Brynn Nelson

The Slaves of Americas Seven Continents

The National Human Trafficking Resource Center talks about why human trafficking is such an
issue and states There are two primary factors that drive human traffickers: high profits and low
risk. This powerful combination is driving the explosive spread of human trafficking Behind the
drug and weapons trade, human trafficking is the fastest growing and third most criminal
enterprise in the world. According to the Covering House Trafficking Center Resource Page, In
the United States alone, human trafficking engrosses 9.5 billion dollars every year. It is less risky
than arms or drug trafficking, and it brings in profit. The people involved have little to no
concern and thought of the grave effect it has on the countless human lives that it steals. This
process has happened because of the need for cheap products and it is happening in countless
countries that all have some economical or cultural advantage for larger first world corporations.
In Africa, the chocolate industry steals countless lives, mainly children to peel cacao pods found
native there for mainly American corporations like Hershey and Godiva. In Cambodia, the sex
trade forces the virginities and lives of far too many young girls to disappear. In China, the
chemicals used in our cell phones are found deep under the earth and create a need for mines,
and cheap labor found in slaves. South America houses a black market for organs and other body
parts that require subjects that can easily be found in the vulnerable villages and unenforced
laws. All of these places have turned to a desperate last resorts due to extreme poverty. The larger
American corporations see this desperation and use them to create the products and industries
that create the flow of human trafficking. Although all of these places are so far apart and have
such different circumstances they are linked by one thing: the forced human trafficking created
by desperate poverty and the exploitation of that desperation that keeps their criminal enterprises
burning.
Every time you consume a chocolate bar, or use your I-phone, you as a consumer are
contributing to the process of globalization that has led to an explosion of human trafficking.
As stated by the Covering House Trafficking Center Resource Page Right now, there are millions
of victims of human trafficking, many living as forced slaves. And this crisis - human trafficking,
is getting worse every day. 300,000 - 500,000 children are estimated to be in the sex trafficking
trade alone each year. This number doesnt even take into account the many other ways that
trafficking occurs. These slaves are not this way by chance, a carefully organized system is
intertwined throughout the world, led by individual traffickers that play a major and key role in
this massive mechanism.
Most traffickers lived in poverty for large periods of their life, and after seeing the other side of
the economy, will do anything to stay there. The National Human Trafficking Resource Center
shares facts about traffickers and states Often the traffickers and their victims share the same
national, ethnic, or cultural background, allowing the trafficker to better understand and exploit
the vulnerabilities of their victims. They use the well-known globalized American world to draw

victims into the system. America is a common goal in many poverty stricken countries, a lot of
the citizens in these lower income places would do a lot to get there.
Because of these vulnerabilities, poor countries are usually targeted and promised better lives in
America, this makes the victims much less reluctant to decline. Luz Nagle, a researcher at the
Stanford University explains how globalization negatively effects human trafficking, The
current modernization and globalization has created a world in which everything is a commodity
with an economic value and a market price to be traded and sold, including our fellow human
beings. Modern society has created a world where everything has a price. The growth in all
markets has become more than just people selling simple products. It has exploded into a world
of people selling other humans as products. Our globalization and increase in product
manufacturing has created a need for cheap labor that can easily be found on slaves. In the
1800s, we were smart enough to realize that slavery is inexcusable, but the need for cheap
products and even cheaper labor has forced the modern society into a globalized world of this
human trafficking.
The tragedy that is human trafficking can only be considered modern day slavery. America has
seen this before, but it is now larger and more discrete than before, making it much harder to
stop. It is also pulling in many other countries which means that there are very few ways that is
can be monitored. This slavery does not discriminate. It does not matter your race, or age, or
gender, people need money, consumers need products, and corporations need profit. This
globalization fueled tornado is spinning increasingly faster, picking up innocent lives along the
way and is a major human rights violation. Globalization has turned our world into a place where
most things have a price and a value to be sold, and people should not be one of those things.

Works Cited:
"Abolish Child Trafficking - ACT -." Voices of The Victims. Covenent House, 24 July 2011. Web.
11 Feb. 2015. <http://www.abolishchildtrafficking.org/voices-of-victims>.
"A Place of Refuge and Restoration for Girls Who Have Experienced Sexual Trafficking or
Exploitation." The Covering House RSS. The Covering House, 7 Dec. 2013. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.
<http://thecoveringhouse.org/act/resources-2/sex-trafficking-statistics-source-documentation/>.
Nagle, Estella Luz "Selling Souls: The Effect of Globalization on Human Trafficking and Forced
Servitude." Stetson University of Lav, 26 Apr. 2011. Web. 12 Feb. 2015.
<http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Papers.cfm?abstract_id=1823718>.
"The Traffickers." National Human Trafficking Resource Center. NHTRC, 24 Sept. 2014. Web.
12 Feb. 2015. <http://www.traffickingresourcecenter.org/what-human-trafficking/humantrafficking/traffickers>.