People Are NOT Possessions

     Several decades ago at a bar, a drinking buddy made a proposition to me. "I have sex with businessmen for money. Sometimes a man wants two women. Do you want to be the second woman?"

     I was quite drunk. Even so, I had the sense to say no. I wasn't interested.

     Drinking buddy never brought up the subject again.

     

     I've been getting educated via books and an acquaintanceship with a human trafficking victim who was recently rescued from slavery. And I've been learning things that I have never thought about before.

     Victims of human trafficking can be men, women, children, whole families. They may be foreigners, here legally or illegally. They may be citizens of the United States. They may be from cities, towns, villages. They come from all socio-economic classes and all races and places. They may be involved in working for substandard to no wages and not free to leave or communicate with whoever they want to-- labor trafficking. They may be involved in commercial sex-- sex trafficking.

     Male prostitutes are sometimes called "rent boys"-- especially if they are younger.

     Child virgins fetch a higher price than non-virgins.

     A human trafficking victim may be fearful of police or other authority figures. He or she may have rags for clothing and few personal possessions. He or she may not know the language or the culture. Or if they are native to the country, they may be in a different part of the country. Child slaves are probably not enrolled in any local school. 

     Illegals who cross the Mexican border with coyotes are sometimes trafficked instead. They are told that they must pay back any additional monies by working for the coyote or his or her associates. 

     Slaves may be found in houses acting as domestics, in brothels, walking the streets as sex workers held captive by a vicious pimp, in factories and restaurants, laboring on farms and in fields, working as strippers or pole dancers in clubs, working at a hotel or motel... 

     We have to open our eyes and observe what is happening around us. 

     Children from rural places [like villages of huts] who were living in extreme poverty often cannot return to their village. Their parents may sell them off again. Some parents may not understand what their kids will be going through. Others may understand but do it anyway.

     Whole families have been forced into work trafficking because they were given small loans. When they are unable to pay it back-- plus steep interest-- the family is taken to a compound and put to work in a factory or a rice field. The debt is never paid off.

     Within the first twenty four hours or so, the human trafficking victim may be beaten and/or raped and/or experiences other forms of extreme violence. The captors may tell him or her that the family back home will be killed off if there any attempt to escape.

     The TIP reports are biased in favor of countries that the United States is friendly with and against countries that the United States is not friendly with.

     Some N.G.O.s [non-government organizations] have been suspected or accused of skewing stats or using false stats in order to show that their area, city, town, or state has "more" slavery than other ones do.

     Sometimes a woman (rather than a man) will approach a target and offer the lure of quick money in the commercial sex industry. The woman may be a sex worker or a madam pimp or a bottom. The favorite or most trusted woman prostitute is called the pimp's bottom.

     A pimp may pretend to fall in love with his target and then boom, spring it on her.  

     The Superbowl is also an opportunity for sex workers to ply their trade. [N.B. I have nothing against adult sex workers who are prostituting of their own volition and unattached to vicious pimps, there of their own free will, and able to keep most or all of their earnings... What I don't like are sex traffickers who force men, women, children, teens into prostitution].

          The aftermath-- after a slave/human trafficking victim is rescued from their plight-- is very difficult. A multitude of services are required. A vic will need counseling, a safe place to live, a visa [in some cases], replacement of identification cards and personal papers, training and/or services to obtain a job, education, clothing, food, friends.

     Those are some of the things that I have learned within the past week.

     What follows is a list of websites and phone numbers:

http://www.polarisproject.org/about-us/overview

Call 1-888-373-7888 or text BeFree (233733).  Call them to report any suspicions of human trafficking, if you are looking for escape yourself, or if you want training. 24 hours, anywhere in the United States.

Polaris Project list of signs that someone may be a slave:
http://www.polarisproject.org/human-trafficking/recognizing-the-signs



Stop Modern Slavery also has a list of signs: 
http://www.stopmodernslavery.org/resources/indicators/



Free The Slaves has an easy to understand fact sheet:
http://www.freetheslaves.net/Document.Doc?id=34

and a glossary:
https://www.freetheslaves.net/sslpage.aspx?pid=305



End Slavery Now has a list of ideas for taking action:
http://www.endslaverynow.com/?goto=get_involved&section=take_action



The F.B.I. has some info too:
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/civilrights/human_trafficking/human_trafficking



Here is a list of phone numbers for other countries:
http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/other/2011/168859.htm


radical sapphoq says: Slavery still exists today.