It is not a surprise that trafficking and prostitution are usually viewed as the same thing since they both have similar histories, and the laws that have been used to prevent them clearly resemble. The surprise is that even after the current legislation and community groups pushing for the redefinition of human trafficking, most Americans still view it as prostitution. The American media also focuses on interpreting human trafficking as a sex issue; therefore, some of the people end up being misled. Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman have commented on how mass media usually works to inform, entertain, and amuse people with values and behavior that can get them into the larger society. Therefore, the media has neglected human trafficking victims who cannot be termed as the “perfect victims.” On a daily basis, the news media continues to cover trafficking from the perspective that it is simply a sex issue. Also, television, and news magazines such as Frontline, have been involved in these issues. For instance, when fielding such controversial documentaries such as “Sex Slaves,” just like any other media, it focuses on sex trade as trafficking. When it comes to other types of media, sex trafficking has been the only shown kind of trafficking. For example, in 2005, the movie “Human Trafficking” only focused on sex trafficking, and also most of the recent movies on human trafficking focus on the sex trade (Uy).
There has been an increase in the global number of reported trafficking victims. This indicates that the number of trafficked people has increased, or the measures to detect human trafficking have improved in some regions. Traffickers are mainly aiming at women and young girls since all over the world, most of the victims of human trafficking have been females. Most of them are being trafficked for sexual exploitation, and also 35% of the victims are females trafficked for forced labor. A significant number of trafficking victims have been observed when it comes to trafficking for forced labor. Although the pattern is not even in every region, a large number of human trafficking victims are being trafficked for sexual exploitation. Most victims have been found to be Americans, Europe, the Pacific, and East Asia. Forced labor is commonly detected in sub-Saharan Africa (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime).
The World Systems Theory views migration as a natural result that happens due to globalization since most of the companies function internationally. Therefore, it is viewed; as a result of push and pull factors that arise because of the nature of the modern industries in a growing global economy. Andre Gunder Frank, an economist, argued that some countries are winners in a globalized and interconnected world, whereas others are losers. People in the less developed countries cannot be blamed for the failure to develop these countries because it is the Western nations that have failed to develop them. For instance, one of the reasons why India is underdeveloped is due to the big atomic neighboring countries it has to place defense upon, that is, China and Pakistan. The underdevelopment of a country is not due to a shortage of capital in the countries that have been isolated from the line of world history. Underdevelopment will always be generated by the historical process that also generates the development of an economy.
Even with the trafficking protocol that is being used by the government to protect the human rights of migrant sex workers, the current government actions show that the potential of this protocol will prevail. In some countries, antitrafficking measures have led to restrictions on migration and movement for women.
Works Cited
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. “Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2018: Booklet 1, 2 and 3.” UN ILibrary. United Nations, 29 Jan. 2019. Web. 21 July 2021..
Uy, Robert. “Blinded by Red Lights – Berkeley Journal of Gender Law …” 2011. Web. 21 July 2021.
