Root Causes and Solutions to Human Trafficking in Ethiopia

human trafficking is defined as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person for the purpose of exploitation. Among the causes to human trafficking in Ethiopia, the following are dominant. Widespread and increasing level of poverty, unemployment and under-employment (especially of women), greed, family and communal dislocation, economic transition, globalization, rural impoverishment, accelerated commoditization of sex, economic decline and uncertainties, opportunism, false and fake dream, and dramatically deteriorating living standards. Others are low pay, discriminatory labor practices, violence (particularly against women), lack of social and welfare support, lack of educational opportunities, tourism, false or imaginary marriage, declining border controls, governance, constant and increased demand for cheap labor, combined forces of organized crime and governmental corruption, and the receding capacity of the state to provide basic social services. Hence, some of the causes of human trafficking are structural in character and require long-term solutions. At the same time, the seriousness of the problem and its changing nature require immediate and rapid response, timely measures, and the flexibility to rethink and change direction where necessary. Anti-trafficking policy tends to be dominated by the prevention, protection and prosecution paradigm, which also tends to focus primarily on short-time interventions.