A universal human right
Freedom
is something that everyone hopes to achieve. But even in the 21st century, freedom
has proven to be elusive for many as the number of human trafficking victims
continues to increase. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 4 states that “no one shall be
held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited
in all their forms.” Despite the clear prohibition of slavery under
international law, the International
Labour Organization found that three out of every 1,000 people worldwide
are engaged in forced labor today. It is clear that slavery still exists, and
the epidemic is not solely attributable to third-world countries.
The prevalence of forced labor
Forced labor is one
of the most pervasive forms of human trafficking across the world. Forced labor
includes the recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining of
humans, involved when a person uses force or physical threats, psychological
coercion, abuse of the legal process, deception, or other coercive means to
compel someone to work. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and
Crime, forced labor accounts for 36%
of the forms of exploitation of all detected victims of trafficking worldwide,
a figure that has doubled over the past four years. From a domestic
perspective, the U.S. Congress found that approximately 50,000 women and children
are trafficked into the United States alone each year. Individuals, most
commonly women and children, see the United States as an opportunity for a
better life, and the promise of a job here provides an allure that is difficult
to turn down, making them susceptible to unscrupulous traffickers. As the State Department TIP Report
highlighted, for people desperate to obtain employment to provide for and
support their families, a job can also come with extreme costs, sometime in the
form of modern slavery.
