Guest Author - Sarah Elise Stauffer
The trafficking of human beings to be sold as sex slaves is one of the most horrifying crimes being committed around the globe. It is a problem of monumental proportions that occurs everyday, on our own soil. This is happening in our own country, in our cities, our side of the tracks. Girls are forced and coerced into being sex slaves, into pornography, and prostitution. Girls are beaten, raped, endure forced abortions, starvation,
and drugged to force them into complicity. Threats of torturing or
murdering family members are often used to frighten and brainwash victims. Often times girls are duped into believing they are going to work for a legitimate business that is nothing but a front for exploitation. It is estimated that 20,000 people are trafficked into the United States each year, and it is a $9.5 billion business. Half of vicitims are under the age of eighteen.
Unicef estimates that this year alone- one million children will be
forced into prostitution– that’s one million new children. Every thirty seconds another person becomes a victim of human trafficking. Please picture your own children in this position, and if you have not got kids of your own, think of yourself or a child you care for in that position.
"The Internet, and private "sex clubs, hold the secrets of young teenage runaways lured into the sex industry in exchange for food and protection -- or face the threat of daily violence. We might even see them stepping off an interstate Greyhound Bus into the next chapter of their lives. Who will speak for these children and young people, whose voices have been lost as they are driven deeper underground? Human trafficking, like slavery, is not the problem of "other" communities or countries, but rather it is a problem that festers beneath the surface of our own backyards." Chris Grumm, U.S. Women Without Borders~
Lifetime will air the mini-series Human Trafficking beginning October 24, 2005 and will shed light upon this subject. I hope it will inspire us all into whatever level of action we can muster in our lives. I hope anyone who still clings to denial by blaming the Women or looking the other way will change, rise up, and do something about this. The series stars Mira Sorvino, an Academy Award and Golden Globe-winning actress with two-time Golden Globe and Emmy Award winner Donald Sutherland, and Robert Carlyle.
Laura Lederer, US State Department Senior Advisor on Trafficking says, 'It's just like the abolitionist movement in this country. We need to get a
critical mass of people who just say NO".
Please say NO loud and clear, we cannot tolerate this any longer. If no one ever stood up for anything, and allowed those who would call us idealistic and unrealistic to have their way, we'd all be in serious trouble and have very little in the way of civil rights, children's and Women's rights, not to mention human rights. We have much further to go.
Go here to read Agatha Dominik's story about writing the movie. http://www.fundforward.org/uswomenwithoutborders/featured.php
"Traffickers bring these young women into this country and they brutalize them until they are dehumanized and destroyed. An ounce of cocaine, you can only sell it once. A woman or child, you can sell them each day every day over and over and over again. The markup for women and girls is immeasurable."
Donald Sutherland as an ICE Agent
