Human trafficking is the illegal trade and exploitation of human beings for forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation. There is an ongoing debate about whether human trafficking should be considered a form of modern-day slavery. In this article, we will examine the definitions of human trafficking and modern slavery, look at the similarities and differences between the two, and analyze the arguments on both sides of the debate.
What is human trafficking?
Human trafficking is defined by the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children as:
“The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring 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.”
There are three key components that constitute human trafficking:
- Action – what is done, such as recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receiving people.
- Means – how it is done, such as threat, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power.
- Purpose – why it is done, for the purpose of exploitation, which includes exploiting the prostitution of others, sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery or similar practices and the removal of organs.
An important distinction is that human trafficking does not require that the victim be moved or transported from one location to another. The exploitation of a person in their existing location is sufficient to qualify as trafficking.
What is modern slavery?
There is no universally agreed upon definition of modern slavery. However, it is often used as an umbrella term that encompasses human trafficking as well as other forms of severe exploitation. The International Labour Organization (ILO) defines modern slavery as:
“Slavery-like practices such as debt bondage, forced labour, and human trafficking; child slavery is a form of modern slavery that involves the exploitation of children.”
Some key characteristics of modern slavery include:
- Involuntariness – victims are forced to work through mental or physical threat.
- Ownership or control – treating the victim as a commodity.
- Dehumanization – the denial of a person’s self-ownership and self-worth.
- Use of violence – punishment is used to control people.
- Economic exploitation – victims are economically exploited without the ability to refuse.
Modern slavery is associated with practices like human trafficking, debt bondage, forced labor, servile marriage, and child slavery. Therefore, human trafficking falls under the broader definition of modern slavery.
Similarities between human trafficking and slavery
There are several notable similarities between human trafficking and slavery:
- Exploitation and lack of consent – Both human trafficking and slavery involve exploiting a person without their consent. Victims are often deceived or coerced into exploitative arrangements they would not willingly choose.
- Control – Perpetrators exercise complete control over the victim’s life and liberty. Victims have no autonomy or freedom.
- Abuse – Physical, emotional, psychological and sexual abuse are present in both human trafficking and slavery.
- Restriction of movement – Victims are often confined and have restrictions placed on their physical movement and freedom.
- Poor living conditions – Victims frequently endure terrible living conditions, substandard housing, lack of medical care, and physical hazards.
- Forced labor – Victims are made to work with little or no compensation. Their labor is involuntarily obtained through force, fraud or coercion.
Differences between human trafficking and slavery
While there are many similarities, some key differences between human trafficking and slavery include:
- Legal status – Slavery is illegal worldwide, while human trafficking does not have to involve illegally transporting victims across state or national borders.
- Registration of victims – Victims of slavery were once registered as legal property, whereas trafficking victims are not officially registered.
- Purchase costs – Slaves were once purchased, but human trafficking victims may or may not involve a monetary exchange.
- Movement – While trafficking involves transporting victims, movement is not required for slavery since a person can be enslaved in their current location.
- Conception of victims – Slavery victims were often considered property, while trafficking victims are seen as being exploited for their labor or services.
Is human trafficking a form of slavery?
There are compelling arguments on both sides of this debate.
Arguments that human trafficking is a form of slavery
Some of the key arguments that human trafficking constitutes a form of modern-day slavery include:
- Trafficking victims are forced to work against their will under threat of violence, fitting the definition of slavery.
- Like slavery, human trafficking involves controlling and exploiting human beings for economic gain.
- The non-consensual nature of labor extraction is identical in both slavery and trafficking.
- Trafficking causes loss of free will, autonomy, and liberty, which are fundamental conditions of slavery.
- Slavery is considered to involve debt bondage, forced labor and servile marriage, all forms of exploitation associated with trafficking.
- International law considers trafficking to create slavery-like conditions. The 1926 Slavery Convention prohibits forced labor and trafficking.
- Leading organizations like the ILO say that modern slavery includes human trafficking.
In summary, human trafficking and modern forms of slavery involve very similar elements of exploitation, lack of consent, restriction of autonomy, and forced labor. Therefore, many advocates argue human trafficking is a contemporary form of slavery.
Arguments that human trafficking is not slavery
Some arguments against considering human trafficking as slavery include:
- In traditional slavery, victims were legally owned as property, whereas trafficking victims are not owned.
- Modern trafficking is transient with victims moved into and out of exploitative arrangements. Historically, slavery ownership was designed to be permanent.
- Slavery does not require transporting victims, while trafficking is defined by the movement of people.
- Not all human trafficking victims end up in slavery-like exploitation. Sometimes the end purpose is different, like removal of organs.
- The means of obtaining victims differs. Slaves were openly bought and sold legally, while trafficked people are obtained through illegal covert methods.
- Trafficking serves a different primary purpose – it aims to facilitate exploitation, rather than own people as legal property.
In essence, since there are some distinct characteristics between historical slavery and modern human trafficking, some argue they should not be equated or considered the same thing.
Examples of human trafficking as modern slavery
While definitions are debated, in practice there are many cases where human trafficking exhibits slavery-like conditions:
- Children trafficked into the cocoa industry in West Africa and forced to do hazardous work on cocoa farms without pay.
- Women and girls trafficked into the commercial sex industry and forced into prostitution through debt bondage, threats of violence, and psychological manipulation.
- Migrant workers trafficked to work in Middle Eastern kafala system where their passports are confiscated and they are forced to work with little or no pay under exploitative employers.
- Boat crews trafficked to work on Thai fishing vessels under harsh conditions with little food, being physically abused, and having pay withheld.
- Domestic servants trafficked from South Asia and Africa to the Middle East and forced to work excessive hours with no days off, having their movements restricted and suffering physical and emotional abuse.
In these cases, even if victims were not legally owned as property, they endured slavery-like conditions with extreme exploitation, restriction of freedom, abuse of power, lack of autonomy and involuntary labor extraction. Therefore, there are strong grounds to classify these scenarios as forms of modern slavery facilitated via human trafficking.
Conclusion
In conclusion, while there are distinct legal and technical differences between historical chattel slavery and modern human trafficking, the widespread presence of slavery-like conditions in many trafficking cases means there are compelling reasons to classify trafficking as a contemporary form of slavery.
Ultimately, the focus should be on preventing the exploitation and systemic lack of consent at the heart of both slavery and trafficking, rather than semantic differences in terminology. Anti-trafficking advocates would be wise to avoid fracturing the movement by squabbling over definitions, and instead unite around combatting the extreme abuse, control, lack of autonomy, dehumanization, violence, and forced labor present in many situations of human trafficking and modern slavery.