What is Human Trafficking?
TRAFFICKING IS... to be deceived or taken against your will, bought, sold and transported into slavery for sexual exploitation, sweat shops, child brides, circuses, sacrificial worship, forced begging, sale of human organs, farm labour, domestic servitude.TRAFFICKING IS... where family members and friends deceive parents to release their children or sell them for as little as $20 each, selling them on to local gangmasters or serious organised international trafficking rings.
TRAFFICKING IS... growing. 2–4 MILLION men, women and children are trafficked across borders and within their own country every year. More than one person is trafficked across borders EVERY MINUTE, which is equivalent to five jumbo jets every day. a trade that earns twice as much worldwide revenue as Coca Cola.
TRAFFICKING IS... where victims usually suffer repeated physical abuse, fear, torture and threats to families to break their spirits and turn them into saleable commodities. a person can be sold and trafficked many times.
BRISTOL
According to a recent report by Ecpat UK which involved 17 cities Bristol being one of them. 18.5% of Bristol people were unknowingly contributing to child trafficking here within our city. The survey published recently and reported in the Guardian reveals:18.5% of Bristol people who admitted to buying pirate DVDs and roses from street vendors, or smoked home-grown cannabis, gave money to child beggars or have used prostitutes in Bristol where unaware they may be supporting what the United Nations has described as a modern day child slave labour, says research published by Ecpat.
Children are trafficked into the UK daily, across big cities and small towns. They have their identities removed, they are raped, beaten and forced to work in deplorable conditions. Yes this is Bristol we are talking about.
Human trafficking is by its very nature an international crime that requires a high level of co-operation and collaboration between states if it is to be tackled effectively. The OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe), an ad hoc intergovernmental organization under the United Nations Charter, is one of the leading agencies fighting the problem of human trafficking, with an area of operation that includes North America, Europe, Russia, and Central Asia.