Human Trafficking Defined

I better explain this before I continue…

Human Trafficking is modern day slavery!
People of all ages, races and gender are being “trafficked” into and within the United States at rapid rates using force, fraud or coercion for the purpose of sexual exploitation or forced labor. It occurs in many forms: forced and child prostitution, live sex shows, pornography, migrant agricultural work, sweatshops, domestic servants, restaurants, hotels, etc. They are treated as slaves: held captive without freedom, beaten, starved, drugged, unsanitary living conditions. Many times they are working under the belief they are paying off a debt, not knowing they will never be able to pay it off.

Here are 2 stories to help illustrate how human trafficking takes place in the Unites States:

Maria’s Story
Maria was approached by a family friend who promised her a job waiting tables in the United States making ten times as much as she was making in her home country. Once across the border, a burly man told her that he had purchased her. Next, she was taken to a brothel and told that she would have to buy her freedom by sexually servicing men. When she refused, three men gang-raped her and locked her in the trailer without food and water until she succumbed. She was forced to service 20 men a day. When she and several others tried to escape, they were beaten severely in front of the other girls. Shortly after her second abortion and this beating, Maria became sick and felt crazy. In order to keep her functioning in the brothel, the traffickers gave her drugs and alcohol to numb her pain.

Ajay’s Story
Ajay worked for 20 years as a chef in Calcutta, supporting a family and struggling to make ends meet. Then he heard about job openings with a U.S. Company through a travel agent. Ajay and several of his friends decided to go to the U.S. in search of the American dream and an opportunity to provide for their families. They were charged roughly $2,500 in fees, and paid this through high-interest loans in India. They planned to work off their debt and then begin sending money home to their families. Once they arrived in the United States, the men were ill fed, packed into a cramped, unsanitary dormitory and forced to work 12 to 16 hour days, six days a week, at wages well below the federal minimum wage. When they complained about conditions within the factory, they were threatened with deportation, locked inside their barracks and patrolled by armed guards.

Scope of the Problem
Now if you take Rosa and Ajay’s story and multiple it by hundreds of thousands, even millions, you will get an idea of the magnitude of the global problem. The CIA says that between 600,000 and 800,000 people are trafficked per year globally and between 14,000 and 17,000 are trafficked into and around the United States every year and Texas is one of the leading states in Trafficking people for labor and sexual exploitation. We suspect that no one really knows the numbers…but does it really matter how many!? The simple fact is, this is not just a foreign problem and we cannot ignore it, slavery is taking place in YOUR backyard and it is time to do something about it!

Suggested Resources
Websites:
· http://www.polarisproject.org/
· http://www.ijm.org/
· http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/
· http://www.love146.org/
Movies/Documentaries:
· Trade
· Trading Women
· Not For Sale
· Call + Response (coming out soon)
Books:
· Sold
· Terrify No More
· Not For Sale
· The Good News about Injustice