The Role of Federal Government in Fighting Human Trafficking

Imagine the anguish human traffickers cause to their fellow humans, with global victims of the vice exceeding 30 million. The sad part is that the exploiters are after their greedy motives without an iota of shame while denying others fundamental freedom right. Two decades ago, the problem worsened before the world heightened its efforts to end all forms of human trafficking. Traffickers have been operating with relative impunity. They have compelled millions of people to engage in illicit sex or labor, thus sparking outrage from the federal government and civil society. In response, TVPA (Trafficking Victims Protection Act) was enacted in 2000 to safeguard the labor and sex trafficking victims, prosecuting the offenders and preventing the vice from occurring worldwide (Didier & Salas, 2020). The Act’s enactment enhanced a more brutal fight against the trafficking movement, where it managed to dismantle trafficking cartels. The strategies adopted have been more trauma-informed and centered on victims, thanks to the increased campaign and concerted efforts from crucial stakeholders. Nevertheless, the world keeps moving, and these schemes keep adapting and innovating for their business survival. In the recent pandemic, humans had no other option but to battle an unprecedented crisis. The resultant isolation, instability, and poverty increased the vulnerability of people to trafficking (Ramaswamy & Seshadri, 2020). The pandemic led to catastrophic occurrences that eventually devastated societies already grappling with generational and systemic disparity. Such people are easy targets for traffickers, and the federal government must move swiftly to adapt to changes and unforeseen problems to dismantle the network effectively. Therefore, the idea of creating federal trafficking task forces is valid, besides publicly addressing the vice, which should then culminate in developing anti-trafficking laws to help safeguard Americans and their human rights.

Causes of the Problem

Poverty

Eight hundred million people still live in poverty, making up a component of the population of people predisposed to this form of human slavery despite the world's success in reducing worldwide impoverishment by 35% over the past three decades (Lakner et al., 2022). Scarcity, chaos, social unrest, armed conflict, natural catastrophes, relaxed law enforcers, and cultural and gender prejudices are the structural drivers of human trafficking (Ramaswamy & Seshadri, 2020). Vulnerability is a more general, essential condition for human trafficking to flourish and may result from structural reasons. Low-income families frequently offer their kids to human traffickers who pose as authorities and promise them better lives. Refugee camps provide ideal targets for this kind of abuse. Shrewd traffickers establish connections with dishonest officials in areas where displaced persons lack access to proper treatment and openly prey on the defenseless. For example, in recent times, human traffickers frequently kidnap migrants who cross the Sahara to flee conflict and terrorism in northern Africa (Achilli, 2022). Many of these migrants, according to the International Organization for Migration, are erroneously offered work before being publicly sold in Libyan slave markets. Many people never reach Europe.

Children and women are major targets

Besides kids, the female gender is more susceptible to smuggling than their male counterparts in some civilizations because of their perceived low value. Traditional beliefs and behaviors, premature marriages, and missing documentations at birth all contribute to defenselessness. Additionally, the need for women in sex trafficking makes them a target. Approximately 21 million humans are exchanged for cash in involuntary labor and commercial sexual servitude globally (Dykstra, 2018). The most significant percentage of people trafficked for sexual abuse are females.

Massive revenue from human trafficking

The ILO estimates that the human trafficking sector makes $160 billion in revenue annually (Pocock, n.d.). The remaining third originates through forced economic exploitation, such as domestic labor and agriculture, and the other comes from commercial sexual exploitation. The second-largest criminal sector in the world, behind narcotics trafficking, is human trafficking.

Beneficiaries of human trafficking

Provided that loopholes exist around communities, human trafficking could occur anyplace. According to the New York Times, the vice affects one in five homeless adolescents across North America. Cartels in West Africa impersonate instructors and force opportunistic kids to work as prostitutes. Wilhelm et al. (2020) learned recently that teenage asylum seekers and poor Thais had been made to collect fish, eventually landing on American shelves in top supermarkets and shops and the global seafood supply. People living with disabilities and children are the two World's most vulnerable and disenfranchised segments that were mainly exploited by Thai operatives.

It is not just prevalent in impoverished nations; child trafficking also occurs frequently in industrialized nations. Many women across the United Kingdom and America are victims of "sextortion" by their landlords, and 13 percent of American fair housing organizations have witnessed a rise in sexual assault complaints during the virus onslaught (Wittes et al., 2016). However, the European Union police, Europol, has noted how internet criminals attempt to interact with kids at home alone without their parent's presence. By June 2020, the year had become notorious for child exploitation and trafficking. Italy recorded over 900 new victims (Asongu & Usman, 2020).

In emerging nations, a large number of youngsters have turned have abandoned education to earn money. Victims are likely to have their paperwork withheld by opportunists, mainly in the Arab World, impeding their safe return. Border limitations resulting from the pandemic across west Africa have stopped many who can easily escape brothels where they are detained from returning home (Cheri, 2021). Eventually, the extreme financial upheaval from the epidemic makes the developing World susceptible to child exploitation. Numerous homesteads are struggling to obtain stable employment and similar sources of money, which forces other relatives to resort to drastic tactics as a way of getting food.

Effects of Human Trafficking

Government programs that directly impact this issue

These programs are mainly initiated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and backed by the federal government. The Family Violence Prevention and Services Program seeks to administer the FVPSA, the primary funding stream initiated by the federal government to provide immediate shelters in case of an emergency, alongside other forms of help for the sufferers of domestic violence (Didier & Salas, 2020). The Runaway and Homeless Youth Program have been supporting street outreach. They help to protect the victimized young people through the provision of maternity services, long-term transitional living, and emergency shelters. Administration for Children and Families shows the adverse effects of human trafficking victims (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2016). It commits to boosting accessibility to the required assistance to promote wellbeing and health to remnants of commercial sexual and labor sexual exploitation, who may be legal permanent residents, American citizens, foreign nationals, and children and adults.

Health Effects

In his study, Aronowitz (2017) argues that 8 in every ten victims of trafficking undergo some form of sexual exploitation, abuse, or coercion into prostitution. Kids and young women act as the majority of victims. Each victim may be forced to serve over ten people daily in a sector that hardly practices safe sex. As a result, victims are in danger of developing HIV/AIDS and other STDs and may infect their relationship partners. Victims may have to utilize narcotics to withstand the horrendous experiences, forcing them to grapple with addiction. Inadequate meals and nutrition induce malnutrition among the detained people. The victims may end up suffering later ailments due to the deplorable living conditions. Furthermore, they don't receive medical care. When chemical factory workers die of occupational ailments, they are swiftly substituted.

Economic Effects

Sex and labor trafficking contribute $160 billion in illegal profit annually (Pocock, n.d.). CIA estimates a trafficking agent makes $300,000 per person annually (Blanchard, 2016). Victims receive small amounts or none under the guise of settling bills and living necessities. Slavery victims receive extremely little for hard labor, preventing their likely escape—cheap labor limits employment options and per capita income. Financial consequences can't be ignored. The traffickers' financial strength permits them to operate without fear of the law. Illegal immigration threatens national security and worries governments globally.

Societal Effects

Women and children are sometimes utilized as indentured servitude in their home nation, but traffickers can also guide them to other countries, where they become powerless and immobilized. They're generally prosecuted as participants instead of victims. They are left to grapple with inadequate healthcare, unclean living conditions, and shoddy food and clothing. Many clients and employers may sometimes assault them sexually and physically for disobedience (Lakner et al., 2022). Such a terrible image shows a society hidden behind a fence. Every victim lacks basic human rights and education. Following the rescue, victims strive to overcome social stigma. Illegal trafficking generally involves ammunition and drug smuggling. Lust for riches promotes the flourishing business globally in a society filled with graft. In such a situation, a solid and stable community appears impossible.

Psychological Effect

Since young victims are more readily intimidated and persuaded to surrender, most smugglers choose children as young as five and not more than 25 years as their prey (Middleton et al., 2018). They are made to perform high-intensity tasks under dangerous conditions. Most get recruited to fight as "combatants" and learn how to wield weapons. Worldwide, 2.5 million minors get recruited into the prostitution industry annually, according to data from the U.S. Department of State. The kids are permanently damaged and experience negative self, depressed mood, confusion, and anxiety. Assuming they get saved, they still suffer for as long as they live with severe psychiatric illnesses acquired. Their emotional vulnerability prevents them from achieving mental health in the long run. These kids may start withdrawing themselves and have a tendency toward suicide. A child born to prostitution victims gets separated from the parents immediately, which causes the mom more emotional suffering. Furthermore, the victims' harrowing encounter tends to be worse the more a person is subjected to slavery.

 

Solutions to the problem

Local officials' failure to recognize the aforementioned modern slavery forms as offenses constitutes a significant roadblock in several countries. In the end, such crimes frequently go unpunished under applicable human smuggling laws, depriving victims of legal protections. Over the last twenty years, federal measures have accelerated this fight, but obstacles still exist. According to Didier & Salas (2020), the issue of labor exploitation is neglected while state and local law enforcement focuses exclusively on sexual exploitation. National government funding enabled the establishment in 2010 of cutting-edge interdisciplinary human smuggling task groups that used the ECM (Enhanced Collaborative Model) to end the trafficking of persons. The regional task teams constituted from states successfully boosted convictions for human traffickers and showed how beneficial it could be to maintain a continued requirement for cooperation between federal, state, and local law enforcement. Furthermore, Helton (2016) discovered that victims would never receive the right services without involving the task forces. Increasing the resources channeled to the federal task force helps unearth local smuggling crimes, offenders, and survivors into the open.

Specific law enforcement organizations fond of detaining trafficking survivors have tried to defend its necessity by terming it as safe. Others claim that they intend to use their evidence against perpetrators. However, a small-scale investigation into numerous task forces finds uneven development among states and the persistence of troubling activities, for instance, the victims' incarceration. The federal office for crime victims and justice assistance bureau created and executed the Enhanced Collaborative Model task force concept. The trafficking task force