I was saddened yesterday while watching SABC 1’s Cutting Edge programme which brings me to today’s topic. Each year, thousands of men, women and children fall into the hands of traffickers, in their own countries and abroad. One might ask what human trafficking is, it is a crime against humanity. It is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of reproductive slavery, sexual exploitation, forced labour, or a modern-day from slavery. Watching the programme was so eye-opening that even individuals lead themselves to it without being fully aware of their surroundings. The young woman, who was fortunate enough to have lived to tell a tale, shared her horrifying experience. Having to come from a poor background was the only solution to the starvation was to get an occupation that will help alleviate their predicament at home. As she describes that she was fortunate enough to have met a clean, well dressed man who said he could help her to get an occupation in Pretoria, when it suddenly turned ugly when the man locked her in a room for sexual favours but she was fortunate enough to escape without being harmed.
According to a 2009 U.S Department of Justice report, there were 1 229 suspected human trafficking incidents in the United States from January 2007-September 2008. Of these, 83% were sex trafficking cases, through only 9% of all cases could be confirmed as examples of human trafficking.
We live in horrendous world were especially children and women are violated of their rights and are forced to live with scars that will always be part of their lives to have experienced such horror. How I always say to my friends that you cannot sow a pumpkin seed and expect to reap a pork loin, far-fetched I know, which is similar to the upbringing of a child in a family. It is quite rare for a child to be brought up in a family of strong and influential values, beliefs and morals to force another human being to be treated in such a manner of molestation or worse. As for the community we need to teach the children that it is important to always be honest of the places they wonder in, who they are with, their time of arrival and which mode of transport will be utilised. By being informed with such we able to detect if there is a delay and when trouble has occurred. The International Labour Organization estimates worldwide that there are 246 million exploited children aged between 5 and 17 involved in debt bondage, forced recruitment for armed conflict, prostitution, pornography, the illegal drug trade, the illegal arms trade, and other illicit activities around the world.
The National Human Trafficking Resources Centre is a toll free hotline for callers to report tips and receive information on human trafficking by calling the hotline at 1.888.3737.888, which it is based only in the United States. And for other countries they can contact the Anti-human trafficking and Migrant Smuggling Unit or to join the Blue Heart Campaign against Human Trafficking, visit the Blue Heart website and to learn about the Global Initiative to fight Human Trafficking (UN.GIFT) visit the UN.GIFT website.
That is so sad hey but by being informed you are able to come up with suggestions on how to prevent such matters.
ReplyDeleteYes, like I argue that it is very important that parents, guardians, spouses etc are well informed of their families whereabouts in order to prevent such unforeseen circumstances.
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