The global impact of human trafficking
Editorial
Kaieteur News
June 15, 2004
With the release of the 2004 Trafficking in Persons Report, nations around the world are assessing their strategies and evaluating their efforts to combat human trafficking. The United States is no exception.
With estimates of 18,000 to 20,000 people trafficked into the United States every year, the US Government is committed to taking significant action to combat human trafficking. President Bush created an Interagency Task Force to oversee US anti-trafficking policies and programmes.
The Department of Justice charged 111 traffickers in 2003, recording a three-fold increase over the previous three years.
The Departments of Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, and State continue to work with the Department of Justice and numerous NGOs to eliminate all forms of human trafficking.
Trafficking in persons differs from migrant smuggling in that human traffickers are typically forced, defrauded or coerced into sexual or labor exploitation. Traffickers capitalise on the victim’s desire for a better life to force innocent people into slavery-like conditions. People are snared into trafficking by various means, including promises of employment, travel, money, and more.
Unlike migrant smuggling, trafficking victims can be moved across international borders or within a single country. Trafficking is not just the illegal movement of people from one place to another, but the use of fraud and coercion to force the innocent into slavery. It is one of the greatest human rights challenges of our time.
No country is immune from this egregious crime against humanity. A recent US Government estimate indicates that approximately 800,000 to 900,000 people are trafficked across international borders worldwide annually.
Human trafficking is contributing to a vicious cycle of collapsing order and increasing criminality that destabilise states and even regions. It has links to every kind of major crime. The profit it generates finances the activities of violent thugs and criminals and lines the pockets of lawbreakers.
Trafficking has a negative impact on the labour market, according to the ILO, contributing to an irretrievable loss of human resources. Long-term effects of trafficking include depressed wages for all workers, social imbalances and breakdown, and an undereducated generation.
Trafficking undermines public health by brutalising men, women, and children, and exposing them to rape, torture, and to HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted and infectious diseases, violence, dangerous working conditions, poor nutrition, and drug and alcohol addictions.
The fourth annual Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP Report), issued by the State Department and mandated by Congress under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, is the most comprehensive report on the efforts of governments worldwide to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons, or modern day slavery.
Although reports indicate that the magnitude of the problem in Guyana is not yet overwhelming, credible evidence suggests that it is becoming a significant problem throughout the country.
Guyana appeared as a Tier 3 country because it does not fully comply with the minimum requirements outlined in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. By working together with NGOs, international organizations, neighbouring countries, and by taking concrete action to address human trafficking throughout the next 60 days, Guyana can avoid sanctions.
The United States is committed to combating human trafficking worldwide. In the last three years, the US Government has invested over $100 million in programmes to address prevention, protection, and assistance to victims, and prosecution for 92 countries around the world.
We look forward to working with the Government of Guyana to take decisive, measurable, and concrete actions to combat the modern slave trade.