Human trafficking impacts millions every day

Posted April 18, 2022

By Kim Phan and Alicia Pacheco Juarez

Cub Investigative Reporters

Human trafficking, impacting millions daily, can come in many forms, ranging all the way from smuggling of individuals for their organs, bride trafficking, and animal trafficking for their parts. They can occur in many different countries, and even in some developed countries that many wouldn’t expect.

Human trafficking defined in many cases never touches on the depths of what it does to human life and the victim's emotional and mental state. Smuggling migrants and taking advantage of their eagerness for money borders on evil. It’s of course a multi-billion form of international organized crime, most likely in simple terms forms of modern-day slavery. Human life is taken for granted in this illegal practice. They are sent to different parts of the world to be exploited because they want to make a better life for themselves. This is where they can be forced to work under perilous conditions unfit for any human being ever. Human trafficking and exploitation can be attributed to a variety of factors, including unequal labor opportunities, but the most common is the sexual exploitation of girls and women. Most of these women come from low-income areas of their country, and their families are poor, so they require financial assistance from whoever is capable of providing them that.

Bride trafficking is common in some countries, (such as Kyrgyzstan) and it is even a part of some cultures' history and traditions. The question remains whether it is ethical or unethical for the bride and groom to live happily ever after.

When culture is used as an excuse and to justify the practice of human trafficking, it opens up a whole new conflict. In Kyrgyzstan, this is seen in specific cases of bride kidnapping. Bride kidnapping can be excused and justified as a tradition rather than a crime in many countries throughout Central Asia. Despite the fact that it is illegal, most individuals who aid in and are direct perpetrators of the kidnapping process do not face harsh punishment. Many of them may be excused because they are attempting to revive some aspects of their culture, despite the fact that it appears to be an ancient practice dating back many centuries. Some aspects of their culture have yet to be modernized or influenced by Western ideas. However, it is a completely different mental issue for the victims of kidnapping. They could have the most intense breakdowns because they believe they have no choice but to comply. Their liberty is taken away, which can be harmful to any human psyche, as reported on The United Nations website. For some, it may be considered consensual elopement or kidnapping. Even those two terms shouldn't be used together, but they are. In a short video published by Vox, a young man is shown abducting his future wife with the assistance of his male relatives and friends, as well as the victim's friend. They led her to be captured, and then she was taken against her will to the family home, where she would be persuaded to marry by the man's female relatives for hours, days, or weeks on end. There is often pressure and stigma associated with rejecting a kidnapping because it is viewed as a rejection of Kyrgz's identity.

“The reason is that Kyrgyz girls are educated from childhood to be obedient, and here, we see the result of that," one woman in the video states. "We see domestic violence, divorce, and abandoned children."

To be more specific, men who frequently commit these kidnappings are more undesirable, so they must find a wife in this manner. They are far more likely to be violent, to have a criminal record, or to be drug addicts. As a result, it becomes extremely dangerous for the woman, especially if she doesn't know the man well, or, in some cases of bride kidnappings, they don't even know each other at all. For some of those women who ended up complying and giving in to their kidnapping, their emotional and mental state will deteriorate, and it may even lead to suicide. This is the worst possible outcome, and their families may grieve for a long time over their situation and ability to change it.

In some cases, such as in China, the implementation of a one-child policy means that there are more males than females in the country. That means there will be a bride shortage when those young men reach marriageable age. As a result, they must rely on stealing brides from neighboring countries or kidnapping women from rural villages. As reported in The Economist, a mother of eight was filmed chained to a freezing village outhouse in one case that garnered national attention and fueled national outrage in China. She displayed signs of mental illness, and many social media users questioned who she was and how she came to be in that state. Government officials made contradictory statements about how the woman came to the rural village where she was filmed. Many social media users suspected human trafficking because she was living in such deplorable conditions and had no idea where she was. They eventually admitted she had been sold into marriage and then refused to reveal any further information about her. However, after mounting pressure from the authorities and petitions signed by wealthy Chinese citizens, an investigation was launched, revealing that she was 44 years old, from a small village in China, and had been sold and married to her current husband. He wasn't the only one involved, as two other drug traffickers were apprehended. Seventeen county-level officials have been fired to emphasize the occurrence and corruption in high-level officials who run the behind-the-scenes scenes of human trafficking acts.

In some cases, survivors of human trafficking have also experienced some sort of domestic violence which can sometimes lead them to commit different types of other crimes. When these individuals go to court, their past experiences are not often accounted for. Making the law system paint them as criminals. The aftermath of these puts up barriers for the convicted groups to make it harder to acquire secure housing, jobs, public assistance, their driver's license, and being helped financially. Most of these crimes are also committed due to the trauma that this individual has gone through and endured, or it is at least linked in one way or another.

When the case was brought before judges in certain counties in China, many denied divorce to several trafficked women, urging them to consider their husbands and children, and encouraging them to work out any conflicts they had and reconcile. Traditionalist arguments are used, such as the fact that many buyers are men who lack the education or skills to move to cities, and brides are sometimes sold to parents who have disabled or mentally challenged sons. This repeats the cycle of forcing the superiority of men over women. If this is the only way these men can find a way, maybe it should be clear that they shouldn't be marrying at all. Because the majority of these parents want their sons (who are unable to find a wife), they take it upon themselves to earn a daughter-in-law and possibly grandchildren. It's all for the purpose of passing down the family line or, in some cases, reviving some aspect of their culture that the West does use and ultimately condemns. Nevertheless, it is not a case of incorporating aspects of culture and history into modern society, but rather of doing so simply because it has become normalized and because they can. When culture enters the picture, human trafficking can become entangled in a hazy zone of discourse. Will it be worth it for the culture, or will it be a waste of time? What does this imply for the way women are treated in that society?

Their crimes can also be in self-defense or committed due to being forced by their abuser. They can also be forced to start abusing substances to cope with their trauma and can also be used by their abusers to blame crimes on, even when they have not committed them.

In 2020, over 4,700 victims were trafficked for reasons varying from forced labor to sexual exploitation. This occurs more often than many would think all across different states and other countries. It is for sure a task to have to track the whole group that is causing this, since their locations are all over the place, but after finally prosecuting and capturing them, they are faced with either life in prison or the minimum stay of 10 years. Even forced marriage is considered a form of human trafficking and its penalty is fairly similar to the one above. The 2000 Trafficking Victims Protection Act was enacted with the purpose of preventing human trafficking overseas as well as protecting and helping the victims reclaim their normal lives as easily as possible. Law enforcement has determined it is fairly difficult to recognize cases of minor labor trafficking since sometimes, such young kids can be found in family-owned restaurants or magazine sales staff and most wouldn’t look in those parts for such kids.

Punishments in the realm of human trafficking are typically light and do not address the justice that is so desperately needed for victims' families. In many of the more common cases, the criminal or leader of the trafficking ring escapes before being apprehended. In two cases, the lax punishments that critical received in human trafficking are emphasized. Even in cultural traditions, or as many would like to call it, actual crimes, the men who are involved in the kidnapping process are frequently not punished severely.

In a Belgian court case, the ringleader of a human trafficking network was sentenced to 15 years in prison. In addition, a fine of 920,000 pounds (USD $1,024,000) was imposed. He was only sentenced to 15 years in prison, but he oversaw criminal activities between 2018 and 2020, facilitating the trafficking of at least 115 migrants to the United Kingdom. Only 15 years and financial reparation for the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants? In what way is this compensation reserved for the families of the 39 victims? The desire and desperation of those migrants to enter the UK or other developed countries illegally demonstrates the lengths to which they are willing to go and be aided illegally by a human traffickers network as long as they get there.

In another case, a Dutch national of Eritrean descent who was wanted by Interpol for human trafficking was deported to the Netherlands. John Habeta, 53, had been on the run for about 4 years, so it was no surprise that it took this long to apprehend him. He ran an underground international human smuggling network that trafficked many from Africa to Europe. Human traffickers will exploit the willingness and financial desires that civilians from developing countries have in more developed countries. They take advantage of these presumably available job opportunities by disguising their support as a gesture of goodwill. Interpol officially reported that he was arrested in Nairobi, Kenya following a covert operation by DCI detectives. After four years on the run, he was finally linked to at least four different operations in which groups of Eritrean nationals were smuggled through Europe and Asia. On the orders of the ministry of interior, he was extradited to the Netherlands immediately after his arrest. What kind of repercussions did he face? It's difficult to say because it varies by country.

Eastern Africans are increasingly trying to find work in mining services, domestic work, and prostitution, which has increased the demand for trafficked labor. As of now, the Dutch national is being held in custody in the Netherlands until his trial, where he faces up to eight years in prison if convicted. This is even lighter than the previous sentence represented in that Belgian court case. Only eight years can account for the ten lives and dreams lost in transnational smuggling operations. The syndicates that run human trafficking rings are solely concerned with profit, and they have little to no regard for the safety or well-being of their migrants.

Women trafficking has become more common, despite popular belief that most perpetrators are men. Based on the UNODC’s official 2020 Global report, despite the fact that nearly two-thirds of those convicted of trafficking offenses were men, Eastern Europe and Central Asia appear to convict more women than men. In some Central and East Asian countries, the number of convicted males and females was divided equally in 2018. However, trafficking cannot be viewed as a single process carried out by a single individual; it must have multiple levels, all of which are traceable back to the leader of the organization, albeit illegally. According to the United Nations Website, there are numerous groups involved (such as business owners, intimate partners, or even other family members), and the majority of the time it involves high-ranking officials from that county, region, or town (even country sometimes).

Human trafficking also includes trafficking for organ harvesting. As gruesome and disgusting as it sounds, it's becoming a common practice, owing largely to a global shortage of organs for ethical transplants. As stated numerous times in The Humanist, most groups who donate their organs are motivated by external factors rather than internal ones. The kidney trade thrives in the human trafficking chain, and the collateral damage done in the desperation of the poor and sick could only destroy lives and bring grief.

“This is too late," a Hindu surgeon stated in Perpetual Scars. "Kidney selling is no longer a strange or exotic act. It is normal, every day, and entrenched. We in the South can agree that it is a tragic turn of events, but the demand comes from the outside.”

However, according to New Internationalist, it is a small but thriving business that attracts at least 50 nations from around the world and serves millions of citizens. Postoperative complications and risks are increased as a result of organ trafficking. Organ transplantation is not a simple process, so patients who are transplanted with kidneys from a 'supplier' who has not been tested by medical professionals and has no knowledge of their medical history can be unsettling. The poor and desperate are frequently targeted because they have no other options. The sellers were paid between $2,000 and $3,00 for a spare organ.

Many transplant tourists have been reported to have suffered complications as a result of mismatched organs sold to them, as well as infections with HIV and Hepatitis C. According to Perpetual Scars by New Internationalist, there hasn't been any data on what happens to the bodies of those kidney donors after donation. These ‘tourists’ are essentially the same as deceased donors, except they are very much alive and able to participate in this process in the universal thirst for money.

If there is somebody you believe or suspect is being trafficked in any sense, call 911 or any national human trafficking hotlines. Lots of individuals could be at risk of these, most commonly disabled groups, young runaways or homeless, individuals of the LGBT community, temporary guest-workers, undocumented migrants and low-income individuals are the ones at a bigger risk of suffering the effects of human traffic in some sense or the other.

There is proof that these awful events keep occurring in our community. Just in February of this year a man in Oregon was sentenced to 104 months in prison with a three-year supervised release for sex trafficking as stated in United States Department of Justice District of Oregon.

Human trafficking is an issue that affects many states, including ours. Even with the laws and efforts to stop the crime from spreading, victims keep appearing with their own stories. Oregon has become a destination for human trafficking crimes because of multiple reasons, including its geography and the way the state has access to shipping waterways and the Canadian border, therefore providing access as well to international trafficking groups. Also, its accessibility to major interstate freeways connecting many states including Seattle, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. Even though many can be prone to becoming a victim, there are some factors that put the public at higher risk. Women and young girls are mostly affected by this and being pushed into forced labor and with about 99 percent of them stuck in the sex industry and 58 percent in other situations as stated in the United States Committee of Rights Report. As well as the Portland metropolitan ranking second on the greatest amount of trafficked children in the forced prostitution situation among cities suffering from this issue next to Las Vegas.

Through 2007 and 2016 about 188 cases were reported in Oregon, placing the state number 19 on the list of cases reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline. Even with this information, it is fairly difficult to track since the numbers vary with each year that goes by and victims can either be hidden behind closed doors or out in plain sight.

“They tend to pick victims who are lacking strong family connections, peer connections. They make it seem as if they’re going to be supportive and then they make real contact through social media,” said DDHS Behavior Specialist, Chris Ganow. “Then, at that point in time, they start to manipulate and/or in some cases abduct.”

Many students aren't aware of how vulnerable they are, especially with the rise of social media and the use of grooming as a trusted tactic. Young teens who do not have much support outside of school, or even in school, may be the most vulnerable groups. Their only source of support may end up leading them into more dangerous situations. What many teenagers don't seem to realize is that the city in which they live, Portland, Oregon, is considered one of the highest human trafficking capitals in the United States. It is regarded as a trafficking corridor, and more information about who may be at risk should be disclosed. Oregon is situated between two major hubs of rapid development, namely Canada and California.

“Traffickers will use the transportation routes between the two regions to move individuals between states for commercial or sexual exploitation,” stated in The Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking.

“Portland, in particular, is part of a corridor of transportation with Canada, with the Canadian border and transportation from people who are victims of sex trafficking all the way from Mexico, California, Oregon, Washington, and up into Canada,” said Ganow.

The key point in preventing this from happening to individuals is to ensure that there is a general awareness shared, such as mandating and educating students about what could happen to them. Mandating a level of education to ensure students understand what many others around them are capable of could keep them from landing themselves in vulnerable situations. This is due to the rise of social media and the presence of grooming that may occur. Grooming can result in the development of trust between an older male and a young vulnerable teen. This could have disastrous consequences, such as being sold to a human trafficking ring after gaining their trust. Groups who are involved in sex trafficking use grooming tactics, and the ever-present presence of social media nowadays enables and facilitates that process. Although unexpected, educating some younger students about the dangers and risks of human trafficking should be prioritized right now. Many teenagers are unaware that the area in which they live could be considered a hotspot for potential sex trafficking schemes.

“More awareness would be helpful to prevent teens from getting in these situations,” said Ganow.