Stolen Voices (human Trafficking)Stolen voices are the victims of human trafficking. Human trafficking is taking, concealing, harboring, kidnapping, transporting or receipt of a person. Victims of trafficking are normally forced into hard labor, prostitution, and pornography. Traffickers use various techniques to control their victims and get the victims to do what they want without trying to escape or contact family members. The driven purpose behind human trafficking is the demand for cheap labor. Trafficking is a criminal business and this market for indenture servants or what is known as the common day slave trade; will continue to grow unless everybody, men and women take responsibility for the world they live in and educate the children that being human is a beautiful gift from God and being humane is an important part of our civil rights and it does not come with a price tag, and it is not for sale.
Mormons, for example, are often the target of trafficking. We need this support because we share the belief that the Church and its people are “overprotected with the exception of the church.” Church members, priests, missionaries, and other church officials are often involved. Mormon missionaries can be hired to take money or have other roles. They can also be employed as street scouts, field laborers or other employees on the run to try and help those who can. Many LDS missionaries, clergy and other church officials have been victims of trafficking. The trafficking needs to stop, though, because if anyone can be found to be doing any wrong they will be arrested and taken away from their community. Joseph Smith himself was raped by members of a Church organization, including a senior member in a Temple mission.
Skeptics often dismiss the church’s role, including the Church hierarchy, in this controversy. While the entire “Mormon Way” is centered around a desire to avoid human trafficking, church authorities, including the top brass and their elected representatives, are the ones trying to stop it. Even those who may claim otherwise have the moral courage to voice their concern, especially over a matter of so much public policy that requires their continued support.
Church membership has been declining at the highest level since the 1950’s. While some leaders are still looking for better employment opportunities, it has taken a long time for it to show up. As with all economic endeavors, the Church hierarchy has failed to act. If there is an issue between church leaders and their own people, they have a duty to act first. If there is a problem with the Church’s hierarchy, they must step up.
When it comes to human trafficking, as in any serious business, the Mormon Church is working hard to provide a safe and secure environment for all citizens to practice religious freedom. As a society, we have been blessed (or to be more accurately, denied) with the ability to make religious commitments.
The Church hierarchy has never taken a position on any matter that has led to sexual exploitation. On its website this week there announced the following:
As we have been through this period of abuse, I could tell you that the church has a responsibility to support people to keep their lives and to learn from every mistake. This includes making sure that all children attend the same Catholic schools and those are being educated at the same Catholic church.
While some would go as far as saying that the Mormon Church has done a lot to reduce sexual exploitation, the LDS Church’s leadership is simply not clear what the true intent of our current practices is.
When do we expect this to disappear?
It is very unlikely to disappear anytime soon. Mormon leaders are so accustomed to dealing with trafficking that they continue to believe that we are in a state of complete abdication of moral responsibility. In some ways this is consistent with what we have learned in our mission in the past:
1. There is now total disregard for human trafficking.
A recent Mormon Church survey noted that more than 3 out of five people report experiencing homelessness when they first go to church.
2. There is a high level of awareness surrounding the issue in the church about those who are victims of sexual exploitation.
In addition, a Pew Research Center poll indicates that fewer than 45% of individuals believe that some forms of human trafficking takes place in the church.
3. The Mormon Church is a safe place to perform missionary work.
The reality is that we need to work to find ways to promote spiritual and spiritual growth for
A spokesperson from the Department of Labor Dr. Stacker, M. (2006) states that The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005 was designed to increase protection for all trafficked persons in the United States. The problem is identifying these individuals so that they can be afforded protection. Traffickers will use various techniques to control or scare their victims in submission, money is time and any means necessary will be used control their victims.
California, Florida, Washington DC and New York are considered some of the most trafficked places in the US. Today over 15 thousand people are being trafficked in the United States annually. U.S citizens trafficked in within the US is even higher. It is hard to get an exact number of people being trafficked in local areas, but local agencies can tell you that the problem is huge in your area. Ideally, you need to know the number of persons trafficked locally, the number of victims presenting as emergency care patients, and the number of survivors who escaped because of hospital intervention says Dr. Richardson, L (2010).
Traffickers have some many ways to keep their victims in fear and enslaved some of them will use debt bonding, where they hold a financial obligation over their heads. Many of these victims are looking for a way out of their own poverty, when a trafficker approaches them with dream of a life time it will almost always come with a cost, one that the victims will not be able to afford. Some traffickers will tell the victims that they can take them to the United States where they will work for rich people or in an industry that will pay them $10.00 an hour and for the victim that is a lot of money, but, to get there it will cost $5,000 or more. The victim does not have this type of money and the traffickers knows this he will offer another impassable deal, the trafficker will tell the victim that he or she can work off the debt and still make money and send it back home to his/her family. Since the victim is so hard pressure to leave poverty behind them,