What Is Human Trafficking?

Slavery has been problem in the United States for over two hundred years, but since its abolishment a new form of slavery has formed and it needs to be stopped. This new form is dominant along the Arizonan and Mexican border. This new form is called Human Trafficking, defined by the Merriam Webster dictionary as “organized criminal activity in which human beings are treated as possessions to be controlled and exploited (as by being forced into prostitution or involuntary labor).” Human Trafficking has several components to it including a variety of techniques to traffic humans, horrible environments, and demand. Human Trafficking can be done in a variety of horrendous ways and that variety of ways is the exact reason why traffickers resist …show more content…
One reason that human trafficking persists across the Arizona and Mexico border is due to the fact that the living conditions in Mexico are far worse than those of Arizona. For example, Mexico is a very under developed country; this results in nearly twenty five million Mexican residents make less than fourteen dollars a day. Mexican residents want a better life. They live in a country where five million people in the total population of Mexico are unemployed, this causes for desperate times and is an example of the perfect hunting grounds for human traffickers. The problem remains because working environments in Mexico often involve slavery-like practices. An example of this is that children often work for people who pay them less than ten dollars a day. This pay is not something one can live off of yet the employees have to stay. The problem is still around because in Mexico physical and sexual abuse is common; resulting in Mexicans wanting to seek better and safer living conditions. A noticeable promoter of the persistence of human trafficking is that when someone gets sick in a place like Mexico the health care system may not be in place or able to do anything, this is when a trafficker would tell that family that if the sick one came with him he would get medical treatment. Lastly, the biggest cause for human trafficking is demand. If there were no demand for trafficked humans, and no money to be made …show more content…
In that same year three hundred and fifty five calls were made reporting human traffickers. Eighty one of those calls were from victims and survivors. Out of the one hundred and sixteen human trafficking cases ninety two were female and twenty one were male. Seventy three of those victims were adults and forty four were minors who ranged from ages one to seventeen. Ninety six of the people trafficked fell victim to sex trafficking, twelve fell into labor trafficking, five fell into sex and labor trafficking, and the last three fell victim into trafficking that was not specified or discovered. These human trafficking statistics are from the last year alone and only account for human trafficking between Mexico and Arizona, showing how deep these trafficking veins run across the entire United States. Human trafficking strikes fear into communities and while this problem persists only more people will fall victim. Human trafficking is only still persistent due to the various techniques that the traffickers use that result in preventative forces that try to stop the five known methods at once. These include but are not limited to the improvement of living conditions to slow or stop human traffickers, providing better medical assistance to those who need it in both nations, and lowering the demand and accessibility for humans as slaves through education on both sides of the Mexican-American border. This