Leash Alaine
Mr. Michael Freeman
HUM422D
May 01, 2014
A Need For Awareness
Human trafficking can be a hard concept to understand for people who have not become aware of the devious act. An ethical issue that is linked to this concept is whether or not countries performing this act should be stopped by other countries. Some countries may not find a need to help countries who do allow acts like human trafficking to occur in their country. Thailand and Malaysia are two countries who allow human trafficking to occur in their country (Zengerle 2). What people should ponder from this is whether they find a need to get involved in unjust situations that do not affect them but affect others around them. This problem of human trafficking in international countries has touched the hearts of United States' lawmakers that they have begun to approach their president about "punishing" countries that allow devious acts, like human trafficking, in their country (1).
A photograph below shows two victims of human trafficking in Myanmar, Burma who recently got rescued from their captors. The United States has gotten involved in other issues that are non-related to human trafficking involving people living in international countries. However, a Republican United States representative thought that the United States could do so much more in helping people in international countries. They voiced their opinion that they thought that the United States should focus on protecting the people in international countries from being victims of crimes involving human trafficking (2).
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| Rohingya people from Myanmar, who were rescued from human traffickers, react from inside a communal cell at Songkhla Immigration Detention Centre (IDC) where they are kept near Thailand's border with Malaysia February 12, 2014. [CREDIT: REUTERS/DAMIR SAGOLJ] |
Because human trafficking has been accepted in international countries, people have failed to realize that the victims of human trafficking are often from minority groups. The two victims in the above photograph come from a minority group, the Rohingya, in Burma whom are often victims of human trafficking. The Rohingya people are a religious minority group that follow the Islamic ways of life. This people group has not done anything that deserves them to be captured; the United States lawmakers have accused Burma that it is their fault that the lives of the Rohingya people are being disrupted (2).
The Burmese government has outrageously denied any form of disrupting the lives of the Rohingya people--they believe that the Rohingya people are disrupting the lives of their people by illegally living in their country. The government claims that they feel the need to "punish" the Rohingya people for illegally living in their country (4). The United States lawmakers have clearly shown that they do not accept the reasons the Burmese government provides in regards to their treatment of the Rohingya people. Instead, the United States lawmakers accused the Burmese people of trying to "exterminate" the Rohingya people (5).
In the end, the question falls on the United States' president's shoulders--should the United States get involved in "punishing" Burma for the way they have been mistreating the Rohingya people? I John 3:17 shares the idea that people should help other people whom they see in need. God wants to see the people ni this world not ignoring their neighbors whom are being mistreated. God commands all people to "...Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressors him who has been robbed..." (Jeremiah 22:3). Therefore, the United States need to recognize that they need to be willing to get involved in helping people in international countries from being mistreated as the Rohingya has been by the Burmese people.
In answer to the question about whether or not the United States should get involved in helping people, like the Rohingya people, from oppression, it should be evident that the United States should most definitely get involved in making the wrongful acts in Burma become right. This awareness of human trafficking needs to be told around the world since human trafficking has become a great issue in the present-day. Therefore, the United States needs to make their people aware of crimes that are being committed that result in the harming of people.
The last question that should be asked next by the United States lawmakers is this: in what way should the United States raise the awareness to international countries about serious crimes without severing the relationship they may have with the countries? This is the question that the leaders of the United States will have to face since the decision they make will impact the lives of people who are involved in crime.
Works Cited
Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2001. Print.
Zengerle, Patricia. "U.S. Lawmakers Press Obama Administration on Human
Trafficking." Reuters. Ed. Andre Grenon. Thomson Reuters, 29 Apr. 2014. Web. 01
May 2014.
