2 June to 9 June

Globalisation, terrorism and trafficking in human persons

Like pop music, the internet and the rise of the mobile phone, human trafficking is a global phenomenon, infecting most countries. Massive amounts of money are involved, especially when it involves sexual exploitation. For example, the UK Action Plan on Tackling Human Trafficking suggests that a trafficker '.controlling a victim working in an off-street brothel is likely to make in the region of £1,000 a week.' It informs us that in 2003 up to 4,000 women in the UK had been trafficked for sexual purposes. Though the profits to be made are clearly huge, the price placed on individual human lives is shockingly low, with the cost of a person ranging '.from £500 to £8,000, with.an average of between £2,000 and £3,000', according to the Home Office.

Like terrorism, human trafficking benefits from globalisation and the ease with which people and money can cross national borders. Like terrorism, trafficking is a form of bullying in which people with power exert that power over others in order to benefit themselves. But unlike terrorism it has yet to be recognised as one of the most important political and ethical issues of our time, despite the fact that it devastates far more lives.

Gavin Fairbairn is Running Stream Professor of Ethics and Language in the School of Applied Global Ethics.