Sex Trafficking

"But human trafficking has many faces and the one that affects women worldwide in the most appalling manner is sex trafficking."
~Sabina Trojanova

Read HERE and watch the video of The Price of Sex by Mimi Chakarova.

'A 2011 paper published “Sex Trafficking: Trends, Challenges and Limitations of International Law,” notes that, since 2000, the number of sex-trafficking victims has risen while costs associated with trafficking have declined: “Coupled with the fact that trafficked sex slaves are the single most profitable type of slave, costing on average $1,895 each but generating $29,210 annually, leads to stark predictions about the likely growth in commercial sex slavery in the future.” In 2008, 12.3 million individuals were classified as “forced labourers, bonded labourers or sex-trafficking victims,” the study states. Approximately 1.39 million of these individuals worked as commercial sex slaves, with women and girls comprising 98%, or 1.36 million, of this population.'
~"Sex Trafficking: Trends, Challenges and Limitations of International Law" (journalistsresource.org)

Women and children have been victims of sex trafficking for thousands of years. It's an international plague that has to be brought into awareness and solutions should be sought to curb this devastating problem.

Millions of women and children have been kidnapped and transported to an unknown place for the purpose of sex trafficking. Many were sold by their family for a meagre amounts of money to sex trafficking syndicate. Thousands were tricked into the sex industry via fake job offers. Most of them suffered repeated tortures before giving up their fate to these brutal syndicate. They have no way to escape from this exploitation, except when they die or are infected with HIV virus. It's really saddening to see these women and children are being treated as such.

In this modern era where we discuss and bring the concept of gender equality into light, it's undeniably true that women are still being treated as 'second class' citizens in many places in the world. Therefore, even if the victims were saved, people still stigmatized them for being 'dirty', and their opportunity for employment, making friends and standing out in the world is diminished. No one ever put themselves in victims' shoes. Being the victims of sex traffickers aren't their fault. They are being forced to do so in order to survive. All of them would hope to be rescued in order to get out of the vicious cycle and to be given a second chance in the society. Their hopes are destroyed when the society shunt them just because they are the victims of sex trafficking.

There are many organizations in the world that fight for these women and children. Even so, these women who participate in these organizations have to suffer a fate in which their love ones are being kidnapped by the sex trafficking syndicate. It leaves a permanent scar on them. And the cruel fact is that these incidents will continue to happen unless all the sex trafficking syndicates are caught and subjected to a law appropriate for their evil deeds.

The victims should not be shunt away. Besides helping them to conquer their fear and trauma, they deserve a chance to blend into our society, to be given the opportunity similar to other men and women, and to tell their stories without being discriminated or ostracised.

-Tiana