As Ban Ki-Moon stated, Millions of our fellow human beings continue to live as contemporary slaves, victims of abominable practices

like human trafficking, forced labour and sexual exploitation. (Human Trafficking: An Overview) Unfortunately, the amount of people being trafficked is difficult to obtain mostly due to the fact that its illegal. According to a report by the United Nations Childrens Fund, approximately 30 million women were trafficked in the last 30 years within Asia alone. (Kloer, Amanda) On top of that, according to the U.S. Department of State, cases of sex trafficking have been identified in almost every country. Some of many reasons why sex trafficking occurs and continues to occur is due to the existence of poverty, financial gain, and demand and corruption. For those living in poverty, the allure of opportunity is the main reason why many are trafficked into the sex slave industry. Thousands of women will do anything to get their families out of poverty, and going abroad may seem the best way to do so. They apply for a job in a foreign country, or get offered the job on false pretences, as a waitress or maid. Many women, after entering the country illegally, will end up being beaten, killed, or trafficked. These women will most likely be trafficked into the commercial sex industry, mainly seeing as 79% of all global trafficking is for sexual exploitation (Stop Sex Trafficking of Children and Young People). People living in extreme poverty often have no means of education; they are not educated about the sex trafficking industry, and do not know how to avoid being imprisoned in it. Without education, there are millions maybe even billions that do not have access to many opportunities, and so believe any job that is offered should be accepted in case it might not come again. This is one of the reasons why sex trafficking continues to happen: not enough education is available in all parts of the world. In some cases, a family might understand what they are selling their daughters into the sex trafficking industry but do it to help their family. In places where harsh poverty is evident, there is an enormously high unemployment rate. There are little jobs available, and selling one of your daughters into sex might not seem like such a bad idea at the time. Poverty is an immense issue that needs to be addressed before sex trafficking can be prevented. Seeing as many victims of sex trafficking are dragged in because they are nave and attempt at choosing the easiest way out of poverty for themselves and their families, without poverty or a lack of education, sex trafficking can begin to be prevented.

Money and financial gain are huge aspects of sex trafficking all over the world. The main, possibly only, reason why traffickers are in the commercial sex trafficking industry is financial gain. The International Organization for Migration estimates that the sex trafficking of females is a $32 billion per year business (Kloer, Amanda). The victims are forced to work for virtually nothing, while all the money goes to the trafficker as profit. Men, especially wealthy ones, living all across the globe may want a way to spend their money, and so look for a prostitute on the street. However, what they may be unaware of is that those women are victims of a form of modern-day slavery. She has been brought there under false pretences, earning next to nothing every day. Sex trafficking continues more and more throughout the globe because of the appeal of money and financial gain. Because human sex trafficking remains the third most profitable enterprise following drugs and narcotics (Freese, Susan), it is a career that attracts many. A window-cleaner may hear that by trafficking women and young girls for sex he can earn more money than cleaning windows. As estimated by the Polaris Project, If one girl was forced to meet quotas of $500 per night, seven days a week and gave all of her money to her pimp, and the pimp had three other victims in which he was gaining money from he would make an estimate yearly salary of $632,000. (Amarie) The main reason a trafficker begins trafficking is because of financial gain in most cases, their original job didnt pay the bills. Both demand and the corruption within governments and society plays a large part in human sex trafficking and why it continues. Sex trafficking is mainly centred on a balance between a supply of available victims and the demand for them. While it may be an exaggeration to say that demand is the sole cause of sex markets and sex trade, it is undeniable that reducing demand will reduce and possibly eliminate markets. The great need for traffickers to provide a supply of prostitutes so that pimps and traffickers can distribute the supply would not exist with the removal of demand. Furthermore, corruption is a predominant problem in neighbouring countries, with whom trade is conducted, because of law enforcement and police officers that are often customers of the local brothels and reach deals with the traffickers. Oftentimes, trafficked Because of this corruption, many women and children that are victims of sex trafficking are left with no one to turn to. There are many services that provide a much-needed assistance for trafficked victims, however high levels of corruption often limit their power. The One of the leading

reasons why trafficking continues to function with relative ease is because of undeveloped countries with equally undeveloped legal systems. Offenders are rarely convicted, but if they are, their terms are minimal usually less than a year. Because sex trafficking is highly profitable, arrested traffickers and pimps are soon replaced, thus the trade continues. However, there are some success stories, for example, in Sweden where new laws and increased prosecution of customers, pimps, and brothel owners led to a 50% decrease of female prostitutes and a 75% decrease in men buying sex. (Freese, Susan) Without demand and corruption, there would be no way sex trafficking could continue occur, and no way that it couldve began in the first place. Sex trafficking occurs all around the globe for many reasons, including because of the presence of poverty, financial gain, and demand and corruption within governments. It is said that human beings have the rights to be free from any form of slavery, abuses, violence and fear; however sex trafficking is a repulsive act that abuses, enslaves and evokes fear in its victims. Human trafficking is the exploitation of humans, especially women or girls, within national and across international borders for the purpose of forced sex work. This includes acts of involuntary pornography, prostitution and sex slavery in the exchange for goods or money. Human sex trafficking is a global issue that needs to be addressed in order to stop the 1.39 million children that are victims at any given time (Kloer, Amanda).

Works Cited Amarie. "Sex trafficking." EssayForum. N.p., 3 June 2012. Web. 19 May 2013. <http://www.essayforum.com/writing-feedback-3/sex-trafficking-paper-39772/>. Freese, Susan. "Human Trafficking." University of Denver. University of Denver, n.d. Web. 28 Jan. 2013. <http://www.du.edu/korbel/hrhw/researchdigest/russia/trafficking.pdf>. "Human Trafficking: An Overview." UN.GIFT [New York, NY]. United Nations, 2008. Web. 28 Jan. 2013. <http://www.ungift.org/docs/ungift/pdf/knowledge/ebook.pdf>. Kloer, Amanda. "Sex Trafficking and HIV/AIDS: A Deadly Junction for Women and Girls." Human Rights. 01 Apr. 2010: 8. eLibrary. Web. 26 Apr. 2013. "Stop Sex Trafficking of Children and Young People." [New York, NY]. ECPAT International, 2008. Web. 20 June 2013. <http://ecpat.net/EI/Publications/Trafficking/Factsheet_Switzerland.pdf>.