Middlemen and Middlewomen
Middlemen and middlewomen, play a large role in the migration and recruitment of underage girls and women. The process of recruitment is often deceitful and the bind of servitude to the middleman occurs through “debts, withholding of legal documents such as passports, signing blank contracts,” etc. (Parreñas, 2011). The underage girls and women are generally young, uneducated and easily manipulated by recruiters (Kara, 2009). The background of the recruiters varies by gender, type of market they are recruiting for and whether they are part of a small recruitment network or a large organized crime entity.
Piper (2005) discovered that in the Mekong sub-region trafficking resembles more of a cottage industry where recruiters are often local individuals who have established a relationship with the families of the recruited girls. On the other hand, the exploitative services recruited for can vary from prostituting in Rome to bonded labor inside a factory in India. Additionally, Kara (2009) provides an illustration of broken promises by recruiters to two underage girls. Julia, now 17 and pregnant, arrived in Rome from Romania at age 14 (Kara, 2009). She traveled with Alyssa who was also, the same age (Kara, 2009). They traveled together with the help of a man who promised work in a restaurant, but instead they ended up as prostitutes in the streets of Rome (Kara, 2009).
A second example, includes the recruitment by “sub-agents” of girls ages
Recruiting victims is effective when the potential victim's family members are involved (Bales 44). The traffickers convince the girls to stay and keep their mouths shut by threatening to do serious harm to the victim's loved ones. The traffickers know where the victim's family lives and
Traffickers and pimps are looking for vulnerable, “at risk” young girls to come join the black market of sex trafficking. Whether this means the girls are in a foster care system, a group home, an already abusive home situation, or simply living in a family below the poverty line and struggling to make ends meet. These types of victims are easy to convince that a life of prostitution which seemingly offers protection and opportunities is what they deserve. Before the widespread use of the internet, traffickers had to send out pimps to “scope out” their potential victims, gather information, and determine whether or not they fit the criteria of the black market. But with the rise of the technological era and easily accessible personal info, traffickers simply require their pimps to scour online profiles, find vulnerable targets, and send out a message or set up an online ad that appeals to their
However a majority of the girls are abducted or forced while many are attracted in other ways. Fake agencies sometimes posing as massage agencies lure in women into the trafficking industry. These women are offered money, free transportation to these agencies to work, with an agreement that the costs will be paid back through the woman’s earnings for her work (Hodge, D. 2008). Other girls are lured in through brothels, escort services, hostess clubs, and strip clubs (Kotrla, K. 2010) where they are abused, manipulated, and have been forced to participate in sexual acts against their will.
“Journey of trafficked girls never ends: many Nigerian girls grew up with this reality and feel it to be true. Ben Taub wrote “The Desperate Journey of a Trafficked Girl”, published in 2017 in The New Yorker, in which he points out that “girls from Benin City who set out voluntarily, like Blessing, can become caught in a network of forced labor and sex work” (Taub). Taub begins building his prospect with his personal facts that he gathers while visiting Nigeria and some reputable sources, citing convincing facts and data, and successfully employing emotional appeals; toward the end of the article, his attempts to appeal to readers’ emotions strengthens his validity and ultimately, his argument.
Author, Alisa Jordheim exposes the growing problem of child exploitation in the United States. This book includes a series of personal narratives. Five (5) adults, who were taken captive as young children and exploited in the commercial sex industry, tell their individual stories and how they survived. This is an honest and accurate portrayal of a horrific and shocking industry prevalent in our modern society. Children, in particular, are an easy prey for human traffickers.
Asian girls are especially vulnerable to trafficking due to their traditional Asian cultural and social values. There is a need to obey parents and support the family. Too, females and children are often viewed as lower than men and in some cases are viewed as property to be sold or bargained with. These traditional cultural values create situations where females are susceptible to trafficking. Given these values and poverty mean that girls and their families may be easily deceived into accepting gainful employment with the assumption that they will be able to earn enough money to support their families.
This method of trafficking is displayed in the story of Loreta, a young and pure-hearted girl from Lithuania who was 15 years old at the time her prostitution commenced. When she graduated from foster care, Loreta did not anticipate the dark and twisting route her life would soon advance through.
Born in a village deep in the Cambodian forest, Somaly Mam was sold into sexual slavery by her grandfather when she was twelve years old. For the next decade she was shuttled through the brothels that make up the sprawling sex trade of Southeast Asia. She suffered unspeakable acts of brutality and witnessed horrors that would haunt her for the rest of her life – until, in her early twenties, she managed to escape. Unable to forget the girls she left behind, Mam became a tenacious and brave leader in the fight against human trafficking, rescuing sex workers – some as young as five and six – offering them
Situations of human trafficking victims’ vary to a large degree. Many are romantically involved with a trafficker at first, then find the intention of the relationship to be altered once the subject of performing acts of a sexual nature is introduced. Others are victimized when they believe they are being hired to work as a dancer, model or nanny, when they agree to move to a distant location, only to find the job was never real. In nearly every instance, one or more methods of coercion are put into play by a
One day, her boyfriend claims they need money for food and that is when she is introduced to prostitution and starts working for a Romeo pimp (Trafficked Teen Girls, 2010). Romeo pimps are human traffickers who often attract young girls for the purpose of exploiting them later (Abolish Child Sex Trafficking, 2015). Romeo pimps tend to use psychological manipulation as the central means of control (Abolish Child Sex Trafficking, 2015). To explain, Romeo pimps come into the lives of the adolescents through comfortable locales or social media platforms to get to know the child’s vulnerabilities as well as to become the person the child desires in their life (Abolish Child Sex Trafficking, 2015). Once they gain the trust and love of the individual, the exploitation begins and the child is usually unable to withheld from their partner’s demands since he/she trusts them and feel life without them is unthinkable. Thus, the children are deceived into committing sexual and illegal acts as the pimps are psychologically manipulating them into believing these acts are done for love when in reality they are collecting money from these acts for their own advantages. In conclusion, due to emotional susceptibilities, traffickers are easily able to wield and influence
Siri’s story illustrates the complicated dynamics of sex trafficking. Prostitution and sex work in general has become part of the global economy (Truong 1996). Some women choose to go into the sex industry while others are deceived or forced into it. Human trafficking networks usually use deception, coercion, or force to push women into sexual slavery. Some women migrate with the knowledge that they wil l be doing sex
In a small village consumed by poverty a man in a business suit shows up. He goes from family to family offering to buy children for a year’s worth of pay. He gets to one family with a young girl whose father sells her to feed his addiction for heroine. Scared and confused the girl is now forced into a brothel, sexually pleasing more than 20 men a day. Nearly five years later she is rescued only to lose her life to AIDS from unprotected sex. The human trafficking industry in Thailand has long been overlooked both internally and externally. Corruption, greed, foreign relations, economic pressure, and overall demand have fueled the trafficking industry in Thailand. Until the world and the Thai government make serious changes to the way they
Imagine a four year old girl growing up in contemporary Cambodia. Each morning she wakes up miles from home, homesick and scared. She is forced to beg for money for the brothel that she belongs to, and all of her earnings go straight to her master. Then, that night, about seven men come to the brothel. These men, some as old as fifty, often pay as little as two dollars to partake in sexual intercourse with these school-aged children. The toddlers enslaved in the horrific sex trade are forever stripped of their purity, making human trafficking a major issue in present day Cambodia. Over 30,000 children are sexually exploited annually (“Children for Sale”), and millions have been forced into human trafficking
The small country of Cambodia has become a transit, source, and destination for child trafficking victims. There are many children going through Cambodia from Vietnam and Thailand as a result of child trafficking (“Human Trafficking” 2). In 2006 Cambodia was one of the busiest spots in the world for child trafficking, with many of those victims being delivered into the sex trade in Thailand, Malaysia, Macao and Taiwan (“Global Crime Case: The Modern Slave Trade” 1). Child trafficking is happening all over the country but t one place notorious is Svay Pak, a run-down village on the outskirts of Phnom Penh (“Children for Sale” 4). As tourists in Svay Pak you are bombarded by many young children assuming you are there for sex. Throughout the village there are many girls as young as nine who are for sale. As stated by the reporter Bob Mosier, “You have an 8-year old or 9-year-old little girl you know just looking at you smiling, realizing that you’re going to in just a few
The enormously high poverty rate, coupled with the crackdown on pedophilia in the western world makes Cambodia particularly vulnerable and child sex trafficking has become a lucrative way to exploit the country’s natural resources. One of the young girls featured in the film, Da-Lin, tells her story - “I sold my virginity to an old man for $500, I did it to help my family, my parents were sick and my brothers and sisters are young and had to go to school, my virginity was the only thing of value we had” (2:15). Another young girl explains how she suffered a stroke due to the abuse she endured. The stories go on and on, young children sold as child sex workers by their husbands, boyfriends, friends and family members. They cannot seek help from the authorities for fear of imprisonment, and they face exile from their villages due to shame.