SEX TRAFFICKING: " WOMEN ARE NOT FOR SALE"
Source 1: by A seventeen-minute documentary presentation called
“Dirty little secret”
“It’s been years. I don’t feel the pain in my vagina
anymore”.
( Quoted source :http://akkarbakkar.com/i-knew-what-to-do-when-mama-and-kaka- came-over-take-off-my-clothes-and-spread-my-legs/)
This has been the one universal phrase that has been used by all the sex traffickers along the line. Sex trafficking is also known as human trafficking. Many reasons can be drawn to why we still have this kind of minorities around the globe. One of the main reason that can be highlighted would be the lack of opportunity for economic growth in neighboring countries that basically leads many individuals to join criminal networks that “traffic young girls and women for sexual exploitation.” Inconsistent laws and incomplete information make these networks difficult to interrupt.
Malcolm Gladwell explains the phenomenon of ideas and products suddenly gaining in popularity overnight with a concept he calls “the tipping point”[1]. He had showed that no explainable nexus has existed between what becomes fashionable/popular and the product or thoughts intrinsic worth/value, as he did continue to give the example of Hush Puppies shoes that were barely known at a time and nearly removed from the market – had it not been for a group of individuals who decided to wear them for fun, thus, other people had taken the “fashion” and the sale of Hush Puppies shoes that had soared within a few weeks. However recently some highlighted issues like the case of A woman we’ll call “Sarah” got away from Alex Campbell, who last November was sentenced to life in prison for human trafficking[2]. This issue mainly became a hit in the tabloids and people started to comment about it just because……as how Sabah Carrim (legal scientist) had that, “ there must be a journalist happened to be at the right time, in the right place, possessed an effective word-hoard, was employed by the right newspaper agency at a time when other sources of information in the media didn’t appear as interesting as this one, as this article was published, it reached the right interest groups who disseminated the information to their own contacts who used the right words to published it in their newsletters…”[3]. Basically, this were the main factors that made Alex Campbell’s case famous in the media’s….
Furthermore, trafficking assaults human dignity and many other highlighted issue’s like fomenting corruption undermines international security and development which had merely created a globe of crimes. However, not solely blaming the traffickers and saying that it’s their “CHOICE” and they have “DECIDED” their own faith will be absolutely absurd. The world has to accept the bitter fact as to at least 1% or 2% a country’s GDP runs from the victims hard work. Being ashamed as to who started first will not be a solution. Firstly, a country’s economic progress is the main cause for some minorities to find their souls to this bad solutions, thus, the global economic crisis has resulted in a spike in this phenomenon in the form of forced labor, whereby the victim himself “accepts” his situation due to the lack of substantial choices and ways out of poverty. “POVERTY” has absolutely become an ignorant to the world. People nowadays don’t even know where their “branded” clothes are manufactured and in what kind of situation the labors are treated. Forced labors can only be forced to men labors mostly and women and children will not be able to cope up with it, thus their only solution is to get revenue by selling themselves. Young girls have always been a feast for the lascivious tigers. There is a fine line between sex trafficking and also prostitutes that all of us should be update. Sex traffickers are forced to be sex slaves and they have no choice but then to do it to get money to run their family. This kind of family situation is always focused on poor isolated country’s, whereas prostitutes are favored to the job and independent in making decisions. This kind of sex slaves are always cheated by their agents and brought to another country or state by giving hope that they can be earned money and live a wealthy life. Young girls are kidnapped and kept in a very poor condition in the slums or an unknown are so that they can exploit them.
However, the money is not given to the victims but it is then been divided by the agents to feed their hunger and not the person who had worked hard in pain to earn it. Victims are also served with foods with bad nutrition and also sometimes food may not be in a hygienic condition. However, they have to eat it to stay alive. An interview that has been published by one of the tabloids, who has recorded the life of a sex slave has stated that victims especially young girls are always treated badly as their monthly menstrual process are always disturbed because of the daily basis penetration. Girls are not given sanitary pads during their menses and given a very bad clothing to cover themselves.
A recent article by Marie Claire “Diary of an Escaped Sex Slave” where Sreypov Chan a Cambodian young girl was forced to have sex with hundreds of men before she turned 10[4]. When she was 7 years old—an age when most girls are going to slumber parties—she was sold to a brothel in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital city, to work as a sex slave. The woman who made the sale: her mother. For years, pimps forced Sreypov to have sex with as many as 20 men a day. If she didn’t meet her quota, or if she tried to run away, she was punished in unthinkable ways—burned with a hot poker, covered with biting insects. And worse. “I wanted to die,” she says[5].
Source 2 : taken from Worldwide Documentaries, Sreypov Chan interview “NOT MY LIFE” from google images.
Sreypov Chan, “I was sold by my mother, she was deceived by the traffickers……”, was her words. I would just say that family is the only safest place a girl could rely upon and surrender herself with full of trust and make herself comfortable but what happens when if they become demons and just a minute of greed can just make their dreams disappear or even could kill them. Educating families is the first solution that must be obtained basically near the rural and slum areas. Their poverty has kept them blind in years or maybe generations. A little awareness up to the child’s future can make them realize that they are the future of the family and also the country. A country’s poverty is always a decline in the education system. WHY? Has never been a favorite question for them as their poverty that matters and the people must do anything to maintain the currency flow in the country. This is where I would like to highlight where did the humanity had gone invisible.
The bitterness of greed that has conquered human being had made the “number printed papers” the world and that’s what had become matters to them and not even the screams for help from the poisoned souls.Education enhances the earnings potential of the poor, both in competing for jobs and earnings and as a source of growth and employment in itself, as Kanbur (1998: 20) puts it, “the distribution of physical and human capital emerges from the theoretical and empirical literature as the key to distributional consequences of growth, and as the determinant of growth itself”[6]. This group of minorities with poor education are comparatively illiterate and they are basically cheated by the travel agents or their “kangani's”. In Brazil, a national study on trafficking of women and children for commercial sexual exploitation found a close correlation between the number of women trafficked and poverty levels in the region of origin.
For example, the North and Northeast regions have the highest poverty levels in Brazil with 43 and 46 percent of the population living in poverty respectively. These regions recorded more than double the number of trafficking cases than the comparatively rich South and Southeast regions where poverty levels are at 20 and 23 percent of the population respectively[7]. The Daily Beast has published an article written by Batya Ungar Sargon, where she had stated a very satirize quote saying that “I don’t believe anyone’s open to prostitution unless you’ve been traumatized or abused. You’d beg, you’d go on welfare, you’d shoplift, for goodness’ sake. These people need to be treated as victims.”[8].
A diary of a sex slave was also inserted as her name was Lillin.. Lillin was basically 14 years old when she was kidnapped from her Mount Vernon home. She was tied and handcuffed and taken to Queens, where she was kept for a year and forced to have sex with her abductor. A few years later, Lillin was lured from her home by a friend with whom she used to do homework. The friend introduced Lillin to a man who turned out to be the friend’s pimp, who already had pictures of Lillin and her family. He threatened to kill them if Lillin didn’t turn tricks for him, and so she did, for over two years. In the ensuing years, Lillin has been arrested over 50 times for prostitution and has accumulated 12 convictions. She is now 22 years old and free from the hunger game, unfortunately not everyone who shares the same faith.
Currently, many organizations have come up with their own ideas on how to aid these victims and kill the termites from building their empires. One of it would be the, The New York’s Human Trafficking Intervention Initiative (NYHI) which has taken certain proactive steps to aid the sex workers as they are identified as victims of trafficking rather than criminals, and the initiative is designed to connect those arrested for prostitution-related charges with counseling and social services in lieu of jail time. Piloted in Queens and New York, the program was launched by New York State Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman in September of 2013, and it’s working[9].
Another organization that has been active in signing the petition would be the Covenant House ( opening doors for homeless youth), where 100,000+ American kids are forced into prostitution each year. The 12 bills to fight child sex trafficking are up for a vote in Congress – including revamped versions of legislation introduced last year that died in the Senate at the close of the last legislative cycle. We must call on our elected officials to pass the entire package of bills through the Senate to protect vulnerable, homeless children from exploitation[10].
However, even if there are too many organization build up to aid these sex victims and leave them to a live a normal happy life, but it's now in the hand of the society as to whether to accept the victims into their community and let them live a happy life. Crystal Deboise, the managing director of the Sex Workers Project, a non-profit that provides legal and social services to sex workers, had a more equivocal take on the new courts. From her work with sex workers. Deboise said that the new court system is a clear win for most clients. But she says that the implications of using the criminal justice system as a method for social intervention are huge[11].
“I think it has pretty serious implications for who we are as a society,” she said. “Do we say the way to assist those abused in the sex industry is by arresting them?”
There are serious consequences to arrests. It makes it difficult for women to find employment, which leads ironically to more sex work.
“We would love to see that attention given to the community as a place where solutions can be found,”
Deboise said. “But counseling is better than jail time.”
Source 3: A conversation of Crystal Deboise
In a nutshell, countries will need to create more economic opportunities for their citizens. Human trafficking is hugely profitable, and joining a crime syndicate appeals to impoverished workers who are in desperate need of work. In order to facilitate economic opportunity for women who would otherwise be susceptible to being lured into human trafficking rings. I would like to also state that neighboring countries with less economic growth as that is the main reason of all these troubles faced by this poor souls can adapt into this new organization as it can aid them to employment opportunities. Thus the element of poverty can be reduced. Countries should adopt to organizations such as Second Chance Employment Services[12] as examples. As the main purpose of this organization is to ensure that women are no longer financially dependent on their abusers by providing them with the resources they need to have a meaningful career. Therefore, this kind of financial security should be given as we can eliminate the termites who are building empires using the poor souls.
********“LIGHT UP THE DARK SOULS, YOU'LL LIGHT UP HUMANITY”*******
By Thinushaanee Kunavathy
( Law Student )
[1] M Gladwell, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, Sabah carrim's article ( The Bac Law Review:January-March 2013)
( 1st edn, Cengage Gale: United Kingdom 2003)
[2] Source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/investigations/human-trafficking-alex-campbell-192415731.html#ixzz3fmKWBbGA
[3] Sabah Carrim, Law and Society, “Gang Rape Culprit : Indian men or Man”
( Brickfields Law Review, January-March 2013)
[4] Abigail Pesta, Diary of an Escaped Sex Slave, In a Marie Claire exclusive, “Sreypov Chan tells her phenomenal life story” (JUL 20, 2011 @ 8:00 PM)
[5] Abigail Pesta, Diary of an Escaped Sex Slave, In a Marie Claire exclusive, “Sreypov Chan tells her phenomenal life story” (JUL 20, 2011 @ 8:00 PM)
[6] Servaas van der Berg, University of Stellenbosch, Paper to the conference of the Centre for the Study of African Economies on Economic growth and poverty in Africa Oxford, March 2002.
[7]Servaas van der Berg, University of Stellenbosch, Paper to the conference of the Centre for the Study of African Economies on Economic growth and poverty in Africa Oxford, March 2002.
[8] By Batya Ungar Sargon(Sex Trafficking Victims, Not ‘Prostitutes,’ Finally Getting Help (and a New Name) in Court),The Daily Beast.
[9] By Batya Ungar Sargon(Sex Trafficking Victims, Not ‘Prostitutes,’ Finally Getting Help (and a New Name) in Court),The Daily Beast.
[10]100,000+ American kids are forced into prostitution each year, “Tell the Senate to Pass Legislation Against Child Sex Trafficking”
[11] By Batya Ungar Sargon(Sex Trafficking Victims, Not ‘Prostitutes,’ Finally Getting Help (and a New Name) in Court),The Daily Beast.
[12] Ludy Green, Ph.D
(President and Founder, Second Chance Employment Services, Malaysia Economic Growth and Its Human Trafficking Issue)
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