Trade: Human Trafficking

This is a great movie, very thought-provoking and chilling. It depicts a new reality many countries and cities have been facing. My students had a lot to say in class.




Trafficking persons is the "recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring 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." Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons

A. Talk to a partner about the following questions.


1. What kinds of human trafficking are there?


2. Is poverty or lack of education somehow related to this kind of trafficking? How so?


3. Is this kind of trafficking a problem where you live? Explain it.


4. Have you ever heard of a true case of human trafficking? Talk about it.


5. What can be done for this crime to stop or reduce its rates?


6. Why do you think people traffic these kind of people?


Match the group of people to the reasons why they are trafficked. More than one option is possible.

a) Children


b) Adolescents


c) Babies


d) Young women


e) Uneducated males



( ) They are engaged in unwanted prostitution.


( ) They are auctioned on the Internet (or others) so that pedophiles can use them to deflower them for a large sum of money.


( ) They are sold for illegal adoption.


( ) They work as slaves - no pay of just for food.


( ) They are sold or rented for criminal sexual activity.



Possible answers:

b or d, b, a or b, b or e, ,a, b or d
C. Watch the segment from the movie Trade and answer the questions that follow:





1. What happened to the Polish girls?


2. What did they have in mind when they decided to go to Mexico City?


3. What was the real reason, though?


4. What did the girls do wrong to be caught in that situation?


5. Why were their passports collected?


6. What will probably happen after that?


7. Which of the categories in exercise B (#6) do these girls belong to?


D. Now watch the second segment of the same movie. This time it shows a 13 year-old being traded. Then discuss the questions that follow.


1. Describe what happened in the segment.

2. Who is bidding?

3. Who won the auction? What was the strategy used?

4. Do you think this actually happens around the world? Why (not)?

5. What will probably happen after that?

6. Which of the categories in Exercise B (#6) does this teen belong to? Explain it.