HUMAN TRAFFICKING – SLAVERY OF THE 21st CENTURY

This paper deals with human trafficking which is a complex social phenomenon whose dynamics, mobility and organization in national and international dimensions represents a complex and serious problem of contemporary society. After drug trafficking and illegal arms trade, human trafficking is today mentioned as the third most profitable criminal activity. Human trafficking functions on the principle of supply and demand. From one side, violence, poverty and repression push the people in the search for better life or just struggle for survival, from the other side, in developed and rich countries demand for cheap labour rises. Human trafficking covers different forms of exploitation and violence over people and as a crime against humanity it is one of the most brutal examples of jeopardizing basic human rights and human dignity. In the paper human trafficking is taken as a socially determined phenomenon whose consequences hurt not only individuals and social groups but also society as a whole.