Sex,Slavery And Human Trafficking

In some cases, sex slavery and human trafficking are connected to one another. Human trafficking is the practice of being tricked, lured, coerced, or otherwise removed from their home or country. In most instances, human trafficking of women and children had led them to being sexually exploited by traffickers. It is believed that more people are being trafficked across the border against their will now then at any point in the past.

Adult victims are lured into this hidden industry with false promises of good jobs in other countries, false marriage proposals, or kidnapped. Children are also kidnapped into the sex industry, sold by their own families, and at times families are manipulated into selling their children. Traffickers would tell parents or family members that the children would have a brighter future if they left their families. Families believed that these traffickers would take their children and teach them a good trade to ensure their future, or be educated. But in reality, women and children are sold to brothels and held captive. Victims are kept in deplorable conditions, beaten, raped, and threatened. Medical care does not exist for those victims and many are exposed to deadly sexually transmitted diseases.

History

Viviene Cree (2008) wrote that women and children are especially vulnerable to sex trafficking because of their experience of powerlessness, poverty, gender-based discrimination, and the history of sexual and physical violence. Unfortunately, human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation is not something that happened overnight. History has shown us that the selling and using of the human body for sexual gratification was happening then and practice is continuing today. While searching for some information on the history of sex slavery, we found several academic articles that dealt with the owning of women and children for sexual use.

Yaron Ben-Naeh (2006) wrote that from the 16th to the 19th century, female slaves were kept in Jewish household during the Ottoman Empire. The slaves that were being kept in these households were of Slavic origins captured during the Ottoman Campaign, or by their Tator collaborators in Eastern Europe. Because these slaves were of Slavic origins, the documented physical descriptions of these slaves were that they had fair colored hair and light colored eyes. Females were sought out for their domestic skills, strength, and their obedience. It was also suggested that the slaves were considered as ‘beautiful objects’ that were present in the household. Court records, from that period, listed a wide range of prices of slaves. Prices were given according to the slave’s physical attributes, skills, appearance, age, and the length of service agreed upon. These females were not only used for domestic servitude, but some were used as concubines to the males of the households, usually the master of the domain. Sexual relationships with their masters were part of the slave’s domestic duties. There was some documentation that female slaves were freed from their owners, if they were loyal and obedient. It was also written that some slaves mentioned in the wills of their deceased masters.

Sometimes these slaves were left some money or items in the will. Some slaves are transferred to different family members or sold to neighbors when their owners passed away. It was not uncommon for some female slaves to be married off to family members, relatives, or friends. Children of the female slave, if they converted to Judaism and the Jewish owner acknowledged paternity, were legitimate heir and were legally allowed to their father’s inheritance.

Viviene Cree (2008) wrote that public concern about human trafficking is not new. In the 19th and the 20th century, organizations were put together to stop the trafficking of human beings. One of these organizations was The National Vigilance Association (NVA), which was launched on August 1885 in London, UK. The purpose of the organization was to undertake private prosecution and alert the police to the infringements of the newly passes Criminal Law Act. The main provisions were:

*1. It became an offense to procure a woman under 21 years of age for prostitution.

*2. The age of sexual consent was raised from 13 years to 16 years

*3. Anyone who detained a women or a girl for the purpose of unlawful sex, in an brothel or other premise.

*4. Financial penalties or imprisonment were imposed on anyone found guilty of keeping, managing, assisting, owning, or renting out premises used as a brothel or for the purpose of prostitution.

In the beginning, the organization was focused on local activities in their area. For instance, prostitutes were blamed for the declining health of the nation and the armed forces. The NVA created campaigns to eradicate prostitution. To accomplish this task, members investigated brothels, dance halls, and ‘dangerous houses’. Members of the organization were able to remove women and children whom they believed were at risk.

At the end of the 19th century, the NVA’s executive committee formed the International Bureau’s British National Committee to handle international activities. In 1921, the League of Nations took over the responsibilities of the International Bureau and combined their forces with the NVA ‘on seeking agreements between countries on the repatriation on prostitutes, on the traffic of women and children, and on the abolition of ‘licensed houses’ (regulated brothels), and on the assistance of expelled foreign prostitutes’. The organization targeted the white slave trade, which dealt with child prostitution and the entrapment and removal of white British girls from overseas brothels. The panic was over the kidnapping of innocent (white) girls who were being forced into the life of prostitution. Socialist believed that prostitution, at that time, was the inevitable by-product of capitalism. Women had to use their bodies because the economic structure did not offer women legitimate opportunities of earning a wage.

Another part of history has shown us that war was another excuse used to violate women’s bodies, such as trafficking women across to the battlefield to service soldiers. The ‘comfort women’ use by the Imperial Japanese Army during WWII, was one of the most extreme forms of institutionalized forms of violence against women. It was institutionalized because the Japanese military felt that if they set up brothel stations it would reduce the amount of rapes. Until recently, the ‘comfort women’ of WWII have been silent and lost in the written pages of history books. The military called these women ‘military comfort women’ to disguise the horrific nature and true purpose of these women. In December 1991, Korean women had started to come forward claiming to be ‘comfort women’ and exposing sexual crimes committed against them by the Japanese army during the war. Pyong Gap Min wrote that the victimization of Korean Comfort Movement has three major components: (1) their being forced into military sexual slavery, (2) their suffering inside military brothels, and (3) their half-century of agonizing experiences after their return home. These women came forward because they felt that they deserved any official apology from the Japanese government. They also were seeking compensation, prosecution of offenders and war criminals, proper education of the public on the nature of this war crime, a rewritten history of war crimes in the textbooks to include the sexual violations, and memorial tablets for the deceased ‘comfort women’.

Young girls, between the ages of 14 to 17, were taken off the streets by Japanese soldiers and were forced to service an average of thirty to forty soldiers a day. George Hicks wrote in his book, The Comfort Women: Japan’s Brutal Regime of Enforced Prostitution in the Second World War that these women were rotated between some many men that ‘their pudenda grew swollen and inflamed, and they were constantly attempting to gain relief by applying cold towels’. Hicks also mention, that women were taught ‘tricks of the trade’ by maximizing time and effort. They were taught to douche between rapes, or hurriedly apply cotton wool soaked in disinfectant. As supplies started to run low, the women had to reuse condoms by rinsing them off between uses. These girls were made to service in military brothels established in China and other Asian and Pacific countries during the Asian and Pacific War (1932-1945). The girls came from Korean, China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. European women were also used by the military. These women were of Dutch, taken from prisoner of war camps in Indonesia. The estimate numbers of women taking and transported across the battlefield was about 200,000, and less than 30 percent survived to the end of the war. Korean women made up the higher percentage of the women taking, about 80 percent of the total population of ‘comfort women’.

The Japanese army divided the women according to race, class, nationality, and the ranks of the officers they were made to service. Korean women and Asian women were taken an advantaged of by the lower class soldiers. Japanese and European women were saved for the upper class officers of the military. Korean women were treated more cruelly than Japanese women, mainly because of Japanese’s colonization of Korea.

It was not until recently, that the Japanese government would not acknowledge the use of ‘comfort women’ during WWII. For years, Japan had denied the recruitment and transportation of these women. On January 16, 1992, Yoshimi Yoshiaki, a Japanese history professor, discovered documents found information about the ‘military comfort women’ in the library of Japan’s Self Defense Force in Japan. Finally, with the discovery of documentation and victims stepping forward, Japan admitted to this part of their history and issued a formal apology in August of 1993 with no compensation. Instead the government solicited donations from their citizens and put the funds into the Asian Movement Fund. By doing this, the government avoided any legal and financial responsibilities.

Another war that contributed to the trafficking of females to service male soldiers was during the Vietnam War. During the war, the Thai government received billions of dollars in military and economic aid because of its alignment with the United States (Ratchada Jayagupta (2009). In exchange, the Thai government authorized 700,000 U.S military troops in north-eastern and eastern Thailand. Because of the increase of foreign men coming into their areas, criminal networks started to recruit females from costal towns of Pattaya and Bangkok for sexual services. These women were used to service military men on their leave time. To help facilitate the migration process, immediate family member of the women, locals, and traffickers would be involved in the transportation. When the U.S government withdraw its troops from Thailand, which did not stop sex tourism in Thailand. As a matter of fact, by 1982 tourism had become Thailand’s top foreign exchange earner.

In most cases involving crime and criminal activities, the males’ exploitations of females was/is for the purpose of sexual gratification and for profit. In the animal kingdom, some species exploit their females not for the purpose of satisfying their lust but to ensure the continuation of the species. One of these animals is a species of copepods, called a sea louse. The sea louse males start recruiting females by giving off a chemical smell that females find irresistible. The female would follow the chemical trail that lead up to the male’s lair. When she gets close enough, the male would capture her and bring her inside the lair. The male would repeat the same procedure for the next three months until he has enough females. The male sea louse can have up to three dozens females in his harem. He will line all the females in a row in his tunnel to monitor them closely. When the females begin to molt, he will then mate with each of them. The females will sacrifice their lives in order for their offspring s to survive. Each female will become swollen with eggs, and when it is time those eggs will hatch. It takes a lot of energy to hold such a large number of young in her shell. By the time the young are ready to be born, she will died of exhaustion.

Profits

Money is the incentive of most crime and criminal activities. Unfortunately, sex slavery or human trafficking is a highly profitable underground industry. Rachada Jayagupta (2009) believes the human trafficking has now become the third largest criminal activity in the world, next to drugs and arms trafficking. Jennifer Ludden (2009) wrote that human trafficking is the second largest illicit business in the World after drugs. After narcotics and arms sales, trafficking is estimated to be the largest source of revenue for organized crime (U.S. Department of State 2004). Trafficking of human beings is such a lucrative business, that it profits are estimated to be in the billions every year.

The selling of the human body is considered more profitable than drugs. In 1990, the trafficking of human, mostly for prostitution, generated an annual profit between $1.9 billion and $3.2 billion Canadian (Janet Bagnall (2002). Drugs are sold and used once, but the body of the person can be used and sold over and over again. Women, who are sold into prostitution, can be earners for their pimp for years. Most of the money that these women make goes directly to the hands of their pimps, with little or nothing going to the victims.

On February 5, 2010, The Sun reported that an Irish Pimp, who ran a multi-million euro prostitution ring in Wales, was sentenced to seven years in prison. Thomas Carroll, his wife Shamiela Clark, and his daughter Toma Carroll, were all sentence for trafficking women and forcing them into prostitution. The girls, who would charge their clients 250 euro for an hour, had to lodge their earning into Toma Carroll’s account. Carroll would than transfer the money to her father’s account. In 2006, 111,000 euros was deposited, 113 million euro was deposited in 2007, and 500,000 was lodged by September 2009. Trafficked women retain little or nothing of the money they earn.

Women and children of these sex industries are immediately discarded when they no longer become attractive to their potential clients, or are no longer profitable to their pimps. In Cambodia, children are considered commodities, and are often tortured and killed when they have outlived their usefulness. Another reason for the short lifespan of these victims is they are more susceptible to diseases. With inadequate health care and poor hygiene, many victims are infected by AIDS and other transmitted diseases.

Victims are giving drugs and rape repeatedly by their captures to break their wills and prevent them from escaping. These captures would usually be the first to rape their victims, in order to give them ‘lessons’ on how to please their clients. If these trafficked women or girls do no meet the quota or the requirements to satisfy the clients, they would be quickly sold off to another person or brothel. Women and children are also given drugs so they can earn more money by taking on more clients. Some women and girls choose to take methamphetamines, in order to endure the physical and mental pain. They also take the drugs to be able to take on more clients. Kuntea Pang, left her home in Kampong Cham, to find her sister in the city. When she arrived there, a woman and said that she would help Kuntea find her sister. Instead, this woman brought her to a brothel and gave her methamphetamines. The drug made her not want to eat and not want to sleep, qualities that are desirable in sex workers. The methamphetamine also made Kuntea forget what happened to her as she was being held captive.

When women and children are discarded, new recruits must take her place in the sex industry. Traffickers target victims according to the taste of their customers. In Thailand, young virgins in the sex tourism industry are considered a prize commodity. Virgins are prized because of their youth, inexperience, and the lack of sexually transmitted disease. Child virgins are especially prized because of their beauty and lack of sexual transmitted diseases. Larry Hilblom, the founder of DHL courier service, was one of those people who preferred the innocent of children. Generic testing had confirmed that he fathered at least four children from three Pacific Rim countries (Scheer, 1997). Shared Hope International (SHI), a non-profit group, undertook a 12 month long operation of commercial sexual exploitation in Jamaica, Japan, Netherlands, and the United States. SHI revealed a sophisticated business model for the sex tourism and sex trafficking. They compared this business with being in a mall. In a mall, buyers are able to choose from a variety of human products of different ages and different colors. David Hodge wrote that traffickers increase their market by being able to provide younger and younger females to be used for prostitution. The United States Central Intelligence Agency, estimates that traffickers can earn about $250,000 for each trafficked women.

Child pornography is another type of sex industry that has become highly profitable for pimps and child sex operators. Child pornography includes magazines, videos, photographs, books, pictures, audiotapes, motion pictures, and images on the Web that show children in sexually explicit acts. Barri Flowers (2001) said, ‘Some children are forced into child pornography by pimps and operators of sex rings or sex tourism, where they turn into sex slaves’. In Germany, the sales of child porn are estimated to exceed $250 million. The biggest consumer of child porn comes from the United States, with their numbers to be about 6 million dollars annually. Eighty-five percent of the worldwide sales of pornography come from America (Flowers, 2001).

So how much does a human body cost in this underground economy? The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) gave an example of how profitable the selling of human being is. They used the example of a girl who was kidnapped in the village of Nepal. This girl would be trafficked to India and sold for $1000 and then trafficked into the United States and sold for $20,000. Janet Bagnall from the Gazette, wrote that young girls from Nepal are sold at the Indian border for four dollars. They are then sold a second time to brothel owners in Bombay for $500 to $1000. These girls would not be able to leave the brothels until their purchase price has been paid off. The purchase price plus interest would be a ‘debt’ that these Nepali girls must pay off, which might stretch on indefinitely. The United Nation estimates that human traffickers can earn about 10 billion dollars per year, and the average sale price for a slave is $12,500.

Globalization

Traffickers, pimps, organized groups have found another way to increase their profit margins. Instead of staying within their own countries, these opportunists have found a way to take their industry globally. By being able to transport women and children to a wider range, they are able to supply a larger clientele. Criminal gangs have started trafficking their victims to area where they believe there will be a high demand for sexual services, such as rock concerts, football games, and other major sporting events. During the World Cup games in 2006, there was an increase of sex trafficking to meet the demand for commercial sex during that event. It is estimated that more than 40,000 women and children were transported to Germany for the month long event. Many victims were placed in mega brothel, quickie shacks, and other underground networks that existed in Germany during that time.

The Internet has made it especially easy for clients to find their victims in other countries. Technological advances have made it possible for a much broader, international group of consumers to travel long distances to have sex with minors in the 20th and the 21st century. The Internet is highly unregulated and the fastest growing communication network in the world. In just a matter of minutes, a man can book a plane ticket, get a hotel, and reserve the body of a female all in the comfort and privacy of his own home. Donna Hughes said that ‘advertisements and endorsements for sex tourism, mail order brides, brothels, strip bars, and escort services are openly and easily found on the World Wide Web’. Men are able to go onto internet discussion groups and find information on the sex industry. They are able to find names of brothels in other countries, information on the price of women and girls. Descriptions on sex tours found in The World Sex Guide would have information on hotel prices, taxi services, telephone numbers, cost of alcohol, what kinds of sex act that can be bought, the price for each act, and the comments about the women. In 1995, an American man who operated Pimps R’ Us, organized a sex tour to the Dominican Republic. The tour was four days and three nights and included oral sex from a prostitute chosen by the tour guide. As of 1996, 25 companies in the United States offer ‘sex tours’ to other countries. These packaged deals will include plane tickets, accommodations, ground transportation, local guide, and the promise of sexual encounters with local girls. One U.S based sex tour operator promises customer that they will never sleep alone in this tour.

Women and children are trafficked everyday to underdeveloped and developed countries. It is not uncommon for women and children to be trafficked from countries that have economic and political problems. ‘The flow of the trafficked is from poorer to richer countries. From Latin America to the United States and Western Europe, from Eastern Europe to Western Europe, the Middle East, Japan, North America; from Africa to Europe; from Nepal to India; from Burma, Cambodia, and Vietnam to Thailand; from Thailand to Japan and Australia (Baird, 2007). Many of the women and girls are taken and trafficked into the commercial sex industry. The United Nation (UN) believes that the victim of trafficking spans the globe, ‘from 127 countries to be exploited in 137 countries’. Most of the slaves come from Albania, Belarus, China, Romania, Russia, and Thailand. They are then trafficked to destinations such as Asia, western Europe, North America, and the Middle East. It is estimated that as many as half of the 100,000 women and children working in brothels in Bombay came from Nepal (Wilson, 1997). Since the 1990’s, girls are being trafficked to Thailand from neighboring countries. These countries are Myanmar, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Cambodia, Vietnam, and the Yunnan Province in China. Women and girls are trafficked from Cambodia primary from Vietnam. The victims are brought from Cambodia and sent to brothels in Phnom Penh to work. Some Cambodians are transported out to other countries like Thailand, Malaysia, China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. The regions with substantial child trafficking burdens include West Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States, and Latin America (Beyrer 2004). In Quebec, organized crime network can recruit and transport Russian women from their homes and into Quebec message parlors with 3 weeks.

Foreign tourists who travel to these countries come from fairly rich, developed countries. A large number of foreign sex tourists are males from wealthy industrialized countries like the United States, Germany, United Kingdom, Australia, France, and Japan. A high number of tourists come from the Unites States. ‘Each year foreign travelers from predominantly Western countries pump billions of dollars into the economies of developing nations when they purchase sexual services’ (Andrews, 2004). Foreigners feel that paying for sex with a female or male is part of the travel experience. It is hard to estimate how many foreign tourists frequent these Southeast Asian countries because many tourists evade arrest in these countries that they commit the crimes. Child sex tourist face little fear of being caught because there is a relatively low risk of being prosecuted in the countries that they committed their criminal act. Police corruption and the government turning a blind eye is another reason these men get away with their crimes. ‘Most developing nations have little incentive for domestic enforcement because tourism is one of the main driving forces behind their economies’ (Andrews, 2004). It is very difficult for victims to seek help from institutions that were mandated to protect people; instead these institutions also become the ‘puppets’ of organized gangs. Some peace officers are paid to look the other way by pimps, organized gangs, or traffickers. Corrupt law enforcement officials are giving bribes or sexual services in return for not arresting pimps or brothel owners (Andrews, 2004). In Cambodia, Dr. Kek Galabru, president of a human rights group, said that public official profit greatly from protection of child sex trade and that they themselves are frequent patrons of the brothels where the children are sold. Sri, a fourteen year old girl from Thailand, was sold to a brothel owned by an ‘investment club’. The members of this club were business and professional men, government bureaucrats, and local politicians. These men would leave the management of the brothel to pimps and a bookkeeper, to keep their hands clean. When Sri tried to run away from the brothel, a policeman found her and brought her back to her pimp. Slave trade requires the direct or indirect involvement of national governments (Kapstein, 2006). Since the profits are so high, traffickers have plenty of money to pay off government officials and local law enforcement. The U.S House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary said, ‘sex tourists often escape prosecution in the host countries, because of factors ranging from ineffective law enforcement, lack of resources, corruption and immature legal system’.

Sex slavery is not only happening in other countries, but also in the United States. In the United States, brothels are operating as legitimate message parlors, spas, and acupuncture clinics. The U.S. Department of Justice prosecuted 555 people for human trafficking between 2001 and 2005, of those cases 129 cases involved child sex trafficking. The State Department revealed that 17,500 people are trafficked into the United States every year against their will. Shared Hope International and the Federal Bureau of Investigation estimated that every year 100,000 underage girls are forced or lured into the world of prostitution. Las Vegas is one city where minor sex trafficking is happening in large numbers. Children are being trafficked to Las Vegas from all over the United States. Interstates and expressways are making it easier for pimps to transport their victims across state lines. Truck drivers are recruited to drive minors to different states and deposit them to truck stops. CV radios become a very useful tool for truck drivers and sex workers to find each other. Sex workers would announce that they are available by letting the drivers know what channel she is on. If a driver is interested, he would tell the prostitute where he is located and what color is ‘house’ is. Truck stops are the perfect place for hidden crimes to happen because they are isolated and out of the public and law enforcement view.

United States Department of State Report

The major source, The U.S. Department of State’s annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) annual report, is utilize to determine the trafficking efforts from various countries and to connect it to foreign assistance that performs in that region (Schuckman, p. 85). The report is arranged from Tier 1 to be most compliant to Tier 3 as noncompliant (McKinney, 2009):

Tier 1: Countries that fully comply with the act’s minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.

Tier 2: Countries that do not fully comply with the minimum standards but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance.

Tier 2: Watch List: Countries on Tier 2 requiring special scrutiny because of high or significantly increasing number of victims; failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat trafficking in persons; or an assessment as Tier 2 based on commitments to take action over the next year.

Tier 3: Countries that neither satisfy the minimum standards nor demonstrate a significant effort to come into compliance. Countries in this tier are subject to potential non-humanitarian and non-trade sanctions.

Italy

According to U.S. Department TIP for June 2009, Italy has a Tier 1 status. However,

Italy is one of many countries that traffickers harbor and transport women and children internationally for sexual exploitation. ‘Women and children are trafficked for forced prostitution mainly from Nigeria, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, Albania, and Ukraine but also from Russia, South America, North and East Africa, the Middle East, China, and Uzbekistan’ (McKinney, 2009). According to the NGO statistics, there are two-thirds of the ninety percent of illegal foreign seasonal workers in Italy. This provides a larger opportunity for traffickers to prey on these victims. Moreover, these traffickers make it difficult for law enforcements to track the victims by constantly rotating these victims from various cities for a short period of a time. Even with the challenges, the Italian Government will continue to comply with the limited regulations to stop human trafficking.

The Government of Italy is not showing mercy when traffickers are prosecuted and convicted. Italy abides by the 2003 Measures Against Trafficking in Persons law. This law provides the convicted a sentence of eight to twenty years of imprisonment, punishment equivalent to other grave offenses (US Senate Subcommittee, 2000). If the convicted was charged for trafficking for forced labor, then other laws will be used. ‘Incomplete data for 2008 show the government investigated 2,221 individuals, arrested 316, prosecuted 480 trafficking suspects, and convicted 225 trafficking offenders, compared to 163 convicted for the same time frame in 2007’ (US Senate Subcommittee, 2000). According to NGO ECPAT, roughly 80,000 Italian men travel to Kenya, Thailand, Brazil, Latin America, and the Czech Republic for sex tourism annually. In May 2008, an Italian male committed an offense both Thailand and Cambodia for child sex tourism. The Government sentenced him a total of fourteen years of imprisonment.

The Italian Government not only offers punishment, but also protection for the victims. According to Article 18, anit-trafficking law allows authorities to grant residence permits and provide protection and job training services to victims of trafficking. Also, Article 13 provides for six months’ assistance to victims. With these assistance provided, these victims will have some hope for independence and begin a new life. Another benefit provided for victims is that they are not generally penalized if they file complaints against

their traffickers. This will assist in more prosecutions and encourages victims to become

proactive.

Russia

According to the U.S. State Department TIP June 2009 report, Russian ranks Tier 2-watch list. This is alarming. According to Schuckman, the activists that work for human rights, international, and humanitarian organizations, argue that countries that are technically in Tier 3 are granted a higher Tier 2-watch list as a diplomatic gesture. Nevertheless, Russia continues to be an origin as a transit and destination country for traffickers of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation. The two most vulnerable victims continue to struggle, women and children. Some Russian women are trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation to Turkey, Greece, South Africa, Germany, Poland, Italy, Israel, Spain, Vietnam, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, and the Middle East ‘ (US Senate Subcommittee, 2000). Additionally, children are trafficked for sexual exploitation. Men from the United States and Western Europe travel to St. Petersburg for the sole purpose of child sex tourism ‘ (US Senate Subcommittee, 2000).

The Russian Government shows no urgency to punish the traffickers and do not maintain nor keep statistics. There are statutes such as Article 127 of the Russian Criminal Code. It ‘prohibits both trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor… five years’ imprisonment for trafficking crimes and aggravating circumstances may extend penalties up to fifteen years’ imprisonment’ (US Senate Subcommittee, 2000). According to the 2008 Report, there is no updated information provided regarding the three high-level officials with the possible connection in the human trafficking case.

Russia did not show that they provided any assistance to these victims. NGOs or international organizations were obligated to provide help. Furthermore, the trafficked

victims did not have the opportunity to receive aid from the 2008 witness protection

program. Not only help was not readily accessible by the Russian Government, there were minimal awareness information conveyed to the citizens about how to prevent from becoming a potential victim. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs contributed awareness to the vulnerable Russians about the existing dangers of human trafficking.

Russian Government is not proactive like other countries because the country has been taken over by the Russian Mafia. According to Sterling, the Mafia has taken over Russia and may already have the possibility to gain some control in the United States by now. There are over three thousand gangs, more than three million people who work for them, and over 700 known godfathers present and in prison, since last reported in 1994. They are infamous and maintain dominance in crimes that involve with prostitution, extortion, theft, forgery, armed assault, contact killing, swindling, drug trafficking, arms smuggling, gambling, loan sharking, embezzling, money laundering, and black marketing. In short, it is basically every crime under the sun. They are powerful because they have plenty of money and control.

Victims

Because this is such hidden crime, the numbers of how many people are trafficked every year differ depending on the organizations you look into. The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) estimated that 700,000 to 2 millions are trafficked across international borders annually. The U.S. Department of State (2004) estimates that 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked every year. The United Nation Population Fund estimates that each year 2 million girls between the ages 5 to 15 are introduced into the commercial sex market. On the website of the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1,229 alleged incidents of human trafficking were reported to the task force from January 1, 2007 to September 30, 2008. Most (83%) of the reported incidents involved sex trafficking. How are these victims exposed to this underground world were they are subjected to regular physical, mental, and sexual abuse? How do traffickers find victims to exploit?

Most of the trafficked victims are involuntarily forced into this underground industry. Some victims are lured into other countries with false promises of a good future for themselves and their family. In some poor, rural areas, one daughter’s earnings as a prostitute could support an entire family. A 26 yr old Cambodian woman, named Yan Kosal, needed to find a better way to support her aging parents. Her mother was blind and her father was too frail to work. A woman approach Yan and told her she could earn $90 a month selling snacks in Thailand. Once Yan and the women arrived in Thailand, Yan was quickly sold off to a brothel owner. Eventually, she was able to escape the brothel and return to her parents in Cambodia. Vika was trafficked to Dubai when she was 19. A women in Moldova offered Vika a good job in Dubai, instead this women sold her off to a pimp. This pimp had to teach her how to perform oral, anal sex, and anything she needed to do. The pimp also beat her into submission. Within several weeks, Vika got pregnant because the men paid extra for sex without a condom. She had to service clients while she was pregnant. The men paid double to have sex with a pregnant woman. In the 9 months period that Vika was carrying her child, she was sold 3 times. The pimp bought a fold-out bed and made a hole in the middle for her stomach, so the clients would be more comfortable. At times, Vika wondered what kinds of trauma her baby was experiencing while she was servicing these men. Deception plays a big part with getting the victims into the hands of the traffickers. There have been cases where women were wooed into another country with the promise of love and marriage. Once they get off the plane or train, they are taken into a home and become a prisoner. In European countries, legitimate offers of employment attract women with the opportunity of being waitresses, models, dancers, etc. They are also approached by men in public places, such as discos, bars, and bus stations, with promises of good opportunities of working abroad. In some cases, women and children are abducted off the streets and forced to engage in sexual activities for the profits of others. The victims who are able to escape this profitable industry are too ashamed to tell their families about what happened to them when they were held captive.

A photojournalist named, Mimi Chakarova, decided to go undercover to Dubai to investigate the world of human trafficking for the sex industry. Chakarova was prepared to see women who were forced into the underground world against their will and unable to leave. Some victims find that their economic circumstances have pushed them into selling their bodies. Instead, she found women willingly going into prostitution because the money was too good to pass. Chakarova met a woman named Sasha who was trafficked from Siberia to service clients against her will. Sasha was able to run away from her madam and decided to work as a prostitute for herself. When the question was asked why she didn’t get a legitimate job in Dubai as a salesperson, she said she could earn more working one night as a prostitute then working for one month as a salesperson. Sasha charges $500 dirham (about $140 US) in one hour with a client. She was able to send enough money to Siberia so her family could build a new house. Every woman in Dubai has a price, and the men have enough money to pay that price. Price depends on nationality. In the bathroom of one of the nightclubs in Dubai, multiple faces of different nationality were in front of the mirror fixing their makeup. Chinese women are the cheapest around $150 dollars, then Africans and Eastern European, and Middle Eastern are the most expensive, charging $1000 per night.

Money is the root of all problems and in some circumstances families are forced to sell their own children as prostitutes. Poverty and desperation have forced families to knowingly give their children to brothels to be used for sexual services. Some children are lured by ‘friends’ who promised the families that their children will have a good job in the city. Children who are forced into being sexually exploited experience constant physical and psychological abuse. They are targets for rapes, assault, torture, abuse, and murder by their traffickers, pimps, and customers. More often then not, children are poorly fed and suffer from severe malnutrition. Prostituted children are more likely to suffer from sexually transmitted disease, such as herpes, Chlamydia, crabs, gonorrhea, and syphilis. Children are a greater risk because their body tissue is more fragile than that of an adult. Some children develop symptoms of depression, lack of self-esteem, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Suicide is a common escape for sexually exploited children.

Albania’s Attempted Solutions

European Union and the United Nations had made many attempts to pressure the government of various countries regarding the issue of human trafficking. Finally out of the denial phase regarding the importance of this issue, one government actually stepped up to make an effort to create a solution, the Albanian government. According to United States Senate Subcommittee, the Albanian government, non-government organizations (NGOs), and other governments, especially Italy, collaborated to respond to the issues on how to obviate human trafficking, how traffickers should be punished and enforced, and seek alternate routes to help these victims (US Senate Subcommittee, 2000). These three elements entail activities on how to carefully study about human trafficking, to shield these trafficked women and children through education so they will not get lured into false promises and exploitation, to have NGOs provide them with shelters, to reincorporate programs for these victims; to enhance social and economical plight, to enforce punishment and to bring legal action against traffickers, and to heighten national boarder controls (Gjermnei, 2006).

Albania legislatures made attempts to enforce severe punishment on the dilemma of human trafficking, but these actions were unsuccessful. The ordinances failed due to the minimal amounts of prosecution accomplishments and police corruption (Aonowitz, 2003). However, Albania’s neighbor, Italy, had a better success rate to make stringent laws on the traffickers after the rising number of murders that resulted from human trafficking. In addition, another law passed to assist these victims in this predicament. Unlike other countries, even if these women do not implicate these traffickers, they still have the opportunity to have their residency renewed for half a year. This will provide these women an opportunity to collect proof to have their traffickers prosecuted.

The Women’s Center in Tirana, Albania, cooperated with the German Embassy in Tirana and the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ financial assistance executed an array of education to prevent future victims of human trafficking (Gjermeni, 2006). They began their efforts with the most vulnerable victims ranging from middle school students, to high school students, and to the public. Their initial attempt is to distribute leaflets to caution them that human trafficking is a real problem that is currently on the rise. Next, there were posters with messages of short stories displayed in bus stations and learning institutions. For example, one poster presented a woman who was promised to experience utopia in Italy by a trafficker, but in reality, she was enslaved and endured pain and misery. Furthermore, The Women’s Center also broadcasted this issue over the radio station for the experts to assist any callers with inquires on this topic. Also, there was a television documentary called ‘Life

sold on the sidewalks’. This center has made an enormous effort to ensure that their message is clearly distributed to prevent future victims of human trafficking.

Albania and other countries recognize the complexity of this issue and realize that perhaps the only successfully resolution is the working together among social workers, NGOs, and government entities domestically and internationally (Gjermeni, 2006). Even with all these prevention attempts made by The Women’s Center, it may not be successful alone. The core purposes why these females are easily enticed are because they live in poverty and want to make a better life for themselves or their family. Therefore, the first effort is to provide them a chance for better legal employment that can allow them to survive in society. In addition, there are programs put together to provide women an opportunity to become an entrepreneur. They will have a chance to be approved for a loan that includes low interest rates for a lengthy time period to assist them with a hopeful beginning to get out of poverty. This will also assist the victims of human trafficking to not become victims again; Hopefully, they will get some productive psychological help.