Human Trafficking: An Unethical Business Practice

Human trafficking is a great example of unethical action as well as unethical business practice, because it is affecting peoples life and it is also one of the most profitable businesses these days. Therefore I am going to describe and analyse this fact in order to have a better understanding of human trafficking and to prove that this is considered as an unethical business practice as well. First I will explain the term and brief history of human trafficking to have a better insight about this issue and to clarify the issue properly. Secondly I will discuss some of the most important human trafficking incidents that happened and hurt people the most in the history, and analyse them by linking them into unethical business practices terms. Most of human trafficking actions follow the certain path, for instance most of south Asians go to Australia, I will discuss this as well as other countries. Then I am going to describe some of policies related to human trafficking to see whether governments really did some actions against this unethical issue or not, as policy analysis can show and teach us the real interest of governments in spite of what they say, because sometimes what they say is completely different from what they do. Moreover I will explain the different ways to prevent this issue to happen, ways to minimize the effects of it and try to answer the question that will it ever end. Finally the conclusion can help us to briefly understand some facts about human trafficking and why I think it is an unethical business practice.

Human trafficking or trafficking in persons means the recruitment, transportation, transfer of persons by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of fraud, abuse of power or giving and receiving of fee for the purpose of exploitation. Each year near 2.5 million people are trafficked across the borders, and 1 .2 million of these are under the age of 18. 225,000 (9%) victims come from Southeast Asia and 15,000 (.6%) from South Asia. Human trafficking is believed to be the third most profitable form of organised crime around the globe – after the illegal trade in drugs and weapons (Stanslas, p.Theresa, 2010). Human trafficking which is due to the tough conditions and process that it takes to transfer people, is also called modern slavery has a quite long history. It began when central and West African people wanted to migrate to another nation due to the financial problems that they faced and economic instability of their countries, but as they did not have sufficient amount of money migrate legally, they were kind of forced to get involved in human trafficking as they paid less amount compare to legal migration. From then human trafficking became one of the most profitable businesses in the world as the demand for illegal migration were high due to financial problems and low standards of living in certain countries. We may think that it is not bad to migrate to another country. That’s true but if we do it legally, when people try to migrate illegally there are certain risks and dangers related to human trafficking and we should also keep in mind that many people got killed or if they have been lucky enough they only lost their money.

Regarding human trafficking incidents I can discuss different incidents that happened in different parts of the world. For instance, people who live in Southeast Asia are more willing to go to Australia through illegal path. Furthermore, there is an island called Christmas that most of the illegal migrants are brought there from different parts of the world especially Southeast Asia and gathered together there and wait in a terrible condition to see whether Australian governments allow them to stay or not. At the end of year 2010 a ship consist of people from Asia crashed near this the Christmas island and caused death of many people and injury of the others, this is exactly the risk that I mentioned previously. Another country that can be helpful in proper understanding of the issue is Malaysia as it is believed to be one of the leading countries whereby the global black market involving the human trafficking is estimated to generate anywhere between US$13-US32 billion a year (Stanslas, 2010). However there are also people who are entering into these countries. For instance, an awkward incident happened when the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations following the trafficking in person (TIP) Report, launched an investigation into trafficking allegations and extortion of Myanmar migrants/refugees in Malaysia along the Thailand and Malaysia border. The report showed and confirmed the trafficking and human rights abuses and worse, associated Malaysian immigration officials, police and RELA personnel in the trans-boundary crime. The TIP Report, since it was first introduced in 2001, has labelled Malaysia as a source, transit and destination country. Tenaganita, a local NGO, reported that 65% of people involved in trafficking of human beings in Malaysia end up as forced labour (Stanslas, 2010). Moreover, human trafficking is mostly seen from North African countries to Italy and Spain as well as France, and In the continent of America from Mexico To the United States. Although there are strict rules and monitoring on each countries’ borders but the vast border surface makes it easy for the dealers and agent of human trafficking to find new routes and makes it difficult for governments to control and monitor the meter by meter of their border. Trafficking of the human beings among the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) countries is controversial as there are different forms of human trafficking. This region can be considered to have the most variety of human trafficking, but still it is not the first place that comes to our mind while we discuss the issue of trafficking in human beings. Different forms in MENA countries include: Forced labour and domestic servitude, sex trafficking and unfortunately child trafficking for camel jockeys (Dudley, 2008).

Now that I explained the trafficking of human beings and discussed some of the incidents happened in some parts of the world it is time to look at some of the laws, rules and policies regarding this issue. In today’s world there are plenty of organizations, laws and rules operating to prevent and in a long term view stop human trafficking, and they are also working hard to make the traffickers accountable for what they do. Some of the international laws regarding human trafficking are: convention on the rights of the child and the universal declaration of human rights. The effect of organizations like: United Nations, International Labour Organization and International Organization for Migration may be much stronger than the laws and policies as this organizations are those who form these rules and laws. Thus formation of effective and strong organization which its actions lead to laws and rules is essential in order to be able to prevent this unethical action. Some of the Middle Eastern governments are doing all they can and really try to stop this major issue which is human trafficking, however other countries are not doing anything to prevent this issue base on Trafficking In Persons Report (TIP Reports) which shows the countries that are not doing proper effort to prevent and end human trafficking. The reason may be that the governments are also receiving benefits and are involved in the human trafficking in those certain countries. However base on the laws and documents we can find out that international community are taking the human trafficking problem in consideration and work hardly to solve this controversial issue (Dudley, 2008). Now that we understood the different organizations and laws, I will explain the different forms of human trafficking in the middle east in details in order to have a better understanding of this unethical business practice as we are living in one of the Middle Eastern Countries and it will be easier for the understanding purpose if the examples are from this area. One of the most critical problems regarding human trafficking is the trafficking of migrant workers in the Middle East. A sad story that happens specially in the oil rich countries like, UAE, QATAR, OMAN and KUWAIT is that migrant workers who are mostly from Asian countries are attracted to go to the Middle East and after they get to the labour market they see them in a forced labour situation and they also have to work for low wages compare to the amount of work they done. International labour organization always tries to inform workers about these scams and let workers know about these issues. It is true that Middle East countries have the highest population of migrant workers, but not all of them are the victim of trafficking of human beings. However migrant workers should be aware of the issue and be well informed about the laws and rules in the country they intend to work. I previously identified sex trafficking as one form of human trafficking in the Middle East and it is interesting and important to know some facts regarding this issue in a place where we live. Iraq is the first state to precisely forbid the trafficking of children and women for the sex trade base on its new constitution. (Dudley, 2008). Some countries and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are also criticise Middle Eastern countries that they do not have strict laws regarding the human trafficking issue and suggest them to implement more strict laws and rules regarding this issue at least in general. Another issue in the Middle Eastern countries is that even if they do have laws, they may not respect or follow that law or rule and they mostly abuse that law. For instance in Israel there are many laws against sex trafficking but government and enforcement agencies do not enforce those laws. Therefore we can say that enforcing the laws is even more important and more effective than only legislating law and not respecting it (Dudley, 2008). Next form of the human trafficking which is exclusive to Middle East is Child Camel Jockeys, and the reason for trafficking child in this case is unique and completely different. As camel racing is the major sport in the Middle East and is popular here, they use child to be their camel jockeys as they need the least possible weight, because it will help the camel to run faster. Children are malnourished most of the times so that they maintain their weights low. Moreover they may get injured as they do not know how to ride a camel and they may fall during the race. There have been some laws and actions against this form of trafficking. For example, the new law states that minimum and legal age is 15 to 18 and invention of robot jockeys to replace with children may also help to reduce the harmful effects to children. However, unfortunately this unethical practice still exists. We can clearly say that in all forms of the human trafficking, especially in the Middle East, and unethical issue has been practiced and the common thing was that in all of the issues some people harmed others for their own benefit and profit without thinking about the harm and negative effect they are causing. Specifically in the child camel jockeys, that people are ruining a child’s life for their own joy and in order to have a good time. Their unethical behaviour may seems to be foolish, but we should know that this foolish practice has a negative effect on the child. Imagine a child that has many dreams in his or her mind forced to be a camel jockey and you can understand how the world looks like in his/her mind, a place full of unethical practices in our case unethical business practices that teaches us that we have to hurt others to get benefit and be happy, which is not true, but practiced and still in practice by many people around the globe.

As I mentioned previously there are several ways to prevent human trafficking like, forming NGOs, Organizations that operate against Human Trafficking, related Campaigns and laws that governments establish to prevent this issue. Apart from these ways it is also essential to improve and increase the countries culture and life style as well as economic situation in a way that people don’t tend to get involved in such an unethical practices like trafficking of human beings in order to have a better living condition. After finding ways to prevent this issue and trying hard to prevent it, then next step and critical question is that will human trafficking ever end? First of all, we should know that it is possible to end this unethical action but it is not easy and needs hard work and complete unity in the way people think about this issue and then from individuals reach to the whole world, because people should first start from themselves and try to do whatever he/she can do even if it is seems to have a little effect, if they want to achieve such a huge goal. Because little effects in the long term will definitely lead to solving the root cause and main problem. Moreover if we wait for others to do something we won’t get an effective result, like what we see in today’s world. I will describe the most recent action that held in Virginia. The name of the event was Lobby Day to End Human Trafficking and was held on 26th of January 2011, and it has 3 major outcomes as legislation which will lead to ending of the Trafficking of Human Beings in the long run. These 3 outcomes were: 1) The Human Trafficking Resource Centre Hotline Posting Act, 2) Victim Service Plan, and 3) Criminalizing the Trafficking ( Dold.J, 2011). 3 mentioned outcomes are all essential and helpful for ending this unethical behaviour. The first legislation states that certain institutions must inform their activities through hotline which is exclusive to the national human trafficking resource centre and they can be up to date about the activities of those institutions such as those that provide erotic entertainment and therefore make sure that they are doing everything legally and not through unethical activities such as human trafficking. This hotline can also be used in case that anyone like victims need help so they can call the hotline and get help, many states operated such a hotline in order to be able to reach out victims easily and help them efficiently (Dold.J, 2011). The 2nd outcome which is victim services plan is a legislation that states that the department of social services has to develop a plan to deliver certain services, support and take care if the victims of human trafficking by providing the services that is essential for the recovery of victims. Services may include education, housing, job training, medical care and other essential services. This legislation is really important and should be taken in to account as one of the most important actions as it is really helpful for the victims, because after such incidents, victims are under a significant pressure and it will help them to recover in a better way if they feel that someone or some organizations support them (Dold.J, 2011). The 3rd legislation which is criminalizing Trafficking will add more strict trafficking elements to the current statutory code. This means strengthening current laws and rules in order to make the human trafficking impossible (Dold.J, 2011). It also causes problem for those who assist in acquiring another person for labour trafficking as it lets strict law enforcement and prosecutors to target them in an easier way than before. The legislation is will provide prosecutors all tools they need to work against trafficking of human beings in Virginia and this makes this legislation unique and essential in ending the trafficking.

In Conclusion, based on the information mentioned and discussed above we can say that in the business of human trafficking, which wholly focuses and includes unethical practices and has no outcome but hurting people both emotionally and financially, there are only few people who are benefiting and even those few people do not believe that what they do is ethical. It is true that different people in the world might have different view on an issue, but no one in the world likes to see other human beings in trouble or struggled with problems that has negative effect on their whole life an may ruin they life. If someone disagrees with this statement then he or she may be suffering from mental problem or anxiety, because normal people might have differences in identifying whether a practice is ethical or unethical but when that practice hurt or harm another human beings, everyone will agree that it is an unethical action. Different actions that has been taken against Human Trafficking in Middle East where we live today, and we may not know about human trafficking that happens around us, shows the importance of this unethical issue and concern of different nation regarding this issue around the globe. Furthermore, 3 major Virginia legislations are seems to be really effective and helpful in ending this unethical business practice in the long term. Therefore base on the information, facts laws and regulations discussed above Trafficking of human beings is considered as an unethical business practices, and if it was not, then different nations and countries wouldn’t bother themselves to prevent and even try to end this issue.