A LOOK INTO THE COMPLEXITY OF GLOBAL HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Anna Green
Honors 499: Human Trafficking: A Cross-Cultural Examination
December 1, 2015

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Abraham Lincoln in 1863 issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that all
persons held as slaves should be then, thenceforward, and forever free.1 Some 150 years later,
the world is still struggling to make that a reality. What did Lincoln have in mind when he issued
this proclamation? Was he intending only the end of forced labor in the Confederate States, or
did he have a bigger picture in mind? Did he think it would be as easy to end slavery as to issue a
proclamation, or did he understand that this would forever be a battle? Had he any idea how
difficult and convoluted the problem of slavery was and likely always would be? Slavery still
exists in the world today, both on a global and national scale. The problem of slavery is now
often referred to as and encompassed by the term human trafficking. The issue of human
trafficking is both complicated and multi-faceted, especially regarding its definition, its various
forms, its cause, and its scope.
Human trafficking has always been difficult to define. Different parties disagree about
what is and is not considered trafficking, so various organizations and governments often define
human trafficking differently. Perhaps the biggest division lies in the classification of
prostitution. According to Ronald Weitzer, sociologist at George Washington University in
Washington, D.C., the Brazilian legal code now defines sex trafficking as any assisted
movement of prostitutes regardless of whether force, deception, exploitation, or rights violations
were involved.2 The U.S. State Department, however, declared that prostitution by willing

11. Emancipation Proclamation. National Archives, https://www.archives.gov/
exhibits/featured_documents/emancipation_proclamation/transcript.html (accessed November
15, 2015).
2. Ronald Weitzer, Rethinking human trafficking, Dialectical Anthropology 37, no. 2
(June 2013): 310, http://ezproxy.mssu.edu:2065/docview/1655561128?pq-origsite=summon
&accountid=12570 (accessed November 15, 2015).

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adults is never trafficking, regardless of the legality of the acts.3
Despite any division or disagreement, the United Nations developed a definition for
human trafficking in 2000. It is accepted on a fairly universal level and seems to have become a
standard of sorts. The UN decided to take a law enforcement perspective; rather than coming to a
decision about voluntary sex work, their approach was to [address] the criminals who enslave
women and children.4 Their definition is as follows:
The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of
the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, or fraud, of deception,
of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or the giving or receiving of
payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another
person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the
exploitation or prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour
or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.5
In short, the UNs definition for human trafficking is involvement in the nonconsensual
exploitation of another person.
That leads to the next facet of human trafficking. Trafficking presents itself in a number
of different ways, as nuanced in the definition above. Human trafficking includes various forms
of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery, forced marriage, and organ trafficking.
Each of these has definitions of its own. It is important to note the differences in order to have a
more comprehensive perspective on this issue of human trafficking.
Sexual exploitation is one of the most prominent forms of trafficking worldwide. Sexual
exploitation occurs when a person is tricked, coerced, or sold into pornography or forced

3. Ibid.

4. Louise Shelley, Human Trafficking: A Global Perspective (New York: Cambridge
University Press, 2010), 10.

5. Ibid., 10-11.

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prostitution and often required to provide sexual services for clients.6 In some parts of the world,
sex tourism is a prominent business, and traffickers organize tours for foreigners to obtain sex
services from minors unavailable to them at home.7 Women and female children are most
susceptible to trafficking in especially impoverished regions and countries where they have low
social status. In these places, they can be sold to advance their families economic status or
otherwise easily coerced into the trade with promises of opportunities to provide for their
families.8
Forced labor or services, also referred to as labor trafficking, is defined by the ILO
Convention on Forced Labor as work or service that is taken from a person under the menace of
penalty and for which the person has not offered himself voluntarily.9 In the United States,
illegal immigrants often fall victim to labor trafficking because of their vulnerable state upon
arrival. In Western Europe, hundreds of thousands of laborers are imported to work because of
the low birth rate in those countries. Children are also trafficked for specific purposes, including
to become camel jockeys, to scout for land mines, or to work as child soldiers in regions of
conflict.10
Slavery or slavery-like practices was defined by the Slavery Convention in 1926 and the
Supplementary Slavery Convention in 1956 as the status or condition of a person over whom

6. Rapha House. https://raphahouse.org/human-trafficking (accessed November 15,
2015).
7. Lousie Shelley, Human Trafficking, 15.
8. Ibid., 16-17.
9. Walk Free Foundation, Global Slavery Index. http://www.globalslaveryindex.org/
terminology (accessed November 15, 2015).
10. Louise Shelley, Human Trafficking, 13.

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any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised. Includes slavery-like
practices: debt bondage, forced or servile marriage, sale or exploitation of children (including in
armed conflict) and descent-based slavery.11 This, of course, is the type of trafficking most
closely associated with the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation.
Forced marriage, or servile marriage, refers to any marriage in which a person is given to
be married for payment or compensation without the right to refuse, or any situation in which a
person is liable to be inherited by another if the spouse dies. As noted in the Global Slavery
Index, child marriage can be difficult to classify, but as a general rule, children under the age of
sixteen are unable to consent and their marriage is considered forced. At the age of sixteen or
seventeen, however, if the child consents, the case may not be forced marriage.12
Organ trafficking is perhaps the least known type of human trafficking. It can happen in a
few different ways. First, a trafficker may force or trick a victim into giving up an organ. Second,
a victim may agree to sell an organ for a given price and receive no payment or less than the
agreed-upon price. Third, a victim could be tricked into undergoing a surgery for a minor
ailment, and during the procedure, the victims organs are removed without knowledge or
consent.13 There are also reports of death row inmates, particularly in China, have their organs
removed and trafficked.14 Organ trafficking also usually happens in loosely regulated hospitals

11. Global Slavery Index.
12. Ibid.
13. Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking, Trafficking for Organ Trade.
http://www.ungift. org/knowledgehub/en/about/trafficking-for-organ-trade.html (accessed
November 17, 2015).
14. Louise Shelley, Human Trafficking, 156.

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with poor sanitary conditions and few health sanctions, which often leads to further medical
complications for the victims.15
Trafficking of children into begging also occurs in many regions, especially in urban
areas. Traffickers will recruit children to beg for money and give the children no share of the
earnings. In some cases, traffickers will harm or maim the children so that people will pity them
more and be more likely to give them money.16 There are also cases of trafficked children and
babies for adoption to other countries. In one case, large numbers of Cambodian babies were
sold for adoptions between the years of 1997 and 2001. Children were obtained by illicit childbuying, fraud and child-stealing.17 They were held in disgusting and unsanitary conditions,
surrounded by excrement until their adoption. The U.S. Immigration Service investigated the
adoption situation and put an end to the international trade in 2001, but not before nearly 1600
babies had been illegally adopted by Americans alone.18 It is possible that other forms of
trafficking occur, but these are the most known and common forms.
And unfortunately, trafficking is very common. Again, it is difficult to come to a
consensus about the actual number of victims worldwide because of the differing definitions and
the secret, criminal nature of the trade. It is impossible to have accurate numbers at any point in
time, given also the consideration that the number is constantly changing. However, the
International Labour Organization (ILO) in 2006 recorded a conservative estimate of 12.3

15. Ibid., 16.
16. Ibid., 11.
17. Ibid., 160.
18. Ibid.

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million persons globally,19 and latest estimates recorded in the Global Slavery Index are as high
as 35.8 million in 2014. It is highly unlikely that the actual number of trafficked persons has
increased by such a degree; rather, the capability for more accurate and precise results has
increased.20 Regardless of the different estimates, the number of persons trafficked is at least
between 20 and 30 million based on all sources consulted.
Trafficking also happens everywhere. There are cases of human trafficking on every
inhabited continent and in at least 167 different countries. The most numerous victims are in
Asia,21 while the fewest are generally in the European region.22 The country with the highest
percentage of its population victimized by modern slavery is Mauritania at four percent, followed
shortly by Uzbekistan at 3.97 percent. The ten countries with the most numerous victims are, in
order, India, China, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Russia, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Thailand. Together, these ten countries make up 71 percent
of trafficking victims worldwide.23
The United States is not immune to the problem of trafficking. In fact, it is not
necessarily even among the countries with the best statistics. The United States has an estimated
60 thousand modern slaves within its borders.24 With the exception of the government corruption
and involvement, the pattern of trafficking in the United States actually more closely resembles a

19. Ibid., 5.
20. Global Slavery Index.
21. Louise Shelley, Human Trafficking, 5.
22. Global Slavery Index.
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid.

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developing country than the advanced democracy that it is.25 Research suggests that the reason
for this pattern is found in the distinctive features of American society, most prominently the
value of individual achievement over social welfare. This leaves a greater number of citizens on
the economic fringes and hence more susceptible to trafficking.
The trafficking industry is also an extremely profitable one. Annual profits for trafficking
are estimated at $32 billion.26 The profitability of the industry is one of the causes of human
trafficking to begin with. For traffickers, the risk is great, but the profit is greater; many
entrepreneurs see the opportunity and enter the market. Another consideration is the low
conviction rate for human traffickers it is lower than that of drug or arms trafficking.27 In fact,
despite the scale of human trafficking in the States, only 77 convictions were made nationwide in
2008. As Cesare Beccaria said, The certainty of punishment is more important than its severity
in preventing crime.28
However, profitability alone does not sustain the international industry of human
trafficking. Powerful criminals and crime groups have strong ties with law enforcement and
government agencies in many parts of the world. Crime groups organize the sex industry with
the protection of government officials. In many developing countries, police are paid poorly and
are susceptible to bribes.29 With human trafficking being the booming and profitable industry

25. Louise Shelley, Human Trafficking, 229.
26. Elizabeth M. Wheaton, Edward J. Schauer, and Thomas V. Galli, Economics of
Human Trafficking, International Migration 48, no. 4 (2010): 124.
27. Ibid., 126.
28. Lousie Shelley, Human Trafficking, 230.
29. Ibid., 19.

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that it is, rich traffickers and poor police officers make a natural pair. Widespread corruption is
evident, and is evidently a part of the problem of trafficking.
Therefore, human trafficking is a massive and massively complicated issue. It manifests
in many different forms in nearly every region of the world, and there are complex economic and
political systems in place protecting the industry. Slavery did not end with the Emancipation
Proclamation. However, Abraham Lincolns dream was an admirable one, and modern society
will continue to fight for this cause until justice is finally served.

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Bibliography
Emancipation Proclamation. National Archives, https://www.archives.gov/
exhibits/featured_documents/emancipation_proclamation/transcript.html (accessed
November 15, 2015).
Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking, Trafficking for Organ Trade. http://www.ungift.
org/knowledgehub/en/about/trafficking-for-organ-trade.html (accessed November 17,
2015).
Rapha House. https://raphahouse.org/human-trafficking (accessed November 15, 2015).
Shelley, Louise. Human Trafficking: A Global Perspective. New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2010.
Walk Free Foundation, Global Slavery Index. http://www.globalslaveryindex.org/ terminology
(accessed November 15, 2015).
Weitzer, Ronald. Rethinking human trafficking, Dialectical Anthropology 37, no. 2 (June
2013): 309-312, http://ezproxy.mssu.edu:2065/docview/1655561128?pqorigsite=summon &accountid=12570 (accessed November 15, 2015).
Wheaton, Elizabeth M., Edward J. Schauer, and Thomas V. Galli. Economics of Human
Trafficking. International Migration 48, no. 4 (2010): 114-141.