Human Trafficking in Greece

Human trafficking has seen a recent surge in Greece, particularly in 2013. Greece has become a spot mainly to move the “cargo” through to other countries. Although trafficking is a problem, it is not necessarily sex trafficking. It’s mainly to do with agriculture and construction bondage. It concerns bringing men and children into the workforce. Mainly, children have become a “commodity” in the workforce, and are bought and sold as babies from third-world countries and passed through to Greece. In a way, it’s become a way for workers or organizations in Greece to acquire cheap labor with kids who probably won’t be missed (seeing as how parents are usually the ones who give up the kids). But not all of them are sold for slavery, some kids are soldunder-the-table to childless adults who want the children as their own.

Transportation route used by smugglers in the area

In the Born Free article, human trafficking was specifically addressed in the Sustainable Development Goals. The article talked about how human trafficking has been an issue that has been addressed before, but there has been no real surge in battling it. The author thought maybe this was due to the fact that there have been other horrors that have dominated the world (ISIS beheadings, France’s recent bomb and mass murder) which have taken the place of human trafficking. I don’t think the author was suggesting the world doesn’t care, merely that it tends to take a backseat in the wake of a major disaster/catastrophe. Also, the author mentioned that most donations that are made to major charity functions go towards disaster relief, finding a cure for diseases such as AIDS, or donating to help battle extreme poverty.

A way to combat the human trafficking problem is to introduce an educational component into a child’s education about trafficking, specifically a girl’s education about trafficking awareness and how to avoid abduction.  Another way is harsher border patrol inspections to avoid smugglers bringing in illegal immigrants/children into the area without a legal reason to be there.