What is Human Trafficking ?

Human Trafficking is a form of modern day slavery and involves the movement of a person from one place to another for the purposes of exploitation. Victims of trafficking might be compelled to go with their trafficker through the use of force or by being sold, they may be coerced by threats against themselves or their families, or they may be tricked into believing a traffickers promise of a good job or educational opportunities somewhere else. Once under the control of the traffickers, victims are exploited in any number of ways including forced labour, domestic servitude, sexual exploitation, or the removal of organs. While hundreds of thousands of people are trafficked to a different country every year, millions more are trafficked within their own countries.
Kenya is a HUB for Human Trafficking. It is a SOURCE, TRANSIT, and DESTINATION for Trafficking in Persons.
  1. The action of trafficking in persons, which means the recruitment, transportation, transfers, harbouring or receipt of persons. This is the initial stage for human trafficking, where the trafficker recruits/gets access to the victim. Recruitment can be done face-to-face, through an institution or online. The most common type of recruitment is by offering a false promise.
  2. The means of trafficking that includes threat of or use of force, deception, coercion, abuse of power or position of vulnerability.
  1. The purpose of trafficking that is always exploitation such as sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.
Victims are in most cases unaware that they are going to be exploited. Less than 1% of victims are ever rescued.

FORMS OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING

The most common forms of human trafficking in Kenya are forced labor and sexual exploitation with a large number of the victims being children.

Child Trafficking

Child labor prevents children from attending school or caused them to perform in school poorly as a result of the engaging in work or service. Not every work that child is engaged is child labor. According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a child is defined as every human being below the age of 18 years. A child can never consent to human trafficking. It is irrelevant whether a child gives his/her consent to a trafficking situation.

Sexual Exploitation

Sexual exploitation of victims is one of the most common reasons why people are trafficked as there is huge demand for commercial sex and pornography. Victims of human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation are both adults and children.

Forced Labor

Forced labour happens where persons are coerced to work. Sometimes forced labor can also be merged with sexual exploitation, keeping in mind that the victim of forced labour may already be in a very vulnerable position.