Sex Slaves Trafficking

The U.S 2010 Traffic In Person report (TIP) reported that 12.3 million adults and children are in forced labor, bonded labor, and forced prostitution around the world; 56 percent of these victims are women and girls. According to the 2009 United Nations “Global Report on Trafficking in Person” 79 percent of persons trafficked are used for the sex industry.

When we hear of slave prostitution we think of girls who are abducted or sold by a member of their family; enslaved and trafficked to other countries, forced into prostitution. Some think of illegal immigrants who were smuggled to developed countries and forced into dept bondage prostitution to pay off their dept. Yes, these types of enslavement do exist, however, there are many women who enter countries legally looking for a better life and find themselves enslaved into prostitution. Lena’s story shows the other side of human trafficking and illustrates how many women are deceived and promised legal, good paying jobs. They leave their countries and families behind seeking a better life and find themselves enslaved and trafficked all over the world.

Struggling to support herself and her daughter on meager earnings that were not enough to survive, Lena explained how she left her home in the Ukraine and become a sex slave. An acquaintance had told her there were restaurant jobs that paid $200 a month. To Lena, who was barely able to support herself and her young daughter on $15 or so a month, the job seemed too good to be true and it was. The acquaintance, she later discovered, was a recruiter for the sex trafficking industry. Lena left her daughter with her parents and along with a friend and a third woman drove with the recruiter to Yugoslavia. “We trusted her,” Lena stated “I was a little afraid, but the desire to have a good life was much stronger.” Upon their arrival, the recruiter took them to a rundown restaurant and introduced them to the owner who offered to take them to another town where there were jobs. He took them to a nearby town and moved them into a small apartment where ten other women were already living. Their seeming benefactor was actually a Yugoslavian human trafficker. The other women told Lena and her friend that they had been imprisoned in the apartment and raped and abused there. Lena and the other young women had been sold into enslaved prostitution. This was the first of dozen or so times Lena was sold and resold, moved by traffickers from Yugoslavia through Albania and eventually Italy.

Lena is one of the increasing numbers of women who are successfully lured by traffickers into a global sex trade. Lena was captured not just by an individual recruiter, but ultimately by a multibillion-dollar trafficking industry that relies on a large supply of women and girls for its considerable profits. Lena’s story describes an all too familiar scenario, whereby a person with lesser resources, usually from poor or unstable countries, are either taken by force or persuaded to migrate for jobs in new town, country, or region. They are frequently misled, for example, the job may not exist or maybe different from what they have been told. The job virtually always includes some kind of exploitation, usually prostitution, and almost always, terrible work and living conditions. While many men are trafficked for labor, the exploited in the sex trafficking industry are primarily women and children.
The Face of Slavery

Long Pross was beaten and tortured daily by her brothel owner who gouged out her right eye.

Sexual exploitation of women and children is not a social vice limited to third world or tourism dependent countries. Both developed and developing countries have this problem to some extent. It is even happening inside the U.S. mainland. On December 17, 2007, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced the breakup of a large prostitution ring involving more than thirty children as young as twelve forced to have sex at truck stops, hotels and brothels. Multiple indictments were made against traffickers in states including New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan for bringing children across stateliness for prostitution.

In a recent expose, Dan Rather calls Portland, Oregon, “Pornland, Oregon” because of the prolific legal and illegal commercial sex industry there. Alongside the strip clubs, sex shops, and adult women in prostitution, girls as young as 10-years old are being bought and sold for sex. Traditionally these kids have come from the foster care system, runaways from abusive homes, or have been kicked out by negligent parents. The demographic of child sex trafficking victims in America is changing. More of the kids police are finding come from middle class homes in nice neighborhoods. They have concerned, involved parents. But still, they end up sucked into the world of forced prostitution.

How does it happen? Take the story of Sue and Ron, Sue and Ron learned about child sex trafficking the hard way, when their 16-year-old daughter got sucked into the industry. At first, she came home from school with a boyfriend, a little older than her, but polite enough. He'd eat meals with her family and hang out at her house, like any normal teen relationship. But Sue was uneasy and one day she warned him that if he ever hurt her daughter, he'd have to pay. After that, the teens moved in together and he convinced Sue's young daughter that the only way for them to be able to live together and survive, was for her to sell herself.

Perhaps the most disturbing part of this story is the ease with which you could substitute Portland for any other U.S. city. Pimps pick up teen girls in shopping malls. They meet teens on Facebook and lure them from their homes. They recruit through schools and movie theaters all over the country. These pimps recruit girls as young as 10 years old into prostitution because there is a long, long line of men willing to pay a premium to have sex with them.

A Western man negotiating for a young Thai girl (far right), who clutches the arm of her trafficker. After settling on a price, the man left with the girl, and the trafficker left with her payment. Photo courtesy of the U.S. State Department.

The women and girls who are sucked into enslaved prostitution are trafficked nationally. They are abused, tortured, and are kept isolated, imprisoned and sometimes killed. Also, most of them end up HIV positive. This is happening everywhere in the world, and no country, city or family is immune to this growing problem.

To report an instance of suspected trafficking, please call the HOTLINE: 1.888.3737.888

Sources
Associated press, “Major Child Prostitution Ring Broken: 31 Indicted,” San Diego Union Tribute, December 17, 2007.
Hughes, Donna. The Natasha Trade: Transnational sex Trafficking, NAT’L INST. OF Just. J. January 2001, at 9, available at www.ncjrs.gov/
http://www.fbi.gov/page2/may08/humantrafficking_050908.html
http://www.humantrafficking.org/uploads/publications/2007_agreporthumantrafficing2006.pdf
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-rather/pornland-oregon-child-pro_b_580035.html
Lee, Maggy. Human Trafficking. Portland: Willan Publishing, 2007.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr4xnWa1R2MPhoto from www.nytimes.com/2009/01/04/opinion/04kristof.html?_r=2&ref=human_trafficking