Members of the Trafficking in Persons (Prevention) Committee (TIPPC) within the Ministry of Legal Affairs, Public Safety and Labour visited three schools on Tuesday to raise the awareness among the nation’s youth about Human Trafficking.
Committee members made presentations at the Villa Primary School, the Antigua Barbuda Institute of Continuing Education (ABICE) and the Antigua Wesleyan Junior Academy. The interactive sessions saw students not only being told of the types of Human Trafficking and the signs of this “modern day slavery”, but students also engaged in conversation with the presenters. A number of Human Trafficking branded pens and pencils were also distributed among the students.
The school visits are a part of the annual week of awareness activities which began with a church service at the North Street Zion Church of God on Sunday.
Human Trafficking affects every country of the world, as a country of origin, transit, or destination. Persons are reminded to be vigilant as no one is immune.
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Referring to human trafficking as slavery trivializes the African slave trade and makes the school children believe the slavery of their ancestors was just a petty crime taking people from one country to another with a promise of jobs or a better life which is mostly what the so-called modern slavery is all about. A great exaggeration to equate it to what historical slavery was about!
I do no agree with this sentiment. Calling Human Trafficking modern day slavery in my opinion does not in anyway undermine, diminish or relegate the perils our ancestors were subjected too. That is history. That has no parallel. I also do not agree with your description of Human Trafficking as just a “petty crime taking people from one country to another with a promise of jobs or better life”. It is far more than that. It is a serious crime and a grave violation of human rights.
Its venomous tentacles are somewhat encapsulated in its formal definition as a trade of humans, most commonly for the purpose of forced labor including children, forced marriages, sexual slavery, organ harvesting or commercial sexual exploitation of men, women and children for the trafficker or others; BUT its perennial and harsh, deep rooted negative physical, emotional and psychological effects are immeasurable; with a rippling effect through all walks of life: children, women, men, young, old, rich, poor, without regard for socioeconomic background, race or creed.
With regard to the aforementioned, I am of the considered opinion that human trafficking its aptly described as a form of modern day slavery with modern techniques of evasion which makes all of us more vulnerable to its underground activities.
Your process of “moderation” excisrf a part of my comment resulting in a distortion of what I meant. The fact is historically the term slavery has a definitive meaning implying a victim who is reduced against his will and mostly for a monetary consideration to a life of forced labour. On the other hand “human trafficking” involved persons who make a payment to agents who promise to take them to another country to get work or some other advantage. These persons sometimes become victims of criminal agents who then abuse their rights and subject them to various forms of exploitation. To term this “slavery” is to disparage the historical understanding of the term and trivialize the heinousness of the greatest crime against humanity that was the African slave trade. And there are historical revisionists who are happy to do just that!
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