Today in America and all around the world, the prominent issue of human trafficking plays a major role in our society. As many people are aware, this is the act of trading and selling people illegally, moving them to different locations typically for forced labor or sexual misconduct. It’s a scary topic but unfortunately, it’s the reality of the world we live in today. Making sure to always keep your guard and do anything to protect yourself from predators and suspicious figures in your vicinity is key, but most times than not, it’s hard to always been on top of your game. More often than not, these individuals will take you when you least expect it, creating venerability in the abductee. Through the next couple paragraphs, I will dive into the various examples seen though the film and discuss my thoughts on human trafficking and how it affects the people around the world today.
Prior to watching the two-part film Human Trafficking, one is able to grasp the concept of what is truly going on in this world. The film introduces us to a girl named Helena who is waitress in Prague with a 3-year-old at home. She gets involved in a relationship with a man who invites her to Vienna, then taking her by surprise and passing her over to traffickers. The emotional and physical tole this takes on one from the instant they realize what’s going on is an unimaginable feeling that no one can understand. Luckily in this film it showed the resilience that some had in them to keep pushing through despite the circumstance they were under. The films truly did a strong job in showing the severity of this issue and how traffickers will act towards one stuck in this situation. Although very scary, it is good to be aware that things like this actually do happen.
In looking at this topic from the perspective of the parents in this type of situation allows one to truly think about your protection of your child. In the film we see that parents will do anything to get their loved ones back, as these traffickers don’t mess around. One prime example of this is when Nadia’s dad joins the ring of traffickers in attempt to save his daughter. He finds the modeling group that Nadia was sold to and travels across the world undercover to save his daughter. Although one would hope this is what any parent would do, Nadia’s dad had inside information from his involvement in the military. Saving his daughter and many others, the dads will to protect his daughter truly showed in the film. While Nadia was saved in the end, more often than not victims suffer post-trauma from these types of incidents that will leave an emotional scar for the rest of their lives. Bringing yourself back up into the strong individual you are can take time and development as it is a process one must overcome at their own pace.
In attempts to trick the traffickers, abductees will tend to play along and act like they okay in aims to make their escape. This a strong strategy that parents should teach their children on as it can often save someone’s life. Attempting to find the safest and best way out, this film shows us the pact the abductees make trying to save the majority of the group. Sometimes this isn’t an option though as we saw Annie drugged with the other girls and held in strict captivity while trying to enjoying a simple vacation. While this happened while Annie and her family were on vacation, this can happen in any scenario in ones everyday life. The tourism industry should aim at taking stronger precautions, but by no means should they be responsible for these type of incidents. Luckily the police were able to get information on this case, but most times this information is not known and typically happening behind the scenes. Making sure to check in on your loved ones and going over safety precautions is an extra measure that could help one in this kind of unfortunate but frequent situation.
Overall, this film has allowed for us to view human trafficking as a worldwide issue that plays prominently in our crime rates and our society. Through the victims like Nadia and the others we can see that awareness and protection must be raised overall. This could range from better border patrol, increased cyber security, to inside tips from undercover agents. Monitoring suspicious activity in and around communities across the world is crucial in order to reduce the amount of cases yearly. With the US being the number one offender it is key that we take these steps to better protect our citizens. According to the Federal Trafficking Report (2018), we can understand that 51.6% of trafficking cases in the US are children. While this is the horrifying reality, we must understand the precautions one must always take to put safety and well-being of themselves and their children at the top of the list.
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