Human Trafficking

Staring into the face of the horrible, heartbreaking injustices in this world is a hard thing to do, but that is exactly what we did this past week. Learning about it in class has made this issue of human trafficking all the more real to me. The pain and anger from hearing stories of girls who were trafficked, abused and beaten was overwhelming. Through this post I want others to understand what is happening in this world.

Our speaker was Ro Potter who was born and raised in Japan where her parents worked as missionaries. After college, people enslaved in the sex trade became a major priority for Ro and she spent time traveling through Eastern Europe doing research on this problem. She has tons of crazy God stories! She currently works with the Women and Children's Advocacy Centre as part of the Anti-Human Trafficking team. 

For those of you that don’t know what human trafficking is, it is defined by the UN as being the recruitment, transportation, or harboring of a person by means of threat, force or deception. There are an estimated 27 million people in slavery today. A little perspective…There are 20 million people living in New York. Imagine every single person in New York being enslaved---along with another 7 million on top of that. Crazy, huh?

Before this week started when I thought about human trafficking I immediately thought sex trafficking. However on Monday morning my eyes were opened to all that trafficking encompasses. There are five different types of human trafficking: 

Sex Prostitution

Organ Theft

 Forced Labor

Child Soldiers

Forced Begging.

Trafficking is a huge industry and pulls in at least $32 billion a year. People are pulled into the industry of trafficking because a person can be bought and used countless times without having to keep paying or getting more resources. They use people in all areas of the word, not only in prostitution. 

*People are being enslaved to make our clothes, our chocolate, our coffee, and our household furniture. Do we know where our things are coming from? 

*Children are used as soldiers, used to murder and kill against their will. 

*They are used in other forms of labor: housekeeping, construction, casinos, strip clubs, hotels, nail salons, and massage parlors. 

The possibilities of where they are being used are endless. Trafficking is happening everywhere, it’s not just in the cities or in poor areas. This is a real problem and it can be close to our homes. People get trafficked into the United States all the time.

This industry is fueled by the demand. 

*People want cheap and easy gratification—so they buy a prostitute. 

*We want cheap products—so they force young children to work for free to make those products. 

*Someone needs an organ—so they drug someone and remove the organ without their consent.

 We have the responsibility to know where our stuff is coming from.

It’s easy, at least for me, to feel disgust towards these traffickers. I am constantly being  reminded by God that they are human too and something in their past has led them to this place. I think we need to realize that God has a huge heart for this issue. These women, men, and children never escape God’s eyes. He can’t get away from the pain they are going through. What is close to God’s heart should be close to ours.