A Complicated Problem; Mohamed Afify

 

Exploitation of people is a prominent aspect in humanity since the first writings. We see this issue as a thing of the past, due to things like the civil rights movement and the Declaration Of Human Rights by the UN. Many people are unaware of the atrocities that are occurring thanks to human trafficking in South East Asia. Child sex slaves and labour slaves are more common now than ever, infact there are more slaves now then any point in history the estimated amount is around 31 million world wide. These enormous human trafficking rings which are most common in Cambodia, kidnap young girls as young as 9 years old, they wait till the girls are mature enough to attract clients, then they are sold for sex.

These kids often come from impoverished families, many times these girls are sold by their own mothers. This a flourishing industry attracting clients from across the world from countries such as the U.S. It is not uncommon for someone to come overseas for these young girls. The obvious political question comes up, what is the government doing to prevent these horrid acts. In 2007 the government of Cambodia with collaboration with the UN integrated laws in order to prevent as well as the punish the perpetrators of these crimes. They also redefined the act of trafficking and selling human being as well as having different laws for different types of unlawful removal, for many times girls were tricked into joining these brothels therefore the perpetrators were able to justify it by stating that it was voluntary. Unfortunately creating these laws and enforcing them are two different things. Cambodia is an impoverished developing country still recovering from war from the days of Pol Pot. Cambodia ranks 0.543 on the HDI, although they have been gradually improving over the years.

The sad truth is that human trafficking is likely to increase in Cambodia due to lack of jobs and stable income for youth, according to Lim Tith, Project Coordinator of UNIAP. It is up to the international community to take the initiative to end this ongoing problem. The lack of international effort is due to there being little benefit to countries if they do help. That is a fair counter argument for every country has its own problems and interests they want to progress towards. The question posed now posed is, will countries be willing to help for someone else’s sake or continue behaving like corporations who only seek self interest.