HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Human trafficking, while a relatively new hot button issue in the halls of the social justice minded, has actually been a horrific human rights violation for thousands of years. And, while the issue isn’t a new one, it’s a sobering reality to know that there are 40.3 million modern day slaves.

Between 2000 and 2003, the UNODC (United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime) drafted the, The United Nations Convention Against Transnational Crime, which defines the issue this way:

Human Trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power 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.

The Walk Free Foundation distills the issues further by simply saying:

Modern slavery involves one person possessing or controlling a person in such a way as to significantly deprive that person of their individual liberty, with the intention of exploiting that person through their use, management, profit, transfer or disposal.

What does Human Trafficking look like?

Human trafficking can take on many different forms from labor trafficking, to forced marriage, organ trafficking, and sex trafficking. The International Labor Organization estimates that the illicit profits from human trafficking are now in excess of $150 billion a year, making human trafficking second only to the sale of drugs, as the most profitable and lucrative illegal trade business in the world. And, despite the many different types of trafficking, sex trafficking accounts for two thirds of the global profits of human trafficking: $99 billion a year.

These numbers are daunting, if not overwhelming. And, as intimidating as they may be, they aren’t the final chapter or the last word. Dark Horse Global was launched and built on the idea that all people were born with an inherent right to freedom. And, to this end, we will work relentlessly as agents of liberty for the global oppressed.