Post by V on Aug 29, 2010 6:01:42 GMT -5
As I was reading this article, I thought back to a conversation I had with a friend once, about sex trafficking. About the tactics that are used to keep women from getting help from the outside or from leaving, or from refusing to have sex. These are not secret tactics, many documentaries are done that explicit mention this faux and never-ending "debt" this women are told they must pay off. The scare tactics involved. The punishments involved. Yet, so many people don't seem to know about it. Despite these documentaries being easily accessible in print and in televised and movie forms. They are at libraries, they are on regular television channels that you can get via simple cable.
The problem is that despite this, it's something that's hardly ever covered in the actual media. Especially the mainstream media. And if it is, it's likely just a small little blurb that nobody pays attention to, waiting to get to hear about the murder in the next town over perpetrated by a member of an ethnic minority group.
It's not to say that the murder should get less coverage than the sex trafficking, but I think they should get equal time. It's just that nobody wants to talk much about it. It's the elephant in the room. People sound shocked when they talk about it, like it's not such a big deal (read: it's uncommon; rarely happens) even though it's sad and tragic. But, it is real. It happens in many countries, some more than others. It happens in African countries, it happens in Asian countries, in European countries, in Norwegian countries, and yes...it happens all too often in the United States.
The media needs to get more involved in covering these cases, rather than just pretending they don't exist or are not as much of a big deal as they really are. This is an issue that primarily hits women and young girls. ANYONE can be tricked or even kidnapped and trafficked for sexual slavery. Anyone. Not even white women are exempt.
This particular article is about sex trafficking in West Africa. But, make no mistake, this happens everywhere. It just doesn't get the amount of attention that we ought to be giving it. It's scary how easy it is for this to happen to a woman, even educated women. It isn't just a danger that exists in another country, away from us, though. It isn't just a danger that exists if we leave our country and go to another one. This danger is ever-present. The tactics used by the traffickers are often universal.
That isn't to say that all women should shut themselves up in their homes, never leave the house, and certainly never travel, without a man there to keep you safe. That's nonsense. But, I think it would happen a lot less if we started paying REAL attention to sex trafficking as a universal problem and taking real steps to combat it. For every trafficking ring that gets busted, you can bet there are a lot more than never do. Numbers can be reduced, instances can be reduced. But, we have to actually take this problem seriously. And, unfortunately, as a society, we are not.
humantrafficking.change.org/blog/view/in_west_africa_sex_trafficking_is_a_river
All countries need to take this seriously. As countries and as societies. And, I really don't feel that that is happening. Until it does, however, there is no real chance at combating this very serious and terrible crime of sex trafficking.
The problem is that despite this, it's something that's hardly ever covered in the actual media. Especially the mainstream media. And if it is, it's likely just a small little blurb that nobody pays attention to, waiting to get to hear about the murder in the next town over perpetrated by a member of an ethnic minority group.
It's not to say that the murder should get less coverage than the sex trafficking, but I think they should get equal time. It's just that nobody wants to talk much about it. It's the elephant in the room. People sound shocked when they talk about it, like it's not such a big deal (read: it's uncommon; rarely happens) even though it's sad and tragic. But, it is real. It happens in many countries, some more than others. It happens in African countries, it happens in Asian countries, in European countries, in Norwegian countries, and yes...it happens all too often in the United States.
The media needs to get more involved in covering these cases, rather than just pretending they don't exist or are not as much of a big deal as they really are. This is an issue that primarily hits women and young girls. ANYONE can be tricked or even kidnapped and trafficked for sexual slavery. Anyone. Not even white women are exempt.
This particular article is about sex trafficking in West Africa. But, make no mistake, this happens everywhere. It just doesn't get the amount of attention that we ought to be giving it. It's scary how easy it is for this to happen to a woman, even educated women. It isn't just a danger that exists in another country, away from us, though. It isn't just a danger that exists if we leave our country and go to another one. This danger is ever-present. The tactics used by the traffickers are often universal.
That isn't to say that all women should shut themselves up in their homes, never leave the house, and certainly never travel, without a man there to keep you safe. That's nonsense. But, I think it would happen a lot less if we started paying REAL attention to sex trafficking as a universal problem and taking real steps to combat it. For every trafficking ring that gets busted, you can bet there are a lot more than never do. Numbers can be reduced, instances can be reduced. But, we have to actually take this problem seriously. And, unfortunately, as a society, we are not.
In West Africa, a river of women and girls flows freely from Nigeria through places like Benin and Ghana, and eventually into the Cote d'Ivoire. They're as young as 15, and at the end of the river they all end up in the same place: sexual slavery. And the governments of West Africa are struggling to build dams against this flow of human beings into bondage.
According to a recent report by Human Rights Watch, a significant human trafficking path has been carved across West Africa, running from Nigeria to Cote d'Ivoire and including several neighboring countries. The victims are mostly young women and girls, many of them teens, who are lured to Cote d'Ivoire with the promise of jobs as cocktail waitresses and hairdressers. Once there, however, the only job waiting is prostitution. In one small town alone in Cote d'Ivoire, there was one brothel which held around 100 Nigerian women. Investigators determined that most, if not all of those women, were trafficked.
Traffickers keep victims from leaving by holding them in debt bondage. They tell the victims they've incurred huge debts traveling from Nigeria which can only be paid off via prostitution, and that they can leave once the debts are paid. But in reality, the debt never fully goes away. Several women had not paid back their debt of $3000 - $4000 after being enslaved in the sex industry for six years. Despite having sex with 20 to 30 men per night, they were unable to buy back their freedom.
In addition to the debt bondage, traffickers threaten victims' families back in Nigeria. They lock up and deny food or water to women who refuse to have sex. They tell victims that policemen will arrest them and put them in jail for their debt or for being in the country without papers. Once women are trafficked, it's hard for them to ever make it home.
In order to dam up this river of human trafficking, West African governments need to strengthen laws against human trafficking, train police forces to identify human trafficking victims and arrest perpetrators, and improve collaboration between countries. Until West African governments work together and with the rest of the world, this river of sex trafficking will keep on raging.
According to a recent report by Human Rights Watch, a significant human trafficking path has been carved across West Africa, running from Nigeria to Cote d'Ivoire and including several neighboring countries. The victims are mostly young women and girls, many of them teens, who are lured to Cote d'Ivoire with the promise of jobs as cocktail waitresses and hairdressers. Once there, however, the only job waiting is prostitution. In one small town alone in Cote d'Ivoire, there was one brothel which held around 100 Nigerian women. Investigators determined that most, if not all of those women, were trafficked.
Traffickers keep victims from leaving by holding them in debt bondage. They tell the victims they've incurred huge debts traveling from Nigeria which can only be paid off via prostitution, and that they can leave once the debts are paid. But in reality, the debt never fully goes away. Several women had not paid back their debt of $3000 - $4000 after being enslaved in the sex industry for six years. Despite having sex with 20 to 30 men per night, they were unable to buy back their freedom.
In addition to the debt bondage, traffickers threaten victims' families back in Nigeria. They lock up and deny food or water to women who refuse to have sex. They tell victims that policemen will arrest them and put them in jail for their debt or for being in the country without papers. Once women are trafficked, it's hard for them to ever make it home.
In order to dam up this river of human trafficking, West African governments need to strengthen laws against human trafficking, train police forces to identify human trafficking victims and arrest perpetrators, and improve collaboration between countries. Until West African governments work together and with the rest of the world, this river of sex trafficking will keep on raging.
humantrafficking.change.org/blog/view/in_west_africa_sex_trafficking_is_a_river
All countries need to take this seriously. As countries and as societies. And, I really don't feel that that is happening. Until it does, however, there is no real chance at combating this very serious and terrible crime of sex trafficking.