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Human smuggling and trafficking are different, but traffickers and smugglers think similarly (taking humans from one place to another). The conditions of victims are horrifying – people stuffed into steel boxes, compartments hidden under the sleeping quarters of semi trucks, or tractor trailers modified to hold a large amount of human cargo. “Any place they can fit a body, they're going to do it,” said Martinez, who works close to the Mexico border. They once discovered dozens of bodies in an abandoned semi-truck in San Antonio. This is the deadliest smuggling incident yet of people trying to get to the U.S. The smuggling left at least 53 people dead and hospitalized (Ramirez).
Apparently there is a vast difference between human trafficking and human smuggling. Usually, human smuggling is transporting people from border to border. Human trafficking is the victims being tricked, bribed, and or forced into labor or sexual activities. Both are illegal that treat people as if they’re priced objects. Trafficking victims are trafficked within their home country while smuggling always crosses national borders. A report showed that in 2018 46% of trafficking victims were women and 19% were girls. For male victims, the report showed that 20% of victims were men and 15% were boys (“Human Trafficking”).
There is research showing that legalizing the sex trade and forced labor has led to high demand for paid sex. That makes sex like a “tourism destination.” The high demand for commercial sex services means more jobs. There are not enough people who would want to do that job, so sex traffickers try to step in. The sex traffickers go for easy, vulnerable, targets, especially children and young people. A lot of trafficked people are women of color, younger girls, LGBTQ, and homeless children (Aufdemberge).
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