Coming into the Human Trafficking presentation I wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew the basic concept of it since I have watched the movie “Taken”. That’s just it though; it was just a movie, not something that happened in real life. To me it was such an eye opener, to learn so much more about my country, to think that something so unreal was happening just a sixty minute drive away. All of my preconceptions of human trafficking have been uneducated and naive. Human trafficking is a real and a serious issue; that’s what I got out of the presentation.
Many of my fellow classmates may say that the first two speakers were boring but I must disagree. The first two speakers served their purpose as being informative and educational, rather than the third speaker who served more to provide an emotional impact. It was interesting to learn that human trafficking is a worldwide issue and that some places even have legalized prostitution. I have come to realize that making something illegal will sometimes only worsen the problems. One of the issues with human trafficking covered was that countries that criminalize prostitution tend to assault prostitutes as criminals rather than victims. Usually prostitutes were always portrayed as a problem and as “bad” people but to think of them as victims opened my eyes to a new perspective. One of the most shocking things for me was when the second speaker presented statistics of victim. I wasn’t surprised that 68% of the victims were women but what shocked me was that some of these girls were not only used for sex tools but for organ transplants as well. This was something I never would have expected; it’s such an inhumane, disgusting thing to think about. It’s really horrifying to imagine a young girl, a daughter, a sister, a niece, in a foreign country taken by strange men to be threatened and raped time and time again. In the process of an unqualified person removing her organs, she may even be killed. As a girl who does travel a lot to different countries, and even different states, I have come to realized how dangerous and common Human Trafficking is worldwide and in the United States.
It was the third speaker that definitely had the most impact. My first impression of her was that she seemed like such a sweet, caring, and educated woman. The way she spoke made it feel that I knew her. There was no way I would have labeled her as a foolish woman; rather she was just a hopeful optimistic person. To hear that it happened so easily, so close by to where I live is truly frightening. When she explained that she had to escape twice and then wasn’t given help mad me angry. This program helped me realize that human trafficking is a problem not only in other countries but here in the states. It’s an issue that needs to be addressed in a way that will treat these so called illegal prostitutes as victims, not criminals.