Tomas Isman

Connor Abdelnoor

Human Trafficking in Cambodia

The YouTube Project

Background

Human Trafficking is one of the largest problems the UN faces today concerning human rights. Human Trafficking is a term encompassing debt bondage, sex slavery, forced labor, and the trading of humans. After drug trafficking, human trafficking is tied with the illegal arms trade as the second largest criminal industry in the world. The UN estimates that between 600,000 to four million people are trafficked annually making it a billion dollar business (Fact Sheet).

In Cambodia, a country where the average per capita income is among the lowest in the world and state support systems are non-existent, human trafficking is one of its largest human rights issues. Victims, lured with false promises of jobs, are then forced into sex, manual labor, or even cut up for body parts. Adults are not the only victims of Human Trafficking, recent data from the UN shows that 50% of victims are under the age of 18. There have been cases where families even sell their newborn babies for around 50 USD (Human Trafficking).

Cambodia’s history is dotted with human rights violations, but even being one of the least developed countries in the world, it is quickly developing. Human Trafficking did occur in Cambodia throughout its history but the main form of trafficking, prostitution, was outlawed in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 during the rule of the Khmer Rouge, but resurfaced in the 1980s. In 1991 the UN operation UNTAC, or United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia, started and 22,000 UN peacekeepers poured into Cambodia (Brown). These men filled the whore houses and salons making prostitution a booming trade in Cambodia once again. Before the arrival of the UN troops there were an estimated 1000 prostitutes in Cambodia. Currently with many more prostitutes being trafficked into the county there are over 50,000 thousand bringing in more than 500 million dollars a year (Fact Sheet). Another main client of the prostitution industry who has helped it grow over the years, are the men who ride motorbike ‘taxis’. These men are from the lower class, don’t have families and are lonely, and look for company in cheap brothels.

South East Asia has one of the largest Human Trafficking problems in the world. Currently 200,000-225,000 people are trafficked through SEA every year (Cambodia, Country Reports). Most Human Traffic victims in Cambodia end up in the provinces of Battambang, Kompong Cham, and Phnom Penh. 35% of prostitutes in Phnom Penh come from China and Vietnam (Human Trafficking). Even with all this traffic, the government does nothing to prevent it from going on. In January 1997 a law was passed to stop trafficking in women. So far no fines or arrests have been made. The governor in Kok Kong Province recently banned human rights investigators who raided a trafficking ring without permission. Corruption is one of the main factors why human trafficking still occurs in Cambodia.

The Issue

Human Trafficking in Cambodia (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9k_CViMwmk)

Solutions

Solution #1.

The first idea for a solution to raise awareness for human trafficking in Cambodia was to do so, using poster put up around school. These would not necessarily be informational posters, they would jus have words on them stating facts about human trafficking in Cambodia, and they wouldn’t say they were about human trafficking. The facts on them would state things like, “Over 200,000 brought through Asia annually,” or “nearly half have AIDS” later we would put up more posters, completing the statements, so “Over 200,000 victim of human trafficking are brought through South East Asia every year.”

Solution #2.

The second idea for a solution involves a similar approach. We would put baskets around the school with signs over them that say, “Candy” or something like that. Then in the basket, once somebody reaches in, there will be empty boxes with papers saying, “Thousands of people are tricked each year with tricks like this to become human trafficking victims. They are then used in forced labor, forced prostitution, or even cut up so their organs can be sold for extra cash.”

Charity

Trafficking in persons.com is a charity that is a ministry of Warm Blankets Orphan Care. Meaning it focuses on human trafficking victims that are children and orphans. Orphans are a huge resource for human traffickers because no one cares what happens to them and this charity has branches all through south East Asia, including Cambodia. To incorporate the charity into the solutions well advertise the charity at the end of the You Tube video.

MLA Citations

Brown, Louise. Sex Slaves the Trafficking of Women in Asia. Great Britain: Virago P, 2000.

"Cambodia." Coalition Against Trafficking in Women. 2006. 3 Oct. 2007 <http://www.catwinternational.org/factbook/Cambodia.php>.

"Cambodia." Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. 8 Mar. 2006. U.S. Department of State. 3 Oct. 2007 <http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61604.htm>.

"Cambodia." Human Trafficking. 2006. 3 Oct. 2007 <http://www.humantrafficking.org/countries/cambodia>.

Derks, Annuska, Roger Henke, and Vanna Ly. "Review of a Decade of Research." The Asia Foundation. 2006. 3 Oct. 2007 <http://www.asiafoundation.org/pdf/CB_TIPreview.pdf>.

"Fact Sheet: Human Trafficking: a Modern Form of Slavery." The White House. 14 July 2004. 3 Oct. 2007 <http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/07/20040716-3.html>.

"Human Trafficking." The World Revolution 27 September 2007 <http://www.globalissues.net/Projects/Webguide/GuideArticle.asp?ID=1430>.