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| THE MAIN ELEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING |
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1. TRANSFER FROM ONE PLACE TO ANOTHER
· Recruitment
It can take place through agencies that recruit personnel to work abroad, thorough agencies that organize youth excursions and brigades, though marriage agencies. Other methods for recruiting people who fall prey to traffickers are: going to work abroad through friends, relatives, acquaintances; through abduction; through sales as a bride.
· Transportation within a country or across border
Human trafficking is often understood as transportation of people across international borders but it can take place within a country. In either case, the victim is moved to an unfamiliar place, far from home and under the control of traffickers.
· Regardless of the will expressed by the victim
Human trafficking takes place regardless of the will expressed by these people.
· Through legal or illegal channels
Victims of trafficking can become people who illegally enter and reside in a given country as they are at a great risk of ending up in a situation of forced labour and exploitation as well as legal emigrants or people with work permission – who reside legally in the country – but who are lied to, deceived or threatened to accept otherwise unacceptable conditions of work.
2. THROUGH USE OF FRAUD OR COERCION, ABDUCTION, ILLEGAL IMPRISONMENT, ABUSE OF POWER OR OF A POSITION OF VULNERABILITY.
· Transfer, concealment or receipt of people
Traffickers use one or more of the above mentioned actions to move the trafficked person from the place of origin to the place of destination.
· Deception: use of coercion, fraud, abuse of a position of vulnerability – People who have become victims of trafficking are usually
tricked due to their vulnerable situation. Maybe they have been offered further education, marriage or a well-paid job but then they end up in forced labour or a forced marriage. If a woman is trafficked into prostitution, she may know she is going to work in the sex industry, but not that she is going to be deprived of her liberty or her earnings - this is still trafficking. In most cases, traffickers deceive trafficked persons about the conditions under which they will be forced to live and/or work.
· Coercion (including the use or threat of force or the abuse of authority) -
Some traffickers use force to persuade their victims, others use violence or blackmail people to keep them under their control.
Trafficked persons become dependent upon the traffickers for food, clothing and housing and must submit to the demands of their captors. Traffickers usually restrict a victim’s freedom of movement or prohibit victims from leaving the premises without an escort. Coercion may also be psychological and emotional. Abuse of authority involves dependency situations in which a person who has power over another person (such as a parent or employer), denies the rights of the dependent person.
In the context of trafficking, victims are moved into foreign communities (within or across borders). They are cut off from their families and sometimes their language and, thus, rendered even more dependent upon the traffickers for food, shelter, information and 'protection' from authorities.
· Debt bondage
any trafficked persons end up in a debt-bondage situation. Once at the destination they are told they will have to work to pay back a large and ever-increasing sum for travel, housing, clothing, medical and food expenses. raffickers have full control over their 'employees’' movement and their income. The victims are never able to pay back the extraordinarily high debt, but the trafficker tells them the debt will be paid off soon and they will be free to leave and start earning money. his stimulates the trafficked persons, gives them hope and they continue to work without trying to escape. However, the traffickers continually find new expenses to charge and the payoff date continues to be postponed.
Involvement into trafficking often takes place through friends, acquaintances and even relatives
A job offer coming from a trusted, familiar person evokes much less suspicion. Generally, people rely on their relatives for help and support. Traffickers use these relations of trust when they recruit people.
Involvement into trafficking also often takes place through the employer/training institution or intermediary in the process of finding an employer or school. Promising a certain type of job or training course, the employer or intermediary abuses the trust and takes advantage of the position of vulnerability of the job seeker.
3. IN CONDITIONS OF EXPLOITATIONS (SLAVERY, SLAVE PRACTICES, FORCED LABOR)
· Slavery (for the purpose of sexual exploitation or servitude); forced labor or labor in conditions of slave practices
Many people are trafficked into situations not strictly involving elements of forced labour (by the legal definition). In some cases for example, when women are trafficked into forced marriags, no money will help the victim. Other people are held as household servants and others may simply be held. Forced labor, servitude and slavery are all crimes prohibited as human rights violations in international and Bulgarian law.
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