Chapter 1

SAAN ANG LAKBAY MO?

A Research Paper Presented to 

The Faculty of the English Resource Center

School of Multimedia Arts 

Asia Pacific College

Magallanes, Makati City

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements of the Course

ERESWRT-Research Writing

Bleistine Baybay 

Stephanie Sergio

2015

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CHAPTER 1

Introduction

A. Rationale of the Study

The world evolved and the technology's scope widened as years passed by. It seems that everything changed except that there are still victims of Human Trafficking up until now. With the advanced features the world is offering us, our private and personal space can be easily invaded in a second. In this chapter, we will discuss the first few concepts you need to know about Human Trafficking. What are the means and ends of it.

The target audience of this blog would be everyone especially teenagers and parents. Few concepts of Human Trafficking will be broken down for you to easily take them in. The goal of this chapter is to somehow open you eyes in the dirty and dark part of the world which was never defied since then. 

B. Background of the Study

Human Trafficking is an illegal crime that includes trade and harassment to humans. This crime is deemed the most dangerous as it transports its victims to a lot of places auctioning them to different people that will sexually harass them, make them slaves and/or imprisoning them for an unjustifiable reason. My inspiration for this research is the movie "Taken", a 2008 film directed by Pierre Morel which perfectly describes the process of  Human Trafficking.

Previous studies from humantrafficking.org said that during 2012, cases of children trafficking are rising. In this article entitled IOM reports child trafficking and labor trafficking are rising  said that aside from the increasing number of female victims, there are also male victims that are used for labor exploitation. 

With that said in the article, I must say that not only females are the target victims of traffickers that helps me not to focus much on females hence focusing on the "children" and "teens" part as it is general but it is still obvious that there are a lot more female victims in this crime. The reason for this is that females are less stronger and they can be easily captured. However, why are men captured as well? Men have a greater capability to work because of physical features. These men can be used from labor but a few of them are sexually harassed as well.

An article named A Short History of Trafficking by f3magazine.unicri.it shows a very relevant history for human trafficking. An early form of trafficking is "slavery". Slavery has been there from the start, during that prehistoric hunting society. Up until now it is present but in a wide, dangerous, variety of forms making it one of the most unstoppable crimes to ever exist.

Human Trafficking is a global phenomenon. It turns a large number of lives to live under the life of a prostitute, forced laborer and slave.  The victims are deemed criminals at times making the crime very dangerous and the worst.

C. Statement of the Problem

Human Trafficking brought a large damage to humans especially to their morality and emotional stability. The victims of this crime either commit suicide or isolate themselves from the society because of the trauma they acquired. In this part, the study will identify the problems of human trafficking. This research aims to answer the following questions:

1. What is Human Trafficking

2. What is the effect of Human Trafficking to the victims.
3. How rampant is Human Trafficking in the Philippines?
4. How does media affect Human Trafficking?
5. How does final project help in the issue of human trafficking?

These questions will be answered by the end of the research and will be further analyzed to show how can we give an answer to these questions.

D. Objective

Human Trafficking is a crime where trade of humans exist. Exploitation of different human activities happen here such as slavery, forced labor, rape, and prostitution. Alongside these, drugs are also used to effectively and easily manage the kidnapped victims. Human Trafficking in general is an illegal act of selling victims to diffeent individuals globally.

The aim of the study is to help oneself to protect him/herself from human trafficking and help a victim from his/her trauma acquired from the crime. Through our art project which is exhibiting a Photo Narrative, we will explain the emotions and stories of victims that have experienced a brief form of human trafficking. This study and our project attains to obtain the expected audience's opinion and realization about human trafficking. We also aim to open their eyes about self-consciousness while being exposed in the media.

The study also aims to come up with ideas that will encourage the victims to one again stand up and get back on their feet by using the emotional trauma they acquired as an inspiration that they survived and escaped from the crime.

Along with these mentioned objectives, the study will also identify the effect of media to human trafficking but now, it will focus on how media can help in the issue of human trafficking. Media is a very wide piece of technology. We are now able to access it online or offline depending on what piece of media it is. Through media, missing victims of human trafficking can be posted there for easier search. With the growing range of technology, locating oneself can be easily done with the use of GPS technology. CCTV cameras can also be used to capture kidnapping moments that will easily track down criminals.

Also, the study aims to raise an individual's awareness to his/her surrounding to prevent him/herself from being a human trafficking victim. Traffickers might have ideal victims but most of the time, anyone will do as long as they're easy to kidnap. To raise awareness, the study will identify results of the common actions teens usually do in the public that might be a key to being victimized in human trafficking.For the final project, its aim is to show the targeted audience the story behind human trafficking. The story will be told using photographs that embody the vibe of human trafficking. The project is classified as a simple "Photo Essay"exhibit. 

E. Significance of the Study

The research and the project is beneficial to students, parents and victims. How is it beneficial to the three?

Students - the project is beneficial to the students as it help them to be open minded with the processes included in Human Trafficking. It makes them self-aware and conscious with how they act on media and it will give them an idea how to protect themselves by setting personal rules to avoid dangerous encounters with traffickers.

Parents - the project will be helpful to parents as one of the main victims of human trafficking are children. With this project and research, it might give them an idea how to protect their young sons/daughters from being abducted and will make them much more closer. These parents could also teach their sons/daughters some lessons regarding human trafficking from our final project.

Victims - this project and research is beneficial to the victims as this project is based from them as well. Through their own experiences, the project will help them get over it in a light-hearted way without forcing them too much from escaping the trauma. 

I must say that this project is completely beneficial to our expected audiences. The project is worth supporting because it will help a lot of people to prevent themselves from being victimized by human trafficking. Just by a simple project, a lot of lives will be saved from being exploited into sexual harassment and slavery. On the victims' side, there would be somehow, a hope given to them for them not to isolate themselves from the society.

F. Scope and Delimination

The scope of this study is about the protection and encouragement of non-victims and victims. We are analyzing both as it is the main highlight of our project -- Prevention and Protection. This includes protection from human trafficking in the media like internet, social networking sites, and personal space protection. We are also highlighting the encouragement of victims. However, we will not be including one subject which is "How to stop human trafficking" as it is pretty obvious that we cannot stop it on our own. The crime is very wide and contains a lot of underground work - meaning processes that cannot be seen or processes that we have no idea how traffickers do it - and even the government cannot stop this activity until now. Lastly would be the chosen gender of victims which is female. The study chose female as they are common victims of this crime and are the targeted victims to successfully start the process of human trafficking. We also included here the status or state of Human Trafficking in the Philippines which will add awareness to the individuals.

For the deliminations, we chose to include "media" in the topics as most human trafficking happens online now. Also, teenagers and most people in this generation uses media to connect with other people making them meet unfamiliar people through the media. We chose this as people are now indulged into using the media which is why we think everyone can relate to this easily. The study did not involve men or males to be a target in this research as females are the common targets of Human Trafficking and the inspiration, the movie Taken, revolves around the protagonist's daughter making it easier for the study to relate.

Blogpost 5: Human Trafficking in Our Daily Lives' Comfort Zone -- The Media

Media has been part of our lives since it was spread like a virus. Everyone became so clingy with it and it became a necessity as time goes by. Internet, phones and social applications are undoubtedly the most used medias out there and these are the mot targeted medias used by traffickers because it was the "most used" therefore, their ideal victims most likely rest in these medias.

I have discussed everything in the internet. Teens who use it view corrupt materials through rated websites. One of them is "pornography" where explicit sexual materials are shown through video or images. What does Human Trafficking have to do with it? People behind this videos and/or images are most likely victims. As I have said before, we are not sure if they are doing it with consent or if they are forced to do it behind the camera. For boys, they find it entertaining but what's happening behind the show is not very desirable.

The internet serves you a very wide variety of options to be trafficked. There are internet ads where they want you to enter your information and once you entered them, they'll get you as soon as possible. These ads are very convincing that some people nowadays still fall for it but not all of them became victims. It's luck you need and you need to be cautious in the internet as well.

Another one would be phones. Obviously, everyone had phones today. Even children at elementary schools have their own phones. Because of the improving technology, phones are an easy access to your location. Traffickers hack your phone and make way to your GPS to identify your current location. This is a very silent way of kidnapping their victims as they use technology versus technology process where they stalk you through your phone. As soon as they locate where you are, they'll come and get you as well.

The medias mentioned above are just the basic ways of how traffickers enter our personal space. There are a lot more though. One of these few things would be dating sites. Dating sites are most likely portals to human trafficking. Traffickers make accounts and pretend that they are looking for girlfriends or boyfriends but the real thing is that they are hunting down their victims. Why are dating sites deemed dangerous? Dating sites end in one thing only and that is called "eyeball" or "meetup" where you meet up personally after getting to know each other. This thing is the most dangerous part of finding someone through the internet. As you meet up with that guy you found in the internet, they might be setting up everything to kidnap you. Common dating sites are: www.match.com, www.okcupid.com, and ourtime.com.

Another thing are pedophiles. Pedophiles are old guy or even gals who loves people a lot younger than them. It mostly includes little girls/boys and these children are harassed sexually. A lot of sites like virped.com allowes pedophile to boldly view naked children in front of their screen while dirty talking to them. You might think this is not physical abuse but what about the side of the children? Of course, they can't go to pedophile websites without an elder's help. These children might be abused off screen so that they'll follow what they're told when they are now being shown on the website.

Last thing that could cause Human Trafficking are Hidden Cameras. Hidden Cameras are deemed helpful. Being able to capture moments of crime that can help police and protection squads to easily identify the victim and eventually capture them. However, given the advantages and use of this media, this is also used by traffickers. Traffickers cannot always show themselves in public waiting for their next victim. Sometimes, they setup hidden cameras to watch and spy so that they could see and detect the ideal victim without them being physically on the place.

That is one reason why you should keep your phone to yourselves. Not everyone, even your friends, are trustworthy enough for you to lend your phone to them. You have to admit that everything about you is in your phone especially your address that's why being careless is not an option/

The last one is social applications. One of the most common places for traffickers to hide and hunt. Facebook, twitter, and instagram now uses a technology where they asks you what your current location is whenever you post. This is very optional but somehow, people want to announce where they are especially when they are in Starbucks which lets traffickers invade your privacy. This is why traffickers know where to get their victims. Social applications are number one source for them

According to the article: THE NEW CYBER TREND IN HUMAN TRAFFICKING: HOW TO STAY SAFE ONLINE by Karyn Stone, "The reality is traffickers are not only recruiting on streets and in public places, they’re now also preying on children and teens online. While smart phones and other devices allow us to access information at our fingertips, it has also made it more convenient for offenders to exploit young people. Technologies that you and I use everyday like FaceTime, Skype, Facebook, and Snapchat allow for easier distribution of child pornography and convenient methods to recruit and traffic young people."

This is very true. Just a single tap dictates what will happen next to us. Social applications are the easiest way to access information about people. They are very helpful but scary as well because what you think is the epitome of this generation's happiness might also be the dungeon for human trafficking.

Another one from: What is the Role of technology to Human Trafficking written by Danah Boyd says that "Networked technologies – including the internet, mobile phones, and social media – alter how information flows and how people communicate. There is little doubt that technology is increasingly playing a role in the practices and processes surrounding human trafficking: the illegal trade of people for commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor, and other forms of modern-day slavery. Yet, little is known about costs and benefits of technology’s role. "

It says that the media changed our daily lives a lot. Back then, it is undeniable that cased of Human Trafficking are drastically low but now it has increased. Human Trafficking commonly happens in streets but now, because of this modern day technology, a lot of us suffer from inhumane experiences and sexual exploitation.

It is sure that media helped us a lot. But what about the human trafficking in it? That is a disadvantage but it is up to the people using it on how will they keep their privacy for their own good and protection. Aside from the helpful government we have, it is us, ourselves, who will protect us from harm so let's do our part. Never ever trust every information about you through media as it is a dungeon for traffickers now.

Blogpost 4: How is Human Trafficking done?

As a crime, Human Trafficking undergoes a lot of processes before being able to acquire their desired outcome. The victims are passed to different places and people making them feel various experiences you would not want to know. The process of Human Trafficking is very thorough. It's not really what we think it is which is kidnapping them and selling them as soon as possible. It is very systematic which makes it the worst crime to ever happen to oneself.

According to Omar Mahamoud, there five major stages of human trafficking and I will eradicate each one of them. The first step is "Recruitment at village/city level." This is the very first stage where kidnapping occurs. Traffickers spread themselves throughout the globe sightseeing ideal victims they want. They use various modus to gather and kidnap their victims which are forcefully taking them with cars or vans. They might also use drugs to make you sleep or immobilize you so that they can take you away easily. The next stage would be "The persons are taken to a designated location used by traffickers." In this stage, the victims are taken to a place full of their co-victims. The place is like a nest of girls. children, and women. It is most likely a warehouse but instead of materials, what they keep there are victims. (http://fsuhu.org/page/stages-of-human-trafficking)

The audience for this part would be the non-human trafficking victims. The aim of this blog is to open your eyes with the processes one would experience if they are abducted for this crime.

The next stage is "Shifting to a central location where girls from different areas are gathered and assembled before going to their ultimate destination." In this stage, the girls from different warehouses are gathered and grouped according to the traffickers' ideals. At this point, they are sorted according to what the clients are looking for and maybe according to their age as well.

We're almost done but before going to the ultimate destination, "The girls' transportation is decided by the traffickers." This is quite self explanatory. Every single thing the victims needs to acquire are decided by the traffickers especially the transportation. They would not want their victims to escape so they will make a way to guard them to avoid scenarios like that.

The final stage is "Final transaction: sale execution." Where their victims are finally sold to different people regardless of race. The process is usually held like an auction where people who would like to buy offers and raises amounts until no one's able to make it higher. The highest bid wins the girl and he'll take the victim home and do sorts of stuff that fits to the buyer's liking.

The details of the process are the following: The victims are gathered through manual or online search. Traffickers search and hunt down victims in cities and places finding the most ideal ones. By selecting victims, they make sure that they are qualified to what is needed and what is high-paid. If it is a girl, it should be a virgin. A virgin costs a lot of money. If it's a man, it should be capable of work as they would used for forced labor exploitation. After finding the victim, they will bring it to a location full of other victims, here, they are drugged to sleep and/or paralysis to avoid escaping and fighting back. They are assembled in groups and divided in numbers. The victims will be drugged until they are sorted out to travel to their final destination. The final destination maybe international or global. The victims might be transported outside the country or maybe just locally and it depends on the traffickers' leader. As soon as they arrived, victims will be sold via auction and will now be brought to their new masters' home.

According to to the article: How Victims are Trafficked, "Victims of trafficking are often subjected to debt bondage, usually in the context of paying off transportation fees into the destination countries.  Traffickers often threaten victims with injury or death, or the safety of the victim's family back home.  Traffickers commonly take away the victim's travel documents and isolate them to make escape more difficult. "

The article is saying that while the victims are on hold and they are trying to escape, they are immobilized, not with a drug, but with a threat. Traffickers give out threats to shut them up like telling them that their families back home will be killed if they'll not listen to what the traffickers will say. This is called "Debt Bondage"

Another article: The Demand: Where Sex trafficking Begins says that "The trafficking process begins with the demand for women to be used in prostitution. It begins when pimps place orders for women. Interviews I have done with pimps and police from organized crime units say that when pimps need new women and girls, they contact someone who can deliver them. This is what initiates the chain of events of sex trafficking." 

There are truly outsiders seeking for prostitutes. It only means that the victims gathered become prostitutes as soon as they are sold . This demand comes from another set of people that are outside the human trafficking range.

The world of Human trafficking is scary. It is not something you want to experience and with the process given above, I hope you'll feel the cautiousness you should consider. Do not trust strangers and do not give in easily. Be safe as people in this kind of crimes lurks everywhere.