Africa

The continent of Africa has some of the worst forms of human slavery, and here are some of the major examples found throughout Africa:

Chattel Slavery: This form of human trafficking is the most similar to the “old” form of slavery that existed during the Atlantic slave trade. Men, women, and children are bought and sold as household servants, field workers, etc.

Child Soldiers:Children are often recruited, abducted, or tricked into African armies that perpetuate war and instability in several countries. These children are traumatized and face long processes of social reintegration if they are ever allowed to return.

Labor Slavery: African countries are still developing, and thus have a high demand for cheap and unskilled labor. This is different from chattel slavery because there is no concrete “ownership” over the people, but rather an informal agreement that the people are held in debt bondage.

Organ/Skin Trafficking: Several West African countries continue to practice voodoo rituals that require the skin and/or organs of the involved persons. This practice is often outlawed by the government, but in practice local customs and beliefs overrule that authority.
Sex Slavery: Although it is more rare, trafficking in persons for the purpose of sexual exploitation does happen in Africa. For example, Nigerian women are trafficked into Italy for forced prostitution. Even within Africa, there is now a high demand for young children (both boys and girls) because of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

 

TEN partners with the organization Life in Africa. This organization creats jobs for impoverished families and slavery survivors who are struggling to recover from their recent civil war. Click here to visit our store and view some of this organizations beautiful products.

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Asia

Asia has several types of slavery, ranging from sexual to labor exploitation. Many people are trafficked across borders, others within the same country, but all face extreme hardships in situations of slavery.

Debt Bondage: Perhaps the greatest percentage of the world's slaves are held in debt bondage, mainly in India. Poor families, often the dalit or "untouchables," are unable to obtain fair-paying jobs. They are forced to borrow from money-lenders or work in exchange for basic necessities and are rarely ever able to leave this situation. Bringing their families into the same situation only compounds the effects, forcing children to work in industries such as carpet-weaving, cigarette-rolling, stone-breaking and sari sewing. The children are automatically placed in the same situation and incur the debt left by their parents, continuing the cycle of poverty and slavery.

Labor Slavery: Another form of slavery is for labor exploitation, which frequently happens to ethnic minorities. For example, the ethnic Burmese population living in northern Thailand are at high-risk for exploitation in the Thai fishing industry. When asked why there are only Burmese workers in the fishing boats, the Thai manager of the dock replied, "Thais are lazy and expect more money. These Burmese work like dogs and you don't have to pay them much."

Sex Slavery: In South and Southeat Asia, traffickers will pay $150 to purchase a child for exploitation. Brothel owners can purchase the same child from the trafficker for about $1000. For traffickers, sex slavery is a lucrative business, generating billions of dollars each year. Trafficking is controlled by organized crime syndicates, smaller gangs, and "mom & pop" operations.
Victims of slavery and trafficking in Asia are subject to gross human rights violations including rape, torture, beatings, starvation, dehumanization, and threats of murdering family members.

In the case of traffficking for sexual exploitation, girls often have their virginity sold first, followed by multiple gang rape to break down their resistance. Since the bodies of young girls are not ready for sexual intercourse, this often results in abrasions, making the girls susceptible to HIV/AIDS and other diseases. Roughly 80% of women in brothels in India, for example, are HIV-positive.
TEN's partner staff in India explains that prostitution is the only "business" where a person's earnings will decrease with experience. Younger women and girls (ages 8-12) can be sold for much higher prices since they are viewed as pure, clean, virgins, and disease-free. Older women (ages 20-30) are forced to perform more degrading and dangerous sexual acts in order to attract clients; many of these women have children to care for and thus are desperate for the money.

Governments in Asia are only just beginning to address this issue, under pressure from anti-slavery organizations and the international community. Some governments are taking the lead in this movement, such as the Thai government. Other governments are plagued with corruption, such as Indian policemen, who frequent the brothels as buyers of sex.

Click Here to visit our online store and shop for our beautiful jewlery made in Asia. The purchases from our online store directly aid the sustainability and development of the lives of survivors of slavery.

Eastern Europe

With the break-up of the Soviet Union, several countries that were once protected by the Kremlin fell into political and economic uncertainty. These countries could no longer provide sufficient employment opportunities for their citizens, causing many to seek jobs abroad. Many young men were recruited into criminal organizations that survived by exploiting other “comrades.” These factors fueled the already growing practice of human trafficking in Eastern Europe, a practice that has continued into the 21st century. After studying and working in Russia, I have found three reasons that help explain why trafficking in persons is so common in this region: Lack of economic opportunities, Organized crime, and the Orphanage system.

Generally, Eastern European countries serve as source countries for women and children to be trafficked into neighboring European countries or into the United States. These populations provide a supply for three demands: sex, labor, and organs.

Sex: Human traffickers acting in Eastern Europe often recruit young women seeking employment abroad. The story is common; women willingly give their passports and other documents to men and women posing as “employment agents” who promise to find them work abroad. These women are transported to a foreign country and then sent to brothels or other holding places to work off their “travel debt.” They are forced into prostitution by threats against their lives, or the lives of their family and friends at home. Often, the women do not speak the local language and do not seek help from authorities out of fear that they will be treated as criminals. Although it is difficult to find reliable statistics about trafficking in Eastern Europe, consider that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) estimates that 50,000 young Russian women are trafficked abroad each year by organized criminal groups for forced prostitution.

In addition to job-seeking women, younger groups are also the target of sexual exploitation. Street children and orphans are two high-risk groups for trafficking, since there is almost no accountability for their well-being. These children are kept in state institutions and receive very basic educational skills, and no vocational skills. When they are “emancipated,” usually at age seventeen, they become a highly-targeted group for trafficking. Even during their childhood in state-run orphanages, traffickers will bribe the employees to take several children with them.

Labor: Although it is more rare, trafficking for labor exploitation is still a concern for several Eastern European countries. The Roma population, often referred to as “gypsies,” are perfect targets for traffickers because of their low social status in most countries. Children are used to beg, dance, play musical instruments, or even attack wealthy individuals in an attempt to make money for the group’s ringleader. (If you’ve ever traveled in Eastern or Western Europe, you probably noticed a poorly-dressed woman holding a small child begging for your spare change.)

Organs: Horror stories of people awaking to find incisions in their abdomen, with missing organs are unfortunately not entirely false in Eastern Europe. There have been recent reports of human organs being found at food markets, as well as human organs being sold on the internet. Some of these organs may have been taken from the deceased, but there is evidence that organ traffickers operate within Eastern Europe.

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Latin America

In Latin America today, an estimated 100,000 women and children fall victim to human trafficking rings every year. As in Asia and Eastern Europe, they are lured away from their homes and families by false job offers, marriages, or are kidnapped outright. Though many are trafficked within their own countries or into other parts of Latin America, others are sent even farther from home- to North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Source countries, such as Colombia, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Mexico, tend to be poorer, and the government’s infrastructure broken down by years of corruption, civil war, or other forms of violence and economic crisis. Trafficking in these countries tends to affect primarily indigenous women, who often make the lower classes. Destination countries for Latin American trafficking rings include Brazil, Argentina, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic- and of course, wealthy countries abroad, including the United States. In addition to traditional forms of servitude- sex work in brothels in the red light districts of major cities- Latin America is experiencing an increasing problem with sex tourism. Red light districts have grown up around tourist destinations, such as popular beaches and hotels, with many brothels deliberately catering to pedophiles. This form of trafficking is especially prevalent in places like Brazil, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic

Though the scope of the issue is enormous, campaigns and organizations created to combat the problem are relatively new in the region, so finding groups with the kind of programs that would work well with ours has been a challenge. One of the assumptions I’ve taken with my studies so far is that there is no one “blueprint” for managing social issues that works for every culture, and I’ve certainly found that to be true in this case. What might be common in Asia (commercially-aimed handicrafts programs for survivors, in this case) is not necessarily used often in Latin America, etc. However, the groups that I have found so far are truly impressive, whether or not they have developed arts programs. Many shelters I’ve come into contact with seem to have started with an issue such as street children, domestic violence, or healthcare, and eventually become anti-trafficking activists, as they came across more and more incidents of sexual exploitation in their work. In addition to the creation of these shelters, I’ve also come across dozens of reports from government agencies, NGOs, and other watchdog associations, all detailing the rising need of addressing human trafficking in Latin America. This increase in attention is extremely promising, because it indicates that the problem is finally being given the attention it deserves.

United States of America

Victims of human trafficking in the United States are young children, teenagers, men and women. Approximately 800,000 to 900,000 victims annually are trafficked across international borders world wide, and between 14,500 and 17,500 of those victims are trafficked into the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of State. Victims of human trafficking are subjected to force, fraud, or coercion, for the purpose of sexual exploitation or forced labor.

After drug dealing, trafficking of humans is tied with arms dealing as the second largest criminal industry in the world, and is the fastest growing. The ILO estimates that the trade in human beings generates $31 billion annually.

Many victims of human trafficking in the US are forced to work in prostitution or the sex entertainment industry. But US trafficking also occurs in forms of labor exploitation, such as domestic servitude, restaurant work, janitorial work, sweatshop factory work and migrant agricultural work.

Traffickers use various techniques to instill fear in victims and to keep them enslaved. Some traffickers keep their victims under lock and key. However, the more frequent practice is to use less obvious techniques including:

Isolation from the public - limiting contact with outsiders and making sure that any contact is monitored or superficial in nature
Isolation from family members and members of their ethnic and religious community
Confiscation of passports, visas and/or identification documents
Use or threat of violence toward victims and/or families of victims
The threat of shaming victims by exposing circumstances to family
Telling victims they will be imprisoned or deported for immigration violations if they contact authorities
Control of the victims' money, e.g., holding their money for "safe-keeping"

In October 2000, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) made human trafficking a Federal crime. It was enacted to prevent human trafficking overseas, to protect victims and help them rebuild their lives in the U.S., and to prosecute traffickers of humans under Federal penalties. Prior to 2000, no comprehensive Federal law existed to protect victims of trafficking or to prosecute their traffickers.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement has a toll-free Human Trafficking Referral Hotline: 1 (888) 373-7888.