Global Slavery -- Human Trafficking

This June I went with the high school summer trip to Phnom Pehn to work with children who are at high-risk for being trafficked into the sex industry, or who are currently being sold for sex. The trip has made an impact on my thinking and worldview. I have asked more questions and sought to discover more answers about the reality of this industry. I write what I have learned below.

The average age of the children in the sex industry is 12-14, but these are the numbers given by the people who “own” them. In a village in Cambodia, the bloodstained pajama pants of a 7-year-old girl were found in a brothel after a raid. We learn that some children are younger.

What I have realized since my time in Cambodia is that it is not just a “third-world” or Asian problem. Human trafficking is the fastest growing industry in the world. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) And that growth is happening throughout European countries as well as in the United States.

Why is it so successful? Its success comes from the strong mafias controlling the system throughout the world. These are powerful men who are able to payoff taxi drivers, officials at borders, document forgers, and the “slaves’” new owner.

These men also make sure to control their victims through brutal forms of psychological and physical abuse. They don’t want their valuable commodities escaping from their possession.

-->

-->

Human trafficking is modern-day slavery and the fastest-growing criminal industry in the world. There are many aspects and different pockets to what we call the “human trafficking industry." Generally speaking, human trafficking is when people of any age are forced to work or have sex because they have been tricked, sold, or coerced into this life.

The United Nations estimates that 2.5 million people are trafficked every year. The U.S. State Department estimates an even higher number: about 12.3 million adults and children "in forced labor, bonded labor, and forced prostitution around the world."

No less than 55,000 women and children are sex slaves in Cambodia, 35 percent of which are younger than 18 years of age. 

http://www.teamwmi.org/educational-information/human-trafficking-facts-figures/

Human trafficking starts when the traffickers notice those who are vulnerable.

Some are vulnerable because they live in the countryside, their families are poor, and their parents need a way to make money. Much of the time in Cambodia, parents have agreed to sell their children.

Other victims are taken because they are tricked into thinking that there is a chance for a better life in another part of their home country or in another country altogether. When they go with these people, they discover the reality of the horrifying life they have entered.

Others have already been physically abused and think if they can make money to sell themselves, why not do it?

But when you become a slave, you don’t get to keep the money. Traffickers and pimps often keep the money and beat their property until the slaves can no longer hope to ever escape.

This criminal-industry is experiencing rapid growth worldwide because human traffickers are realizing that they can make more money if they sell girls than they can if they were merely selling drugs. Traffickers see that they can only sell drugs once – and then, the sale is finished. But, if you sell girls, they can be sold many times each night they work, and they can continue to work this job for 6-8 years.

Currently, Cambodia’s illegal sex trade generates $500 million a year. In the United States, sex trafficking brings in $9.5 billion annually. According to the United Nations, sex trafficking brings in an estimated $32 billion a year worldwide.

With such a huge problem all around the world – men, women, and children being used as slaves, being bought and sold as if they were a pair of underwear at the market – I want to ask, how am I going to respond to this information?

“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8)

(James, Isaiah, Amos, Habbakuk, etc.) 

Video links for quick-hit information:
To research more: US Trafficking
I highly recommend: Nefarious: Merchant of Souls 
Another highly recommended: The Pink Room