Modern Day Slavery

This morning I was watching E! News while getting ready for the day and did not think much about seeing an interview with Jada Pinkett Smith going on until I heard what they were discussing- human trafficking. Not really something I thought I would hear about in the middle of which celebrities got married over the weekend and who called it quits. Ah, how refreshing though that it is talked about in the middle of all the Hollywood gossip.

Image: Ira Gelb/Creative Commons

Statistics vary on this issue because a lot goes unreported but the ones presented below are from Don't Sell Bodies (a website devoted to bringing awareness and with whom Jada Pinkett Smith works alongside).

There are 600,000-800,000 individuals trafficked across international borders annually. The thing is, people often think it doesn't happen where they live. Well, for those you reading this that live in America, 40,000 men, women, and children are enslaved in America right now. The number of confirmed trafficking cases in the US that are American born citizens is 83%. Yep, its definitely not just an issue in some other country. Slavery did not die in the 1800s. It is very much apparent today. It just looks different. Modern day slavery usually (but not always) involves sex. The majority of individuals who fall victim to this are female and 50% are children. Most girls are recruited before they even become teenagers.

Check out this video made by the Jubilee Project that depicts this huge issue.

Another issue that occurs with trafficking is that those forced into prostitution get picked up by the cops and not the pimps who are really to blame. The traffickers are the criminals yet the victims are the ones being arrested. Many states are cracking down, making new laws, making large arrests (of the individuals orchestrating it), etc. I am proud to say my home state of Ohio is one of those states. Governor John Kaisch signed a law last week that was immediately put into effect and makes human trafficking a first-degree felony that can get up to 15 years in prison. An even better part about this law is that it has provisions for victims to have their records expunged for charges that were a result of forcefully being involved in the sex trade.

Internationally efforts are also being made to bring an end to this awful human injustice. A week before the Ohio law was signed the European Commission "adopted the EU Strategy towards the Eradication of Trafficking in Human Beings." This is a five-year plan that will provide support to victims and bring traffickers to justice.

As a human race we need to put an end to this trafficking and bring back the innocence many young people lose at the hands of adults. We should be educating, providing, and nurturing the children of our world, not taking advantage of them.