
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