Trafficking 101: How Trafficking Occurs

Trafficking 101: How Trafficking Occurs

In the last Trafficking 101 blog we learned more about why trafficking occurs. We also learned that human trafficking involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to enslave a person. So what does this look like? How is a young girl taken from the innocence and happiness of childhood to the terror and humiliation of sexual bondage?

Today on BBC News there was a disturbing article about Israel’s fight against trafficking. While I know trafficking exists world wide, I was stunned to find that last year the United Nations named Israel as one of the main destinations in the world for trafficked women. From the beginning of the 1990s to the early years of 2000, an estimated 3,000 women a year were trafficked to Israel with false promises of jobs.

Case: Marina – Marina had a difficult life in the Ukraine, so at the age of 33 she answered and ad to study abroad and came to Israel in 1999. She was taken to an apartment in Ashkelon where other women explained to her that she was now a prostitute. Marina became hysterical, at which point she was beaten and then raped. Marina was sold and then locked in a windowless basement for a month, drinking water from a toilet and going without food. She managed to escape and now rarely leaves her two-bedroom home in northern Israel because she fears the government, who will deport her and the criminal gangs, who will force her back into prostitution.

Marina is a good example of fraud. She came willingly and legally to Israel to study abroad but once here was forced into sexual slavery. This happens quit often. Women and girls are given promises of good jobs such as cleaning houses, being a nanny, or modeling. Some women will even willingly travel to answer ads for strippers and once they arrive in the country their passports and visas are confiscated and they are taken to a brothel where they immediately begin work as a sex slave.

Case: Vietnamese girl, aged 10 - This young girl was rescued by the police from the house of a pedophile where she was being abused along with other girls. She came from a family of traffickers; her aunt had sold her to a brothel six months before with the agreement of her parents who lived off her earnings. She lived in the brothel and was allowed to visit her family once a month. The aunt had also sold her own child and most other children in the family were sex workers. One cousin was returned from the brothel because she was too young. The girl's father was very violent and beat the girl regularly along with her younger brothers. He also beats his wife and after one such beating, the mother took her youngest child, age 2, down to the river to drown her.

Case: 12-yr-old Vietnamese girl - She was 12 years old when she was trafficked from Vietnam to Phnom Penh, Cambodia where she was sold into a brothel, servicing up to eight men a day. Her family sold her into the brothel in order to pay for their debts. In Asia, even young children are expected to help support their family. At first the young girl was upset about being rescued from the brothel because she felt she had let her family down. She had no formal schooling, was unable to read and write and spoke Vietnamese and Khmer. The only future she saw was being in the brothel. It took her a while to get used to living in a foster home. Today, she goes to public school and proudly wears her new school uniform along with the rest of the girls. She is currently in the first grade. The staff members at the foster home are helping her build self-confidence and self-esteem by encouraging her to take up activities such as horseback riding, sewing, and hairdressing. Life is sometimes still a struggle for this little girl. She still suffers from high anxiety, sleeplessness and fear, but experienced counselors have been assisting her in overcoming past trauma, and helping her to arrive at the beginning stages of the healing process. Sadly, it is not possible for her to go back to her home in Vietnam because her family is highly likely to resell her. Security is also a major issue but all steps have been taken to provide 24-hour security in order to protect her. The foster home staff members hope that she will bond and feel secure with her housemother as she heals, and that she will grow both educationally and emotionally into a happy and healthy young woman.

These cases illustrate two huge issues with trafficking: family honor and trafficking by family members. In Asian culture, family honor runs deep and children, especially learn growing up that everyone helps provide for the family. If a family has four children but can only afford two they may sell two of them to traffickers. If a family becomes indebted due to medical bills, natural disaster, or job loss they may sell their children to the brothels for income. As you can see from the 12-year-old girl’s story; these children feel like they are dishonoring, or letting their parents down by not providing. One goal of Freedom’s Promise is to change some of these cultural standards. We want to teach families to value their children and make a better life for them. We want to teach these children that being degraded and used does not benefit their family, culture or country like getting an education and being a healthy, stable part of society.

So we’ve covered force and fraud, but what about coercion. Many of you wonder why these women stay in these situations. You wonder why don’t they escape or try to get help. Coercion is the practice of compelling a person to behave in an involuntary way by use of threats, intimidation or some other form of pressure or force. Typically, coercion involves the actual infliction of physical or psychological harm in order to enhance the credibility of a threat.

Traffickers beat, rape, and verbally abuse these girls from the moment they arrive. If these tactics don’t work to gain control; drugs and threats against family will usually make them cooperative. David Perry a local writer, recently produced “Tears of God”, a play that provides a helpful understanding of the trafficking process from the point of fraud through rescue. The next time “Tears of God plays in Nashville I would highly recommend you go!

For more information on what is happening in Israel to crack down on trafficking, read the article. Israel has made some strides to fight against trafficking but as one of the main destinations for trafficked women – they have a long ways to go!

In the next Trafficking 101 blog, I will identify what anti-trafficking laws are in place and how affective they are currently. This may be broken up into several segments as we look at this issue within the United States and the hotspots for trafficking in other countries.

- Amber Barron, executive director
amber@freedomspromise.org