Human trafficking, also described as modern-day slavery or involuntary servitude, affects an estimated 700,000 to 2 million people around the globe every year.
The United States made human trafficking a federal crime in 2000 with the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA). New York State also made human trafficking a crime in November 2007.
Two Main Types of Trafficking
According to the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008,
the different types of trafficking are
Sex trafficking: In which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud,
or coercion or in which the person induced to perform a sex act is not yet 18
years of age (child sex trafficking).
Labor trafficking: Recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining a person for labor or services, through using force, fraud, or coercion. The person is subjected to involuntary servitude, debt bondage, peonage, or slavery.
Smuggling vs. TraffickingTrafficking and smuggling are two different crimes, and law enforcement regards trafficked persons and smuggled persons in different ways.
Trafficking involves:- An element of coercion. A person cannot consent to enslavement.
- A restriction of movement, withholding documents, providing low or no pay, etc.
- Crime or violation against a person.
- Subsequent exploitation and/or forced labor.
- Trafficked persons are seen as victims by the law.
- Unauthorized border crossings.
- No coercion.
- Facilitated illegal entry of person from one country to another.
- Smuggled persons are seen as criminals by the law.
It is important to distinguish between trafficking and smuggling, in order to identify those who are trafficking victims and to provide appropriate services.
It's sad but true: here in this country, people are being
bought, sold, and smuggled like modern-day slaves.
Human trafficking
for the purposes of sexual exploitation is becoming an increasingly prevalent
issue around the world. The consequences are becoming more serious
and further-reaching and it is imperative for governments around the world to
provide a united front in dealing with this problem.
trafficking. The most powerful nation to the
simplest of nations is not immune from modern day slavery. Some nations do not
even know the true definition of what human
trafficking is. The main
contributors to human trafficking are governmental corruption, economic and
social crisis within each nation's borders. Now most nations are coming
together to learn more about the slavery and how to battle it internally and
abroad.
What is human
trafficking? The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of
persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of
abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of
vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve
the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of
exploitation. Exploitation includes, at a minimum, the exploitation of the
prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or
services.
Half a century has gone by only to find all nations are still trying to understand what human trafficking is. Humanity has evolved enormous strides only to still practice some of the earliest crimes known to man. There is no excuse for this to be even happening in this day and age. There are still scores of issues with human trafficking that violate the very articles of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.
Starving, cold, exhausted, after twenty straight hours of
“work”. Man after man, coming in, coercing you to have sex with him. This is
the life of a victim of human trafficking. Human trafficking is an epidemic
growing at an unthinkable rate across the world. It is the kidnapping and
selling of human beings as sex slaves. It is our duty as Americans to work at
putting an end to this source of evil. There are twenty-seven million people in
modern day slavery across the world. Imagine if it was your own child that was
kidnapped and forced to engage in sexual activities with grown men. For that
very reason, it is time for us as Americans to stand up and make a change.
Every human being is born with
the rights. The rights to their own life, freedom, and altogether the pursuit
of happiness. Through this inhumane, savage practice, these people are deprived
of these rights. They’re no longer able to exercise what is granted to them as
human beings. We, Americans, are obligated to put forth an effort to change this.
We must change this simply because we have all the resources and the ability to
do it, and since we see other human beings being objectified and harmed in this
way, it ought to just tug on our hearts to provide aid where it is needed. I
know some may say, it’s their problem, not ours, but this selfish attitude gets
us nowhere in life. It’s time to take action.
candidates. The johns who pay regular visits to brothels prefer adolescents above any other age group. Looked at from the cold perspective of a slaveholder, adolescents also
have a longer shelf life. Any older and they start to lose their youthful appeal. Any younger and they may draw the attention of law enforcement authorities.
Because sex trafficking masks
itself as prostitution, the general public does not feel outraged that the
children are perceived to be criminals or sexual deviants or at best victims of
their environment: desperate for survival, the kids “choose” to sell their
bodies for profit.
The real criminals hide in the
shadows. An illicit network of traffickers, pimps, recruiters, brothel owners,
and johns preys on vulnerable kids and forces them into a life of sexual
commerce. Once the inner workings of that criminal network are exposed, common
sense prevails. Of course a child would not volunteer for the repeated trauma
of ten (or more) grown men penetrating their bodies every evening. We have a
word for exploiting minors that way: rape.
It should be noted that the same mechanisms of financial bondage and violent intimidation that enslave children are practiced on females of all ages. Adult “prostitutes” too can recount shocking testimonies of pimps locking them in closets, flogging them with coat hangers, and forcing them to service a staggering number of clients. The pimps quite explicitly refer to these women as “my property” and will attack anyone who acts to compromise their control.
Human trafficking facts and statistics comes from
stories from actual victims who are not afraid to express and give details
about what they have been through. Asha’s story is one of the few many that
will show you that what is going on in the world today isn’t right. Just because
Asha’s story became more exposed than others doesn’t mean any other story isn’t
less traumatizing. Read Asha’s story, and make your judgement for yourself. What
can we do so a similar story doesn’t happen again.
Instead,
the bright-eyed little girl was sold by her father and became a
"doll" in a Mumbai brothel. Asha
was only nine when her father sold her to a procurer. She came from a very poor
family. Seven children had been born to Asha's parents. They certainly could
not afford a girl.
The bright-eyed little girl had no idea what was going on or how her life was
about to change forever. She only knew that the lady named Kala had told her
she was going on a trip to a very special place, that she would have new
clothes, and that she would be working for a nice family who lived in a big
house. The lady asked Asha if she was willing to work hard. Asha nodded.
"Will you do anything that is asked of you?" Asha said she would try.
Asha wanted her family to be proud of her.
The adventure began at the bus
station in Katmandu. Asha had never ridden a bus before. Asha wondered how many
other girls would be fortunate enough to go to a big city like Mumbai. Perhaps
this was what her father meant when he talked about good karma. She couldn't
wait to say her pujas (daily prayers), as her father and mother had taught her
to give thanks for such good fortune. Asha looked excitedly out the window as
the Nepali hills rolled by. The bus trip lasted much longer than she expected -
14 hours just to get to the border town of Nepalgunj.
Once
there, they walked across the border where they boarded another bus for
the trip to Delhi. Asha asked Kala if they were almost there. Kala told
her
that Mumbai was very far away and they wouldn't be there for several
days.
After what seemed like forever, Asha asked again. Kala glowered at the
little
girl. Asha decided that perhaps she should not ask such questions. The
stifling heat and the exhaust fumes made Asha sick to her stomach. She
wondered
if Mumbai would be like this. All that day the bus bumped and swayed
over the
dusty roads of North India. Asha began to realize that wherever Mumbai
was, it
was a long way from home. She wondered if her parents would come to see
her.
Finally, after three days
and hundreds of nameless Indian villages, the driver announced the good news -
they were in Mumbai. Asha became excited. What will the family be like? What
about their big house? When Asha and Kala climbed down from the bus there was
no one to meet them. Asha was confused. She looked around. Kala grabbed her
hand and nearly jerked her off her feet. "Come, child!"
They walked quickly through
the busy station, past the beggars who swarmed the sidewalk outside, and to the
taxi stand. Asha had never been in a car. Kala spoke crisply to the driver.
"Falkland Road." This must be a very special place, she thought for
the driver instantly nodded his head in recognition. It was night when the taxi
wound its way through Mumbai's crowded streets, but unlike Nepal, it wasn't
dark. Everywhere she looked, Asha saw lights, lots of lights with strange
markings. Asha did not know the meaning of the strange markings. She had never
been to school.
Women and girls lounged in the doorway. Their faces were painted in ways Asha had never seen. Asha stopped and stared. Kala roughly pulled the little girl through the door. They walked down a series of long, poorly lit corridors. Asha could feel the wet garbage under her bare feet, oozing between her toes. There was heaviness in the air. This did not seem like a happy place.
After a long while, the woman returned. She sat down on the bed and opened a little bag. She started putting make-up on Asha's face. Asha winced. A few minutes later the woman came back with a man. The woman told Asha what to do. Asha did not want to do such things. The woman slapped her. Asha cried. The woman slapped her again. "No! No! I will not do such things." The woman cursed Asha in Nepali and then left. A few minutes later, she returned with another man. His lip curled in a mocking snarl. She had never seen such a look. "So, you don't want to work, eh?" He pulled off his belt and began to beat Asha. He beat her until the pain filled her body. Then he left. Asha curled up on her cot and whimpered softly.
Later that day the woman came back. "Ready to work, little doll?" Asha cried and pleaded with her. "Please don't make me do those things." The man with the belt came back. Three times that day he beat her. When the time came to eat, they brought nothing to Asha. Still the little girl resisted. The torture lasted for days. Without light, Asha lost track of time. Without food she grew weak.
One of the other girls told Asha it was useless to resist. She told Asha of another girl who had been put in a room with a cobra until she changed her mind about doing as she was told. It didn't take long, the girl reported. "The gods have forgotten you. This is your fate," the girl said sadly. Frightened, exhausted and hungry, Asha surrendered.
In those first days, Asha often cried herself to sleep, wishing she was back in her village, homesick for her mother. She hated life in the brothel, hated what she saw, hated what she did. She hated what happened to the other girls - especially the sick ones. But the tears grew less and less, and Asha became accustomed to her new life.
Seven years passed. Seven years without seeing her mother or brothers. Seven years in what she and the other girls called "that place." Seven years watching girls become sick with “Bombay Disease." Seven years of watching them turned out on the streets to die. Asha dreamed of buying her freedom and going home to Nepal, but she knew there was little hope of that.
By her sixteenth birthday, Asha had forgotten what hope was. Until she met a man named Devaraj. Devaraj was different than the other men she had known. She met him at a small church near Falkland Road. There he taught messages of hope that lifted her spirits. He talked of freedom. She visited there as often as she could. She longed more than ever to be free from Falkland Road, but she still lacked the money to pay the "investment" the brothel owner had made in her.
explained that some "friends" had given a gift to purchase her freedom. In a few days, Asha left the brothel that had been her home since she was a young girl and moved into a
"Home of Hope." Now she is learning how to live. She is learning a new trade. And thanks to people who care, Asha's life is no longer surrounded by pain and disappointment.
It is full of hope and optimism for the future. When Mike McGill read Asha's story in 1999, he started the Asha Forum.
800.621.HOPE
(4673)
Crime Victims Hotline:
866.689.HELP
(4357)
Rape & Sexual Assault
Hotline:
212.227.3000
TDD phone number for all
hotlines:
866.604.5350