Human trafficking is a serious issue that affects every country. It is a horrific, disgusting, inhuman billion dollar industry. The issue at hand really becomes how to end human slavery in an international community with no real world judicial system. The fact of the matter is that, human trafficking is hard to prosecute in general because of this lack of a international court system that can execute punishment, and on the state level very few countries have specific laws for human trafficking.
Argentina has taken the stride, after years of debating, and has introduced a new human trafficking bill. This is due in part to the fact that (according to IPS who cited the information from the Network), “some 500 missing women in Argentina are presumed to have fallen prey to forced prostitution rings. In some cases they were kidnapped, but the majority were lured in by promises of well-paid jobs or other forms of deception.”
Although some people like, Eugenio Ambrossi, the representative of the IOM in Argentina, thinks that the law was “excellent news,” many womens rights organizations beg to differ. The confrontation lies within the part of the law that “requires victims over 18 to prove that they didn’t give their consent.” Marta Fontenla, a feminist lawyer with the Women’s Association for Work and Studies, told IPS,
“It’s not what we wanted; we are going to ask the executive branch to veto it. This law is a setback, because it creates the idea that there is illegitimate trafficking that is penalised and legitimate trafficking in which the victims supposedly give their consent to be prostituted. But we believe that no one can consent to their own exploitation.”
“The lawyer said the highest profile cases of trafficking, in which women are kidnapped, actually make up a small portion of the total. Much more common, she said, are girls or young women who are recruited by means of deception or who knowingly enter into prostitution out of necessity. Those cases are also crimes; you shouldn’t have to prove that violence was used.”
Another response came from Elena Reynaga, head of the Association of Women Prostitutes of Argentina (AMMAR), who said,
“To put an end to trafficking in persons, we have to put an end to hypocrisy, because in Argentina there are a number of crimes related to trafficking that are already punishable by law, but the problem is that these laws are not enforced, whether due to negligence or intentionality on the part of the political powers-that-be or the judicial authorities. For example, procuring is a crime, but it is practiced anyway.”
The present law dealing with human trafficking ( “participating in the entrapment, recruitment, transportation or reception of people for the purposes of sexual or labor exploitation or organ harvesting”) gives a prison sentences of 3-6 years, and if the victim is under 13, the sentence increased to 15 years. Womens rights groups just want to get the consent part of the law vetoed.
In my opinion, the consent part is bull crap as one of the woman pointed out earlier, it is hard to measure consent when there is fear involved. I once watched a human trafficking movie and it was so disturbing to hear the women’s stories. One woman from Colombia was lured in by a friend with the false pretensions of working abroad as a maid. However, she ended up in Japan as a prostitute, and was beaten badly; just escaped by a hair. Although she took the plane ticket, which is consent, she had no idea she would be going to work as a sex slave. I think that consent should not be in the law either, it opens up too many doors that do not need to be opened; but instead locked.
