Recently I watched the movie, "Human Trafficking," and it brought tears to my eyes, mostly because the things it portrayed really happen. The movie follows 3 different women through their experiences in the world of sex trafficking and slavery. They are made into prostitutes against their wills and are abused, threatened, raped, forced to make pornographic videos, and the list goes on. One woman from The Czech Republic is seduced by a handsome man who pretends to be interested in her and invites her on a trip to Vienna, Austria only to turn her over to a sex slave ring while a 16 yr old girl in Ukraine is chosen as part of a "model search" that ends up a front for the same sex slavery ring. They are both shipped off to the United States, one knowing whats really going on and the other having no clue until she gets to New York after sneaking away from home so neither woman's family knows where they are. The 3rd victim is a little 13 yr old girl from the United States who is touring the Philippines w/her family and is kidnapped in broad daylight in an open marketplace. I won't say what happens b/c I don't want to ruin the movie for anyone reading this but the movie is very graphic and heart wrenching; it is the inspiration behind this post and my decision to bring light to this very lucrative and dark industry of sex slavery.
Definition:
The U.N. defines human trafficking as "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.
Exploitation shall include,
at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other
forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery of practices
similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs" (found on http://www.iast.net/thefacts.htm)
Additionally, the FBI has this to say:
"Many people probably remember popular movies and television shows
depicting pimps as dressing flashy and driving large fancy cars. More
important, the women—adults—consensually and voluntarily engaged in the
business of prostitution without complaint. This characterization is
extremely inaccurate, nothing more than fiction. In reality, the pimp traffics young women (and sometimes men) completely against their will by force or threat of force; this is human sex trafficking." (http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/law-enforcement-bulletin/march_2011/human_sex_trafficking)
Statistics:
- Worldwide, it is estimated that somewhere between 700,000 and four million women, children and men are trafficked each year, and no region is unaffected.
- An estimated 14,500 to 17,500 women and children are trafficked into this country each year.
- There have been reports of trafficking instances in at least 20 different states, with most cases occurring in New York, California, and Florida. Some Florida law enforcement officials, for example, claim that the state is being inundated with trafficked women from Russia, Ukraine, and Central Europe. INS and Labor Department officials fear that the problem is not only bigger than they thought but also getting worse. For example, INS has discovered 250 brothels in 26 different cities, which likely involved trafficking victims.
- UNICEF reports that across the world, there are over one million children entering the sex trade every year and that approximately 30 million children have lost their childhood through sexual exploitation over the past 30 years.
- Belgium, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Thailand, Turkey and the United States are countries ranked "very high" as destination countries of trafficked persons.
- It is the fastest-growing business of organized crime and the third-largest criminal enterprise in the world.
- The majority of sex trafficking is international, with victims taken from such places as South and Southeast Asia, the former Soviet Union, Central and South America, and other less developed areas and moved to more developed ones, including Asia, the Middle East, Western Europe, and North America
- The majority of sex trafficking is international, with victims taken from such places as South and Southeast Asia, the former Soviet Union, Central and South America, and other less developed areas and moved to more developed ones, including Asia, the Middle East, Western Europe, and North America
- an estimated 293,000 American youths currently are at risk of becoming victims of commercial sexual exploitation. The majority of these victims are runaway or thrown-away youths who live on the streets and become victims of prostitution. These children generally come from homes where they have been abused or from families who have abandoned them
- The average age at which girls first become victims of prostitution is 12 to 14. It is not only the girls on the streets who are affected; boys and transgender youth enter into prostitution between the ages of 11 and 13 on average
All I can say is WOW. I knew sex slavery was going on, read stories from survivors and those helping them, and seen tv shows and a movie, Taken, which deals with it but never really looked into it. It is far more prevalent than anyone has ever discussed and has far more consequences, including economical, social, and esp psychological esp for the girls. Until I watched Human Trafficking I never realized exactly how trapped these girls are, and I call them girls not women because they are just girls, mostly under 21. This movie also showed the realities of the effects on the victims' families. That was probably one of the most disturbing parts. I can't even begin to imagine the horror and hopelessness the girls' families go through. The extent the traffickers will go to is also beyond my comprehension - threatening the lives of not only the girls but of their families, too. One woman in the movie had a daughter she had to protect and only did so w/the help of the US govt. I would never in a million years tell on someone if they could get to my daughter the way these monsters could. And these predators not only are intelligent but resourceful; they prey on the vulnerabilities of their victims -- promising them bright new futures as nannies for rich families, or even models, in the US and other western countries. What 15 or 16 yr old, esp from a poverty stricken area, wouldn't want the fame and fortune that comes with being a model? Or even the dream of coming to the US? These people that do this are the worst, most twisted, and sickest monsters on this planet.
And the worst part? Its all for money. Promising girls a brighter, possibly safer, future, lying and conning them the whole time only to take them, or in some cases kidnap them, from their families w/the family being completely unaware of whats happening or where they're going, and then turning around and selling them like inanimate objects or animals to be brutalized and raped by men who are nothing more than animals themselves, only animals w/lots of money. They tell the girls they owe them thousands of dollars and have to "pay it back" and then they can go free. The horrific irony?
They will never be able to pay it back and if by some miracle they do escape? They are changed and haunted forever. They are so psychologically damaged its almost impossible to find themselves again, and their innocence is gone forever.
And the worst part? Its all for money. Promising girls a brighter, possibly safer, future, lying and conning them the whole time only to take them, or in some cases kidnap them, from their families w/the family being completely unaware of whats happening or where they're going, and then turning around and selling them like inanimate objects or animals to be brutalized and raped by men who are nothing more than animals themselves, only animals w/lots of money. They tell the girls they owe them thousands of dollars and have to "pay it back" and then they can go free. The horrific irony?
They will never be able to pay it back and if by some miracle they do escape? They are changed and haunted forever. They are so psychologically damaged its almost impossible to find themselves again, and their innocence is gone forever.
The most disturbing part of it all? The United States, my own country, has one of the biggest markets for human sex trafficking/sex slavery in the entire world.
I wouldn't wish this fate on my own worst enemy.
Something to think about and be aware of.
XOXO,
Lavender
No comments:
Post a Comment