Today, more than ever before,
immense technological infrastructures are in place that can allow us to fight
human trafficking, and other horrific crimes like it, quicker and with more
accuracy. Using the internet to trace activities of suspected traffickers can
lead help governments and law enforcement agencies reduce the number of people
who live in forced labor and/or sexual situations.
In an article by The
Guardian, it was reported that the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
(UNODC) is educating countries like Moldova, the poorest country in Europe, on
efficient ways to respond the rise in human trafficking occurrences. The
article quotes Adam Palmer, a senior expert in cybercrime and emerging crimes
at UNODC as saying that “…a couple of years ago the majority of
crimes were being committed on desktop computers” and “Now, nearly every crime
seems to have some kind of phone involved in it." Smartphones have become
a new normal that law enforcement and anti-trafficking agencies must keep up
with in order to effectively fight this new type of crime.
As was
discussed in this weeks lecture and in the article by The Guardian, Moldova is
a tier two-ranked country in the United States Department of State’s annual Trafficking in
Persons report. As recent
investigations have shown a rise in human trafficking activity in Moldova, the
struggling government must prioritize maintaining advanced technological
programs in place to combat this rising trend.
This problem is obviously not just
confined to Moldova. Both developed and undeveloped countries have fallen
victim to human trafficking; it even happens in the United States. The internet
has become a place where the “recruitment, advertisement and
sale of people” can happen at any hour of any day and without the proper
equipment and know-how, it can go unnoticed.
The internet can also be used as a
tool by governments and other organizations to raise awareness of human
trafficking. They can put out advertisements and start campaigns that encourage
people to be on the lookout and less apprehensive about reporting suspicious
behavior. The web is a powerful tool, and while traffickers have been
capitalizing on it, it can be reversed and used as a way to reduce the number
of people living in these hellish conditions.
Cyber human trafficking is an interesting angle to notice. i definitely see how human traffickers exploit people through the internet. this serves as an expansion tool for these criminal groups to make more profit and advertise their sale of people easier. I liked this article as another way human trafficking has grown.
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