MASS MEDIA, HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND SEX SLAVE MARKET

-THE NEW FORM OF TERROR BY NKECHI ALI-BALOGUN

ABSTRACT

Slavery has been a part of human history. Nations which defeated others at war, carried away
the vanquished into slavery and sold them like properties, subjecting them to labour without pay
and forcing them to live at the mercy of their owners with no rights as members of society.
Modern human society found it impossible to maintain slavery in the face of advancing human
civilization and the total embracing of fundamental human rights. Thus every country in the
world rejected slavery and made it illegal. However, the illicit sex industry provides a market for
women and girls who are forced into commercial sex in a clandestine business that is worth an
annual $40bn or the Naira equivalent of

N14.4trillion globally. This study sought to highlight how terrorism feeds on this bourgeoning
industry. It outlines the connection between sex slavery and terrorism and maps the size of the
phenomenon globally. Information gathering is from published online journals guided by an
objective of establishing the connect between sex slavery and terrorism. The study proffers a
suggestion for more proactive ways of treating human trafficking and sex slavery in order
engender more effective combat of the phenomenon.

INTRODUCTION

SLAVERY: Slavery has been described as any system in which principles of property law are
applied to people. This allows individuals to own, buy and sell other individuals as a form of
property. A slave is unable to withdraw unilaterally from such an arrangement and works
without remuneration. Slavery also refers to any situation in which an individual is forced to
work against their own will. Sometimes the terms unfree labour or forced labour are used to refer
to such situations. In ancient customs, slaves may have some rights and protections according to
laws. Slavery began to exist before written history, in many cultures. A person could become
enslaved from the time of their birth, capture, or purchase.

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While slavery was institutionally recognized by most societies, it has now been outlawed in all
recognized countries, the last being Mauritania in 2007. Nevertheless, there are an estimated 45.8
million people subject to some form of modern slavery worldwide.

TYPES OF SLAVERY: The most common form of the slave trade is now commonly referred
to as human trafficking. In other areas, slavery (or unfree labour) continues through practices
such as debt bondage, the most widespread form of slavery today, serfdom, domestic servants
kept in captivity, certain adoptions in which children are forced to work as slaves, child soldiers,
and forced marriage.

HUMAN TRAFICKING AND SEX SLAVERY:

“It ought to concern every person, because it is a debasement of our common humanity. It ought
to concern every community, because it tears at our social fabric. It ought to concern every
business, because it distorts markets. It ought to concern every nation, because it endangers
public health and fuels violence and organized crime. I’m talking about the injustice, the outrage,
of human trafficking, which must be called by its true name – – modern slavery.” President
Barack Obama, September 25, 2012.

Human trafficking primarily involves women and children forced into prostitution and is the
fastest growing form of forced labour, with Thailand, Cambodia, India, Brazil, Nigeria and
Mexico having been identified as leading hotspots of commercial sexual exploitation of children.

Examples of sexual slavery, often in military contexts, include detention in "rape camps" or
"comfort stations," "comfort women", forced "marriages" to soldiers and other practices
involving the treatment of women or men as chattel and, as such, violations of the laws
prohibiting slavery. In 2007, Human Rights Watch estimated that 200,000 to 300,000 children
served as soldiers in current conflicts.

HUMAN TRAFICKING AND TERRORISM: In a world in which slavery is illegal, and yet
there now exist more slaves than there has ever been in global history, war and conflicts have
become by far the most reliable conduits through which human beings, women and young girls,
are pumped into the bourgeoning global slave market. Displaced from their homes after
communities are destroyed by war or marauding terrorist gangs, these women are either captured

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and sold forcibly into slavery, or they are persuaded with false promises of future prosperity, into
giving sex, often in conditions that are way out of their control and against their choice.

Causes

The chief causes of human trafficking are:

1. Poverty

2. Social discrimination

3. Organized crime

4. Corruption in government

5. Insufficient penalties against traffickers

The trafficking of humans is a lucrative industry because it requires little start-up money, and,
unlike drugs, people can be sold repeatedly. According to the State Department’s Annual
Trafficking in Person’s Report cited by Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, the global economic
crisis has increased episodes of human trafficking.

CONFLICT AND TERRORISM FACTORS

POVERTY: Human Trafficking –the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt

of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud,
of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving
of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person,
for the purpose of exploitation—occurs in every single country on the globe. It is a global
epidemic driven by poverty.

It includes the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation,
forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of an
individual’s organs.

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DESTINATION COUNTRIES FOR TRAFFICKED HUMANS: Poverty is a compelling
factor in the human trafficking industry. The most common countries to which victims are
exported are in Western Europe, Western Asia, Arab Nations and North America. The highest
destination countries are Belgium, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Thailand,
Turkey and the U.S.

TERRORISM: Human trafficking and terrorism are two huge social and political issues
globally today. Governments across continents are saddled with the responsibility to identify and
eliminate the root causes. In the year 2000, a researcher by the name of Christine Dolan
conducted a 9 week study throughout Europe in which she interviewed over 500 local people
including children, pimps, police and prostitutes and concluded there is definitively a connection
between human trafficking and terrorism. Her study reported that human trafficking is enabling
international criminals to play into a wider field of international drug trafficking, weapons and
arms dealing, and even piracy, to name a few.

At the beginning of the Millennium, around the same time when the Taliban was being originally
moved out of Afghanistan, there were multiple abductions of women and children reported in
Afghanistan. The Taliban were reportedly abducting women and children and selling them as
sexual slaves, using them as concubines or even collecting them as war booty. When the Taliban
was finally moved out of Afghanistan they left several of the victims behind but then collected
several more.

Terrorist organizations not only utilize human trafficking for financial support (sale of human
beings to sex rings operators in exchange for weapons), they can also align themselves with
trafficking groups to obtain a point of entry into the targeted western destinations. Individuals
who were trafficked into the western countries for the purpose of prostitution could also be
utilized for terrorist activities.

Al Qaeda has been successful at setting up terrorist cells within the U.S. and is also known to use
human trafficking, prostitution and other illegal activities to fund their organization. Nothing can
stop them from using a prostitute or someone closely affiliated to their sex trafficking activities
to carry out an attack within American borders.

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Nigeria and parts of the Middle East today, human trafficking is an intimidating problem and
reduces resistance to nothing. Enslavement and rape of women were used as tools of war.

Trafficking and smuggling have always been part of the business of terrorism and constitute one
activity in the product mix of terrorist groups. Terrorists smuggle drugs, arms, and people. Like
guns and drugs, women and children are traded as commodities in the global black market.

Kidnapping and human trafficking enables terrorist and criminal organizations to finance their
operations. In addition, they are also the consumers of several human trafficking products such
as child soldiers, suicide bombers, domestic servants, exotic dancers, manual laborers, human
organs, and more.

Individuals that are not in direct sight of terrorists may also become victims of human
trafficking. People whose home communities are destroyed by terrorist attacks become
internationally displaced and are vulnerable to human traffickers. Young girls fleeing Syria and
Boko Haram endemic areas in Nigeria have been trafficked to neighboring states and are used
for both sexual and hard labour. In Turkey, crime groups in border areas are exploiting the labour
of Syrian male refugees who cannot find legitimate employment. Many more illegal migrants
face labor trafficking in Europe as they flee the conflict regions of North Africa and the Middle
East.

ECONOMICS OF MODERN SLAVERY

“Human Trafficking, better described as modern day slavery, is one of the most lucrative
criminal enterprises in the world. The ILO estimates human trafficking generates $150.2 billion
in illegal profits each year. More than one-third of these profits are from forced labour
exploitation and the remaining two-thirds are from sexual exploitation. Prostitution has become
much more lucrative than drug dealing. A single ‘pimp’ can earn more than $1.5 million every
six months with six women or children in their ‘stable’. The chances of being apprehended are
fairly small and there is often no one to testify against the pimp as potential witnesses often
‘disappear’ and are later discovered to have been killed.

Estimates on how many people are trafficked globally vary from 20 to 37 million. The Human
Trafficking Center considers the ILO’s number to be most methodologically reliable — 20.9

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million. However, the best estimates have some degree of inaccuracy as it’s difficult to measure
activity within illicit markets. In addition, many survivors who are trafficked do not report these
crimes as they fear the traffickers, or the reactions of their family or community.

Over 32 billion dollars is made annually from human trafficking. Worldwide slavery is a
criminal offense but slave owners can get very high returns for their risk. According to
researcher Siddharth Kara, the profits generated worldwide by all forms of slavery in 2007 were
$91.2 billion. That is second only to drug trafficking, in terms of global criminal enterprises. The
weighted average annual profits generated by a slave in 2007 were $3,175, with a low of an
average $950 for bonded labor and $29,210 for a trafficked sex slave.
Approximately 40% of slave profits each year are generated by trafficked sex slaves,
representing slightly more than 4% of the world's 29 million slaves. The sex trafficking industry
has about 27 million people worldwide are currently living in conditions of slavery (ie are
victims of trafficking). The industry brings in annual profits of $31 billion (as opposed to
revenues). It’s the third largest illicit economy in the world, after drugs and arms smuggling.
And it is on the rise. It’s a very rapidly growing industry, continually fueled by global poverty,
conflicts and terrorism.
COST OF A SLAVE: Globally, the average cost of a slave is $90. Trafficking primarily
involves exploitation which comes in many forms, including: forcing victims into prostitution,
subjecting victims to slavery or involuntary servitude and compelling victims to commit sex acts
for the purpose of creating pornography.
According to some estimates, approximately 80% of trafficking involves sexual exploitation, and
19% involves labor exploitation. There are approximately 20 to 30 million slaves in the world
today.
According to the U.S. State Department, 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across
international borders every year, of which 80% are female and half are children.
AGE OF ENTRY: The average age at which a teen enters the sex trade in the U.S. is 12 to 14-
year-old. Many victims are runaway girls who were sexually abused as children. California
harbors 3 of the FBI’s 13 highest child sex trafficking areas on the nation: Los Angeles, San
Francisco and San Diego. Between 14,500 and 17,500 people are trafficked into the U.S. each
year. The International Labour Organization estimates that women and girls represent the largest

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share of forced labor victims with 11.4 million trafficked victims (55%) compared to 9.5 million
(45%) men.

Dynamics of Trafficked Children

Children are forced into early marriage as well as prostitution, or they are recruited as child
soldiers, beggars, or for sports, such as football or child camel jockey, or religious cults.

Young virgin girls are enslaved and used sexually by “priests” in a ritualistic system of servitude
called trokosi in Ghana or voodoosi in Togo and Benin, and are further exploited for free labor
within this system of shrine slavery.

The Fundamental Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the United States and Canada
has been implicated in the trafficking of minor girls across state and international boundaries.
Thousands of children from South America, Africa, and Asia are sold into the global sex trade.
They are often orphaned, kidnapped, or actually sold by their families. Illicit international
adoption is a vehicle of the trafficking of babies and pregnant women between the developing
world and the West.

THE ATTRACTION OF VICTIMS: In Syria and Parts of Northern Nigeria, many young girls
are kidnapped and sold into slavery simply by force. In North America, most young girls run
away from home as a result of abuse at home and end up in the hands of pimps who enslave
them as commercial sex workers in clubs and also in the streets.

The vast majority of sex slaves coming from extremely poor countries are lured by the promise
of a better life outside their home countries. Once they are taken outside their countries, these
girls and young women find out that the glamourous jobs they were promised are non-existent
and are forced to provide sex services for survival. In some cases, their passports are confiscated
by their traffickers to ensure that they remain in captivity. They then work against their will and
may not even be paid, thus they end up living in a worse kind of poverty than they used to.

Other young people are recruited into prostitution through pressure from parents, or through
deceptive agreements between parents and traffickers. Once these children become involved in
prostitution, they often are forced to travel far from their homes and, as a result, are isolated from

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their friends and family. Few children in this situation can develop new relationships with peers
or adults other than the person victimizing them. The lifestyle of such youths revolves around
violence, forced drug use, and constant threats.

SOURCE COUNTRIES: The main countries of origin of victims are Africa, Asia, Central and
Eastern European countries, former Eastern bloc and Soviet Union countries, Latin America and
the Caribbean. The most prevalent among the main countries are Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria,
China, Lithuania, Nigeria, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Thailand and
Ukraine, each with large populations affected by extreme poverty.

The polarity between Wealth and poverty is an indicator of migration and a catalyst for human
trafficking. Potential victims attempt to move from areas with extreme poverty to areas with less
extreme poverty. In these instances, it is the desire of potential victims to migrate to escape
poverty that is exploited by traffickers. Control and threatening measures tend to increase once
migration occurs for the victims.

Those populations experiencing extreme poverty are especially vulnerable due to their
circumstances and familial desperation. These high risk populations become trapped in the desire
to obtain a better life for themselves and their families. The poor are subsequently preyed upon
by manipulative traffickers offering false promises of employment and education opportunities,
remuneration in addition to a better life condition. In reality, the trafficker does not follow
through on any of the promises. The victims are then forced to do other work—like prostitution
or hard labor—receiving little or no pay, resulting in them still living essentially in extreme
poverty.

Those suffering from poverty are purposely targeted by traffickers as a means of exploitation.
Due to poverty, some parents sell their children. In some instances, victims are told to work to
pay off debts and told repercussions include violence, police involvement or immigration. Some
victims are sold to many different traffickers. There are two types of labor the victims who are
trafficked are subjected to, forced labor or prostitution.

The Controllers

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A majority of trafficking is done by networks of small groups in which each specialize in certain
areas, like recruitment, advertising, retail, or transportation. In places like Eastern Europe,
Russia, Columbia, Hong Kong, and Japan, trafficking is controlled by large criminal
organizations. Trafficked victims in the Russian federation are typically kidnapped and sold by
police to be used for hard labor, often chained and drugged like dogs to prevent them from
escaping. NATO and United Nations “peacekeeping” forces are even linked to human
trafficking, including forced prostitution. Rapid increases in prostitution were reported in
Cambodia after UN forces moved in, and in Bosnia and Kosovo after UN and NATO forces
settled into these regions.

Recruitment/Tactics

Victims are commonly lured and trafficked through promises of legitimate employment, like,
commonly, in the catering and hotel industry, clubs, bars, modeling, au pair work (a foreign
national domestic assistant working for and living as part of a host family). They are typically
recruited by use of coercion, deception, abuse of power, fraud, feigned love, and abduction, and
through newspaper ads, the internet, pseudo employment agencies and front businesses,
diplomats, and employers generally. Victims are often impelled to consent to exploitation by
threats (including those against family members), violence, and debt bondage.

HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND SEX SLAVERY ROUTES

Organizations that study trafficking patterns tend to classify countries as source or origin
countries, transit countries or destination countries. However, this classification system can be
misleading because many countries fall under each of these categories at some point.
Additionally, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has pointed out that
trafficking flows are dominated less by clear geographic boundaries than by relative pockets of
economic disparity, with victims flowing from poorer to richer areas within countries, regions or
across the globe.

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In simple terms, a source or origin country is a country where traffickers commonly find and
recruit women and girls for their operations. Once traffickers have recruited an individual, that
person is moved through intermediary or transit countries, sometimes for extended periods
during which the women may be forced into labor or the sex trade. Transit countries are chosen
for the geographical location and are usually characterized by weak border controls, proximity to
destination countries, corruption of immigration officials, or affiliation with organized crime
groups that are involved in trafficking. In general, “organized criminals will try to push people
over any border that is easiest for them to cross.” Destination countries are the last link in the
human trafficking chain. These countries receive trafficking victims and are generally more
economically prosperous than origin countries. Destination countries can support a large
commercial sex industry or a forced labor industry, the modern equivalent of slavery. The
financial return to traffickers per victim is also highest in richer countries.

Tracing human trafficking and slavery around the world’s countless human smuggling routes
would require a map lost in a web of arrows. While the maps below are far from a complete
catalog of trafficking routes, they denote some of the major regional trends in human trafficking.

Europe

Source: CIA, The Protection Project, and

UNICEF

Though most of the movement is from east

to west, many migrants from Eastern Europe
are also trafficked east, to the Middle East.
Important gateways into Western Europe are
the Strait of Gibraltar, where North Africans
cross into Spain especially during the summertime, and the Adriatic Sea, where migrants, often
women and girls, are trafficked from Albania to Italy. By land, migrants from Eastern Europe
and Asia follow the Balkan route from former Soviet Republics and satellite states through

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Greece. Illegal immigrants from North Africa also travel across the Mediterranean to Sicily.
Many arrive in Britain by smuggling themselves from northern France across the English
Channel to the port of Dover. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, young women from Russia,
Estonia, and Latvia are trafficked to Finland, where prostitution is legal, to work in the sex trade.
Russian women are also trafficked to Norway and Sweden, where prostitution is also legal. The

Americas

Source: CIA, The Protection Project

Most of the movement on this map is directed toward the United States, but a number of South
American migrants are trafficked to work in the Japanese sex industry. According to Interpol,
most human cargo is being smuggled into the United States by plane. Increasingly, victims travel
first to South Africa, where fraudulent documents may be obtained. Interpol also suggests that
seafaring ships usually approach America via the Pacific Ocean, where Canada has also
intercepted a number of cargo vessels carrying illegal Chinese immigrants trying to enter through
the Vancouver area. But recently, use of this method has declined. Instead, many trafficking
victims are arriving in Central or South America to enter the U.S. via Mexico.

Southeast Asia

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Source: CIA, The Protection Project

Most of the women smuggled in this region are sent to work in the commercial sex trade,
particularly in Japan. Much of the human trafficking in Southeast Asia centers around Thailand,
where the sex trade accounts for between 2 to 14 percent of the gross national product, according
to a 1998 report by the International Labor Organization. It is an important location for sex
tourism, and the source of many of Japan’s prostitutes. There is an increase in the number of
illegal immigrants from South Asia and the Middle East who are arriving on the western shores
of Australia, particularly on Christmas Island, which is located quite close to Indonesia. Not
featured on this map are land routes from Asia that run through counties like Kazakstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan to Russia and then on through Ukraine to
Western Europe.

Every year thousands of migrants pay to be trafficked from Africa to Europe. Women are often
told that they cannot travel without contraceptives. They need it for the journey.

CNN senior international correspondent, Nima Elbagir went undercover in Edo state Nigeria,
which is one of the largest, if the not the largest smuggler hub in Africa. People are often lured
there by pusher men, who give them hope for a new life in the European countries. Unbeknown

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to them they are paying for their own trafficking. Nima was taken by a pusher man or broker
called Oveke who offers to traffic them for 500,000 naira (NGN) which is due once upon arrival
in Libya. From an unknown site in Edo they move north to the area of Auchi. When there,
Oveke makes sure she has everything she needs. They are well aware of the fact that women are
most likely to get abused on these trips, and in his own words he says “if you’re getting raped do
not struggle and ultimately trust in God”. The fact that it is so publicised is shocking because
they even use public transport to take them to Kano and this is only the first leg of the Journey.

There are migrant slave auctions at least once or twice a month. They are sold, like animals for
as little as $400 ($1200 libyian dollars). They take place very quietly in homes that look so
unsuspecting. They come from Niger, Mali, Nigeria, Ghana and a host of other African
countries. Often times if they are lucky enough to escape or get rescued they are taken to
warehouses where they are kept for days often without food and water. The ones that do get out
alive are left with brutal scars. Physically, emotionally and psychologically and just pray to go
back home.

POLICY ISSUES

Terrorism and human trafficking are global problems and require efforts from all strata of the
global society to tackle them. Technical cooperation among law enforcement agencies is
essential for investigating and prosecuting human traffickers. There is the need for a coordinated
local, regional and international response that balance progressive and proactive law enforcement
with actions that combat the market forces driving human trafficking in many destination
countries.

Human trafficking is often treated as a social issue rather than a matter of National Security.
Links between terrorists and criminals, which capitalize upon gaps in law enforcement and
flawed security structures, are increasingly becoming the norm. Any successful approach in
countering terror and crime will have to address human trafficking. Both terrorist networks and
organized criminal groups take advantage of the gray areas in the law.
The Nigerian government in particular needs to acknowledge the network structure of terrorists
and criminal groups with human trafficking and fight the networks cooperatively. Future in-
depth anti-trafficking strategy should include a study and analysis of the operations of different

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trafficking organizations. There is need for analysis of the links between transnational crime and
terrorism and, the operational and financial sides of the business.

To combat the link between human trafficking and terrorism at the global level, there is need for
a global alliance which must prioritize this problem. Unfortunately, almost all attention goes to
the drug trafficking-terrorism link without addressing the role that human trafficking plays as a
terrorist funding source and a destroyer of communities. This must be added to global security
agenda and those of NATO.

It also must be given a much higher priority by non-governmental organizations and

peacekeepers who intervene in conflict regions. Moreover, recipient countries of refugees fleeing
terrorist conflicts must prioritize anti-trafficking efforts to ensure that traumatized refugees are
not subject to further victimization. Support for refugees must include anti-trafficking measures
that include targeting traffickers and support to safeguard women and children.

It must never be forgotten that human trafficking is one of the most lucrative businesses in the
world today so there is need to raise urgent awareness as it is fast growing at an alarming rate.

The UN office against crime, which is based in India now, and the international community
altogether are fairly active. A director-general Antonio Maria Costa had organized two years ago
the UNODC conference to mobilize the international community against trafficking in human
beings and they are doing extremely valuable work.

They have, for example, now made studies in each and every country that belongs to the UN –
192 countries – where they have tried to see how the problem of trafficking is defined and what
is being done in these countries. This is the first time ever that such an inventory has even been
attempted. There has also been a valuable contribution made by civil society to this subject
matter.

However it is not enough to just educate society, monitor progress and sanction countries who do
not fall into compliance with what the UN deems an acceptable level of action in regards to
counter-human trafficking efforts. The time has come to look at efforts to activate public policy
change in order to deal with these two conjunctive issues more effectively.
There is need to formulate policies on a global level that greatly promotes the provision of food

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and maintenance of peace. Funds need to be provided to support non-emergency assistance for
countries in order to combat extreme poverty that leads victims into human trafficking.
Combating hunger and food crises can provide a means to assist those facing extreme hunger
while not disrupting their agricultural products or local economy. The efforts need not interfere
with the domestic production in the countries and should be a proactive means to help to end
extreme poverty and hunger to prevent vulnerability to trafficking.

Propaganda

It is not uncommon for hear arguments that human trafficking is a hoax, exaggerated, or overly
sensationalized and some argue that trafficking only occurs in poor countries, when actually
every country in the world is involved. There is a tendency to convince the world that most
victims want to be in this industry. Furthermore trafficking is distinguished from “people
smuggling,” where there may be no deception involved, and individuals voluntarily request
smuggler’s services for fees. Unfortunately, rhetorical debates have further invoked a line of
demarcation between trafficking and prostitution.

RECOMMENDATIONS/ PROPOSED SOLUTIONS

Trafficking has a harrowing effect on the mental, emotional and physical well-being of the
women and girls ensnared in its web. Beyond the physical abuse, trafficked women suffer
extreme emotional stress, including shame, grief, fear, distrust and suicidal thoughts. Victims
often experience post-traumatic stress disorder, and with that, acute anxiety, depression and
insomnia. Many victims turn to drugs and alcohol to numb the pain and a lot of them commit
suicide.

Sex trafficking promotes societal breakdown by removing women and girls from their families
and communities. Trafficking fuels organized crime groups that usually participate in many other
illegal activities, including drug and weapons trafficking and money laundering. It negatively
impacts local and national labor markets, due to the loss of human resource Sex trafficking puts a
lot of burden on public health systems. Trafficking erodes government authority, encourages
widespread corruption, and threatens the security of vulnerable populations.

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One reason for the proliferation of sex trafficking is because in many parts of the world there is
little to no perceived stigma to purchasing sexual favors for money, and prostitution is viewed as
a victimless crime. Because women are culturally and socially devalued in so many societies,
there is little conflict with the purchasing of women and girls for sexual services. Further, few
realize the explicit connection between the commercial sex trade, and the trafficking of women
and girls and the illegal slave trade. In western society in particular, there is a commonly held
perception that women choose to enter into the commercial sex trade. However, for the majority
of women in the sex trade, and specifically in the case of trafficked women and girls who are
coerced or forced into servitude, this is simply not the case.

In addition, sex tourism—that is, the practice of traveling or vacationing for the purpose of
having sex—is a billion dollar industry that further encourages the sexual exploitation of women
and girls. Many sex tours explicitly feature young girls. The tours are marketed specifically to
pedophiles who prey on young children, and men who believe that having sex with virgins or
young girls will cure sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Often, these men spread HIV and
other STDs to their young victims, creating localized disease epidemics.

Global restrictions on prostitution and sex tourism will be a great deterrent to human trafficking.
Global efforts to increase the dignity of women will go a long way in reducing the failure of
women and young girls to resist lures of prostitution and travel abroad with men of unknown
backgrounds.

Yolanda Martins, 2012, makes the following propositions

1. An International Office of DFACS and Authority of Housing

The International Office of the Department of Family & Children Services and Authority of
Housing, which would be funded by the United Nations via its proportionate collection of fees
and/or taxes from all of its member nations, other synonymous agencies, and private donors from
every point of the globe, would provide basic living necessities to individuals, families and
children in crisis in developing and other nations in need of such services, to include the
following:
i. Emergency food
ii. Clean water (for cooking, drinking, bathing, and clothes washing)

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iii. Health benefits (including birth control, dental services, etc.)
iv. Emergency, transitional, and/or permanent housing
v. Clothing & toiletries6. Employment services (primarily online and other outsourced
opportunities, to precede the proliferation of industry/local businesses that could provide
traditional employment, for which transportation accommodations would be made).

2. A Pool of Resources

i. Proportionate UN fee or tax collection from all member nations for the purpose of global relief
 Church and business resource pooling

ii. Development of an International Department of Family & Children Services

iii. The globalization/proliferation of Job Corps Programs

iv. The globalization/proliferation of Housing in Developing Nations

v. Proliferation of international residential education programs for children  The World Bank

vi. The globalization/proliferation of American and other businesses in developing nations 

Colleges & Universities

3. The College/University Student-Residence Solution

The college/university student-residence solution would entail the disbursement of a set number
of full scholarships that would cover tuition as well as room and board to trafficked victims who
are high school graduates or who have acquired General Equivalency Diplomas, and meet
matriculation requirements to the sponsoring colleges or universities. There are well over 4,350
colleges in the United States alone, and over 17,000 colleges and universities in the world,
meaning that, if American colleges/universities sponsored/housed 10 trafficked victims each
year, 43,500 would be rescued, and, if every college/university in the world sponsored 10
trafficked victims annually, 170,000 would be rescued. Supplemental collegiate dormitories for
low income and overflow students who may not be accommodated with traditional campus
housing due to space or slot limitations would help to shield many from distractions and
hardships that are cause that some especially female students are lured or forced or voluntarily
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resort to self- exploitative practices, like stripping, etc. for the purpose of meeting school-related
expenses. Each of these students, or those who are classified as low income could be required to
volunteer for no more than 20 hours per week with designated companies or agencies, for the
purpose of off-setting some of their expenses and receiving a modest stipend and/or
transportation assistance. Supplemental dormitories would consist of full-service computer &
printing labs, childcare (another issue that stands in major need of address amongst low income
students), and shuttles that would transport students to and from campus throughout each school
day.
4. The Globalization/Proliferation of Job Corps Programs
Residential job training programs like Job Corps could serve as a major vehicle of resolve of the
human trafficking dilemma, seeing particularly that many individuals are lured by traffickers
through promises of education and employment. Job Corps is a free job training program that
provides three meals a day, childcare, clothing allotments, transportation, health services, pay,
and job placement services to underprivileged youth between the ages of 16 to 24 years old. The
program should be weaned of minors (16-17 year olds), however, which comprise about 40% of
its overall student population. These students should be compelled to attend traditional public
schools through graduation, or at least to 18 years of age, whichever comes first (Job Corps pays
more than $30,000 annually for services to students, while the public school system pays roughly
$6,000 annually for student services). Weaning the program of minors would clear about 40,000
slots across its existent 123 centers in the United States that could be filled by trafficked victims.
Job Corps should also service adults who are older than 24 years of age who could benefit from
their services.
5. Proliferation of Residential Programs for Children & Families of School-age Children
The issue of homeless children/homeless families with school-age children is within the local
and global jurisdiction of the Departments of Education and Family & Children Services, and
warrants the financial support of the United Nations, which has the power to collect fees from
each of its developed member nations for this and other purposes, including global peacekeeping
military initiatives that would alleviate the financial burdens of any lone or few nations
endeavoring to be world police. EVERY homeless child and capable parent(s) or guardian(s) of
every homeless child within the United States and in every nation of the world should be
immediately accommodated with emergency housing, food, and other vital resources, and then

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all other homeless persons, and for the ultimate purpose of providing means for these individuals
to achieve self-sufficiency through education and/or employment.  Under-enrolled schools
would be utilized for the purpose of educating homeless children, many of whom have never
attended or have difficulty attending school due to the nature of their circumstances. Residential
facilities would be established for families with school-age children attending these particular
schools within their respective school zones/regions—a single facility would house students
from multiple schools within the region of an under-enrolled school that is utilized for the
prescribed purpose. Parents/guardians participating in these programs would be compelled to
participate in career service initiatives in which they would conduct job searches and/or pursue
educational opportunities, and, once employed, will be required to pay rent. Any such residential
facilities that become under-used should be utilized to accommodate homeless families with
school-age children from other school districts, or even other states or countries.
6. The Globalization/Proliferation of Housing in Developing Nations. The proliferation of
housing in developing nations Habitat for Humanity
7. The Globalization/Proliferation of American and other Businesses in Developing Nations
Our developing nations should be viewed as opportunities to expand/grow American and
other businesses and wealth, while providing employment and other human resources to
poor and displaced persons around the globe. The proliferation of American and other
businesses and franchising opportunities in developing nations will also provide a solid
foundation and materials with which to build native grown businesses within these
historically impoverished/famished nations and pioneer the ultimate industrialization of
our entire world, and on alternative/clean energy sources like solar that would not further
contribute to the mounting climate crisis.

Conclusion

Human trafficking is a silent epidemic essentially because of laws forbidding it, the
“voicelessness” of its victims due to fear, poverty, and gender discrimination, and because of
cover tactics of traffickers. Human trafficking destroys the moral fibre of the country and the
world at large, and, though it is a multi-billion dollar industry, itis a major attributor to the
world’s financial crisis, as traffickers and their millions of victims do not pay taxes, and victims,

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who out number traffickers, do not typically support our consumer markets, as they would if they
were availed educational and legitimate employment opportunities.

Terminology

Brothel – A place where prostitutes meet to have sex with clients.

Bonded labor (debt bondage) – A practice in which employers give high-interest loans
to workers who then labor at low wages to pay off debt (A member of the debtor’s family
may also be required to work towards payment of the debt).

Source country – A country that victims are trafficked from, i.e. the former Soviet
territories, Nepal, Nigeria, and Guatemala.

Transit country – A temporary stop, i.e. Mexico, on the trafficked victim’s journey to
the country where they will be enslaved.

Destination country – where trafficked victims end up.

Sex tourism – Travel undertaken primarily or exclusively by men from developed

countries to usually third world countries where there are a lack of restrictions on
prostitution, and for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity with often trafficked
women and children.

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REFFERENCES

1. Linda Witong, Human Trafficking A Portrayal , www.Soroptimistinternational.Org, Retrieved

May, 2018

2 Amanda Walker-Rodriguez and Rodney Hill , 2011, Human Sex Trafficking,

www.leb.fbi.gov, Retrieved May 2018

3. Eleanor Goldberg, 2014, 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Slavery, Human Trafficking
(And What You Can Do About It), https://www.huffingtonpost.com, Retrieved June 2018

4. Sarah Anderson, 2012, “The Connection Between Human Trafficking and Terrorism”

http://notenoughgood.com, Retrieved May, 2018

5. Moses Atogo Unongu , Terrorism and Human Trafficking: Defning theNexus,

https://www.academia.edu, Retrieved June, 2018

6. Erika Wright , Poverty and It’s Contribution to Human Trafficking https://borgenproject.org,

Retrieved May 2018

7. Yolanda Martins, 2012, “Human Trafficking the Issue Versus Propaganda & Its Ultimate
Solution” www.slideshare.net, Retrieved June 2018

8. Nima Elbagir, 2018, “Don't struggle if you're raped': Smuggler's chilling words” featured on
CNN, www.Youtube.com, Retrieved June 2018

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9. Catherine Cook, December 20, 2009, The Politics Of Human Trafficking,
http://harvardpolitics.com/interviews, Retrieved May 2018

bin/blogs/sextraffickingandprostitution/tag/poverty-and-sex-trafficking/
8-http://harvardpolitics.com/interviews/the-politics-of-human-trafficking/
9-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki, Slavery
10-https://www.worldrace.org/?tab=routes&subtab=humantrafficking

11-http://www.stopvaw.org/trafficking_routes

13-http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/uncategorized/the-business-of-human-trafficking-
trafficking-routes/1428/

Resources Children of the Night, the Dr. Phil Show, rescues and provides care for trafficked
children Human trafficking search.net The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Administration Children and Family’s Campaign to Rescue and Restore Victims of Human
Trafficking

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