Human Trafficking II – Key Players & Causes SS3 Civic Education Lesson Note

KEY PLAYERS IN HUMAN TRAFFICKING

It involves a vicious circle. Victims are lured or forced from their home countries, shuttled across international borders and enslaved. The chain in human trafficking is as follows

Source -Transit – Destination

1. The source country is where the victims of human trafficking originated from
2. The transit: The country through which the victims of human trafficking are taken. In this country, at times the victims discover that she has no option other than prostitution.
3. The destination country is where the victims of human trafficking end up.

Activities of human trafficking victims include prostitution, debt bondage, servile marriages and begging

CAUSES OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING

1. Poverty: Human traffickers usually target people from poor backgrounds. They do this knowing that poverty renders many people vulnerable to fake promises of a better life
2. Greed: The uncontrollable desire for money and the good things of the life-experience house, flashy car, fashion etc, on the part of the traffickers and the trafficked, contributes to the menace of human trafficking.
3. Low self: Some people have low self-esteem which is a lack of confidence in oneself economic, physical and psychological factors. This makes them vulnerable to the antics of traffickers.
4. Corruption: The high level of corruption in society encourages human trafficking. For example, some traffickers succeed by bribing corrupt law enforcement officials.
5. Lack of employment opportunity: The economic system of some countries have left many people jobless. Those who are desperate thereby get lured and deceived by traffickers because they want to get out of the country by all means.
6. Economic system: Some economic systems are bad. This may cause citizens to want to travel abroad for a better standard of living.
7. Profit: The profit that the trafficker will make from doing human trafficking business may encourage human trafficking.
8. The search for greener pastures: Some people believe that travelling abroad is the only way one can make ends meet in all aspects of life.
9. Lack of education and information: The victims are mostly not educated and are uninformed so they fall victim easily.
10. Lack of public awareness: The danger of human trafficking is usually not publicised causing so many people to be ignorant of it