Message from the Director of the Center for the Study of Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery
Forced Migration, Demand, and Human Trafficking
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has focused the world’s attention on the estimated three million refugees who have fled the nation since the war began. The UN estimates that nearly half of these forced migrants are children. Each of these migrants is fleeing war and violence – one common cause of mass migrations across the world. Other migrations are being forced by climate change, crop failures, economic collapses, and similar ecological changes. Regardless of the source of forced migration, the specter of human trafficking and slavery are never far from mind in these situations.
Human trafficking is an extreme form of exploitation, where the money or other benefits of the labor performed is coercively taken by someone other than the person who performs the labor. Some will object to thinking of sex work as labor, so it may be easier to use the term victimization when talking about sex trafficking. These categories include those who are being exploited using something we might recognize as “indentured servitude,” or the ruse that once a debt is paid off, the trafficked individual will be released from indenture. The United Nations’ definition of human trafficking includes forced child marriage, children being used as soldiers, and organ harvesting. In the United States, there tend to be a focus on sex work, labor, and domestic servitude, as they are the most predominant forms here.
Human trafficking follows the rules of supply and demand. If there is no demand, there is likely to be little reason to traffic persons. Whether it is for physical or intellectual labor, sexual labor, or the other forms of exploitation listed by the United Nations, the demand for the “commodity” will drive the likely exploitation of displaced persons. That is why there must be an additional emphasis placed on “demand reduction,” rather than the current focus on “supply reduction,” through primarily law enforcement approaches
Reducing demand for labor services in a tight labor market, especially in dangerous and dirty occupations, is a hard thing to do. The demand for workers to do the jobs we apparently do not want to do, specifically in agricultural, enhances the demand for workers. Some of these workers are going to be exploited by unscrupulous crew chiefs, third party contractors, and others who operate on the margins of employment. The same thing occurs in the hospitality industry across landscape and kitchen workers. In another labor-intensive industry, the seafood industry is where up to half of all persons involved are likely to be enslaved labor.
Reducing the demand for sexual exploitation seems a daunting task. The so-called “Swedish approach,” gaining favor in some U.S. circles, involves the prohibition of almost all sexually explicit products as well as prostitution. Others take the opposite approach, such as the recent legislation out of Australian state of Victoria that decriminalized all sexual labor which removes criminal sanctions and penalties surrounding sex work. Legislation, however, is not what will reduce demand for sexual services. That will take a focus on reducing the justifications for exploiting others sexually to satisfy our own desires.
Beyond reigning in our desires for products and services where trafficking is likely to occur, there are other steps we can take to reduce the demand and exploitation of trafficked persons. First, consume consciously – the Department of Commerce features several resources to help consumers avoid products that might include trafficked labor at some point in the production chain. Next, think about sustainability in products – avoid fads and fashions, places where low-wage and disposable labor are likely to be provided by trafficked persons. Finally, value others and provide no justification for exploiting the vulnerability of another person. Only when we do not allow excuses for victimization through trafficking will we begin to reduce the demand that pushes some to exploit others.
At GPII’s Center for the Study of Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery, we work tirelessly to expand the comprehensive understanding of human trafficking. We are confident that through our critical undergraduate and graduate research, community engagement, education, training, student fellowships, and survivor scholarship, we promote action and understanding among the UCF campus and the wider community.
