One of the largest criminal industries is human trafficking and it is growing insanely fast, mostly in the US. It is another form of slavery, called “modern slavery”. (Tharanga Yakupitiyage, 2019) Men and boys are victims of labor and commercial sex trafficking, but not as much as girls and women. Women are manipulated, lured from the traffickers, which leads to female victims being controlled in a vulnerable state. A female is vulnerable when she is unprotected, in other words when she has no connection to social or family support. Immigrants, refugees and those with disabilities or trauma are the first targets traffickers seek.(American Psychological Association, 2014)
There are many types of human trafficking: sexual exploitation, labour exploitation, domestic servitude, forced marriage, forced criminality, child soldiers and organ harvesting.(Subzero & Heweet Mike, 2020) When I looked up all of these types of human trafficking that take place in our every day to day life, I only saw reports, articles that talk about women within that type of trafficking. Women are the main targets, and for once they are prioritized over men. In sexual exploitation women go into prostitution, pole/lap dancing, sex tourism, forced marriage and many more. Labour exploitation has women working in the agriculture field, manufacturing, hospitality, fishing and more, in which they are not payed enough, violated, punished and threatened to be exposed to immigrant authorities. As for domestic servitude, women are forced to work for long hours in the house, with which ties the forced marriage. Forced criminality is self explanatory, women are forced to do drug, cannabis and other illegal trades, as well as bad snatching, pick-pocketing, etc. Finally, organ harvesting is when traffickers kidnap an individual and without consent remove their organs in order to sell it. (Subzero & Heweet Mike, 2020)
Human trafficking is a topic that is unspoken and females are the main victims and targets. It is a world wide problem, 20 to 40 million people are in modern slavery, of which 71% are females. Thanks to online social media, it is growing. (Anonymous) Feminists want “protection from domestic violence, sexual harassment, and rape” and human trafficking does not provide any of those. (Humanities Ohio, 2018)
References:
Tharanga, Yakupitiyage. “Fighting the World’s Largest Criminal Industry: Modern Slavery.” Inter Press Service. January 2019. https://www.google.ca/amp/www.ipsnews.net/2019/03/fighting-the-worlds-largest-criminal-industry-modern-slavery/amp/
American Psychological Association, Task Force on Trafficking of Women and Girls. (2014). Report of the Task Force on Trafficking of Women and Girls. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/advocacy/interpersonal-violence/trafficking-women-girls
Subzero & Heweet, Mike. “Types of Exploitation.” STOP THE TRAFFIK. 2020. https://www.stopthetraffik.org/about-human-trafficking/types-of-exploitation/
Anonymous. “11 Facts About Human Trafficking.” Do Something.org. https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-human-trafficking
Humanities, Ohio. “Betty Friedan: The Three Waves of Feminism.” OH Blogs and News. April, 2018. http://www.ohiohumanities.org/betty-friedan-the-three-waves-of-feminism/
Alternatives 
Like you’ve said when we think of human trafficking, women are the first people we think of. When we think of a doctor, an athlete, a dentist, men appear in our thoughts. But on the other side, in the case of human trafficking, when we approach an inhuman act, women are the first thing we think of, even if they are often the victim.
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I really liked your explanation of sex trafficking and also how you included that men also are a part of today’s modern slavery. I also liked how you brought attention to organ harvesting by human traffickers.
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Just recently I viewed a YouTube video about a woman who had been sexually abused as a child by her father and was very vulnerable. She was loured into sex trafficking since the age of 14 and now lives in LA as a prostitute. Life is very crewel and inhumaine and it’s a shame that young vulnerable women become the targets.
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I found it very interesting that you also mentioned men in the human trafficking, since men as being victim of this industry recieve much less attention than women or children trafficking. I also think that men are underrepresented when it comes to human exploitation and exploitation. This is a reminder that everyone can be vulnerable from abuse regardless of their gender.
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