Stop Human Trafficking 

  By: Esther Argueta 

What is human trafficking you might ask? Well the definition of it would be the exploitation of humans whether it be adults or children for the use of either labor or sexual purposes. It's saddening to think that we will in a world where no one is safe to even walk the streets in their own communities. This has to come to an end as we all deserve to live in peace knowing that we will not be trafficked to meet needs of others whether it is in a labored way or sexual way. 

Why is the topic important? 

"Sex trafficking encompasses the range of activities involved when a trafficker uses force, fraud, or coercion to compel another person to engage in a commercial sex act or causes a child to engage in a commercial sex act." Well it is sorrowful to know that so many children and adults have to endure the suffering of being misused because of people who have dark hearts. There have been so many cases of the disappearances of people due to the fact that they have been kidnapped and sold as slaves. Didn't we already go through this in history when African Americans were being sold by Whites for the same purposes. "3.8 million adults are trafficked for forced sexual exploitation and 1.0 million children are trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation. (ILO, 2017)" There have been way too many countless cases of people who have noticed signs of being followed from a place to their car. Women are now fearful to walk anywhere by themselves or with their children because of the simple fact that they don't know the intentions of the people around them. There are so many ways that humans are trafficked everyday, even the reasoning that seem " innocent" in the eyes of others is so wrong. Like for example, when families sell their daughters off to a way older man to meet their own needs not caring about what will happen to their daughters. Imagine how much of a careless parent you have to be to give up your child just so you can get that little bit of money. For others it sometimes is a necessity as they know that the only way they will survive is sending off their children to a wealthy family. 

Why is it important to me?

As someone who will be working in the law enforcement field, I have also been so exposed to how many cases of human trafficking there is known, and how many of them we actually have no clue about. It is sickening that there are people who live with themselves knowing they believe they have the right to act inhumane towards human. To think that in so many countries nationwide there are so many people who are being exploited and treated incorrectly into working hard jobs because they know that's the only way they can earn a living. Like who gave these people the right to do this? Who made them believe that not everyone deserves the right to be treated correctly? Slavery was abolished so many years ago, and yet there are still people using adults and children as their personal workers to do things to satisfy them. No human has to endure this suffering at all. 

On the other side of human trafficking, this is probably one of the hardest topics to discuss about which is the use of children for sexual pleasures. It is heartbreaking to think and know that there are children being sold around the world for people to have their "personal fun" with them for the rest of their lives. It starts off from babies. Little tiny humans that have been brought upon this world seen as a sexual object and believed to satisfy sexual "needs."  Those voices of those who have been exploited to trafficking or have had experienced almost being need to be heard. There needs to be more awareness for the victims that are still alive, and for those who have lost their lives due to this reasoning. I care about this subject because we need to do better. Better in protecting our communities from this evil. Better in bringing awareness on how we can help prevent adults or children being trafficked. And lastly better in making the world a better place one step at a time. For someone who wants to have children, I don't want to live with that fear that as I am walking down the grocery store with my child that at any given point a perpetrator can come and kidnap us. 

Statistics

- 24.9 million people are victims of forced labor. (ILO, 2017) 

-16 million people are trafficked for forced labor in the private economy. 

(Private economy includes: private individuals, groups, or companies in all sectors 

except the commercial sex industry). (ILO, 2017) 

-4.8 million people are trafficked for forced sexual exploitation. (ILO, 2017)

-4.1 million people are trafficked for forced labor in state-imposed forced labor.

It is estimated that 20.9 million people are trafficked worldwide. (ILO, 2017)

Community 

I went around one of my couple friends who had their first born baby to see their persecutive in this topic. Josie Ortega is a 29 year old first time mother who loves her child so dearly, and would stop at nothing to protect her daughter. She brought up the attention of the fact that this world has just become a scary place to bring a child into. Josie has brought up an incident of one time being with her husband at a mall walking around when all of a sudden a random lady came up to them asking them very random questions about the baby. She instantly went into mom mode, and made sure the lady didn't come to close as she didn't know her intentions as to why she was so interested in her baby. Even though the lady after ended up walking away because she gave her the cold shoulder, she explained to me how you never know. We live in such a place where people have now just grabbed babies from their stroller. 

Micheal Ortega who is her husband shared on that fact that as someone who works with children everyday, is so angry that people can be so inhumane to their own kind.  He as a father always thinks of his daughter and the ways that he can protect her from this evil world. He finds it quite disappointing that this crime has still not be able to be shut down due to so much corruption in our own justice system. He was really inspired to learn more about the topic of child trafficking after watching the movie " Sound of Freedom" which gave insight in the trafficking ring that they had in Columbia, and how they went to go rescue so many children from their perpetrators. Josie and Micheal don't wish this upon anyone, and hope that the world can become a better and safer place for their daughter to grow up in. 

Work Cited 

Human trafficking statistics & facts. Safe Horizon. (2024, April 8). https://www.safehorizon.org/get-informed/human-trafficking-statistics-facts/ 

Understanding human trafficking - united states department of state. Understanding Human Trafficking . (2023, December 12). https://www.state.gov/what-is-trafficking-in-persons/