Human Trafficking and Kidnapping

Human Trafficking and Kidnapping
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Human Trafficking and Kidnapping
Introduction
The U.S. federal law describes human trafficking victims as children who are engaged in sex commerce, adults and over eighteen year olds who are forced to work as sexual workers. In addition, any person who is forced to do any kind of work, which include "domestic workers held in a home, or farm-workers forced to labor against their will" are all victims of human trafficking (Polaris Project, 2012). Irrespective of the type of work that a person is forced to undertake, it is of paramount importance to note that each of it has the elements of coercion, force or fraud in it. This is the reason why all are referred to as human trafficking because the involved parties use the same methods to achieve their targets.
Globalization has ensured that it is now easy to transport goods as well people across various borders. However, as the movement of goods has increased across the borders so does the abduction and trafficking of human beings. It is of paramount importance to note that although "cases of kidnapping and ransom continue to be common in African and Latin American countries, such as Nigeria and Venezuela, the majority of organized human trafficking cases are actually in Europe" as several countries report an increase in the number of people who are being exploited for financial gains (Germain, 2009).
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) acknowledges that the problem of human trafficking has been on the rise since the year 2006 with reported cases of human trafficking of about 270,000 in Europe. However, this may be an underestimate because most probably most cases go unnoticed. However, despite the high numbers of trafficking cases only about 1 in 100,000 are convicted for the offences. This led to UNODC executive director Antonio Maria Costa observing that maybe "Perhaps police are not finding the traffickers and victims because they are not looking for them," but "Lives should not be for sale or for rent on a continent that prohibits slavery and forced labor, and prides itself on upholding human dignity" (Germain, 2009).
This implies that although Europe has enacted laws that prevent human trafficking and kidnapping, the state organs are not enforcing them. This is a very dangerous path to take because innocent people are suffering at the hands of traffickers while the traffickers are making a kill out of their (victims) situations. In most instances, law enforcement officers are eager to arrest prostitutes in the streets and they do not care the circumstances, which brought the prostitutes there in the first place. It is important to come up with agencies that will help prostitutes and ascertain whether they are on the streets on their own volition or otherwise.
Human traffickers are members of almost all the as shown by a research that was conducted by Wilson and Dalton in 2010. The two were able to find out that "The offenders and victims involved in the sex trafficking cases were largely from the local area, whereas those involved in the labor trafficking cases primarily involved foreign nationals, thereby illustrating at least one role th...