The words, slavery, human trafficking, debt bondage and forced labor have blotted a significant part of the history of humans. It is therefore sad to note that the terms still hold ground in the modern lives of individuals, despite the massive crusades and legal battles in the past (Weitzer, 2015). The current state of slavery is tainting the society and thus becoming a poison which is impossible to draw out. As of present, the statistics of people who are affected by this menace is standing at a whopping 45.8 million (United Nations, n.d.). However, knowing the statistics is not enough to put an end to slavery. Thus a victim outreach program is essential to curb the problem by identifying trafficking points and assist victims to attain services. The program targets the victims of slavery and the vulnerable ones. These involve women and children in the United States. The program is made up of many components which will be explained in the paper.
Literature Review
Slavery was repealed more than 150 years ago when the then President Lincoln established the Emancipation Proclamation, which rendered the conspicuous trading of humans illegal in almost everywhere in the United States. However, this did not stop the practice as it underwent a transformation into a more subtle form (Weitzer, 2014). Modern-day slavery has crept back into the land in forms such as forced labor, human trafficking, forced marriage, and forced organ removal. According to United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (n.d.), 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, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.”
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In the United States, the number of those undergoing the vice is estimated at 17,500 foreigners and 200,000 Americans who are trafficked within and into the country in every year. Out of this, 80 percents are women and children. The categories of such slavery include sex and labor trafficking with the former accounting for the higher percentage of cases (Weitzer, 2014).
The etiology of modern-day slavery has been attributed to various social, economic, and political factors. The economies of many countries have suffered from the fast growth of population which has more than tripled in the past few decades. The increasing population, which has mostly been witnessed in the developing world, has caused diminished job opportunities leaving large numbers of people destitute. Also, the call for globalization and industrialization has led to mass migration of people in search of greener pastures and opportunities (Wheaton, Schauer, & Galli, 2010). The movement to the urban areas has left many workers without job security and easily dispensable in the labor market. The income shocks have led to many individuals, particularly women and young girls to be driven into trafficking with the promise of securing a prosperous future.
Also, the lack of education for many individuals drives them to engage in trafficking as the only escape from poverty (Jones, Engstrom, Hilliard, & Diaz, 2007). Gender is also another social factor which makes one vulnerable to modern day slavery. Females are able to attract sexual activities and thus more vulnerable (Weitzer, 2014). In some countries, the political instability and corruption can further the idea of trafficking even though it is considered illegal. While the consequences of slavery can be considered beneficial as it leads to cheap production, the negative impacts are significant. The economic and effect includes the resources and costs set aside for its intervention.
The ethical implications of modern day slavery are witnessed in the supply chain of products where the labor can be subtly forced hence making the situation covert and hence cannot be easily detected. For instance in the production of coffee in the United States, it may be possible to connect that the labor used to pick the berries were forced children (Weitzer, 2014). It is also possible to get that the women and children who are engaging in such activities are forced to do it with the situations in which they live and not through coercion. This makes the war against trafficking complicated and easy to go unfettered.
Intervention Program
The program that the paper proposes is community outreach which involves holding education and awareness campaigns. Many campaigns that are aimed at educating the community about the acts of slavery have been carried out in the United States. The history of such initiatives dates back to the 1960s when there were marches and resistance campaigns aimed at stopping the vice. This approach was highly reactive as it was brought after the onset of the activities. The victims were continuing to suffer as the other advocates were resisting. That was when the activities of slavery were overt and conspicuous. Even though the riots and strikes led to the practice being illegalized, it did not help solve the issue fully as it transformed into some other states (Weitzer, 2015).
As of present, the programs that exist involve the identification of victims and offering anti-trafficking interventions. However, there is a gap that exists in the current state of affairs as there is a possibility that most people, including the vulnerable population, are not aware of the forms of modern slavery. While the modern affair consists of a multi-faceted approach to dealing with slavery in that it involves the reactions and control of effects, proactivity is lacking. Thus, the proposed program is aimed at raising awareness at the community level and sharing knowledge and help in the transfer of skills required to aid in early interventions to women and children in situations of slavery. Currently, a bigger percentage of those involved in slavery as victims do not recognize it as such and thus persevere to be in such situations.
The intervention will help seal the gaps in three steps as follows:
1. Development of media information campaign.
Slavery is viewed and presented as a process. Due to such, it is imperative to design the interventions that aim at prevention rather than reaction. The community outreach project will ensure there are solutions before the actual trafficking takes place. Thus, there will be reduced number of victims of slavery. The lack of information and knowledge, especially to the foreigners and the destitute, is a leading indicator of the high rate of slavery victims.
2. Creation of community-based activities
The activities are aimed at fostering relationships among the populations to combat trafficking and offer information to be used in first person interventions. This will lead to the protection of women and children as there will be networks and organizing to monitor such protection. This approach will also help the villagers to mobilize and learn about the problem of slavery.
3. Gathering and keeping of slavery data
This initiative will help in the formulation of policies in the areas of trafficking. It involves the engagement bin sound research and data collection in the interested area.
Conclusion
Slavery continues to be a pressing social problem as the number of victims seems to be rising to pass that of the Trans-Atlantic trade. Thus, to curb the trend, there need to be proactive measures and approaches, which this paper seeks to advance. With such preventive interventions, the awareness and knowledge of this vice shall be increased which in turn will reduce the number of victims.
References
Jones, L., Engstrom, D. W., Hilliard, T., & Diaz, M. (2007). Globalization and human trafficking. J. Soc. & Soc. Welfare, 34, 107.
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. (n.d.). Retrieved April 8, 2018, from https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/what-is-human-trafficking.html?ref=menuside
Weitzer, R. (2014). New directions in research on human trafficking. The annals of the American academy of political and social science, 653(1), 6-24.
Weitzer, R. (2015). Human trafficking and contemporary slavery. Annual review of sociology, 41, 223-242.
Wheaton, E. M., Schauer, E. J., & Galli, T. V. (2010). Economics of human trafficking. International Migration, 48(4), 114-141.
