Slavery Still Exists
When we talk about slavery we usually think about history, but in fact modern day slavery exists and it is called human trafficking. People are forced to prostitution, labour, pornography or bought as domestic helps under really bad conditions.
Human trafficking shouldn't exist anymore, not in the 21st century and worst of all is that most people aren't aware of it. Therefore you can read here some terrible facts about human trafficking.
Definition
The United Nations defines human trafficking as "the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons by improper means (such as force, abduction, fraud, or coercion) for an improper purpose including forced labor or sexual exploitation".
Third-Largest Criminal Enterprise in The World
Human trafficking is one of the biggest trafficking networks in the world; just after drugs and weapons.
Even though they can't really detect how big the network is, they know for sure that it is a huge global problem, and one of the worst black market businesses in the world.
30 Million Slaves
There are approximately 20 to 30 million slaves in the world today. According to the U.S.
State Department, 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders every year!
Price Tag
The average cost of a slave is about $90, but the profit they get from one is huge.
The most profitable business in human trafficking is sexual exploitation.
$150 Billion
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Human trafficking earns profits of roughly $150 billion a year for traffickers, $99 billion only from commercial sexual exploitation.
Human Trafficking In The USA
Between 14,500 and 17,500 people are trafficked into the U.S.
each year, most of them children and young women.
Child trafficking In The US
Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco are the biggest child trafficking areas in the United States.
Number Of Prosecutions Alarmingly Low
Globally, there were only 14,897 prosecutions and 9,071 convictions for trafficking in 2016.
Human Trafficking in Europe
The Netherlands, Austria, Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom are the european countries which are most targeted by human traffickers; the majority for cheap sexual services.
The Netherlands
Prostitution is legal in the Netherlands, where the biggest number of human trafficking victims in Europe was collected from.
Eastern Europe
65 per cent of the people trafficked in Europe are thought to be citizens of the European Union, mostly from Eastern Europe.
Child Prostitution
In the U.S. girls usually enter the sex trade at the age of 12 to 14.
Most of them were already abused in the family and ran away to find a better future, but end up even worse.
55% Women
International organizations estimate that women and girls represent the largest group of forced labor victims with at least 11.4 million trafficked victims (55%), compared to at least 9.5 million men (45%).
18 Months
18 months is the minimum time victims spend in forced labor, even though this varies a lot with the different forms of labour that exist, and how much humiliation and pain the victims can support before they are totally broken.
American Children
Approximately 244,000 American children and teenagers are at risk for sex trafficking each year.
30% Minors
70% of victims are aged 18 or older, with the number of children under the age of 18 estimated at 30%.
Sex Trafficking In The U.S.
The United States is a source, transit and destination country for sex trafficking victims.
Countries Of Origin
Primary countries of origin for foreign sex trafficking victims in the United States are Mexico, the Philippines, Thailand, Honduras, Guatemala, India and El Salvador.
Tasks
Sex trafficking victims are usually taken to brothels, escort services, massage parlors, strip clubs or hotels and/or are prostituted on the streets or forced to participate in pornography.
American Victims
American girls sometimes are trafficked within the U.S.
or even sent to other industrialized foreign countries such as the Netherlands, Germany and Japan.
Organ Trafficking
A related trafficking is organ trafficking which exists in many parts of the world. Cases are known in Indonesia, China, India, South Africa, Brazil, Moldavia and many other countries.
What they do is buy people (human trafficking) to then use their organs and resell them on the black market (organ trafficking).
North Korea
80% of North Koreans who are able to escape to China are women. But the sad truth is, that 9 out of 10 of these women end up in human trafficking, especially for sex.
If they complain they will be send back to North Korea, where they would be executed.
Death Toll
Approximately 30,000 sex trafficking victims die each year from torture, disease, abuse and humiliation.
Most of them are younger then 24 years and can be as young as 6.
Profit
A single sex slave earns her pimp at least $250,000 a year.
Child Soldiers
At least 300,000 children younger than 18 are currently trafficked to serve in armed conflicts worldwide.
The Government
Most human traffickers work with corrupt government officials in matter to obtain travel documents and passports for their victims.
Prosecution
Most times, when a sex slave gets arrested, she will be imprisoned for illegal prostitution, while her trafficker is able to buy his way out of trouble and rarely gets caught.
Ashton Kutcher
Ashton Kutcher has an organization which helps trafficking victims.
Last year they've found 6000 trafficking victims and were able to help.