Mexico’s Anti-trafficking

The most prevalent illegal activities affecting almost every country are trafficking in human beings, also known as human trafficking. An estimated 20.6 million forced labour, mainly victims of human trafficking, has been documented by the International Labor Organisation. Over the 2012 to 2015 era, 1,8 million of these people were registered in Mexico; 2 billion of the world’s 150 billion people had illegal labor benefit (Alejandra, 2015). The essence of the trafficking of human beings may underestimate these figures. Mexico provides the human trafficking company with its source, destination and even transit point.

Causes of Human Trafficking

There is a large scope of factors that accelerate the human trafficking rate and include but not limited to the following:

1. There is a high demand for agricultural servants, sex workers, factory labor and domestic servants which human trafficking offers at a cheaper price.
2. Sociopolitical crisis and natural disasters.
3. Discrimination against women and girls among Latino countries.
4. There are also established and organized recruitment methods and agents.
5. Increased corruption rates especially in ports and border regions.
6. Existence of policies that restrict or limit emigration.
7. Limited economic growth and exposure among Latino women.

Although women are as educated as men, their employment remains in the informal sector with low wages (Roth, 2010).

Trafficking For Forced Labor

The International Labor Organization reported that, 1.8 million people in Mexico were engaged in forced labor between 2012 and 2015. These numbers increases when we include the number of Mexicans that have ended up in Europe and the United States (Alejandra, 2015). Forced laborers as a result of human trafficking are present in both rural and urban settings like California. Mexicans that lack documentation in the United States face discrimination in the United States while other work as a form of dept payment.

Although a large number of these victims end up in the prostitution industry, a very significant percentage of these persons labor in the agricultural sector including the illegal cultivation of cannabis in the United States (Iris, 2008). The combination of the demand of cheap labor and lack of legal protection has resulted to a hike in the number of victims.

Outdoor marijuana production takes place more primarily on public land in the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys and even within national forests in California. Worker exploitation in the marijuana fields is a common phenomenon as Mexican nationals are often in charge of these fields (Efrat, 2012). These Mexicans are often individuals smuggled into the country who work to pay off the dept of being smuggled. Human trafficking is in this case viewed as complements to other criminal enterprises.

These marijuana fields often yield significant environmental problems that are as a result of the use of pesticides and fertilizers on the fields. Outdoor marijuana cultivation also posses a fire threat associated with outdoor cultivation. In 2013, a group of Mexicans tending to a marijuana field sparked a fire that spread to over 136 square miles. Between 2012 and 2013, California had the most significant marijuana cultivation. 45 percent of marijuana seized by the nation was from the top five states lead by California (Alejandra, 2015).

Recommendations

The law should be amended to target leaders of these criminal organizations that happen to be transnational. There are currently no laws that target managers and supervisors of these organizations or even the financiers.

The state, federal and local authorities should team up and establish task forces that counter maritime smugglers along the coast. This means working with coast guard officials in an attempt to establish radar stations and strategies to detect and coordinate enforcement of these laws.

References

Alejandra, A. (2015). Disparate Treatment of Mexican Unaccompanied Alien Children: The United States’ Violation of the Trafficking Protocol, Supplementing the Un Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. American University International Review, vol. 30(4), 9-103.

Efrat, A. (2012). Governing Guns, Preventing Plunder: International Cooperation against Illicit Trade. New York: Oxford University Press.

Iris, Y. (2008). Trafficking by Reducing Male Demand through Educational Programs and Abolitionist Legislation. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, vol. 98(2), 4-93.

Roth, M. (2010). Global Organized Crime: A Reference Handbook. Santa Barbara: ABC Clio.

Winterdyk, J., Perrin, B., & Rachael, P. (2012). Human Trafficking: Exploring the International Nature, Concerns, and Complexities. Boca Raton: CRC Press