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Human trafficking: The silent plague

Her body was her enemy, his adolescence his……….

Human trafficking, a silent plague burning the lives of millions across the globe continues to inflict pain on mostly the innocent and the most vulnerable be it in powerful nations as such as the United States to Canada to lesser developed nations in Asia.

For countries which often boasts of equality, a woman is often prized for her body, a youth for his future. Despite continuous deliberations the world over to put a stop to this menace, which even ends in death, most governments around the world have failed miserably to put an end to this problem, let alone take steps to minimize the human trafficking even domestically.

For a country like Sri Lanka, which until recently battled with a quarter century long war, human trafficking specially domestically exists to date, mostly in rural areas where economic development is sparse and day to day survival is a gamble.

16 year old Leela and her 13 year old brother Kamal were living in a mud thatched hut in a rural village with their parents, so when a trustworthy neighbor approached them and promised them the best of the world in the country’s commercial capital, Colombo, their parents jumped at the idea without much questions, because not only were they getting ‘lots of money’ but it appeared that their children would have better living conditions.

The parents were offered a ‘grand’ Rs. 10,000 (US $ 100) for the two children. Read more »

The oil that fuels the human trafficking machine

“Corruption is the oil that fuels the human trafficking machine,” remarked Danish anti-human-trafficking NGO Hope Now’s head Ms. Anne Brandt Christensen during this morning’s workshop “Corruption and Human Trafficking: Unraveling the Undistinguishable for a Better Fight.”

She’s right.  Despite the fact that almost every country has passed laws against slavery, National Geographic recently reported that there are still over 27 million slaves today—toiling in locations as diverse as the brick kilns of South India and piaçaba plantations of Brazil, the brothels of Svey Pak and Sonagachi, and in the agricultural industries of California and Florida that put food on the plates of millions of Americans daily.

It’s impossible to explain this discrepancy without acknowledging the inextricable link between corruption and human trafficking, and that’s precisely what this morning’s panelists set out to do.

Photo: Ricardo Valdes discusses Peru’s efforts to empower and motivate government officials to take sex trafficking seriously

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