Sexual slavery is one of the world’s fastest growing crimes and is a common problem we are facing throughout the world. It is known to occur in almost all the continents in the world. Today, many children are be trafficked into sex slavery daily in an abundant form. Sexual slavery or forced sexual slavery is the organized coercion of unwilling people into different sexual practices. Reports show that human rights groups estimate that anywhere between 12.3 million and 27 million people are enslaved in forced or bonded labor, child labor, sexual servitude, and involuntary servitude at any given time. In the United States today, the FBI estimates that well over 100,000 children and young women are trafficked. They range in age from 9 to 19, with the average age being 11. In other countries there are girls as young as six years old working as a prostitute? These are not bad children or children who choose this life, but are sometimes victimize by their own family. Many victims are no longer just runaways, or kids who've been abandoned. Many of them are from what would be considered "good" families, who are lured or coerced by clever predators.
Today, these predators discover clever new ways to lure children into sex slavery. Some offer modelings contracts to teens or tell them they are photographers and kidnap them which lead to being sold as a sex slave. The use of the internet is highly favorable for trafficking children into sex slavery. These slaves not only work as sex slaves in that country they were kidnapped but also being imported and exported around the world.
Last year in my home country of Trinidad and Tobago large shipment containers were found that had thousands of little children getting ready to be exported to other countries on the sea-port. When I heard about this case on the news I was in complete shock and disappointed in the people who would carry out these acts on helpless children. I know that the country still suffers from extreme poverty but resorting to selling children in to sex slavery is disgusting and is no excuse for getting out of poverty. I later found out that the police received a tip and busted them through their investigation. However, many of the children did not survive because they died due to heat exhaustion and starvation.
Many countries that still hold old traditional of arrange marriages. Fortunately, some of them have been exposed to selling young girls as sex slaves to older men. They try to use the traditions as an excuse or cover up to sell young women to men to pay off family debt or for trade of a new possession. However, I personally follow in a culture that follows old traditional ways but don’t follow in pre arrange marriages or marriages of girls from an early age. The traditional guidelines set for young women and men, are that they are to remain virgins until marriage and or become born again virgins before marriage. The traditions we follow are closely to those of the ancient biblical days and are respected amongst its followers. But it does not give elders to use young girls for personal possession or advocate any type of sex slavery.
In those poorer countries, researchers say some parents sell their own daughters into slavery to pay household expenses and buy food. Some of them actually don’t view it being something wrong. It is reported that some parents feel like they are doing something good for their daughters because they are being used to keep the family from extreme poverty and that should be seen as a good thing. Also that the girl who sold in slavery may be exempt from poverty and should just do what is asked of their masters and they would be ok.
Slavery is something from early historic days. I discovered that some countries in the early 1920’s sold women into slavery and the League of Nation’s claim to have signed documents have it abolished and track the import and exportation of human trafficking. However, the League of Nations failed to support Ruler’s in many African nations to protect them from outside forces attacking their countries. This led to significant deaths and rapes amongst the African continent by outsiders from Italy and Rome.
Today the United Nation of Drugs and crime (UNODC) launched a global human trafficking awareness campaign and has joined forces with partners in more forty countries to produce new techniques to track those involved in the sex trade. They work together developing strategies that will work universally to reduce this criminal activity.
The G-8 should come together with an untied force to abolish sex slavery throughout the world. It may sound hard but it’s not impossible to create a system that punishes sex slave drivers and protect our valuable resource, our children. Every child in every country is important and has a natural inborn right to safety and protection from predators.
Report Suspected Incidents of Trafficking
in the United States; call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center’s 24-hour toll-free hotline number at 888-3737-888
Works Cited:
Flickr.com (n.d.) http://farm1.static.flickr.com/53/148239165_973ea4870b.jpg.
Frontline; sex slaves (n.d) Retrieved May 8, 2010 from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/slaves/etc/stats.html.
Gender across borders (2009). Retrieved May 8, 2010. http://genderacrossborders.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/human_trafficking_by_me19leela.jpg.
