Human trafficking is a disgrace to human dignity; thus, national and global leaders have invested in resources and strategies to combat social, political and economic factors that support human trafficking activities. According to Zimmerman and Kiss (2017) human trafficking refers to the recruitment, transportation and harboring of people by means of coercion, abduction or force. The national and global governments have invested in policies and regulations that condemn human trafficking from all angles. Law enforcement employs tactics in criminal law, victim protection and labor markets regulations to ensure that traffickers are judged in the court of law. Traffickers are charged and required to compensate their victims as a way of safeguarding their victims’ rights. In addition to this, women and children who are forced into prostitutions are protected by the law as advocates fight to ensure that charges brought against them are withdrawn. Despite the efforts by national and global governments, policymakers advocate for more comprehensive and consistent government actions to fight human trafficking in all it capacities.
Urgent implementation of laws and regulation that promote safe migration practices and decent work are necessary to prevent labor migrants from being exploited. Zimmerman and Kiss (2017) affirm that exploitative business practices by organizations promote human trafficking as these companies rely on cheap and disposable labor to increase their revenue income. The labor governance and protection systems are weakened by the underlying complex supply chains and labor intermediaries, which engage in various human trafficking practices. Therefore, designing a theoretical policy framework is mandatory to examine the approaches used by individuals, groups and structural factors to promote exploitation along the migration and labor trajectory. Furthermore, such a policy framework can guide the national and global policymakers in collecting evidence that can be used to inform intervention strategies to prevent human trafficking. Preventive intervention measures are imperative as they protect vulnerable individuals and possible victims of human trafficking.
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Developing initiatives to fight human trafficking practices require targeted strategies. Through targeted actions, law enforcement and policymakers can collaborate and implement effective plans to stop the contributing factors of exploitation within the labor migration cycle. This way they can recognize factors that are associated with human trafficking such as labor exploitation or sex trafficking. Furthermore, targeted actions can assist policy makers to identify and address structurally influenced social, economic and gendered factors that reinforce the various types of exploitation. For instance, in the labor markets, the low-waged industries use their business models to promote exploitative activities that endorse human trafficking.
The legal system should be strengthened and focus on imposing responsibility upon individuals that commit crimes and offences associated with human trafficking. In some instances, the responsibility and accountability of the perpetrators may be averted if the victim lacks capacity or acts under coercion. In such cases the national, state or local laws may fail to understand the trafficked person as a victim legally bind them to the crimes committed. As a result, most victims may feel threatened to approach the law and report the perpetrator. According to Michau et al., (2015), when victims of trafficking are treated as being guilty the law denies them the right to safety and help as a trafficked victim and instead considers them as criminal suspects. It is therefore, crucial for national and global regulations to enforce policies that identify and assist victims of trafficking.
There is need to create awareness on human trafficking as a social issues that needs immediate attention. Through the revision and implementation of an informed policy framework, both the national and international advocates will be able to fight human trafficking from all fronts. As discussed, it is important to have policies and strategies that will assist officials to recognize and address the underlying factors that reinforce human trafficking.
References
Michau, L., Horn, J., Bank, A., Dutt, M., & Zimmerman, C. (2015). Prevention of violence against women and girls: lessons from practice. The Lancet , 385 (9978), 1672-1684.
Zimmerman, C., & Kiss, L. (2017). Human trafficking and exploitation: A global health concern. PLoS medicine , 14 (11), e1002437. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1002437
