Megan Jackson March 16th, 2013
Mrs. Dailey Global 10 - Research Paper
Eastern Europe: Human Trafficking
According to the International Labor Organization, there is an estimated 880,000 victims of forced labor, including forced sexual exploitation within Europe. Human trafficking is a global issue that needs to be addressed, as it is a seemingly unconcerned issue in developed and undeveloped countries. Human trafficking is often defined as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force, 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. Exploitation includes sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery, and the servitude or the removal of organs (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime). The prevalent causes for human trafficking's popularity in Eastern Europe include extreme poverty, gender discrimination, and governmental corruption.
With these factors in mind, their effects range from high profits to the physical impact it leaves on its victims and the positive actions and movements addressing the issue.
One of the root causes of human trafficking in Eastern Europe is extreme poverty. Poverty and the additional lack of economic opportunities have contributed to the rise of trafficking among humans. According to the CIA World Factbook, the global increase in poverty is most evident in Eastern Europe, rising from 1 million to 24 million people between 1987 and 1998. The percentage of the population below the poverty line is 30 percent in Albania and over 44 percent in Romania (WSWS).With a lack of employment options, women, children, and men will find themselves reluctantly undergoing these conditions. Likewise, human traffickers congregate to poverty-stricken areas and exploit the poor for their own malevolent...