Global Problems and Solutions: Human Trafficking in Thailand

Global Problems and Solutions: Human Trafficking in Thailand

Human trafficking is often thought to be an issue of the past, but the truth is in today’s society there are more forced laborers than there have ever been. President Barack Obama, in a speech to the 2012 Clinton Global Initiative, announced that America's fight against human trafficking is one of the great human rights causes of our time. Forms of human exploitation have existed in the world for thousands of years; from the ancient Romans to modern day societies, humans have been victims to different forms of sexual and physical exploitation. Variations of human trafficking existed before the 1400’s, however the 1400’s began the start of the European slave trade with Africa and Portugal. Today “traffickers use violence, threats, deception, debt bondage, and other manipulative tactics to trap victim ”^[1]. According to the U.N. human trafficking is, “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion…abduction… fraud… or deception…Exploitation shall include…the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs”^[2]. In the U.N. 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” (Sernau Global Problems The Search for Equity, Peace, and Sustainability).” Current trafficking victims all say they experience a loss in freedom, something the U.N. is trying to eradicate. Thailand is recognized as one of the worst human trafficking countries in the world today. Thailand has three main forms of human trafficking: “trafficking as a destination situation, trafficking as or coerced prostitution, and trafficking as forced or exploitive labor”^[3]. Men, women, and children are all trafficking victims in Thailand.  Thailand has become a human trafficking center of the world forcing people into prostitution, forced labor, and sex tourism. This paper outlines the possible solutions in terms of general awareness for people, federal government policies, and the agenda of the United Nations.

        One component to how human trafficking is so effective is due to people’s lack of awareness, so one proposed solution is to raise not just the general publics awareness, but also the population that is at risk for being trafficked. Dan Emr, executive director of a group called Worthwhile Wear, a non-profit institution geared towards rehabilitating trafficking victims, says, “First get educated” ^[4].  At a local level Emr believes getting aware is the first essential steps to preventing human trafficking, “awareness, awareness, awareness”^[5]. The idea behind Emr’s statements are that if the general public is aware of the atrocities happening, people will be able to spot out sketchy behavior and report it to authorities. An example of this solution is the organization “Children at Risk” that are currently doing a Human Trafficking Awareness tour. “Children at Risk”  tours the Texas area campaigning raising awareness to people in low-income areas with high high-school drop out rates. Their mission is to “ensure ample resource’s” are available for children and their families to survive^[6]. This organization is doing two main things, raising awareness to the general public, as well as informing the demographic of people that are at an increased risk of being trafficked. The most sought after traffic victims however are refugees and asylum seekers^[7]. According to UNHCR (The United Nations Refugee Agency) an asylum-seeker is someone who says he or she is a refugee, but whose claim has not yet been definitively evaluated. So these are people that are in kind of a ‘no-mans land’. There can be awareness sessions for refugees to get involved in peacemaking, and try to contribute to societies because “the risk of being trafficked is reduced”^[8].  Secretary-general ban Ki-moon says, “you must learn history because if not we are doomed to repeat it”^[9]. What he means by this is we must learn about human trafficking if we are ever going to combat it, because if we don’t humans will be doomed to keep repeating it. This theory would only be a step in the right direction in combating human trafficking; it would also need help from the government policies in the form of punishments.