Human Trafficking – Guest Post by Brian O’Hare

Elsewhere in this blog is a review of my latest book, The Trafficking Murders. The fact that its publication pretty much coincides with National Awareness Day of Human Trafficking on the 11^th of January is a coincidence. But it does draw attention to this important date, and to one of the most horrific crimes this world has to offer—human trafficking and modern-day slavery. Given its cruel and sadistic nature, and given that National Awareness Day for Human Trafficking is almost upon us, it is important to highlight some facts about this global atrocity.

Human trafficking is not just about sex slavery. It also involves forced labour, many of the victims of which are impoverished children. And children are not just exploited in foreign countries. Many forms of this abuse take place much closer to home than we might imagine. Human traffickers target and recruit vulnerable individuals by preying on their personal situations, using force or fraud, or sometimes targeting them more subtly through the use of social media and dating platforms. They often exploit these apps and websites to recruit victims through what appear to be legitimate job offers. They persuade victims them to meet in person and, unfortunately, such meetings can frequently result in abduction and kidnapping.

The US is only one of over a hundred countries that use National Awareness Days to draw attention to this most horrific of crimes. Globally there are almost eighty organisations trying in various ways to combat trafficking and to rescue and bring succour to the victims.  But they seem limited in what they can do . . . which is hardly surprising. There are over twenty million victims worldwide. About five million of these are young women trafficked into the sex trade. The others are adults and children, forced into many forms of slave labour, living in degrading and brutal conditions. With vast numbers like these, the industry is globally estimated to be worth about $750 billion a year to those who engage in it. So it is obvious that the traffickers are not going to surrender those kinds of profits easily. They continue to find all sorts of clever ways of eluding discovery and avoiding arrest.

I was asked in an interview recently if I thought my book would have an impact on people’s awareness of human trafficking. The truth is, I originally set out just to write another Inspector Sheehan story. Given the nature of the topic, however, it was inevitable that the inhumane abuse carried out by the traffickers would filter into my book. Some of the awful things that happen to real-life victims are brought home vividly to the reader through the experiences of a key character in the story – Alina, a poor Romanian girl. What happens to her doesn’t make for easy reading.  But it leaves the reader in no doubt about the monstrous ruthlessness of human slavers.  

These people operate in dark places and tend to have minimum visibility. One detective in Northern Ireland called this barbarity, “a hidden crime … hidden in plain sight.” People really do need to be made aware of it. Maybe these big National Awareness Days will help open people’s eyes to it.

So what can any of us do? There will probably be all sorts of information available about this on the 11^th of January (National Awareness Day), but initially we can:

1. inform ourselves about human trafficking and learn the signs
2.  remain vigilant at all times
3. report any concerns we might have to the authorities
4. spread the word about the practice to friends
5. raise our voices where we can.

You may feel that you can contribute very little but, as John F. Kennedy once quoted in a speech in 1962, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Recommended Article: The Trafficking Murders – a Review