Child Trafficking and Smuggling: Identifying the Difference
Child trafficking is a crime and violation of international law that has become a very profitable business for organized crime syndicates and criminal networks.
Though it seems ironical, the reality is that no law enforcing body has the power and will to depose these criminals.
And the saddest truth about it is that the victims are children and minors who are left with shattered lives and no definite future.
But trafficking is not the same as another human-directed crime called human smuggling.
These two practices however are somehow similar in some aspects but there are differences that make one more gruesome than the other.
Child trafficking is focused on the exploitation of a victim in order to gain services and favors like prostitution, forced labor, work as child soldiers, or slavery as a whole.
The main characteristic of this crime is coercion.
This means that minors are forced, intimidated, or deceived for them to be shipped or trafficked to specific parts of the world where they will serve their purpose without something in return.
Child trafficking is the method of shipping and transporting minors to different parts of the world for the purpose of using them for services like prostitution, slavery, forced labor, or any similar stuff.
This atrocious crime is manifested by the use of force and threats in order to coerce victims not to complain or to simply obey.
Moreover, a minor in this instance is forcibly transferred to any place where he will work as a prostitute in prostitution houses, provide hard labor in factories, or perhaps become a member of a militia or army in conflicts.
Again, the main feature is the enforcement of services against the will.
The smuggling of children on the other is kind of different in a way that most of the time, there is consent involved.
This consent may not actually come from the child but from the parents who are in desperate conditions.
Nonetheless, the same story goes for the degree of exploitation and abuse.
Therefore, whether a child is smuggled or trafficked, he still would likely end up being abuse and exploited.
The most painful reality on exploitation is the lack of support and advocacy both from the international community and concerned governments.
We cannot accept this kind of loose commitment from them since what we need is an authoritative body that can arrest and put traffickers and smugglers to jail.
Though it seems ironical, the reality is that no law enforcing body has the power and will to depose these criminals.
And the saddest truth about it is that the victims are children and minors who are left with shattered lives and no definite future.
But trafficking is not the same as another human-directed crime called human smuggling.
These two practices however are somehow similar in some aspects but there are differences that make one more gruesome than the other.
Child trafficking is focused on the exploitation of a victim in order to gain services and favors like prostitution, forced labor, work as child soldiers, or slavery as a whole.
The main characteristic of this crime is coercion.
This means that minors are forced, intimidated, or deceived for them to be shipped or trafficked to specific parts of the world where they will serve their purpose without something in return.
Child trafficking is the method of shipping and transporting minors to different parts of the world for the purpose of using them for services like prostitution, slavery, forced labor, or any similar stuff.
This atrocious crime is manifested by the use of force and threats in order to coerce victims not to complain or to simply obey.
Moreover, a minor in this instance is forcibly transferred to any place where he will work as a prostitute in prostitution houses, provide hard labor in factories, or perhaps become a member of a militia or army in conflicts.
Again, the main feature is the enforcement of services against the will.
The smuggling of children on the other is kind of different in a way that most of the time, there is consent involved.
This consent may not actually come from the child but from the parents who are in desperate conditions.
Nonetheless, the same story goes for the degree of exploitation and abuse.
Therefore, whether a child is smuggled or trafficked, he still would likely end up being abuse and exploited.
The most painful reality on exploitation is the lack of support and advocacy both from the international community and concerned governments.
We cannot accept this kind of loose commitment from them since what we need is an authoritative body that can arrest and put traffickers and smugglers to jail.