What is Sex Trafficking?

Submitted by Kate on July 21, 2007 - 1:58am.

197

What is sex trafficking?

I have found that many people are unaware of what sex trafficking really is. Here is a basic introduction to the enemy.

The formal explanation, as defined by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act in 2000, is:
1) Sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion or in which the person induced to perform such an act is under 18, or
2) The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion, for the purpose of subjecting that person to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.

According to the Atlanta Mayor's Report of 2005, it is estimated that 200,000 to 300,000 children in the United States and an estimated 10 million children worldwide are involved in prostitution.

Don't just look at the numbers. Think faces. Think names. Think your little sister or the little boy in the church nursery. People are not numbers.

Who is at risk?
According to www.humantrafficking.com, the two highest groups at risk (in the United States, at least) are undocumented immigrants and runaways.

"Undocumented immigrants are highly vulnerable to being trafficked due to a combination of factors, including lack of legal status and protections, limited language skills and employment options, poverty and immigration-related debts, and social isolation. They are often victimized by traffickers from a similar ethnic or national background, on whom they may be dependent for employment or support in the foreign country."

"Runaways and at-risk youth are targeted by pimps and traffickers for exploitation in the commercial sex industry as well as for begging. Pimps and sex traffickers are skilled at manipulating child victims, maintaining control and often their loyalty through a combination of affection and violence."

Who are the traffickers?

Traffickers profit from consumer demand for cheap labor and goods and for sex by exploiting vulnerable populations for slave-like labor or sexual exploitation. They may operate as individuals, families, or more organized groups of criminals, and are facilitated by other 'indirect' beneficiaries, such as advertising, distribution, or retail companies and consumers. Both women and men act as traffickers in labor and sex trafficking operations.
Trafficking in persons is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world for two primary reasons: 1. high profits can be made quickly, with little or no start-up capital, and profits can be derived over a long period of time from the same victims (unlike drugs, which are quickly used up), and 2. despite its criminal nature, the risk of prosecution is usually negligible. The low start-up capital required is attractive to many non-professional as well as professional criminals, who see the opportunity created by the demand and have access to vulnerable people to exploit.

A Face and a Name

In researching this issues, I have inevitably run across personal stories of girls who have been involved with sex trafficking. I could include countless statistics informing you of this, but I don't believe anything will be more real than a story from a real victim. Meet Rosa.

"When I was fourteen, a man came to my parents' house in Veracruz, Mexico and asked me if I was interested in making money in the United States. He said I could make many times as much money doing the same things that I was doing in Mexico. At the time, I was working in a hotel cleaning rooms and I also helped around my house by watching my brothers and sisters. He said I would be in good hands, and would meet many other Mexican girls who had taken advantage of this great opportunity. My parents didn't want me to go, but I persuaded them.

A week later, I was smuggled into the United States through Texas to Orlando, Florida. It was then the men told me that my employment would consist of having sex with men for money. I had never had sex before, and I had never imagined selling my body.

And so my nightmare began. Because I was a virgin, the men decided to initiate me by raping me again and again, to teach me how to have sex. Over the next three months, I was taken to a different trailer every 15 days. Every night I had to sleep in the same bed in which I had been forced to service customers all day.

I couldn't do anything to stop it. I wasn't allowed to go outside without a guard. Many of the bosses had guns. I was constantly afraid. One of the bosses carried me off to a hotel one night, where he raped me. I could do nothing to stop him.

Because I was so young, I was always in demand with the customers. It was awful. Although the men were supposed to wear condoms, some didn't, so eventually I became pregnant and was forced to have an abortion. They sent me back to the brothel almost immediately.

I cannot forget what has happened. I can't put it behind me. I find it nearly impossible to trust people. I still feel shame. I was a decent girl in Mexico. I used to go to church with my family. I only wish none of this had ever happened.

- Rosa, Age 14, trafficked in Florida, originally from Mexico

If you would like to read more on this issue, here are some of the sources I found along with a few additional sites.

Be educated. Be uncomfortable. Be a part of the solution.

- http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/Default.aspx
- http://www.humantrafficking.com/humantrafficking/trafficking_ht3/who_victims.htm
- http://www.iamcoming.org/about/
- http://www.humantrafficking.org/updates/554
- http://www.humantrafficking.org/updates/278
- http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/25/magazine/25SEXTRAFFIC.html?ei=5007&en=43dbe6ef76e45af8&ex=1390366800
- http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/tech/tech-internet-child-safety.html