Writes Hera, Content writer, Headline Diplomat eMagazine
Most people are familiar with sexual exploitation and forced labor as the main forms of human trafficking. This is mainly attributed to 50% of identified human trafficking victims being trafficked for sex and 38% being exploited for forced labor.
However, there are many forms of human trafficking that people don’t know about. These include forced criminal activity, organ removal, coerced into begging, forced marriage, child soldiers, and much more.
Here are the different types of exploitation when it comes to human trafficking:
Sexual exploitation
Sex trafficking makes up the biggest part of overall trafficking and the majority of global day slavery. Besides, sexual exploitation wouldn’t exist without the demand for commercial sex flourishing around the globe.
According to a 2017 report from the International Labor Organization (ILO), approximately 4.8 million of the trafficked 24.9 million people were sexually exploited for sex. Those exploited were mainly women and children.
Young people are particularly more vulnerable to sexual exploitation than adults. What’s more, both boys and girls are exploited for sex. Note that sexual exploitation can be through prostitution or pornography. Additionally, sexual practice can be conducted in private homes, massage parlors, brothels, or even nightclubs.
Most of the women who are exploited for sex are from developing countries or vulnerable sections of developed countries. They are also normally lured by promises of decent jobs that they can’t turn down.
Forced labor
Another common type of exploitation is forced labor. A huge percentage of human trafficking victims end up in forced labor. According to a 2017 report from ILO, around 16 million victims of human trafficking work in forced labor.
Precisely, 7.5 million victims work in the construction, hospitality, manufacturing, and mining sectors. While 3.8 million victims of forced labor are domestic workers. Last but not least, 1.7 million victims of forced labor work in the agriculture sector.
Victims of forced labor are also normally trafficked from developing countries. They are recruited and trafficked using coercion and deception and find themselves in deplorable conditions of slavery. The work involves long hours and despicable conditions. Besides, victims are typically housed in poor and confined living conditions.
Like sexual exploitation, victims of forced labor are also subjected to other forms of exploitation, such as physical, emotional, and sexual abuse.
Forced criminal activity
This is one of the worst forms of human trafficking exploitation as it allows the criminal networks to use the victims and reap huge profits. In most cases, victims are forced to conduct different illegal activities with threats. Some of the activities that victims are forced to perform include selling drugs, selling counterfeit goods, theft, cannabis cultivation, and pickpocketing.
Exploitation can be due to debt bondage, which is normally difficult to pay as it is usually inflated. Apart from debt bondage, the victim can also be coerced or deceived to get into such business.
Organ removal
Organ selling business is currently booming, thus, leading to some human trafficking victims being exploited for their organs. Most of the organs that are removed from human traffickers are kidneys and liver.
One of the main reasons why there is an increase in organ harvesting is due to a large aging population and increases cases of diabetes in many developed countries. At the moment, there are many people on the waiting lists of transplants, and criminals have grasped this opportunity to exploit the desperation of trafficked victims and remove their organs for profit.
According to the European Commission, in 2007, there were 65,00 patients waiting for a kidney transplant in the European Union. Surprisingly, only 25,000 transplants were executed and 120,000 patients were on kidney dialysis. Therefore, this resulted in a 3 to a 5-year waiting period.
On the contrary, in the US, according to the United States Department for Health, there were, as of January 2014, 120,999 candidates waiting for organs, but only 10,587 donors registered in the U.S. as of March 2014. With such scarcity, some people resort to acquiring the organs illegally, making some criminals have the desire to trade and sell the organs of their trafficking victims.
Coerced into begging
Forced begging is also a type of exploitation that can result from human trafficking. Most kids are forced to beg by their siblings, parents, guardians, or by a third-party, such as a criminal gang, neighbors, friends, or even distant relatives.
When criminal gangs use their victims to beg, they take most of the collected cash and leave their victims with almost nothing. Therefore, this leaves their victims with barely enough money to survive, forcing them to return to the streets and work for them. Some are even forced into drugs so that they can become addicted and depend heavily on the gangs.
Final thoughts
According to the ILO report from 2014, the human trafficking business earns at least $150 billion a year for traffickers. Sex and labor exploitation provide the most profits for traffickers. Nonetheless, other forms of exploitation that are carried out are forced criminal activity, organ removal, and coerced begging. Other victims are exploited for forced marriage, child soldiers, and domestic servitude.
Regardless of the form of exploitation, human trafficking is a vice that should be wiped out of society. And recognizing the signs of human trafficking is the first step to stopping the vice.
Featured photo: Alycia Fung, Pexels
