Essay Sample on Human Trafficking in Russia

Human trafficking refers to the trade in human beings who are then used in forced labor, commercial sexual exploitation or sexual slavery. Forced marriages and extraction of body tissue or organs can also be categorized as acts of human trafficking (Buckley, 2013). According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (2017), human trafficking is a very serious crime and a grave violation of human rights. This heinous crime affects thousands of people annually all over the world. Individuals are exploited both in their country and abroad. Human trafficking has been equated to modern-day slavery where the traffickers use coercion, fraud or force in an attempt to take control of victims.

The elements of human trafficking can be described using the Action-Means-Purpose Model (Human Trafficking Hotline, 2017). The severity of human trafficking depends on the relation of the case with the three elements; action, means, and purpose. Action describes all the activities that are involved in recruiting, obtaining and transportation of a person. In sex trafficking, patronizing, advertising and soliciting an individual can be classified as an action. Means represent the methods used to convince the individual to be trafficked. It is mostly done through force, coercion or fraud. Force may include physical abuse, sexual abuse or even confinement. Fraud consists of the use of false promises concerning the working conditions, contract fraud or withholding wages while coercion includes threats to an individual, psychological manipulation, and debt bondage. Purpose defines the exact role in which the person trafficked is supposed to perform. The most severe cases of human trafficking consist of all these elements (Human Trafficking Hotline, 2017).

Human trafficking is divided into two major parts; sex trafficking and human trafficking (National Human Trafficking Hotline, 2017). In sex trafficking, individuals are coerced or forced to work in the provision of commercial sexual services of various degrees such as fake massage services, escort services, brothels, street prostitution and street prostitution. Trafficking involves the recruitment, transportation, obtaining or soliciting for individuals to take part in these activities. In labor trafficking, individuals are forced to work mostly in manual labor in farms, industries or even mines. This essay investigates human trafficking in Russia and steps that can be taken in the country to combat the criminal activity.

The Russian Federation is the largest country in the world by landmass, with its land stretching Saint Petersburg next to Finland to the Vladivostok near North Korea. This massive landmass acts as a source, transit, and destination for individuals trafficked into sex and forced labor. Since 1990's, there has been a huge spotlight on Russia and the former Soviet Union countries on a large number of women and children trafficked out of the countries for prostitution in North America, Europe, Israel and the United Arab Emirates (Buckley, 2013). Buckley (2013) also reports that several adult men from Central Asia countries such as Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are being held forcefully in labor camps in Russia in order to work in constructions, farming, and fisheries industries.

One may wonder why a country with a good economy and high wages has become a hub for these barbaric crimes. Human trafficking in Russia can be explained clearly from a historical context (Buckley, 2013). After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russian economic system was overhauled leading to increased unemployment and poverty. Most victims of this overhaul were women. In this period of upheaval, the employment and trade patterns changed rapidly bringing in an opportunity to exploit the individuals in need.

The country also had a "shadow economy" in which illegal activities happened under the watch of government officials in return for bribes (Buckley, 2013). The main players in the shadow economy were the criminals who had created sufficient networks in Russians prisons that were effective in running the underworld. The collapse of the Soviet Union provided a vital opportunity for the Russian criminal gangs. After the collapse, travel restrictions for Russian citizens were eased, and people could travel all over the world easily. At the same time, there was an increase in the international demand for sex services by working- class men (Buckley, 2013).corruption among the government officials such as the border patrol and the police provided good operating conditions for Russian criminal gangs.

The criminals used the mass media and job agencies to advertise and invite women to become domestic workers, escorts, office workers, dancers and waitresses abroad at favorable wages. Once the women were convinced that there were legit opportunities abroad, they were issues with fake or legit travel documents and then they were transported to their destination accompanied an individual from the job agency.' When the women arrive at their destination, for example, Israel, they are handed over to a new individual who requests for their passports to process their papers for work. Without their passports, these women were then taken to brothels where they were notified of their new jobs. Any protests or failure to comply was met with threats violence and rape. It is at this stage that the women comprehended that they had been sold to brothels. To cope with this new job, the women were administered with narcotics by their captors. Thus, these women are effectively trapped in slavery and bondage. It is estimated that more than 50,000 Russians are trafficked into Europe and North America to serve as commercial sexual workers (Buckley, 2013).

Russia has also become a major destination for human trafficking. Its robust economy is used by criminals to lure young men from Central Asian countries with false promises of high-wage jobs (Narizhnaya, 2012). These labor schemes also target labors from poor parts of the country. The individuals are lured by sweet promises of the middlemen who sell them to factory owners or construction companies for them to be drafted into slave labor. It is approximated that more than 600,000 workers in Russia are working in slave-like conditions (Narizhnaya, 2012). In todays world, the demand for labor is increasing faster than the supply. Thus, in lax regulations, individuals are willing to exploit cheap labor through trafficking to decrease their costs of operation.

Corruption and poor governmental enforcement of regulations have enabled the criminal syndicates to operate freely, and with impunity, especially in the southern part of the country, the anti-corruption measures have been ineffective. With the lax law enforcement, the operations of the human traffickers become easy. It is alleged that traffickers make deals with the police who protects their business interests in exchange for hefty bribes. This has discouraged people from reporting trafficking cases due to harassment from both the perpetrators and the law enforcement agencies. According to Narizhnaya (2012), some employees of a labor union were threatened when they decided to investigate a construction company that they suspected it was benefitting from trafficked labor.

Russia has been a transit center for human traffickers. As a country strategically located due to its large landmass and lax laws, human traffickers have been using the country as a transit hub to traffic people into Western Europe and Scandinavia. The crime syndicates lure people from poor Russian neighbors especially countries that were in the former Soviet Union. In Russia, the traffickers can acquire travel documents through corrupt means to facilitate the travel arrangements of the trafficked individuals to countries Such as Egypt and Turkey, which have friendly relations with Russia.

The trafficked laborers work for long hours most between 14 and 16 hours per day without pay. They are assaulted by their bosses and in most cases work in a deplorable environment. Narizhnaya (2012) reports that most trafficked laborers in Russia work in agriculture especially ranches and fruit orchards. This is attributed to the dwindling population in the Russian rural areas. The second most notorious industry that benefits from the labor is the construction industry (Narizhnaya, 2012).

There have been reports of illegal organ harvesting in Russia. According to Bilefsky (2012), Russia has been increasing its presence in the black market of the harvested organs. With the prices ranging from $15000 for a kidney to $220,000 for a heart, organ harvesting is becoming a lucrative field for the Russian criminal syndicates. The syndicates are trafficking healthy individuals in order to harvest the organs from them. Tomiuc and Sharipzhan (2016) report a diplomatic spat between Russia and Kyrgyzstan after some Russian children were saved from organ traffickers in Kyrgyzstan. It is alleged that the two children were sold to the traffickers after a suspicious death of their mother. This case offers sufficient evidence on the availability of organ trafficking syndicates in the Russian Federation.

Human trafficking in Russia has been a serious issue since the collapse of the Soviet Union. As poverty, unemployment and the degradation of social institutions became rife in Russia, its citizens adopted risky economic activities that included exploitation of fellow human beings. This made Russia a source nation for human traffickers mostly to Europe and the Middle East and a transit nation for people trafficked mostly from the former Soviet Union. It is at this time when the criminal syndicates realized how lucrative a domestic human trafficking would be. Thus, a domestic industry was formed, and this caught the attention of the local experts in social sciences and migration. At this time, human trafficking started attracting the attention of the Russian citizens mostly due to the accession of Russia to international treaties that regulated the rights and freedoms of individuals and high profile cases especially in Europe that involved human trafficking syndicated which sourced people from Russia (Murkomel, 2013).

Until 2001, there were not existing governmental agencies that combatted human trafficking in Russia (Murkomel, 2013). All efforts to combat the vice were concentrated in the non-governmental agencies and international organizations. It was after the signing of the Palermo protocol that the Russian government took an initiative to combat human trafficking. The Palermo Protocol aimed to prevent, suppress and punish human traffickers especially those trafficking children and women. After the ratification of the protocol, the Russian government passed several laws that criminalized the barbaric crime. By December 2003, trafficking of individuals and the use of slave labor was criminalized (Murkomel, 2013). This provided the law enforcement agencies with adequate tools in the fight against human trafficking.

With adequate support for the government through the appropriate legislation, the public agencies combating human trafficking have established cooperation with international agencies. This co-operation enables the organizations to work jointly in understanding and implementation of the international initiative that aims to eradicate human trafficking. The Russian government has also implemented other policies that can be used in the fight against human trafficking. One of the initiatives involves the formation of a national organization whose main role is fighting human trafficking. In 2007, a sub-department within the department of combatting organized crime and terrorism in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was created with a specific task of eradicating human trafficking (Murkomel, 2013). This sub-depart...