One Woman's Story
Sex trafficking is a form of modern slavery that exists across the globe, including the United States.
In 2014, the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline, operated by Polaris, received reports of 3,598 sex trafficking cases just inside the United States. And these are only the cases that were reported.
In the US it's estimated that more than 300,000 girls go missing every year and that 100,000 of those are sold for sex in some form.
“Sex traffickers may lure their victims with the false promise of a high-paying job. Others promise a romantic relationship, where they first establish an initial period of false love and feigned affection.
During this period they offer gifts, compliments, and sexual and physical intimacy, while making elaborate promises of a better life, fast money, and future luxuries. However, the trafficker eventually employs a variety of control tactics, including physical and emotional abuse, sexual assault, confiscation of identification and money, isolation from friends and family, and even renaming victims.
Most live under constant mental and physical threat. Many suffer severe emotional trauma, including symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and disassociation. They are at greater risk of contracting sexually transmissible infections, including HIV/AIDS. Many become pregnant and are forced to undergo often unsafe abortions.
U.S. citizens, foreign nationals, women, men, children, and LGBTQ individuals can all be victims of sex trafficking. Runaway and homeless youth, victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, war or conflict, or social discrimination are frequently targeted by traffickers.
Sex trafficking exists within diverse venues including fake massage businesses, online escort services, residential brothels, in public on city streets and in truck stops, strip clubs, hotels and motels, and elsewhere.
In street-based sex trafficking, victims are often expected to earn a nightly quota, ranging from $500 to $1000 or more, which is confiscated by the pimp. Women in brothels disguised as massage businesses typically live on-site where they are coerced into providing commercial sex to 6 to 10 men a day, 7 days a week.” –The Polaris Project
Globally, the International Labor Organization estimates that there are 4.5 million people trapped in forced sexual exploitation globally. 4.5 million.
This is not an issue isolated to developing nations but one that is universal, one that is dangerous and incredibly, immensely difficult to leave.
You can learn to look out for some of the red flags -- a worker who lives with her employer, someone who won’t speak unaided and shares what appears to be a scripted speech -- and call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center if you have information that may be valuable. You can also get involved with a number of organizations, including the Polaris Project, Not for Sale and the Project to End Human Trafficking, which are all working to put an end to modern-day slavery.
Thank you New Light for sharing this article with me, for giving us a chance to hear one of these women’s stories.
And I appreciate that this article speaks about these women being more than just survivors. This is just one part of who they are, it does not have to dictate the rest of their life and they all have so much to offer this world.
https://medium.com/@MISSINGIRLS/the-dark-world-of-prostitution-as-told-by-a-former-sex-worker-74eee3f7b876
