Archive for category: Human Trafficking

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Underaged African Footballers Forced into Contracts Abroad

Underaged African Footballers Forced to Sign Contracts
According to a BBC investigation, this past February, 23 underage footballers from Africa were imported from their respective countries to play in Laos. The investigation claims that Champasak United, the club in question, had planned to develop the players and then capitalize on their sale or trade. IDSEA Champasak Asia African Football Academy is the unregistered academy partnered with the club in Laos. The players are mostly from Liberia, but also Sierra Leone and Ghana. Some of the players in question were even as young as 14 years old.

FIFA regulations restrict recruitment of players under 18 years old to clubs or academies.

Multiple players have reported that the work conditions were rigorous and their living quarters were overcrowded. Players stayed in dimly lit rooms and slept on old worn out mattresses.

One of the players, Kesselly Kamara of Liberia stated, “It’s hard to live in a place with no windows. It made sleeping very difficult, because you are thinking about your life.”

The faux contracts the players signed claimed to provide a monthly salary of $200, living accommodations and three meals per day. These provisions were not provided as frequently as promised or in most cases, not at all.

Pressure from FIFA released 17 of the players from their contracts. However, six players have decided to remain at the academy and take their chances.

Since Liberia does not have a football academy of their own, the young players were desperate to develop their skills. Often promised a celebrity status and financial riches, young players are eager to begin their careers and provide for their families. This is unfortunately the case in many African countries.

The former Captain of Champasak United, Alex Karmo, is a Liberian himself who has since left the club. From the perspective of a young Liberian player, the absence of their own academy coupled with the recruitment and promises of a fellow countrymen would make an easy decision. These agents can make anywhere between $3,000-10,000 per player.

It would, however, be a serious oversight to assume that this practice occurs only in these West African countries or on the African continent.

“Today we have criminal activists threatening world football and the young players, so it’s important to work together. Fifa will have to be on top of this battle,” says Jean-Claude Mbvounim. Mbvounim is the founder of “Foot Solidaire”, an anti-trafficking organization advocating for young players in Africa.

The organization estimates that as many as 15,000 young African footballers as young as ten years old are trafficked out of and within the continent. He states that one of the main difficulties is simply determining and distinguishing what is professional, amateur and recreational levels.

Foot Solidaire currently offers advocacy services to young players in Africa and is beginning to operate in the same function in France. It is planned to be known as the “European Network Foot Solidaire” and expand to other countries in Europe such as Spain, Germany, Belgium, Portugal and Italy.

The efforts of his organization have certainly gained traction and publicity internationally. In April of last year, perennial powerhouse FC Barcelona was found by FIFA to have violated rules regarding players under 18 and were in turn sanctioned and fined. While the severity of cases involving underage players cannot always be compared, the fundamental principle of protecting the young footballers reigns paramount.

– The Borgen Project

Sources: BBC 1, Friday Magazine, BBC 2, Play the Game

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How Poverty Encourages Generational Prostitution in India

Poverty_encouraging_generational_prostitution_IndiaThere are 2.2 billion children in the world. One billion of those children live in poverty. Each day 22,000 children die from poverty and it is the rural areas that account for 75% of the world’s population living on less than $1 per day. The bulk of impoverished communities are found in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. In brothels and small villages, generational prostitution occurs out of need. It is considered to be a strategic method of survival for those experiencing severe poverty.

One percent of the population of women in India are sex workers, accounting for 6,230, 000 people. Among that population, over 90% of the sex workers experience generational prostitution. In the Indian culture, in some castes it is traditional to engage in familial prostitution. The caste system in India is quite strong, and, therefore, most children will never have the opportunity for education or non-sexually based work. Most sex workers are born into it. In many areas in India, women have very little chance to escape the ramifications of being poor, regardless of a caste system or not.

Prostitution in India is an accepted way of life and it is confirmed through societal norms. Generational prostitution occurs at almost every brothel. Most brothels are owned by women who were former sex workers, who now employ their children because sexually enslaving one’s children is seen as a means to avoid living in complete poverty. The sex industry provides a large amount of income for urban areas. In New Delhi alone, $2 million is the annual profit of the sex and brothel workers. The average client pays $2.

In the village of Nat Purwa, India, the population suffers from abject poverty. In this community, prostitution is considered to be a hereditary occupation, passed on from one generation of women to the next. As a result of the “family dimension” to the sex trade, men are often involved, which makes sex work an important aspect of the family economy. Women and female children who sell themselves are often the family’s only source of income. Women are purchased for 500 rupees, or $8, and girls aged between 12 and 16 are purchased for 2,000 rupees or $32 dollars. Other villages that are similar to Nat Purwa are Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, Bedias, Faasi and Banjar.

Generational prostitution is occurring around the globe in various countries even outside the areas of Asia and Africa, where it occurs most often. In Russia, married women work as prostitutes in full view and with encouragement from their husbands. Often, a husband will suggest this type of work for his wife and any female children they have.

The issue of global poverty needs to be addressed in order to address issues of human rights injustices, including generational prostitution. Generations to come are predetermined to their fate of becoming sex workers. Efforts to end this epidemic have made many countries strengthen their laws against human sex trafficking, prostitution and the purchasing of sex. In both Sweden and Norway, the purchase of sexual services has been made illegal. Studies from those countries indicate that having these new laws has had a profound impact on demand, causing human sex trafficking to decrease significantly. Proven results in other countries indicate that methods to curtail sex working as a generational means of survival is feasible.

– Erika Wright

Sources: Al Jazeera, Ashraya, BBC, Global Issues, PBS, Swasthya Mundial
Photo: Business Insider

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Safeway Becomes First US Supermarket to Offer Fair Trade Fish

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Earlier this year, Safeway, in a partnership with the nonprofit organization Fair Trade USA, became the first U.S. supermarket to offer Fair Trade seafood. The initiative is part of a program aimed at expanding the social and environmental considerations of the Fair Trade movement into the world seafood market, which currently employs over 120 million people across the world.

The supermarket chain began its Fair Trade seafood program in March with the distribution of wild-capture tuna from small-scale fishing operations in Indonesia. Those products are being supplied by four Fair Trade associations representing 120 fishermen in Indonesia’s Maluku province.

In order for seafood to become Fair Trade certified, suppliers must source and trade in compliance with standards established by Fair Trade USA’s Capture Fisheries Program. Those criteria include standards for empowerment and community development, which prioritize the well-being of communities in trade activities; fundamental human rights, which protect workers from forced labor and ensure their right to organize; and wages, working conditions and access to services, which aim to improve wages and benefits as well as working hours.

The Capture Fisheries Program is especially significant given an Associated Press investigation conducted in March, which found that hundreds of men in the Indonesian island village of Benjina were being forced to catch seafood against their will. Most of those interviewed were found to have been Burmese immigrants who were taken to Indonesia and forced to fish. A number of workers were deemed by employers to be “flight risks,” and were consequently forced into cages to prevent their running away.

“All I did was tell my captain I couldn’t take it anymore, that I wanted to go home,” said Kyaw Naing to an Associated Press (AP) video camera snuck into the work site by a fellow worker. “The next time we docked, I was locked up.”

These labor conditions are not limited to the Indonesian market. Although the waters encompassing the Maluku province are Indonesian territory, it sees a large amount of illegal fishing activity, including from Thailand, one of the United States’ foremost seafood providers. While the United States purchases 20% of the country’s $7 billion in seafood exports, the State Department blacklisted Thailand for failing to address human trafficking and labor abuses.

The Indonesian supply-chain is such that tainted and ethically caught fish are generally processed side-by-side. AP found that the two products were mixed and very well could end up being sold in American supermarkets including Walmart, Safeway and Albertsons.

Though American and Indonesian officials have decried the labor conditions that define much of the region’s seafood industry, the most immediately effective method of combating this race to the bottom is to popularize Fair Trade initiatives like the Capture Fisheries Program. However, until supermarkets prioritize Fair Trade products and eliminate ethically tainted ones from the market, these human rights abuses will continue to have moral implications for both suppliers and consumers.

– Zach VeShancey

Sources: SFChronicle, Fair Trade USA, New York Times, Food Tank
Photo: Fair Trade USA

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Child Labor in Vietnam

Child-Labor-in-Vietnam
Over 1.75 million Vietnamese children, 9.6 percent of the population of people under 18 in the country, are laborers. Child Labor in Vietnam consists of children who are forced to work long hours, normally with little to no pay, in crowded factories or on agricultural farms. One third of the children work an average of 42 hours per week, and the majority are not able to attend school.

Labor trafficking — both domestically and internationally — is a major problem. As explained by a BBC report, trafficking gangs normally target rural villages, where they offer to take kids to cities in order to give them vocational training or technical skills. Parents normally agree because the people in these remote communities are not aware of the risks of human trafficking. Also, traffickers benefit from the “golden egg” culture of Vietnam, where children are sent to work abroad and send money back for the family.

Rather than receiving vocational training, the children taken from rural villages are forced to work, some in factories, some in domestic labor and others in agricultural labor. BBC discussed the case of Hieu (who declined to give his real name), an 18-year-old boy who was taken from the rural village of Dien Bien. Dien Bien is in the northwest, on the border of Vietnam and China. It is one of the poorest areas in the country.

Hieu was put into a small room, where he and the 11 other kids taken from his village were forced to work from 6 a.m. until midnight. They received no pay, and were beaten with a stick if they made a mistake. Hieu was finally able to escape when he and two other teenage boys jumped out the third story window at 1 a.m. Hieu has since been helped by the Blue Dragon Foundation, a Vietnamese-based charity that works to help child trafficking victims, and is now training to be a mechanic.

Groups like the Blue Dragon Foundation are making a difference. The foundation itself has rescued over 230 child trafficking victims since 2005. However, child trafficking continues to remain an issue in Vietnam, and Blue Dragon co-founder Michael Brosowski explained that it is likely getting worse because people are realizing how lucrative it can be.

Vietnam has been praised for its efforts to crack down on child trafficking internationally, since it has increased the number of prosecutions it holds to help end overseas gang activity. However, Vietnam’s control of child trafficking within the country itself needs to increase. Internal trafficking only became officially recognized in 2011, and traffickers are normally not given harsh punishments. The person who trafficked Hieu and the 11 other children from Dien Bien was fined $500 and his factory was closed down, but he did not go to court.

Part of the confusion over what sort of punishment must be given those who traffic internally in Vietnam stems from the fact that some child laborers are paid. While they are normally paid only a small amount, some argue that if a child who is poor, does not have enough to eat and had dropped out of school goes to a factory and gets paid, it is not necessarily a bad thing.

While there is still debate over trafficking within Vietnam, it has been more firmly established that trafficking Vietnamese children internationally needs to be stopped. As The Guardian said, one of the major destinations for traffickers who send Vietnamese children abroad to work is Britain, where over 3000 children are sent to work on cannabis farms, in nail bars, garment factories, brothels or in domestic labor. In order to combat this influx, in March of 2015, the UK passed a bill designed to increase the prosecution of traffickers and give more rights to those sent into modern slavery. However, some Vietnamese children who are sent to the UK and forced to work in cannabis cultivation are prosecuted for their actions, while their traffickers are not.

In recent years, a lot has been done in order to stop child labor within Vietnam and to stop the flow of Vietnamese children who are being trafficked into modern slavery around the world. However, in order to continue the fight against child labor and human trafficking, laws have to be more strictly enforced and clear conditions have to be set about how to punish those who traffic internally.

– Ashrita Rau

Sources: BBC, The Guardian 1, The Guardian 2, Stop Child Labor: The Child Labor Coalition, Vietnam: The US Embassy, International Labour Organization
Photo: Sapa Trek

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Power to Victims: Human Trafficking

Human Trafficking
Human trafficking is a major concern especially for young people in underdeveloped and developing nations. However, there have been major efforts to save those taken into modern-day slavery, and victims of such atrocities are now fighting back.

Victims are fighting back with two different approaches: through advocacy programs, and through direct involvement in ending human trafficking and returning others who have fallen victim. These victims range in age, gender and nationalities, whether poor countries in Africa or citizens of the United States. Human trafficking a global issue that affects every nation directly.

The United Nations has founded that 70% of those taken into human trafficking are young women and children. When victims, especially women and children, are able to escape their traffickers, they often find themselves in need of help. For this reason, many shelters and organizations have begun to appear around the world—in order to shelter and protect these traumatized victims, as well as bring their violators to justice.

The Philippines have had several young people taken into human trafficking against their will, and, as the issue is given more attention, victims of the practice are now finding the strength to oppose their captors. Many of these victims are women and children, stolen from shelters—as many of them were already fleeing unsafe living circumstances.

There are shelters throughout the Philippines that are specifically established to house people who have fled their human trafficking captors, assist them in reintegrating into society and also give the legal assistance needed to take down their traffickers.

Human trafficking is also being combated by nonprofit organizations that are emerging all over the globe. A number of organizations have been created to spread awareness of the issue in an effort to end the terrible practice.

One group that was created for such a purpose is Polaris, a nonprofit organization that works with survivors of human trafficking and governments of different countries to apprehend human traffickers and bring back captives who have been taken against their will. One of the biggest efforts in ending the phenomena is through advocacy and spreading awareness of the issue, as is the case for many security concerns throughout the world.

– Alexandrea Jacinto

Sources: CNN, The Polaris Project, The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime
Photo: FBI

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Break the Chains Raises Awareness of Human Trafficking

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Fear dominates the lives of young girls who live in brothels. They are silenced and commanded by an oppressor who beats, rapes and threatens them. They are sold and minimized to property. With this lifestyle, how can they hope for freedom, or even hope?

On July 2, 2015, Mike Rutter and George Cook completed a 3,000-mile bike ride across the United States. Their reason for the 40-day ride? To raise awareness of human trafficking victims and extreme poverty.

The pair began their endeavor in Santa Monica, California on May 24. The cycling tour, Break the Chains, was a mission to raise money and attention for victims of poverty and violence.

According to the U.S. Department of State, 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year.

George Cook says he first realized this was such a problem when he was 13 and noticed shackles hanging in a money manager’s office. The manager told him, “Oh, those are for a slave.” Cook says he was dumbfounded, thinking “Lincoln freed the slaves,” so where were they now? The manager responded, “Well it’s going on all over the world with people being bought and sold and held in captivity.”

Like Cook, Rutter also learned about human trafficking and poverty firsthand. Remembering his first trip to India, he says, “[A child] begged me for his survival. He was surrounded by other children just like him—a generation plagued by the cycle of poverty, something most of us can’t understand.”

Rutter said, “We are simply riding a bike, but through that simple act, we have the opportunity to change a life.”

Working with Bright Hope, an organization that strives to offer opportunity and hope to those who live on less than one dollar a day, the pair provides voices for the victims who are unable to speak for themselves.

On their 40-day bike ride, the pair was followed by a 24-foot RV that was painted with the Break the Chains logo. At every stop, the men received questions and interest.

When asked how they powered through 90 miles each day in varying weather elements, Rutter said, “The girls we are trying to do this for, they don’t have a choice what’s happening to them that day so we’re going to plow ahead.”

To help motivate them further, they ride with pictures of the girls with their stories written on the back. Rutter said it was a reminder that although they may be going through a bit of pain, “it’s nothing compared to the pain that these victims go through on a daily basis.”

Throughout their tour, Cook and Rutter hoped to raise $1 million. With these donations, they plan to train more police officers to bring brothel owners to justice, as well as establish rehabilitation centers for the children that they rescue.

Cook recognizes the correlation between poverty and human trafficking. He says, “Where there is poverty, people do not have the money to pay for a detective or prosecutor. They don’t have money and can barely survive so they get taken advantage of.”

In addition to working with Bright Hope, the pair works closely with the International Justice Mission (IJM), which rescues and assists victims of violence.

On July 2, Cook and Rutter completed the 3,000 miles in Sandy Point State Park in Maryland. They raised $256,592 dollars.

To learn more or donate to the cause, visit BrightHope.org.

– Kelsey Parrotte

Sources: Facebook, International Justice Mission, Youtube, The Emporia Gazette, Wish TV
Photo: Cops

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Street Children in Costa Rica

Costa-Rica-Street-Children

Costa Rica is known worldwide for its rich rainforests and beautiful beaches. As a result of this scenic beauty, there is an inherent marketability from which Costa Rica benefits, especially in regards to the tourism industry. Education, health and social security are other areas in which Costa Rica has seen positive development. While regionally Costa Rica is viewed as a fairly stable and successful country, it is not without its own set of serious economic and social issues.

Economically speaking, the top 20 percent of the country’s population account for about half of the total national income. The GDP per capita of Costa Rica is just over $10,000. However, about 10 percent of Costa Ricans are living on approximately $1.25 per day. It is clear that there is a significant disparity in terms of wealth distribution. Costa Rica is also a very young country, with roughly 26% of its 4.3 million people under the age of 14.

According to UNICEF estimates, there are upwards of 280,000 children not regularly attending school or enrolled in classes. 93% of children under 12 attend school, compared to only 86% and 78% for 14- and 16-year-olds, respectively. The older a child gets, the likelihood that they will graduate from school decreases by a few percentage points. The combination of these factors indicates why approximately 9% of all children between the ages of 5-14 are working to contribute to their families’ income. The majority of these children are either working in the fields, selling wares on the streets or working from home with family members.

UNICEF estimates that there are 36,000 children living on the streets of Costa Rica. One of the reasons for this high number is because children have either been orphaned or they have left home. In 2010, the National Children’s Hospital treated 2,555 cases of violence and assault toward children. Social attitudes toward corporal punishment in Costa Rica are severely outdated, and it would appear that many children run away from home to escape this abuse. These children in particular are often distressed, hungry and afraid. Because of their desperation, they also are susceptible to being abducted into drug cartels in the local barrios. Being on the streets places children in danger of gang violence, drug trade and sexual abuse.

The child sex industry in particular is a major issue in Costa Rica, as there is a rampant sex tourism industry. The Protection Project estimates that over 5,000 people visit Costa Rica for the sex tourism annually. The majority of these tourists are coming from the United States and Western Europe. Orphaned girls living on the street are the most vulnerable to being lured into underground businesses.

The abuse comes in the form of prostitution, trafficking, and pornography. Child prostitutes can potentially earn hundreds of dollars per day, and trafficking a single child can bring in a profit of $10,000. Costa Rica also has one of the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in Central America with 0.3% of the population affected, or approximately 10,000 cases. Costa Rican street children are at particular risk.

In 2004, World Vision, an international humanitarian group, received funding from the United States to help end child sex trafficking worldwide. The organization’s strategies included using deterrent messages, law enforcement assistance, and prevention programs. In 2008, UNICEF partnered with the Law on the Right of Children and Adolescents to Discipline Free of Corporal Punishment or Humiliating Treatment. This program seeks to reform social attitudes and provide families with advocacy resources on safe child rearing practices.

Additionally, in 2009 UNICEF partnered with the Costa Rican government’s National Council for Children and Adolescents to enact the Public Policy for Children and Adolescents.The purpose of this initiative was to implement a series of educational standards and regulations for children’s rights by 2021, Costa Rica’s 200th anniversary. The government has been heralded internationally for their compliance with international standards on children’s rights.

– The Borgen Project

Sources: SOS Children’s Village International, UNICEF 1, Protection Project 1, UNICEF 2, ABC News, Protection Project 2
Photo: Latest News Link

 

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UNICEF Targets Child Trafficking in Nepal

child_trafficking_in_nepal
In the wake of the 7.3 magnitude earthquake that rocked Nepal on April 25, the world responded to help those buried in rubble, but as the region rebuilt itself, traffickers preyed from the shadows on families seeking a better life.

Even before the earthquake hit two months ago, human trafficking in Nepal plagued communities and victimized children. According to a 2001 International Labor Organization study, 12,000 Nepalese children were brought to India as a result of human trafficking every year.

After natural disasters such as earthquakes, children face a greater risk of being trafficked. Girls who are not forced into prostitution would be sold as domestic slaves in India or other countries, and boys are often subjected to harsh working conditions against their will.

Traffickers approach tragedy stricken families offering education, food and security for their children, when in reality, children are whisked away in to a life of monstrous exploitation and horrendous abuse.

Thankfully, multiple organizations have made efforts to deal with the aforementioned issues. UNICEF, a United Nations children’s organization is working closely with the police in Nepal and has already rescued 245 children since the earthquake, by intercepting and thus preventing them from slipping into a dark underworld of sex slavery and forced labor. UNICEF is also supporting the local police in the establishment of 84 checkpoints and police stations throughout the country.

Maiti Nepal, a national NGO, non-profit organization, with the help of UNICEF, is beefing up interception and screening stations along the India and Chinese borders. UNICEF is ensuring child accountability through the strengthening of information management and coordination systems.

The Nepalese government suspended international adoption since the earthquake and in early June, they banned children from traveling between districts without parents or approved guardians. The registration of new orphanages has also been suspended.

The Indian Ministry of Home Affairs, issued an advisory to increase vigilance at border controls and has advised the society in India to be aware of human trafficking. UNICEF has since spearheaded an awareness and public information campaign by radio reaching the population through 40,000 flyers on prevention of family separation.

25 airline companies operating in Nepal have also been made aware of the need to screen passengers, ensuring that children are accompanied by their legal care givers. Radio Nepal is concurrently airing messages, reaching an estimated 70 percent of the population bolstering awareness.

Lastly, UNICEF has supported the establishment of hundreds of child friendly spaces and temporary learning centers, providing children with education programs as part of a back to school campaign.

Another problem in Nepal, which often hides behind a cloak of good intentions is “Orphanage Voluntourism”. Families around the world with expressed interest to adopt children perceived or mistaken to be orphans, are left unaware about the fact that these children have been deliberately separated from their families to attract high fee paying adoptive families.

UNICEF and its partners have thereby been working to encourage orphanage volunteering programs to discontinue their practices as volunteers. Although for the most part well intentioned, these can be ignorant to deceptive practices. Moreover, backgrounds are usually not adequately checked.

Nepal, like much of the developing world has thus been diseased by human trafficking long before the earthquake in April. After the catastrophe, however, the practice has amplified as wolves in sheep’s clothing prey on the unsuspecting and desperate. Organizations such as UNICEF are therefore out to bring down those who would seek to unreasonably profit from innocence and disaster.

– Jason Zimmerman

Sources: Free for Life, UNICEF, American Himalayan Foundation, The Guardian
Photo: UN News Centre

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Kranti Organization: Educating Girls in Mumbai’s Red Light District

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The Indian education system is steadily improving, thanks in part to the Right to Education Act passed in 2009. This granted free education for all children between the ages of 6 and 14. Now, 98 percent of children in India are enrolled in primary school. But this number does not tell the full story.

Many students in India still slip between the cracks — namely, female students. 62 percent of out-of-school children are female, as are two-thirds of illiterate citizens between the ages of 15 and 24. Furthermore, female students are much more likely to face harassment at school, which contributes to their increased dropout rates.

In 2010, Robin Chauraysia founded the Kranti organization, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) specifically working to educate and empower girls who were born in Kamathipura, Mumbai’s red light district. Established by the British in the 1700s, Kamathipura is one of the world’s oldest and largest red light districts. Here, over 10,000 women from all over India and nearby countries, such as Nepal and Bangladesh, work as prostitutes. Most have been trafficked, sold by relatives or trapped by men who promised them a better life in Mumbai. New arrivals to Kamathipura are often kept captive and blackmailed into staying. These women become stuck in the industry, as other employers discriminate against working and former prostitutes, and will not even hire them for simple jobs such as cleaning.

Chauraysia’s goal in starting the Kranti organization was to give these girls the same opportunities and education as more fortunate children and help them grow up to become leaders. Due to the extra support most students require, as well as the need to serve differing education levels, Kranti exists outside of the formal school system. However, the girls are encouraged to attend formal schooling when they feel ready. All girls receive therapy upon entering Kranti, which incorporates both cognitive-based methods and more creative practices, such as art or dance-movement therapy. They also work on improving their relationships with their mothers, who they are often taught to be ashamed of because of their profession.

Eventually, girls begin attending classes in a wide range of subjects. All students practice meditation and journal writing every day. They also learn math, reading, music, current events and creative thinking. At the center of the Kranti curriculum are multiple social justice units, covering topics such as caste, class, religion, the environment, gender, sexuality and women’s rights. The girls learn about the roots of India’s most pervasive social justice issues and where progress needs to be made. They work on projects around these units and offer creative solutions to the problems presented. They are also required to choose one physical extracurricular, such as karate or kickboxing, and one artistic extracurricular like photography or painting.

“Kranti” is the Hindi word for “revolution,” and the girls are traveling the world to spread the stories of their own personal revolutions. Kranti takes three to five trips each year, some around India and some abroad, in order to connect with other NGOs and lead workshops. The girls also wrote a play titled “Lal Batti Express,” or “Red Light Express,” about their stories of struggling and surviving. The play focuses on their experiences with discrimination and dealing with the stigma of their background. They are currently touring across the United States, performing at theaters and schools in New York and Los Angeles, a jail in Washington, D.C. and a domestic violence support group in Chicago. Kranti is also working with the Utah-based nonprofit Operation Underground Railroad, which helps rescue children from sex slavery.

When it comes to getting an education, women in India often face obstacles. But as the girls who were given a second chance with Kranti spread their message of revolution, they prove that it is possible for children of any background to succeed with the right support.

– Jane Harkness

Sources: GOOD Magazine, The Guardian 1, The Guardian 2, Kranti, KSL, NBC
Photo: The Guardian

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5 Things You Didn’t Know About the Sex Trafficking Industry

Things you didn’t know about the Sex Trafficking Industry
Below are the top five things you didn’t know about the sex trafficking industry.

1. Trafficked children are treated and tried as criminals even though federal law defines anyone under the age of 18 as a victim.

U.S. Federal law states that no one under the age of 18 is able to give consent to any sexual acts. However, children under the age of 18 are tried as prostitutes and criminals every day. There is an inherent flaw in the U.S. judicial system, which seems to allow survivors to be treated as criminals. Most of these children were forced into the industry and have no means of escaping except through the law, but when law enforcement officials are after them as well, it is no wonder that so many children feel trapped.

2. Many children in the trafficking industry do not believe they are victims.

When children are first recruited into the sex industry they are brainwashed. The younger the child the more they are convinced that working in the sex industry is the only job for them. Most survivors believe that they owe their “pimps” something, that there is no life for them outside of the trafficking industry because they have seen so many horrible things. For this reason, many sex trafficking survivors do not immediately seek assistance.

One survivor explained her thought process to the Girls Educational and Mentoring Services (GEMS), stating that the reason many “victims” dislike the term victim is because they are truly survivors. These men and women have survived horrible conditions and have seen things that no one could ever imagine, yet they persevere and survive through it all.

3. Boys make up 50 percent of the children trafficked in the U.S.

While the typical image of a trafficking victim is a young girl, clueless about the situation and finding herself having to tough it out on the rough streets, this excludes half of the trafficked population. Many young boys are taken and sold as workers or sex workers. These young men are especially susceptible to suicide and drug abuse because society does not accept them. The most dangerous areas for trafficking are New York City, Florida and California.

4. There are an estimated 27 million adults and 13 million children around the world who are victims of human trafficking.

There are more slaves in the world at this moment than there have ever been at any point in history.

5. Pregnant women are some of the most trafficked individuals.

Surprisingly, many pregnant women are at higher risk to be trafficked. Women who get pregnant while in the trafficking industry will often profit off of the pregnancy. Traffickers sell newborn babies to black market industries and split the profits between the doctors, lawyers, shippers and caretakers, leaving the mother with a small sum of money in place of a child.

Many organizations are working to crack down on the sex-trafficking industry and hopefully, with better surveillance and harsher laws, a new beginning can be found.

– Sumita Tellakat

Sources: Alternet, Facts, Polaris Project
Photo: All Girls Allowed