"No one shall be held in slavery or servitude: slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms."-United Nations: Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Children, young men and women are lured from villages, towns, and cities, where the plea for survival strikes the very poor, creating a desperation in people who will do anything to survive. These young victims are promised jobs and labor, but instead, are forced to work in quarries and sweatshops, farms, as domestics, as child soldiers and other forms of involuntary servitude, such as forced prostitution or sexual slaves. They find themselves in debt bondage and must work their debt through servitude, performing sexual acts against their will. Many are virgins, which are most desired by the men who purchase them.
In Toronto, a case of a pre teenage girl auctioned to the highest bidder. What made her so special was that she was a virgin.
In Toronto, a 13 year old girl was sold for 3,000 dollars to two young men, 18 and 20 years old. The girl was raped when the men drove her from Toronto to San Diego.
Another 13 year old virgin girl from Mexico was sold in the United States and raped 35 times.
A young Bulgarian girl, also of pre-teen age, was bought by a man old enough to be her grandfather, was forced to have sex 15 times the first day.
The stories continue.
Human trafficking, the forceful exploitation of human beings in the form of labor or sexual slavery, is an international crime, yet is endemic worldwide and despite the cost of human lives, has become a lucrative business with profits that average 7 billion dollars per year.
The reports of these crimes are buried in the mass media, somewhere between the coverage of the war in Iraq and Hollywood divorces. The exploitation of human beings, the robbing of the soul in the worse way, or the degradation of the innocent carries less weight in the mass media. Even the PBS and CNN investigative reports aired in 2005 are forgotten, except, of course, by those who have been victims of sexual slavery or those who love them.
Here are some overwhelming statistics:
- Human trafficking is the third most profitable criminal activity, second after drugs and arms trafficking
- An estimated 600,000 to 800,000 men, women, and children are trafficked yearly across international borders, and the trade is growing (Department of State. 2004. “Trafficking in Persons Report.” Washington, D.C.; U.S. Department of State.)
- Of the 600,000-800,000 people trafficked, 70 percent are female and 50 percent are children; the majority of these victims are forced into commercial sex trade (ibid)
- The number of U.S. citizens trafficked within the country each year is estimated 200,000 American children at risk for trafficking into the sex industry (U.S. Department of Justice. 2004. Report to Congress from Attorney General John Ashcroft on U.S. Government Efforts to Combat Trafficking in Persons in Fiscal Year 2003.)
- Seventy percent of internet sex shows are in the United States, of which women and children are forced into sexual acts while being taped.
- As many as 7,000 Nepali girls as young as 9 are sold annually into India's red-light districts, 200,000 in the last decade.
- Afghani women are sold into prostitution in Pakistan for around 600 rupees - less than $4 a pound, depending on their weight.
- About 50,000 Asian, Latin American and Eastern European women and children are trafficked into the United States for sexual exploitation, the going rate between $12,000 and $18,000 each.
- Ten thousand children between the ages of 6 and 14 are in Sri Lankan brothels.
- Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have become the sex centers for Western Europe, featuring women from the former Soviet Union.
- About 1,000 women from the former Soviet Union became prostitutes in Israel in exchange for legal documentation.
Over the last three decades, tolerance has grown towards the sex industry, creating more breeding ground for sexual slavery.
In 1975, the United Nations created the Working Group on Slavery. The group has focused on the prevention of the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, as well as the eradication of child exploitation and labor. Yet, because slavery also entails labor, child soldiers, and other forms of involuntary servitude, the time must be divided amongst all aspects of slavery.
In 2000, the United States government implemented the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act, which provides extensive protection and service for victims of trafficking in the United States, regardless of nationality. Victims are eligible for benefits through the government. American citizens are eligible for Medicaid, food stamps, and housing subsidies.
The fact remains that healing from the psychological damage for the victims will not be as transparent. Each person will still have the trauma of events embedded in his or her memory, which will always have opportunity to be provoked to the surface, to remind him or her of the suffering that had occurred. As long as the demand is great, the crime will persist.
Why must the violence continue?
