0809Sex+Trafficking


 * By: Lauren Brandt, Ellyn Thorson**

Sex trafficking is considered the largest specific sub-category of transitional modern-day slavery. [|call and response]

"Trafficking in women and girls for the purpose of sexual exploitation is a shadow market valued at US $7 billion annually. Women are trafficked to, from, and through every region in the world. This highly profitable trade poses a relatively low risk compared with trades in drugs or arms. The moneymakers are transitional networkers of traffickers and pimps who prey on women seeking employment and opportunities. These illegal activities and related crimes not only harm the women involved; they also undermine the social, political, and economic fabric of the nations where they occur." [|The "Natasha" Trade: Transitional Sex Trafficking]



From Frontline video: Eyewitness statement Buzau, Romania** "Romania is a wonderful country. This was the first thing that came to my mind when I thought of writing a comment meant to be read by people that have never seen my country nor interacted in any way with it or its people. It's a country just like any other, just like yours. We have all kinds of people: good apples and bad apples and some in between. We are not a poor country. Actually if you consider the country's size, population, history, even crime and other data we are doing pretty well in fact (you can search topics on the web). But there is a real problem here with the trafficing of unwilling young women. All over the country, not just in Moldova. I'm not talking here about women who choose to do this, but about those who are trapped, simply fooled into becoming prostitutes. Again, this is not only in Moldova. There isn't a single big city in which you could say there aren't at least a few women who shared this story, more or less. Not all are country girls, not all are poor, not all are/were problem-kids: many go to good schools (and trust me: school here isn't as easy as I've heard/read/seen that it is in other countries-though it's becoming-we are asked to know/learn a lot more things), schools with good teachers, they have good grades, "normal" lifes, nice enough parents, friends. They're smart, nice, good and goodlooking young women. So how does this happen? Well, it's kind of a fashion here for poor, but skilled people but also for many, many skilled middle income people, who don't earn here as much as they would by working in other countries to leave -- to go and work somewhere else, somewhere where they are better paid. I'm saying that there is a "fashion" because I'm not talking here about people who choose to live/work in other countries and become residents or even citizens of those countries. I talk about people (absolutely all ages, all genders, all kinds of characters and professions) who go in foreign countries only to work so that they can return home with different sums of money which they each one want to use in their different ways. And this is probably one important aspect of why this kind of traffic is such a big problem here. This is why it's so easy to convince women to go. This is why it's so hard to find out what really happened to your friend, neighbor, acquaintance while she was gone. This is why being a pimp is such a prosperous job (if I can say that it's a job!). But this is not only our problem. Almost every one of those Romanian pimps was "schooled" by a foreigner. Almost each and every one. And they all have contacts, other pimps or people who facilitate prostitution, in those countries in which they take the girls. Take this for an example: a few months ago I visited for a few days a big city in a very rich country with a high grade of education. That city has a town-square, which isn't even very large. At night that town-square is (I asked!) the most populated place in the city. It is also the place through which people who get out in the evening or at night walk or pass in order to get to the restaurants, clubs etc. It is, again, also a very well known, important historic place and a big tourist destination-all year round. Anyway, as I passed one evevning through that square, at dusk, it was full of Romanian gypsies (no offence, for there are other honest ones)! They were all were pimps! As simple as that! They stood there all night and evening, in groups of 2 to 6 asking those who walked by if they wanted girls. The market was full of them. How do I know that? Well, as I passed many of them started talking to me in Romanian (my own language in the place I expected to hear it the least!). I was shocked! I asked the taxi driver about this and he knew: the town was full of Romanian girls and their pimps! Everybody knew (young and old). Apparently I was the only one who was surprised. As the taxi driver put it gently: "Romanian and Russian girls "walk in the park"! ". And if they knew, everybody in the city I mean, it's impossible that the local police would not. But that's that! Nobody does anything at either end of this problem. And now I'm gonna tell you a little bit about our end of the problem. It's very hard to stop women from accepting to leave with strangers (many times even people they think they know very well) for jobs in other countries. Efforts are being made. But it's such a big problem, coming from all kinds of social groups that it's very hard to make a difference no matter what is being done. Those women who accept that they all know all the risks, but they also know so many people, including other women, who have done exactly the same thing and are OK, nothing happened to them, they got what they wanted. It's a risk. A risk that they calculate, that they try to minimize, but ultimately that they all assume, just hoping for the best. They are not to blame. They probably had no other choice of leaving for a job in a better paying country, otherwise I'm pretty sure that they would had chosen differently. Because they know the risks. This (the traffic of women for prostitution) it's more than an urban legend here: it's a well-known reality."
 * Cristina

[|Sex Trafficking Fact Sheet]

[|University Research Fact Sheet]

[|Frontline]

[|Government Report]

Maps: - (shows routes worldwide) -[|Interactive World Case Map] (shows worldwide sites of trafficking cases)

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__References:__ Books: -//The Natashas: The New Global Sex Trade// [|book] -Gary Haugen's Autobiography, (He's the leader of the International Justice Mission (IJM), a trafficking relief organization.) -Sex Trafficking: The Global Market in Women and Children [|book] -//Not For Sale// [|book]

Documentaries and Organizations: -Baht -The Sold Project [|home page] -Call and Response (see above for link)