HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Trafficking in people is defined by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) as
the act of recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons by means of
threat, use of force or other forms of coercion.

Victims are sourced/targeted for the purpose of exploitation. These include:

 prostitution of others
 sexual abuse
 forced labour
 slavery or similar practices
 removal of organs
 used/forced to commit crimes

ACT + MEANS + PURPOSE = TRAFFICKING

CAUSES

Vulnerable individuals who are living in difficult and desperate conditions:

 Poverty
 Lack of education/awareness
 Limited job opportunities
 Poor parental and family support
 The choice of traffickers to profit from the act
 Unemployment – Person who seek employment overseer are caught up in human
 Source of income Earning ( fastest growing income earning)
 Deception- job opportunities that seem too good to be true, such as all expenses paid for
work abroad opportunities
 Coercion
 Exploitation – prostitution of others, sexual, forced labour, slavery or similar practices
 Modern – day trafficking takes the form of the forced movement of person of persons to
work in the sex industry and other exploitative forms of employment.
 Organ Harvesting – get person to use them for the purpose of the demand for their organ
 Abduction – use for sexual purpose or other means.
 Fraud – you are being urged to lie if you are to travel abroad
 Abuse of power or vulnerability
 Giving payments or benefits
 EFFECTS

Individual-

 Mental/physical trauma
 Isolation from family/friends
 Lack of independence/disruption of educational advancement and training
(Adjusting back into society may be difficult)
 The abused becomes the abuser and assumes the role of trafficker
 Post – traumatic stress
 Difficulty in relationship
 Depression
 Memory loss
 Anxiety
 Fear
 Guilt, shame
 STI’s
 Substance use and disorders.
 Alienation and isolation from social supports.
 Suicidal ideation (thoughts of suicide)
 Identity disturbance/confusion

Family:

 Broken family/loss of a member

 Mental trauma
 Resources strained in finding victims

Society:

 Criminality
 Human resource seriously at risk/exploited
 Citizens live in fear and unhappiness
 Providing the social services often dependent on the financial capability of government
and its beliefs regarding how much should be done to help the population
 The cost to have these program functional for the public to use
 The social services are also stretched to their limits
 SOLUTIONS

 Bring awareness to your social circles so your friends and family know more about
trafficking
 Be friends with someone who is alone and vulnerable
 Report if you notice suspicious activity or cases of trafficking
 Consider volunteering with a local counter-trafficking organization
 Education – the government educate the public about human trafficking by creating
pamphlet about human trafficking such as how to avoid it and what to do if in the
circumstances
 Education can be directed at selected target groups, such as school- aged children or
parents, and pregnant mothers
 Educational programmes or school syllabus in schools to help reduce the incident of
Human trafficking
 Public awareness campaigns on human trafficking are getting to the trafficking hotspots
and the potential victims of trafficking

Institutions
 Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) 
 Center for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA) 
 National Taskforce Against Trafficking in Persons’ (NATFATIP) 
 Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA)
 Office of the National Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons (ONRTIP)