Zubia Jahangir on Noah Berlatsky's "Human Trafficking Has Become a Meaningless Term"

Noah Berlatsky argues in “Human Trafficking has become a meaningless term” that people associate women trafficking with sex slavery as if they have a direct connection. The author describes that human trafficking was known to be the practice of illegally trading people locally or nationally for the purpose of sexual exploitation. However, the author further explains that there are other forms of coerced labor that are more common in human trafficking.

Berlatsky is accurate on arguing that when it comes to human trafficking, people do focus more on the “coerced sexual labor” part and ignore the fact that humans being trafficked are forced to do all sorts of labor, like they have to work in factories, in houses and even on farms without their own consent. The misconception of the term “trafficking” is so widely spread that “New York’s Human Trafficking Intervention Courts are used to handle basically anyone arrested for prostitution or related charges, whether or not they have been coerced and whether or not they have come from overseas.” The misinterpretation of one term could impact the laws and the policies that could completely lead the court astray from the real crimes of human trafficking.

The belief of making a direct connection between women trafficking and sexual slavery also promotes the idea of devaluing migrant women as they have degraded sexuality which would cause the people to judge all the women who immigrated to their country as if they migrated to sell or be forced into selling sex, and the worse part is that these women would too think of themselves as devalued women when they had done nothing as they have been perceived of doing so. This idea could also lead to criminalize innocent migrant women like they have illegally emigrated from their county to exchange sex for bread as if that is their business. Many of the women are not even perceived as victims, but they are perceived as agents who sell sex. The definitions and perceptions about women trafficking clearly illustrate the widely spread sexism and racism in this world.

A worldwide known myth about human trafficking is that “sex trafficking is the only form of human trafficking.” People need to realize that human trafficking incorporates both ideas of labor trafficking and sex trafficking which can drastically affect the lives of the people being trafficked.

Why do people prefer judging other people based on the popular beliefs rather than trying to find the truth and support the victims?