Key Ethical Tensions Arising from Human Trafficking
One of the greatest ethical tensions which may emerge from human trafficking is discrimination. Discrimination can be found in all sorts of businesses regardless of their sizes, production capacity, and the like. To lure the trafficked personnel, the trafficker may use force promises of well-paying jobs, manipulation, violence, and romantic relationships (Aasw, 2021). On the issue of human trafficking, discrimination pertains to any action that causes a companys employee to obtain unequal treatment (Nuseir & Ghandour, 2019). In the business sector, therefore, discrimination leads to the workload of the trafficked employee to make a huge lot of work to be done at the right time required.
Despite discrimination being unethical, it is also illegal in most cases. Hence the statutes to protect the workforce from discrimination based on religion, age, gender, disability, race, and more should be embraced and put into action to protect individuals against discrimination occurrence. More so, gender and race pay gaps show that discrimination is still rampant in Australia and, if not looked at, may end up in serious human trafficking. Discrimination can occur at different levels in the employment relationship in Australia. According to (Michailidou, 2020), the ethical tension of discrimination can even occur when recruiting and selecting staff members in terms of offered benefits and conditions as part of the employment. Other conditions may include; who is considered or selected for training to be offered, promotion or transfer, retrenchment, or even during dismissal. On the issue of the benefits offered after performing a task in an organization, the discriminated employee may receive a lower percentage despite the hard work. This action indicates human trafficking at the workplace since the management may benefit from the actions of the discriminated workers, who, in turn, receive less pay.
On another view, when considering whom to select for training purposes, discrimination will arise if proper consideration is not taken care of. This means that discrimination will occur when the institution management does not consider proper checking of the training requirements from various workers of the organization hence training the wrong personnel. Training the wrong person indicates that the worker who needed the training will remain untrained. More skilled workers often receive more pay than their fellows, meaning that there will be human trafficking as a result of discrimination due to training the wrong person.
Another ethical tension that may arise as a result of human trafficking is harassment. This issue might be a serious problem as it can adversely interfere with an individuals health. This issue can be associated with self-determination. Since self-determination is one of the human rights of the persons ability to make choices, violating this right leads to harassment hence human trafficking. This situation occurs when individuals are forced to perform duties they are not willing to, and someone benefits from those duties. According to (Young, 2019), Australian indigenous people are claiming self-determination. Individuals should not be forced or harassed to make choices and should be left to make them freely.
The last ethical tension that may arise concerning human trafficking is stress. This tension may arise as a result of harassment, discrimination, and not being allowed to make their own choices. The trauma experienced by trafficked victims is a result of post-traumatic stress disorder (Unodc.org, 2021). These disorders include feelings of severe guilt, depression, anxiety, and the like. For instance, anxiety being an unlikable state of mental discomfort, nervousness, apprehension, and obsession, may emerge as a result of stress. Stress being the major facilitator, is brought about by force and coercive activities by the trafficker to the trafficked person.
Guilt, on the other hand, occurs as a result of performing an awful activity. This one is especially associated with sex human trafficking, where guilt affects the trafficked person later on. This action, for example, could be due to forced sex for one to obtain a position in the workplace or even to get a promotion. The trafficker benefits from the trafficking while the other party being, the trafficked individual, is affected with guilt after the action wondering what kind of action he/she has just done. This state then leads to serious mental uneasiness resulting in stress. All these ethical tensions can be coped with when the Australian government puts into action the laws on human trafficking.
Human trafficking is my field of practice being analyzed in this critical writing in line with Assessment Task 2a criteria. In business, for example, human trafficking has been and remains to be an unpleasant situation. This is especially to the lower subordinates who are the trafficked personnel by the human trafficking victims who are their bosses or the senior managers. The majority of the senior executive who lacks good self-discipline fails to conduct themselves appropriately in their service delivery to their fellow junior subordinates. This action then leads them to forcefully and coercively make the juniors work with fear and unwillingly work to please and benefit these executives.
Specific issue (or “gap”) Emerging from Human Trafficking
The biggest specific issue (or “gap”) resulting from human trafficking in service delivery is vulnerability. This, for example, includes the need for promotion and higher positions in the case of organizations and institutions. Women remain to be the most vulnerable persons to human trafficking (Paasche et al., 2018). But on another view, men also are in a position to be victims of being lured to human trafficking by the senior ladies as their bosses. Human trafficking, therefore, has caused extreme hardship to the suspected majority of people in Australia. This action has hence led to influence on the financial, economic, and social systems where it exists.
The gap arising or the emerging issue as a result of trafficking in the service delivery of the organizational employees is influenced by false promises from the senior personnel such as pay increases, promotions, etc. When the victim hears this, they get possessed or are crazed by such influences, making them easy-to-access by the trafficking victims. They, therefore, offer their bodies for illegal sexual activities to satisfy the trafficking victims, whereas, in the real sense, the actual act is trafficking and not the real action that seems to be. The final product results to be guilt and stress among the trafficked individuals after realizing the fraud used to lure them. Persistence in human trafficking will increase guilt and stress among the victims and may even result in other serious issues like committing suicide due to mental uneasiness.
Despite the examples given in this context regarding human trafficking in organizations, trafficking also is found in many other fields. For instance, (Burn, 2017) claims that over the last two years, more men and women have been identified trafficked into other forms of exploitation. These forms include; construction work, domestic work, family structures, hospitality industry, and the exceeded report have been identified women in situations of sexual exploitation. In addition, the Australian Federal Police received 619 referrals about human-slavery offenses and human trafficking between 2004 to December 2015. All these incidences are a result of vulnerability which has more wait on the side of women than that of men.
Women have been sexually violated as they are more vulnerable than men. This is as well as in the case of men who seem to look bold but are also affected by this issue of vulnerability. On another consideration, immigrating persons have faced the problem of violation due to their vulnerability. In this case, migrating people have faced various challenges and violations, according to a recent research report done in Australia. This problem was found in the construction industry, where the trafficked victims received treatment against their expectations.
The risk for migrant workers in Australia, therefore, remains to be an adverse problem. According to the research, (Campbell et al., 2019) claims that the threats facing the temporary migrant workforce in the construction industry in Australia are composed of some factors. These factors include a composition of the immanent vulnerabilities of being a temporary migrant worker and the attributes of the firm in which they migrate to work. Whether legitimately in a job or not, these impermanent refugee workforces in the construction factory may be open to labor mistreatment. This problem could be a result of interaction factors between the immigrants and the other companys stakeholders.
These factors include; a limited understanding of Australian legislation and rights in the workplace, lack of access to government support and union, cultural barriers, language barriers, and social isolation. Another issue discovered was the visa arrangement of the migrating people, which was identified as the major risk factor (Campbell et al., 2019). Considerable squabble around the manipulation of the wandering workers concentrated on the subclass 457 permit. More so, undetermined situations of some shareholders connected to this endorsement left migratory laborers with limited selections to compete with underprivileged working environments. These complications were a product of the weakness of the settlers.
Thoughtfully, learners and production workers on subclass 417 travel permits were at the same risk of employment misuse, mainly if semi-skilled. In addition, much of the labor exploitation, as noted by the stakeholders, concerned poor working conditions, for example, wage underpayment. Migrated students who remunerated payments to scholarships in Australia were readdressed to effort in factories such as the building industry in bleach of their past circumstances and for a little wage. Unceremonious economy and occupation practices were acknowledged as the key industry characteristic that stimulated threat.
In service delivery, vulnerable individuals seem to be neglected in some way. The construction company executive failed to care about the human rights of the temporary migrant workers. They subjected these workers to little pay, and their working conditions were not considered. More so, students were neglected in that other than the actual practice of learning. They paid to study in Australia. They were redirected to work in the construction industry. These actions were after bleaching their visa condition by the construction industry, and they were subjected to low pay. These gaps or issues of vulnerability should therefore be addressed, and a solution found. This thought is to smoothen the working conditions of the immigrants, be it the temporary construction workers or the students who migrate to study in Australia. Smooth working conditions for these people will facilitate peace of mind. In return, the victims will be able to coup up with stress issues hence a betterment to their lives in the course of their stay in Australia.
Learning Outcomes during Preparation of Group and Working with Peers
Upon thorough and careful consideration of human trafficking, trafficking is not only an awful practice but also an unpleasant action for trafficked persons. Since the practice is against the will of the trafficked victim, the trafficker subjects them to serious physical, mental, and social suffering. This lowers the self-esteem of the affected individuals nearly to zero, as it is not their will to be trafficked. These actions then lead to stress and guilt and may end up resulting in an even more serious problem of depression. Depression, on the other hand, may stimulate more serious problems. Suicide committing may be one of the major outcomes of depression which will be caused by the denial of an individual victim after performing human trafficking activities. A good example of human trafficking may lead to such as sexual trafficking among the violated victims. To avoid such incidences, the relevant personnel, including the employers and the executive, should ensure that the rights of their workers are not violated in any way. Individuals found violating workforce human rights should be dealt with appropriately.
Working together as peers found that you and I must fight back against any sort of violation of human rights. In any country, there exist laws regarding the violation of human rights. It is the duty and responsibility of every individual to ensure that their rights are not violated, be it citizens or immigrants from other countries. On the other hand, every employer and the senior management of all sectors must ensure human rights are not violated in any way in service delivery in their institutions (Niezen, 2020). In addition, clear rules regarding human rights protection among the workforce should be formulated by the board management of every organization or corporation in Australia. This activity will minimize the chances of riots of the workers fighting back against their rights in case they are violated. In return, a peaceful working environment will be enhanced between the workforce and the management. This will mean better relations between the subordinates and the organizational executives. In an actual sense, from an organizational view, better relations enhance cooperation which in return will yield more production, hence more organizational income.
The limitation emerging from human trafficking as a field of practice is illiteracy among the victims of human trafficking. The trafficked persons may lack the knowledge to know about their rights in such situations hence ending up being neglected in the workplace. Despite the existence of laws regarding human rights in the place of work, illiterate workers will never be aware of their existence. They will end up being violated, sexually harassed, given workloads, and the like. Despite all these violations, they will end up receiving little income despite the production increase in their workplace. Various relevant executives, therefore, will be needed to disclose to their workforce their rights so that they can master them off head despite their illiteracy level. This means that in case of any intention to violate their rights in the future, the workforce will have to notice due to their mastering of the laws. In addition, various company executives must treat their fellow subordinates equally without discriminating against them. Factors of gender, race, ethnicity, color, origin, and tribe should not be a consideration when it comes to working with the workers.
In the course of criminal proceedings, secondary victimization is a critical risk for trafficking victims who take part in these proceedings (Rijken et al., 2021). Being a challenge, the psychological outcomes of trafficking and the preexisting vulnerabilities of the victims of trafficking make them prone to secondary victimization. Therefore, human trafficking victim lacks control of their own and end up being tricked and trafficked easily without them fighting back. They end up losing their self-esteem as nobody is there to fight for their rights. In the workplace, for example, senior management, therefore, needs to be of utmost good faith in their service delivery to their subordinates, such as during pay. Payment should therefore be based on the work done by every individual. Therefore, no worker should be forcefully subjected to work against his will. Overtime payment should reflect the number of hours of work done during overtime. All these will then lead to motivation among the workforce hence more production, which means more organizational income.
These challenges are found in both victim parties involved in trafficking, that is, to the side of the trafficker and the side of the trafficked person. To the trafficker, for instance, these challenges include; the absence of safety and trust, the absence of empathy and knowledge concerning victims’ rights, lack of identification, and disrespectful treatment, among others (Rijken et al., 2021). Conclusively, human trafficking is not a pleasing activity at all, as it leads to human suffering. The Australian government, therefore, needs to put into action all the laws available to cater to human rights in regard to human trafficking. By doing this, Australia will remain to be a no-human trafficking zone.
References
Aasw.asn.au. (2021). Code of Ethics – AASW – Australian Association of Social Workers. Aasw.asn.au.
Burn, J. (2017). Legal narratives, human trafficking, and slavery in Australia. History Compass, 15(5), e12368.
Campbell, I., Tranfaglia, M., Tham, J., & Boese, M. (2019). Precarious work and the reluctance to complain: Italian temporary migrant workers in Australia. Labor & Industry: A Journal of the Social and Economic Relations of Work, 29(1), 98-117.
Michailidou, E. (2020). Work Harassment: Psychological bullying in the workplace of CU. Open Access Journal of Clinical Surgery, 1(2). Web.
Niezen, R. (2020). #Human Rights, Chapter 2: Human rights 3.0. SSRN Electronic Journal.
Nuseir, M., & Ghandour, A. (2019). Ethical issues in modern business management. International Journal of Procurement Management, 12(5), 592.
Paasche, E., Skilbrei, M., & Plambech, S. (2018). Vulnerable here or there? Examining the vulnerability of victims of human trafficking before and after the return. Anti-Trafficking Review, 10.
Rijken, C., Khadraoui, L., & Tankink, M. (2021). (Preventing) secondary victimization of trafficking victims through law enforcement interventions. Journal of Human Trafficking, Enslavement And Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, 2(1), 3-25.
Unodc.org. (2021). Unodc.org. Web.
Young, S. (2019). The Self Divided: The problems of contradictory claims to indigenous peoples’ self-determination in Australia.SSRN Electronic Journal, 30.