Human Trafficking

By Melissa Finona and Nicholas Alamo

Phil 61 Sec 06 - Moral Issues

Pair 3

What is Human Trafficking?

Human trafficking, a type of modern-day slavery, and a serious public health emergency that affects 12 to 30 million people, including over 5 million children. Human trafficking is described as the act of hiring, harboring, transporting, supplying, or acquiring an individual for compelled labor or commercial sex acts by the use of fraud, intimidation, or coercion. Victims of human trafficking may be of any age, ethnicity, or sexual orientation.

How do people get trafficked?

Human traffickers use many different ploys and tricks to get a grasp over a person. This ranges from fake jobs, kidnappings, blackmailing, etc. It is always forced and against the person’s will.

What happens to those who are caught up in Human Trafficking

Victims of human trafficking experience abuse including physical, sexual, and psychological violence , economic restrictions , and other controlling behaviours, that include but aren’t limited to possible reporting to immigration services.

Where is it Most Prevalent

Human trafficking happens everywhere around the world. Every country has had some kind of trouble of human trafficking, but the United States has the most cases.

Locations of potential Human Trafficking cases in the US

Human Trafficking & how it is handled in Massachusetts

• Massachusetts attorney general’s office has opened a human trafficking division
• It was estimated that as many as 9,000 searches each day for sex were happening every afternoon via computer in the City of Boston
• A woman named Nikki Bell; created an organization called Worcester LIFT in 2014 as a way to help survivors and provide resources. In six years, the organization has helped more than 400 other people
• The attorney general’s Human Trafficking Division is fighting back by targeting demand: the customers
• The organization LIFT is opening a shelter for human trafficking victims in Massachussets

Human Trafficking and exploitation

• The exploitation that is the main element of trafficking combines different forms of abuse, such as extensive hours, debt, physical confinement, occupational hazards, violence, and threats
• These forms of abuse occur across a spectrum at levels of severity. The impact of exploitation on the health and wellbeing of a person who has been trafficked depends on the combination of types and severity of the acts she or he suffers
• After being exploited, many trafficked workers have physical and/or psychological health problems and debt
• Trafficking victims rarely have access to health or social assistance such as financial compensation for work-related injuries or illness, or unpaid wages.
• Debts and other financial obligations, including for medical care, can increase survivors’ vulnerability to further exploitation

A public health approach to prevent future trafficking

• Addressing structural determinants is at the core of effective prevention efforts for extreme exploitation, such as violence against women or substance misuse, has multiple and interacting causes and effects
• Labor exploitation can be seen as a health determinant and preventable social problem and benefit from public health prevention approaches that target the harm before it occurs.
• A prevention lens can direct people to consider the interaction of multiple factors that protect or put individuals and populations at risk of labor exploitation and to seek potential mechanisms to minimize these risks or enhance protection.

Video about understanding Human Trafficking

What is Human Trafficking

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Why does Human trafficking exist?

There are many reasons why human trafficking pops up in different parts of the world but there is one reason why Human Trafficking exists and that is greed, by any means necessary; Humans exploiting humans for the benefit of their own livelihood.

How Virtue Ethics is applicable to human Trafficking

Virtue Ethic is the idea that emphasizes the virtue of a person’s character that are necessary for the people to achieve individual and collective human happiness. Human trafficking strips a person of their dreams, their lives and all the other aspects of an individual to make them better slaves. Because of this type of action, many people live in a constant fear, not only those who are preyed upon but those who are victims and survivors.

How can Virtue Ethics Stop Human Trafficking

The most important aspect of virtue ethics is to praise individualism and how they are themselves and not conforming to society. Teaching our children how to be a loving human being that respects all aspects of natural and people while also understanding the true worth of a person is the only way we can teach our children about how human trafficking is wrong and that it should be obliterated.

Resources to help

• If you are in the United States and believe someone may be a victim of human trafficking, call the 24-hour National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888; Trafficking victims, whether or not U.S. citizens, are eligible for services and immigration assistance.
• Office for Victims of Crime (OVC): Human Trafficking: The OVC Human Trafficking site provides information about human trafficking with resources, phone numbers and task force programs by location.
• To report suspected human trafficking to Federal law enforcement 1-866-347-2423
• To receive help from the National Human Trafficking Hotline 1-888-373-2423
• Sexual Assault Hotline 1-800-656-4673

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Citations/ References

Byrne, M. , Parsh, S. & Parsh, B. (2019). Human trafficking. Nursing Management (Springhouse), 50(8), 18–24. doi: 10.1097/01.NUMA.0000575304.15432.07.

https://www.crs.org/stories/stop-human-trafficking

Ross C, Dimitrova S, Howard LM, et alHuman trafficking and health: a cross-sectional survey of NHS professionals’ contact with victims of human traffickingBMJ Open 2015;5:e008682. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2015-008682

Ward, Bob. “Fighting Back against Human Trafficking in Massachusetts.” Boston 25 News, Boston 25 News, 11 Mar. 2021, www.boston25news.com/news/local/fighting-back-against-human-trafficking-massachusetts/DJVTE7HIBZGBTJY7M2HLCUZJUU/.

Zimmerman C, Kiss L (2017) Human trafficking and exploitation: A global health concern. PLoS Med 14(11): e1002437. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1002437

“20 Ways You Can Help Fight Human Trafficking - United States Department of State.” U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of State, 11 Jan. 2021, www.state.gov/20-ways-you-can-help-fight-human-trafficking/.

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Citations/References

“Human Trafficking Resources.” Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, ojjdp.ojp.gov/programs/human-trafficking-resources.

“Resources Available for Victims.” Department of Homeland Security, 18 Dec. 2020, www.dhs.gov/blue-campaign/resources-available-victims.

“National Sexual Assault Hotline: Confidential 24/7 Support.” RAINN, www.rainn.org/resources.

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