The Horrors of Human Trafficking in Europe

Recently, I met with a representative of the International Justice Mission, Mike Hogan, when he came to my university for Abolition Week, to educate students about human trafficking. He answered some questions that I had about the aftercare that IJM provides for the victims of human rights abuses and how IJM helps the victims rebuild their lives. He told me that the aftercare specialists help by teaching them basic life skills such as how to balance a check book and how to find a job (Hogan, 2010). According to Hogan, many of the victims of forced labor don't know these skills because they were born into this form of slavery, or have been in it for most of their lives. He also told me about how the girls who are victims of sex trafficking are provided with psychological help and are taught marketable skills by the aftercare specialists. These skills help to ensure that the girls do not have to resort to prostitution to make a living.
Since the purpose of this blog is to look at the cultural reasons for human trafficking, I will use the remainder of this blog post to talk about human trafficking in Europe and some of the cultural aspects that might be influencing human trafficking within the continent.
According to a report from the UNICEF Innocenti Research Center, two thirds of European countries are the homelands of the child victims of human trafficking and more than three fourths of European countries are destinations for the victims (Bissell, 2008).There's also a lot of human trafficking within country borders; approximately half of the countries in Europe have internal trafficking. While one might think that a family with money problems would make a child particularly vulnerable to human trafficking, the child's personal problems may also make the child vulnerable. In the Netherlands, there is a particular type of child trafficking known as 'Lover Boys'. This involves a 20-30 year old man who pretends to be in love with a teenage girl, usually younger than 18 years, in order to push her away from family and friends and make her completely dependent on him. Once the girl is dependent on the 'lover boy', he takes her away from her home to somewhere she can be easily exploited. Sexual exploitation is the most common but the girls have also been used for other purposes, including drug smuggling and money laundering. According to the UNICEF Innocenti Research Center, low self esteem and severe family problems put girls at risk for this particular form of human trafficking.

The study conducted by the UNICEF Innocenti Research Center also looked at the factors that put certain groups of children in the greatest risk for human trafficking. In Eastern Europe, teenagers from 13 to 18 years of age are at risk because they think that life would be better in another country. This belief is encouraged by the success stories of people who have left their homeland. The fact that there are very limited options for legal migration, leads these teenagers to use trafficking to try to escape their country. In South Eastern Europe, there are many factors that can put minors at risk, these include: poverty, severe family problems, drug abuse, sexual abuse, and domestic violence. While children whose families who are abusive or in trouble money wise are at risk, children with ‘loving and caring’ families who would not consider themselves ‘poor’ can also become victims of trafficking. Particular risk groups are minors who live in institutions, have dropped out of school, or have no home. A lack of employment opportunities can also put minors at risk. The UNICEF Innocenti Research Center also mentioned that migrants and minority groups made vulnerable by the standard of supervision of unaccompanied minors at immigration reception centers and residential care centers, which is of lower quality than the care for nationals. The fact that some countries deport these unaccompanied minors and that child victims of human trafficking are penalized for immigration violations that resulted from being trafficked, have only helped the child trafficking market in Europe to thrive.

Works Cited

Bissell, S. (2008). Child Trafficking in Europe: A Broad Vision to put Children First . Florence ,Italy: UNICEF United Nations Children's Fund.

*Hogan, M. (2010, March 2). International Justice Mission . (J. Wedam, Interviewer)

*Mike Hogan is an employee of the Washington DC headquarters of the International Justice Mission. His official title is regional director of church mobilization and he is based in Portland, Oregon.

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Human Trafficking and the International Justice Mission

This semester I am going to focus my blog on human trafficking. Since I am pursuing a degree in anthropology, I chose an issue that is cross-cultural.Over this semester, I hope to find out why human trafficking occurs in so many different countries which have different cultures, as well as find out what is being to prevent human trafficking and help its victims.This topic connects with themes of the UH 370 class, because structural violence helps human trafficking to continue.
I am going to use this first blog to look at how the International Justice Mission(IJM) works against human trafficking and other human rights abuses.I chose IJM as the first organization to talk about, because joining the IJM club at my university directed my interest to the issue of human trafficking in the first place.
The International Justice Mission is a human rights agency made up of lawyers,investigators, and social workers.The organization works in and with 12 countries.The case IJM takes deal with:sexual violence,slavery,illegal arrest,police brutality,sex trafficking,and illegal removal of property.The organization works against these human rights abuses from many different angles. The victims are rescued and receive help from social workers to rebuild their lives. The Lawyers and investigators make sure that the human rights abusers are held legally accountable. the organization also tries to prevent these human rights abuses, by strengthening weaknesses in the local judicial systems and in the communities.
I think the approach IJM uses in handling its cases is particularly effective,because its helps the victims create a stable life after they are rescued.Otherwise, the victims might be forced to return to their abusive situation.For example, a 14 year old girl who had run away from an abusive home, was tricked by a brothel owner who had promised the girl a well paying job.When the girl was rescued from the brothel, she left the only job and home she had had.If she could not find a job, she might have had to resort to prostitution or could have been vulnerable to being tricked again.I will try to find out that ways in which the members if IJM help the victims recreate their lives.
While searching through information about human traffficking, I have noticed that females are particularly at risk. According to the US Department of State, 80% of human trafficking victims are fem,ale and around 50% of all the victims are underage girls. I would like to try to find out why females are more at risk than males for hum,an trafficking. I also want to find out where human trafficking happens most often and what cultural influences have lead to increase or decrease in human trafficking.