Sofia, a former victim of sex trafficking. Photo courtesy of Nicole Bengiveno, New York Times.
Some of them run away. Some of them simply have nowhere to go.
But the lives of prostitutes—often coerced into sex slavery—are usually misunderstood.
Trafficking is considered the third largest industry for organized crime, generating billions of dollars annually.
Here’s a news roundup of some recent news stories about sex trafficking:
New York Times: “Shining Light on the Role of Drivers in Prostitution” by Christine Haughney:
Sofia, a sweet-voiced and cherubic 24-year-old, was one of the lucky ones: She managed to escape much of the suffering shared by the millions of sex workers trafficked throughout the world, and even saw two of her traffickers forced out of the country and back to Mexico.
But the young woman said she still feels that complete justice has eluded her, because the drivers who ferried her from john to john, her de facto bosses, remain at large.
Deseret News: “Stolen Innocence: The battle against modern-day slavery in the US” by Elizabeth Stuart:
ATLANTA — Maybe it was the defiant glint in her eye. Maybe it was the way she dragged her feet on the way to join the other underage girls in tube tops and 8-inch heels hawking their bodies in a bad part of Atlanta. Keisha Head wasn’t sure. But somehow Sir Charles always knew when she was considering trying to escape.
“You better not be thinkin’ ’bout leaving,” the pimp would say. “You know what’s gonna happen.”
CBS News: “Captive sex slave for 10 years tells her story” by CBS News:
For 10 years, Tanya Kach, of McKeesport, Pa., was held as a sex slave under her abductor’s complete control. Now, she’s come out to tell her amazing survival story.
In 1996, Kach was a 14-year-old girl carrying around grown-up problems. Her parents were splitting up. And, like most girls that age, adjusting to the teenage years was tough.
Thai workers at a press conference at Wat Thai, Los Angeles. Photo by Patricia Nazario/KPCC.
THAI WORKERS COME FORWARD IN BIGGEST HUMAN TRAFFICKING CASE IN US HISTORY
Via Neon Tommy: Several dozen Thai workers—many of them hiding their faces behind scarves and sunglasses—spoke at a press conference in front of a Thai temple in Los Angeles yesterday. The workers were victims in the largest human trafficking case in U.S. history. Hundreds of Thai workers were allegedly lured into slavery by Beverly Hills-based labor recruiting agency Global Horizons Manpower. They paid the agency up to $17,000 to get placed into jobs on American farms. But instead, they were enslaved, unable to leave, and saddled with bogus debts they were forced to work off. The press conference was helmed by the Thai Community Development Center, a non profit organization that assisted in the FBI investigation against the recruiting agency.
MAJOR MOTION PICTURE ON MODERN DAY SLAVERY TO BE DIRECTED BY INDIAN ACTRESS/FILMMAKER NANDITA DAS
Via IndiaGlitz: The film, titled “Trafficking,” is written by former Free the Slaves board member Siddharth Kara. The movie “tells the story of three young women from India, Nigeria and Ukraine forced into sexual slavery in a brothel in Italy, where they attempt a daring escape.”
Free the Slaves Director of Programs, Karen Stauss was quoted in an AOL News article covering the all male and transgender sex trafficking ring busted in Spain earlier this week. AOL’s Dana Kennedy writes:
In Twist to Sex Trade, Spain Busts Male Prostitute Ring
Young men from Brazil were flown to Spain, kept in crowded, unsanitary conditions and plied with drugs as part of a male prostitution ring smashed this week by police.
The bust marked the first time adult male prostitutes were revealed as part of a structured network within Spain’s flourishing sex-trafficking business, police told the newspaper El Pais.
Clients could contact the men, of which police said there were between 60 and 80, via newspaper and website ads featuring their photos. Spanish police say the men were allegedly given Viagra, cocaine and amyl nitrate to enable them to perform for customers around the clock, and threatened with injury or death if they didn’t comply.
Fourteen people who help run the organization were arrested in Madrid and several other cities in Spain, national police said in a statement. The leader, whom police did not identify, was based on the posh Mediterranean island of Majorca. Reports indicated the majority of clients were men.
“Hearing about [male prostitutes] in global sex trafficking is rare but not unheard of,” Karen Stauss, an expert in human trafficking at the Washington D.C.-based Free the Slaves organization, told AOL News today.
