Human Trafficking and Prostitution in the Developing World
This essay examines the causes, conditions, and consequences of human trafficking and forced prostitution in the developing world, with particular attention to the Balkans, Nepal, India, and Ukraine. It explores how poverty, political instability, and the collapse of communism have created environments in which organized crime syndicates profit from the exploitation of women and girls. The paper describes the experiences of trafficking victims, the complicity or inaction of governments, and the role of non-governmental organizations — including Shared Hope, La Strada-Ukraine, and the U.S. Association for International Migration — in rescuing victims and advocating for systemic change. It concludes that lasting progress requires addressing the root causes of poverty and instability in the developing world.
- Dreams and Despair: The World Women Flee: Poverty and inequality drive women toward dangerous promises
- The Scale and Mechanics of Human Trafficking: Trafficking scope, methods, and criminal motivations explained
- The Balkans: A Global Epicenter of the Trade: Post-communist collapse fuels Balkan sex trafficking networks
- Government Complicity and Institutional Failure: Authorities often enable or ignore trafficking operations
- Victims' Voices and the Human Cost: Survivor testimony and psychological trauma of trafficking
- NGOs and the Fight to Rescue Victims: Charities provide rescue, rehabilitation, and prevention programs
- Conclusion: Greed Feeding on Hope: Root causes must be addressed to end the trade
✍️ How to write this paper — guide, tools & examples ▾
What makes this paper effective
- The essay opens with a vivid, empathetic narrative that immerses the reader in the lived experience of women in the developing world before pivoting to hard statistics, creating strong emotional engagement grounded in evidence.
- It balances macro-level structural analysis (post-communist collapse, organized crime networks, government corruption) with micro-level testimony, including a first-person survivor account that gives human weight to the data.
- The paper moves logically from problem identification to regional case studies to institutional failures to solutions, providing a coherent argumentative arc from cause to consequence to remedy.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective use of expert testimony and primary source quotation — drawing on a congressional hearing, an activist organization's field report, and a survivor narrative — to substantiate broad claims about systemic failure and human cost. This combination of authoritative voices and personal testimony is a strong model for persuasive research writing on social justice topics.
Structure breakdown
The essay begins with a narrative-driven introduction evoking the aspirations of women in developing nations, then defines and quantifies the trafficking problem. It proceeds through a regional focus on the Balkans, addresses government complicity, inserts a survivor's first-person account, surveys NGO responses and their programs, and closes with a call-to-action conclusion linking root causes to lasting solutions. The Works Cited list follows MLA-adjacent formatting.
Dreams and Despair: The World Women Flee
The world can be a harsh place, especially if you live in a developing nation, and especially if you are a woman. Lack of food and adequate housing, lack of access to good educational and medical facilities, an oppressive and often male-dominated social system — these are just some of the problems faced by millions of women each and every day of their lives. For most, there is no hope of escape. Each new dawn brings with it the same sense of despair, the same feeling that one is a prisoner of one's fate.
Change is slow in the developing world. Progress, if it comes at all, comes only very gradually, painfully, and often at a high price. Many of the nations of the Third World were only recently communist, or were colonies of the Western powers. Many still have one foot in the Middle Ages or even earlier. Women wash their clothes in rivers as they have done for centuries. They trundle off to work in the fields or labor long hours in unsafe factories. Whatever they do, they earn less than their male counterparts, and almost certainly less than a living wage.
Yet as they hurry through the streets of their village or down the avenues of their decaying cities, they sometimes catch glimpses of another world. It comes in a fast-moving blur — a shiny piece of metal racing past them at top speed. Maybe they have a television, and through its images see into another place, a wondrous place where the streets are filled with fast cars, and women come home from work in expensive suits and pop ready-made meals into the microwave, while fresh-scrubbed children with Walkmans throw their schoolbooks down in front of brand-new computers. These women of the Third World know that a better place exists. They know that if they could only get there, their lives would be completely different. But who has the money? You scrimp and save, but what about that man who says he can bring you to Italy or France or Germany? It won't cost you anything. And when you get there, there'll be a nice family waiting for you. You'll be their maid, or maybe their au pair. Sounds great, doesn't it? Like a dream.
Too often, however, this dream is nothing more than a nightmare. According to the Human Rights Law Group, more than 700,000 people each year — mostly women and children — are smuggled across international borders. Promised good jobs and a better life, they find themselves instead working in a sweatshop, on a farm, or even in a brothel. The nice house or apartment they were planning on moving into turns out to be a filthy hole in some slum, or a rusting shed at the edge of a muddy field.
Works Cited
Binder, David. "Country Report: Albania — Country Sends Its Own to Europe and Beyond." MSNBC News. MSNBC.com, 2002.
Binder, David. "Country Report: Bosnia — In a Post-War Zone the Sex Trade Flourishes." MSNBC News. MSNBC.com, 2002.
Binder, David. "Country Report: Yugoslavia — After Milosevic, Country Still Mired in Crime." MSNBC News. MSNBC.com, 2002.
Binder, David, and Preston Mendenhall. "Sex, Drugs, and Guns in the Balkans." MSNBC News. MSNBC.com, 2002.
Haskell, Janet. "Shared Hope Testifies before the U.S. House of Representatives International Relations Committee." Shared Hope International Media Release. Shared Hope, 14 June 2002.
"The Principal Activities of La Strada-Ukraine." La Strada-Ukraine. Brama, Inc., 2002.
"Situation Report — February 2000 to September 2002." Return and Reintegration Project. United States Association for International Migration, 2002.
"Trafficking in Persons Report." Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000. Human Rights Law Group, July 2001.
Create your account
Always verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.