Women Trafficking

Trafficking women is a huge problem throughout the entire world, dominating 90 percent of all human trafficking accounts. The Ukraine and many other eastern European countries are the biggest contributors to this global crime. In 2006 alone 376 human trafficking incidents occurred. These are incidents of human trafficking, not the victim count which is much higher. Also in 2006 117,000 women and children fell to human trafficking. Other European countries include, Moldova with 57,000, Romania with 28,000, Belarus with 14,000, and Bulgaria with 9,500. Most of these women are trafficked into the United States. A total 50,000 women are trafficked into the US yearly.

Katya, a young Ukrainian native, was trafficked into the United States in October of 2007. Her captors were costumers at the restraint that she worked at to earn money for food. The men talked to her about the riches of America and how it was a playground filled with money for young girls to grab up. One day, they offered her a job in the US, told her that she would be making so much money that she would be a millionaire. They persuaded her with paid for plane tickets and an apartment free of rent. Katya left with high hopes, but when she arrived in her apartment she realized that it was not what the men told her at all. She was forced to be a stripper in a bar that one of the men owned. She was routinely beaten. In early 2009 Katya and her Russian roommate devised a plan of escape with the help of a routine customer at the bar. Luckily for them, it worked. They helped the police catch their captors. The both of them are now back at home.

A story similar to Katya’s, is Anna’s. She too comes from Ukraine. She left Ukraine in August of 2002, with twelve other women. All thirteen of them were promised to go to Europe and become nannies. Once in Europe they were brought to a house, where they thought the children would be. But they saw no pictures, and when older men started talking about sex they got scared. They tried to tell them that it was all a mistake, but their captors didn’t budge. They raped all the women on the first night. Anna screamed throughout the whole thing until they finally knocked her out. As a result of that first night she lost eighty percent of her vision. Anna tried to escape five long months later, and was successful. Two months later Anna’s captors went to her house and beat her mother in search of Anna. Her mother was hospitalized. Anna and her mother still receive health care for their wounds.

While Eastern Europe is a hot spot of human traffickers, Asia is just as bad and maybe even worse. Japan is the biggest market for trafficked women. Most of the women in the Japanese market are taken from China, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. The total amounts of non-Japanese women that are trafficked are 150,000. They are all mainly used as sex slaves. Also within Japan there is a market for pure Japanese women. The biggest Japanese group that takes part in the trafficking is the Yakuza. Another Asian country that is plentiful with women trafficking accounts is Thailand. Thai women are trafficked all over the world. Some of the countries include Japan, Malaysia, South Africa, Bahrain, Australia, Singapore, Europe, Canada and the United States. The Thai women trafficking rate is from 300,000 to 2.8 million yearly.

Emma Lung, a Thai teenager, was persuaded by her best friend to go to work with her in Japan. Her family desperately needed money, so she accepted. She told her mother that she was going to work in Bangkok. Once in Japan, Emma and her friend were taken to Tokyo and told that they owed the owner of a bar 500,000 Thai Baht, or about 20,000 US dollars. She was forced to flirt and tease customers and get paid 30,000 Yen, or 300 US dollars. Many times, Emma was put into positions with the Yakuza, beaten and forced to perform oral sex. One day while walking home from work, a Japanese police officer stopped Emma and demanded he see her passport. She told him that she left it in her room. She was taken to the police and later deported. She never got a cent of the money she had earned.

Women sex trafficking is a business that affects millions of people each year. Women get treated horribly, like Anna. They have to sell their bodies for money that they supposedly “owe”, like Emma. Also, they have to stand by and be raped repeatedly, like all of the women. What more proof do we need that this is a cause worth stopping?

Sources:

"Escaped: Sex Slave in the Heartland : Video : Investigation Discovery." ID : Investigation Discovery : Hollywood Crimes, Forensics, Murderers. Web. 21 Jan. 2010.

HumanTrafficking.org
TryUkraine.com
Webster.edu