Timeline of Trafficking

Historical Timeline on Trafficking

            Many do not realize that people have been trafficked for hundreds of years.  The act of buying and selling individuals goes back to the 1400s and earlier.  While the earlier years of trafficking were more for labor purposes than for a sexual nature, it was always a system that crosses a vast geographical area.  As years passed people began to realize the cruelty behind their actions and several countries started abolishing slavery; Great Britain (1833) and the United States (1865).  However, as history often repeats itself ,once again trafficking and trading became a popular entity this time with the addition of sexual slavery.  With the number of trafficked persons escalating each year different agreements, laws, and organizations were formed to prevent further growth of this violation of human rights. Currently many countries are banning together to share information and helpful tactics to ensure the safety of their people from further exposure to trafficking.

The earlier centuries showed several countries adopting the use of slavery because it was an affordable way for people to get things done without getting their own hands dirty. According to McCabe (2008), “the sale, movement, and confinement of individuals is documented in biblical times, where women and children were victims of trade in a patriarchal system of authority.” The misuse of persons only continued from there. The 1400s marked the start of the Portuguese acquiring African citizens and shipping them to Portugal for slave labor.  In the 1600s the British joined the slave labor bandwagon needing slaves to maintain the growing number of plantation colonies.  American colony slaves were originally white Europeans, most of which were either convicted criminals or prisoners of war.   As colonies expanded, colonists started becoming more particular with what region they wanted their slaves to come from.  To appease the colonists, trade routes were set up with the West Indies, Barbados, and Madagascar just to name a few (McCabe, 2008).

In the 1800s, after much concern arose from the use of slaves the United Kingdom created the Slave Trade act, which halted the act of trading but did not abolish the act of slavery itself.  Eventually slavery was abolished in England in the mid 1830s.  The first international group against slavery was formed, the Anti-Slavery International, intending for many countries to join in and ban it as well.  The United States followed suit and abolished slavery with the thirteenth amendment in 1865 after the Civil War. 

The dawn of the twentieth century brought forth many laws, agreements, and acts to help decimate the swelling amounts of people being trafficked annually all over the globe.  The International Agreement for the Suppression of “White Slave Traffic” was put into motion in 1904.  This agreement was designed to protect all ages of women from being coerced into a life of prostitution.  In 1910 the Mann Act was approved which forbid the transportation of persons across state or international lines for prostitution or any other "immoral purposes”. With the creation of the League of Nations post WWI, the aforementioned “white slave traffic” agreement was altered to “traffic in women and children” to not discriminate against any other races also involved in trafficking schemes.  India made headway in the mid 1950s by initiating the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act which persecutes all third party involvement in trafficking rings. The Violence Against Women Act was conceded in 1994 to augment the investigation tactics and increased the sentencing and prosecution for those who commit heinous crimes against women.  

In late 2000 the United States government passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 because not enough was being done about the epidemic.  This act was created to help combat the trafficking of individuals regardless of why they were trafficked and to reinforce and revamp current Federal programs in place.  In an effort to join forces worldwide the US State Department established the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons; this allowed different countries to coordinate their efforts.  Due to some of these efforts countries were having more success busting trafficking rings. The largest bust so far occurred in 2009 where 74 Taiwanese suspects were taken into custody for their involvement of transporting dozens of women with fake passports. As of January 2011, January was deemed Human Trafficking Awareness month by President Obama. His hope was that the more people that become aware of what is going on, the more people will want to join together and help prevent the cause.    

Resources:

"Sex Trafficking Timeline: Activism Gets Results | Do Something." DoSomething.org. Web. Apr. 2012. <http://www.dosomething.org/news/sex-trafficking-timeline-activism-gets-results>.

McCabe, Kimberly A. The Trafficking of Persons: National and International Responses. Peter Lang, 2008. Print.

Yong, Patricia. "This Coalition Wants to Stop Human Trafficking." RUCCAT Home. 2011. Web. Apr. 2012. <http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/~yongpatr/425/final/ruccat_home.htm>.

“USDOJ: Office on Violence Against Women: About the Office.” USDOJ:Office on Violence Against Women. US Department of Justice. Web. Apr. 2012. <http://www.ovw.usdoj.gov/overview.htm>