Human Trafficking Begins with Greed

Just as with slavery, the primary motivation for trafficking in human beings is not the withering grind of poverty, but the determined power of insatiable greed. Now, as then, it is greed that drives men and women to seek their fortune in the enslavement and suffering of others. Human trafficking is a highly profitable criminal enterprise that is driven by greed and it must be analyzed as such in order for it to be eradicated.

Human trafficking is so profitable that it is now in third place behind the traffic in arms and drugs in revenue generation. Criminals in search of low-risk, high-yield profits have eagerly added human trafficking to their crime portfolios. Unlike arms or drug dealers, human traffickers do not have to buy their "product" from middlemen and then recoup the cost of purchase on the street. Arms and drug dealers only make money at a single point of sale. Human traffickers, on the other hand, are able to make money over the lifetime of the victim.

Human traffickers procure victims through fraud, coercion or deceit, and the money that is made from the exploitation of these victims is taken by the trafficker. In addition, the victims incur a "debt" for transport, shelter, food or any medical attention received and are fined for "infractions" all of which must be repaid to the trafficker. Furthermore, the victim can be exploited multiple ways, often suffering more than one form of exploitation at a time and sold multiple times. Each time the victim is resold, the debt and the fines are reinstated and increased. Human trafficking generates pure profit for the traffickers.