Myth: Traffickers Are Part of Criminal Organizations
Reality: Let’s get one thing straight human traffickers do belong to criminal groups, drug cartels and other illegal organizations around the world. However, many of these traffickers are family members, like parents who owe or need money.
Myth: The Victims of Human Trafficking Are Uneducated And Poor
Reality: It doesn’t matter what kind of education you have or how much money you are entitled to. Anyone can become a victim of human trafficking; they don’t necessarily belong to the lower strata of society or uneducated and poor communities.
Myth: The Victims o Human Trafficking Are Young Women
Reality: Women maybe seen as the weaker sex, but human traffickers don’t discriminate based on gender, or even age for that matter. Men, women and children are forced into commercial sex or labour. Women and children may be given major priority, but men are also subject to the sadistic practice of human trafficking.
Myth: People Being Trafficked Are Moved To Other Countries
Reality: To exploit human beings through trafficking you don’t need to go to a different country. The kidnapping, harbouring, sale and purchase of people can take place in one single country. This violation of human rights can occur in your neighbourhood itself, there is no need to physically move people across borders.
Myth: The Victims of Human Trafficking Are Unwilling
Reality: We usually see human trafficking as an injustice inflicted on the innocent. But people actually willingly walk into it. Consider this, a person is willing to take up prostitution because they are promised huge sums of money, little do they know that they’ve walked right into a trafficker. Some do it because it is the only way they can pay off their debts. This doesn’t mean the traffickers are kind to them in any way.
Myth: Human Trafficking Victims Want To Be Rescued
Reality: The whole human trafficking process is a brutal affair for the victims. It can cause some major psychological damage, forcing the victim to refuse freedom. Most people would long to be free from the torment of human trafficking, but after years of torture some may feel afraid of the world outside. The fear of their captors, that they may somehow find them and treat them way worse than before. Some victims may even be forced to believe that everyone on the outside is bad and can’t be trusted in any way.
Myth: Human Trafficking Mainly Involves Commercial Sex Trafficking
Reality: Forced labour and modern-day slavery is just as rampant as sex trafficking. It’s just that the authorities and news have managed to uncover more trafficking offences in this area. Victims of bondage labour are will hidden in homes and businesses. The lack of proper documentation limits the government’s ability take action and as a result most cases go unreported.
There’s so much we don’t know about human trafficking and its current state in our very surroundings. It makes you question the system and wonder if it’s really intended to protect us or just let the unseen illegal activities of human traffickers continue unhindered.
