Women’s Work in the Global Sex Trade

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WS 420Labor and

Global Economy

• Poverty is a major reason for trafficking

• People try to get better lives and get sold or sell selves or families into slavery

• Big business, second only to drug and gun trafficking

• According to the UN Office of Drugs and Crime, while no exact statistics can be given, they estimate that around 2.5 million people are victims of trafficking every year

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Women’s Work as Sex Slaves• Women trade their bodies to provide for their families, but

more often than not, end up becoming slaves• Often times, they believe they can make much more with

this than any other jobs• Other times, women are tricked into this service and

believe they will be working in legitimate places, when in reality, they are being sold as slaves, but realize what is happening too late

Picture from lipmagazine.org

Women’s Work as Traffickers• Women are not always the victims. Often times,

they contribute to the market, trafficking other women, men and children

• In a recent article by CNN, it was said that in a poll by the UN, of the countries who gave information, women made up the larges proportion of traffickers

• Women trafficking women is the norm in many areas, as many former victims become traffickers

Picture from news.bbc.co.uk

These are individuals that were arrested for trafficking.

Women’s Work as Mother’s

• When women feel they have no other choice and are completely desperate for their families, they will often sell their babies, usually not knowing where they will go or what will be their fate

• Mother’s also end up selling their children’s services. When the children can somewhat fend for themselves, they may be sent to the city to sell themselves to help their families

• Many times, parents find the traffickers and ask that their children be sent to “work”

Girl, 6, embodies Cambodia’s sex industry

• This is a CNN article from January 2007 that helps highlight the desperation of many people in poverty

• A young girl named Srey was sold by her parents to a brothel in Cambodia when she was 5

• The amount she was sold for is unknown, but it could have been as little as $10

• At this time, the article indicates most Cambodians were living off of 50 cents a day, which drove them to sell themselves or their children on the streets

• Srey was rescued by a former prostitute who now houses and rescues trafficked or prostituted individuals, but many others are still affected by and subjected to this life

Picture from captivedaughters.org

This is not an actual picture of Srey, but it is

a young child in a similar situation

Forced Labor

• Human trafficking is more than sex slaves, it can also be forced labor

• While this trafficking is not as common, it still is a large industry

• This trafficking is slavery • 1 in 5 of these victims are children

Picture from UN Chronicle online edition

Pbs Frontline Interview: “Anya”• Anya was 25 when she was trafficked• She is from Ukraine and was told she could be

sent to Turkey to make more money. She could not support herself and her daughter well enough on her current wage

• Both of the people involved in her trafficking were women, one was an acquaintance

• “Olga”, the woman who brought her to Turkey, was a nice and pleasant woman to Anya

• Anya was told she would be working in a shop, but was really sold as soon as she got to Turkey

“Anya” Interview Continued• In her interview, Anya says they had no hope of escape, and they just had

to do what they were told• She and the girls she was with would try to come up with ways to escape

after their captors went to bed, but these theories were often just that, theories

• They were kept under tight watch, always under surveillance, or if the pimps would leave, they would be locked in

• She said they were forced to work in two hour increments, sometimes as many as three or four times a day, often not having time to eat

• Anya believed the pimps made $500 a week per girl• She said the only thing that kept her alive was her daughter• They were saved after only a week and a half of enslavement because the

cops had been watching their captors, but they were lucky. Many women are sold and resold and are stuck in the industry for a very long time

For footage of “Olga” while trafficking go to http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/slaves/

and click on Video: Excerpt From the Movie

Map from globalfast.org

This map shows that areas with poverty have high numbers of people being taken for trafficking, and wealthier countries are places of destination for those individuals

• Trafficking markets swell as the need for work increases and as the economy declines

• As more and more jobs are lost, more people become desperate and trusting, either becoming victims to better their lives, or selling themselves or their children to help their families

Picture from news.bbc.co.uk

Picture from edition.cnn.com