In places including India, Thailand, Cambodia, Viet Nam and many other places - little girls as young two or three years old are sold as sex slaves. And the powers that be will do nothing about it - no doubt because they are also "clients" and profit from this ugly, sadistic trade in many ways. One excuse - This is our culture. And so thousands of little girls are suffering horrible abuse to this day.
And Americans travel to those countries on "pleasure tours" to enjoy raping and torturing little girls.
" Tell them that, for one minute of their pleasure,
they kill me."
A nine year old little girl dying of AIDS.
But there are victims rising up against the brothel owners who gouge out children's eyes and beat them until their blood flows. Little girls who are forced to have sex with dozens of men every day.There are brave women and men daring to steal the children back and providing shelter and love and education to give these beautiful girls a chance at life - a chance their own parents denied them for a price.
Phyllis Carter
Sex Trafficking
With millions of women and girls bound in the international sex trade, sex trafficking has earned a fitting epithet: modern-day slavery.
It's difficult to estimate just how many women and girls are impacted by sex trafficking, in part because you can't easily divide sex workers into those who are working voluntarily and involuntarily. But in their book Half the Sky, Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn estimate that around 3 million women and girls (and a small number of boys) worldwide are currently enslaved in the sex trade — bought, held and forced into commercial sex work against their will. This figure may even be on the conservative side, as it doesn't account for people who were intimidated into prostitution or the millions more under 18 who can't consent to working in brothels.
The U.S. State Department's tally is lower, with estimates that between 600,000 and 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year. Eighty percent of those trafficked are women and girls, mostly for sexual exploitation. But these figures overlook the millions more victims who are trafficked annually within their own national borders.
John Stanmeyer / VII
Whichever figure you choose, the outcome is the same — far more women and girls are shipped into brothels annually now, in the early 21st century, than African slaves were shipped into slave plantations each year in the 18th century.
And the problem of sex slavery is getting worse.
Trafficking for sexual exploitation is one of the fastest-growing organized crimes, generating $27.8 billion each year. The collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and Indochina, which opened up markets for commercial sex, and globalization have added to the problem. So has the fear of AIDS, leading some customers to prefer younger girls, whom they think are less likely to be infected. Some men target virgins, believing the girls can cure AIDS.
As the sex trade continues to grow, it also self-perpetuates. Once girls are sold into sex slavery, they often know nothing else and are so stigmatized that they remain in the trade, even when that means selling sex voluntarily. Drugs and other addictions can also work to keep women tied to brothels.
There is no easy solution to ending the complex issue of sex trafficking, but there are small steps you can take. With enough political will, we could begin to hold governments accountable not only to pass laws but also to enforce them. Officials worldwide should be under pressure to shut down jail-like brothels, investigate criminals buying underage girls, and crack down on corruption and trafficking across borders.
Every abolition movement begins with expressing our discontent and demands.
More Resources
To learn more and watch additional videos visit Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide on PBS.
Narrated by actress and humanitarian Lucy Liu, "The Road to Traffik" reveals the shocking world of sex trafficking that Somaly Mam, a former Cambodia sex slave, is heroically waging a crusade to expose and end. The filmmakers accompany photographer Norman Jean Roy on his painful journey to document the brutal rape and suffering that thousands of children face daily in the brothels of Cambodia and Southeast Asia.
See jewelry and bags made by survivors of sex trafficking at the Made by Survivors store, whose mission is to end slavery through economic empowerment and education, giving survivors and people at the highest risk the tools they need to build safe, independent, slavery-free lives.
Top left photo : Bruno Barbey / Magnum
"There is no more infanticide in these parts. We used to think that if we kill a female baby, we would cry only for a day, but if the baby were to survive, we would cry all our lives. But now, with so many women and girls educated, working and earning well, our attitude has completely changed."
- Mockapillai, 47, a construction worker in India with one daughter and two granddaughters
- Mockapillai, 47, a construction worker in India with one daughter and two granddaughters
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