Elements of Trafficking in Persons for Primary 4

Elements of Trafficking in Persons

Performance Objectives

By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:

1. identify the elements of Trafficking in Persons.

What is Trafficking in Persons?

Trafficking in Persons means moving people from one place to another against their will, often by tricking them or using force, so that they can be used for bad purposes. It is a very serious crime that takes away a person’s freedom and rights.

Imagine someone promising you a good school or a fun trip, but then taking you far away and making you work without pay, or treating you badly. This is similar to what happens in human trafficking.

Elements of Trafficking in Persons

Trafficking in Persons has three main parts, which are called elements. For a situation to be called trafficking, these three elements must be present. They help us understand how this crime happens.

The three elements are:

1. The Act
2. The Means
3. The Purpose

1. The Act

The Act refers to what the traffickers actually do. These are the actions they take to get and move people.

Examples of the Act include:

1. Recruitment: This is when traffickers find and get people to join them. They might trick people with false promises of good jobs, education, or a better life in another place. Sometimes, they might even force or kidnap people.
2. Transportation: This is the act of moving people from one place to another. This could be from one village to another, from one state to another, or even from one country to another. They might use cars, buses, boats, or even make people walk long distances.
3. Harbouring: This means keeping people in a place, often secretly, and not allowing them to leave. Traffickers might hide people in houses, camps, or other locations, controlling their movements and preventing them from contacting their families or getting help.

2. The Means

The Means refers to how the traffickers carry out their actions. These are the methods they use to control people and make them do what they want.

Examples of the Means include:

1. Use of Force: This involves threatening people, hurting them, or kidnapping them. Traffickers might use violence against the victims or their families to make them obey. They might also threaten to harm their loved ones if the victims do not cooperate.
2. Deception: This means lying to people or tricking them. Traffickers often make false promises about good jobs, high pay, or opportunities for education that do not exist. They might pretend to be helpful friends or family members to gain trust.

Other means can include fraud (cheating people), abuse of power (using their position to control others), or giving money to parents or guardians to hand over their children.

3. The Purpose

The Purpose refers to why traffickers commit these crimes. It is the reason behind all their actions and methods. The main purpose is always exploitation.

Exploitation means treating someone unfairly to benefit from their work or body, without giving them proper payment or respect for their rights.

Examples of exploitation include:

1. Slavery: This is when people are forced to work without pay and are not allowed to leave. They are treated like property, with no freedom or rights. They might be made to work long hours in terrible conditions.
2. Labour: This involves forcing people, especially children, to do hard work for very little or no money. This can happen in farms, factories, homes (as domestic workers), or even on the streets begging. The work is often dangerous and prevents them from going to school or living a normal life.
3. Organ Removal: This is a very cruel form of exploitation where traffickers take body parts (like kidneys or other organs) from people against their will, to sell them for money. This is extremely dangerous and harmful to the victim’s health.

Identifying the Elements of Trafficking in Persons

It is important to be able to identify these elements so that we can understand when trafficking is happening and how to report it. When you hear about a situation where someone is being moved or kept against their will, think about these three questions:

1. What did the person do to get the victim? (This is “The Act”)
2. How did they get or control the victim? (This is “The Means”)
3. Why did they do it? What was the bad purpose? (This is “The Purpose”)

Let us look at an example:

A man promises a young boy a scholarship to a good school in another city. The boy’s parents agree. The man then takes the boy to a far-away village, where he makes the boy work on a farm from morning till night, without pay, and does not allow him to go to school or contact his family.

In this example, we can identify the elements:

1. The Act: The man recruited the boy with a false promise and transported him to another village. He also harboured him by not allowing him to leave or contact his family.
2. The Means: The man used deception by making a false promise of a scholarship.
3. The Purpose: The man’s purpose was exploitation through forced labour (making the boy work on a farm without pay).

By understanding these elements, we can better recognise the dangers of human trafficking and protect ourselves and others from this crime.