Human Trafficking is Not the “New Kid on the Block” in Today’s List of Social Issues

When we think of the horrible crime of modern day slavery (human trafficking) we most always attribute it to the bad guys — the pimps and the traffickers, right? However, there are many ways that we are all complicit in fueling today’s #2 crime (#1 by some new reports) against humanity. I ran across this article not long ago and thought it to be full of content that we can all learn from and begin to understand some of the complexities of this issue. There is a tendency to separate human trafficking into 2 separate categories, sex and labor; however, sex trafficking almost always takes place in a labor trafficking scenario, as in the case in the article below.

The photograph to the left is the remake of a famous historical photo that made its way into newspapers in 1948 (Chicago and other US cities). From the article, “Redone in 2013 (by photographer Reinfried Marass) to put focus on the tragic case again ’cause things hadn’t changed very much. Human trafficking is still around in many countries and still numerous children are sold throughout the world. Many of them abused by child labor and child slavery. Not to mention sexual abuse and child prostitution.”

Two of the contributing factors to child labor are poverty in some countries and need for product in others, such as the United States. So, without going into a full fledged training on labor trafficking and the connection to sex trafficking, we can begin by working to make a difference in the lives of those most vulnerable.  In the words of Grace Abbott, “Child labor and poverty are inevitably bound together and if you continue to use the labor of children as the treatment for social disease of poverty, you will have both poverty and child labor to the end of time.”

Reading both articles will be worth the time invested. Poverty is not only financial, but in many cases, mental, emotional, and spiritual poverty play a role in human trafficking.