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Trafficking in women and girls is the third most profitable industry used by organized crime after drugs and guns. Yet, people know surprisingly little about it. It is the act of selling women into sexual servitude, forced labor, or other practices similar to slavery. About 700,000 to 4 million women and children in the world are trafficked each year, meaning every thirty seconds another person becomes a victim. Sex trafficking is one of the fastest growing enterprises in the world making an estimated seven billion dollars annually. Where does trafficking occur? It affects nearly every country including France, India, Israel, Japan, Nigeria, and the United Kingdom. Southeast Asia accounts for 225,000 trafficking victims, making it the largest source of externally trafficked persons. The Soviet Union and Eastern and Central Europe are the second largest. The third largest source is South Asia. The United States is not immune to trafficking. Over the last decade, 750,000 women and children have been trafficked into the United States. Fifty percent of them are trafficked for sexual exploitation.
Map courtesy of The Protection Project (http://www.protectionproject.org/): Establishing An International Framework For The Elimination of Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children. Maps of Trafficking Routes - http://www.protectionproject.org/main1.htm Who are the traffickers? Traffickers are typically involved in highly organized crime and can include close friends or relatives of the victim. Sophisticated networks are needed to traffick large numbers of women including recruiters, document forgers, people to smuggle women over the border, and new owners awaiting the victims at their destinations. Trafficking is appealing to potential traffickers because of the massive profitability of it. The women can be sold repeatedly versus drugs that are gone once they are used. They are also motivated by the low risk of prosecution. The maximum for trafficking offenses is only ten years imprisonment whereas distributing one kilo of heroin is life imprisonment, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Who is at risk? Women who are destitute or in economic crises are vulnerable to trafficking. Women who live in poverty due to their country's political conflict are also at risk. Illiteracy and low social and political status, combined with dreams for a better life, also make women more susceptible to becoming a victim. What happens? Traffickers recruit women through deception, promising them jobs as waitresses, dancers, models, nannies, and other low skilled work. Upon arrival in their destination country, the victim's identification and travel documents are usually confiscated, and the women are either sold into the sex or labor industry. Women are once again deceived about the work conditions. Victims can also be kidnapped or drugged upon entry in the sex trade. Under the trafficker's authority, women's lives are in jeopardy. The women are often raped to readjust them to their new life of servitude. However virgins are ordinarily not raped because their virginity will result in a higher price. This is usually due to the misconception that having sex with a virgin can cure AIDS. Victims also face being inspected and sold at an auction.
Women are sold frequently to various brothels to increase variety of clientele, distract police and to befuddle the women, decreasing their chance of finding help. They normally sleep in one room at a brothel, which is a building where prostitutes are available, receiving hardly any food and no medical attention. The brothels are normally crowded and unsanitary, which helps keep costs low and profits high. They are told that before they can be released, they must repay their "debt" which may include cost of transportation to another country, phony documents, rent, food, the price their new owners paid for them, and medical treatment. The owners never credit the women's wages against their debt. Trafficked women endure horrific physical and psychological trauma and face numerous health risks. Some victims have unprotected sex with anywhere between ten and twenty men per day, putting them at risk for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. If a woman becomes pregnant, she is forced to have an abortion and the cost is added to her debt. If the women refuse to work they are deprived of food, beaten, drugged, confined into small rooms, raped, or gang-raped. It is common for women to develop drug addictions either from force or turning to them to escape their misery. Women also face threats of the torturing or murdering of family members from traffickers. Can a victim get help? Finding a means of escape is difficult. If trafficked women are discovered by law enforcement, they are commonly identified as illegal immigrants. Since the women have no passports or legal documents, they are usually jailed and eventually deported. Deportation is also difficult since traffickers may find escapees. Or victims may be arrested by the government in their home country for having illegally migrated. Women may also find themselves ostracized from family and friends if it is found out that they engaged in prostitution. In some cultures women are killed because of the shame they bring to the family. Another scenario is that law enforcement officials may work directly with traffickers and pimps. Some women may turn to the police and find themselves returned to their brothel owners. If women are fortunate enough to have their traffickers prosecuted, their luck wears thin pretty quickly. Most traffickers are given a slap on the wrist for their heinous crime. What needs to be done? Slavery in the United States may have been abolished in 1865 but it is still very much alive today. Fortunately, things can be done to help minimize the number of trafficked women. They include research and informing girls on the dangers of trafficking. As many as 1.5 million women and children are sold into the sex trade every year. Trafficking is global yet women share common experiences at the hands of their traffickers. One possible means of prevention is to have past victims share their experiences. Legal, administrative, and economic measures must also be taken in order to reduce trafficking. Such measures could include seizing the assets of traffickers and increasing penalties. Organizations like the United Nations Population Fund and the Protection Project are taking action against the sex trade. Help support them by spreading the word.
"Combating Trafficking in Women and Children." McClelland, Susan. "Inside the Sex Trade." Maclean's.114.49 Hyland, Kelly E. "Protecting Human Victims of Trafficking: An American Framework." "Sex Trafficking: Facts & Figures." Shelley, Louise. "Trafficking in Women: The Business Model Approach." Brown Journal of World Affairs.12.1 (2003). Academic Search Premier. |
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