Hao Chen, Period 7, 3/18/2024

Hao Chen

Period 7 

3/18/2024

Modern Mythology 2024

Socio-political Consciousness

    Human rights, a topic that has been brought up over and over again and has been the center for discussion for decades if not centuries . But no matter how it is defined there have always been a few rights that have not changed, one of them is freedom. This is not the case however for victims of human trafficking. 

    The other day i was browsing through what me and my friend like to call "Chinese Tik Tok'' and watching some brain rotting short videos, i came across a short vid which is a camera recording of a human trafficker snatching a child on the street and getting pinned down by bystanders. It is lucky for this child because there are people nearby who saved them but it is not so lucky for the millions of victims who were already kidnapped away from their home. Based on federal records there are an estimated 27.6 million human trafficking victims at any given time. That is an astounding number because if all of these people are from America then that will be 8.3% of the total U.S. population. So why is the number so high? Well victims of human trafficking are typically taken for two primary goals, forced labor and sex trafficking. But the underlying reason is profit from the exploitation of victims. Research had it that over $150 billion of profit was made due to human trafficking per year making it the second largest criminal trade aside from weapons trading. The other reason for this high of a number is because human trafficking is hard to detect and stop. Not every place has a camera and not everywhere has people around who can stop the process. 

    Victims of human trafficking can come from any race, gender, social status, and age with 27% of  victims being children. The main purpose for the human trafficking of children are for forced labor and forced marriage. During these forced labors children are forced to work up to 16 hours a day and adults even higher numbers, and are beaten or starved if they don't.  These numbers led me to reflect on my perception of myself and others because while I am in school and worried about school work, millions of children are being forced to work in factories and concerned about whether or not they can live until the next day. We are all the lucky people just like the children that were saved, not having to experience the suffering of human trafficking victims.

    So people, next time when you are walking alone, be careful of your surroundings 

Sources

U.S. Department of State. (2023, January 18). About human trafficking - united states department of state. U.S. Department of State. https://www.state.gov/humantrafficking-about-human-trafficking/#:~:text=With%20an%20estimated%2027.6%20million,them%20for%20their%20own%20profit.

Child trafficking statistics. World’s Children. (2023, February 24). https://www.worldschildren.org/child-trafficking-statistics/#:~:text=27%25%20of%20trafficking%20victims%20are,are%20involved%20in%20forced%20labor. 

Facts & figures. Youth Underground. (2023, March 14). https://youth-underground.com/facts-figures/#:~:text=Human%20trafficking%20is%20the%20fastest,times%20the%20population%20of%20Switzerland.