Breaking Free (18 page)

Traffickers are also very smart and savvy. They are expert mind manipulators. Whether it’s erasing all her cell phone contacts so she’s completely isolated or telling her he will kill her family if she breathes a word about him, he has a hold on his victim’s psyche. He figures out exactly what she is scared of or feeling insecure about and digs in. There are so many ways physically and psychologically that traffickers keep their victims caught in the system. Here are just a few.

Low Self-Esteem

This one is universal. We all go through bouts of self-doubt, wondering where we fit in. Especially as teens when everything starts to change—our friends, our bodies, our hormones. Adolescence is a hugely vulnerable time. When someone points to you and says you look pretty or he believes in you, it feels only natural to be attracted to that kind of attention. This is just one way in which traffickers are mind manipulators.

Physical Abuse and Threats

It is common that victims are abused physically in some way while being held captive. Some are knocked unconscious by their beatings on a regular basis. Traffickers often promise that they will kill their victim and/or the victim’s family if s/he tries to run away or call anyone for help.

Deportation

A lot of trafficking victims are from foreign countries, so deportation is a terrifying threat for them. Traffickers steal identification and green cards, cell phones, and any other identifying objects. They also often have a mob of conspirators back in the victim’s home country ready to “greet” her if she’s sent back home. Not to mention that she may not even speak English and could be completely in the dark about where she’s located.

Constant Relocation

This is another common tactic for traffickers. They move around a country quickly and secretively. This means the victims never know exactly what city or state they’ll wake up in the next morning, law enforcement cannot track them down, and the victims cannot get familiarized or find out where safe houses are. Each new city could mean different names or identifications for victims, too. Pretty soon, the girls cannot tell who, what, or where they are, and they’re completely isolated from family or friends who could possibly get them out.

Criminal Charges

If you are a victim and you try to call the authorities, what will happen? Even though victims of sex trafficking have been horrifically abused, many times if they try to contact law enforcement, they can be charged with prostitution, indecent exposure, or loitering. Anyone being trafficked who’s older than eighteen has to prove “force, fraud, and coercion,” which is very hard. A lot of people (jurors, lawyers, even judges) still don’t understand that prostitutes are most often victims instead of culprits. If you’re charged with prostitution, you could be sentenced to many months in jail and required to pay fines, which vary from state to state. If you’re younger than eighteen and brought into foster care (a common “solution”), you never know what kind of family you’ll be placed in. Plus, once you turn eighteen, you’re put back on the street because you’ve “aged out,” which means the government says you’re too old to need a guardian.

Cults

It feels good to be part of a secret club, especially when the leader tells you that you’ve found your calling and are on your way to a new, carefree existence. Cults are religious groups of people who follow one leader, often isolating themselves so they can devote themselves fully. Cult leaders recruit people through all sorts of tactics, often promising psychological or spiritual miracles. And once there is a small group on board with the cult’s mission, each member starts recruiting new people to come into the fold. Not all cults are involved in sex trafficking, but there are some significant and scary cases involving child marriages, sexual servitude, and mass suicide. Victims in these situations are often lured by the leader of the cult who builds a strong, trusting relationship with them, and then asks them to prove their faith.

Stockholm Syndrome

If you’ve never experienced abuse or coercion, this could be hard to understand, but Stockholm Syndrome is very real and very powerful. People who develop Stockholm Syndrome will defend their abusers and traffickers no matter what. If anyone asks them whether they chose to be a sex worker or were trafficked, they will say it was their choice. Why? Because there is a psychological hold that traffickers have on their victims. A lot of people call it brainwashing.

Think about it: The trafficker has convinced his victim that she’s the love of his life. Or that he wants to start a family with her. If he’s been violent, he swears he’s going to change and he wants to be good for her. Or he tells her that as soon as they make the next rent check he won’t make her work anymore. And she believes him. Because no matter how horrible he’s been to her, he’s also the one who found her when she was completely lost. He’s the only one to praise her and tell her that she’s beautiful. Maybe he’s even her father. So yes, he has control over her sense of reason and, in some cases, this is what keeps her there night after night.

“We, the bystanders, have had to look within ourselves to find some small portion of the courage that victims of violence must muster every day.”

~ Dr. Judith Herman, author of
Trauma and Recovery

WHY do we still put up with this happening all over the world?

There’s really no answer for this question. In every nation there will be a different “reason” or, really, “excuse” for why people are still being bought and sold for sex. In some places, it’s part of an age-old tradition. In others, it’s more of a subtle psychological game.

WHY is prostitution and pimp daddy language still glamorized in American music and pop culture?

There are too many songs about the “glory” of pimping to list them all in one book. Seriously. Rap and hip-hop artists sing about pimping as if they are doing “their girls” a favor and the world should cheer for them. Here’s just a sampling of the songs I’ve found that have the scariest lyrics:

•  “Pimpin’ All Over the World”
by Ludacris

•  “Pimp”
by 8Ball & Mjg

•  “P.I.M.P.”
by 50 Cent

•  “Pimp”
by Trick Daddy

•  “Hard Out Here for a Pimp”
by Three 6 Mafia

And what about all the video games where kids are taught that pimpin’ is silly and fun?
“Grand Theft Auto,” “Ho-Tel,”
and
“Second Life”
are just a handful of horrible activities you can find.

Please, instead of visiting these sites and getting hurt and furious, check out Wicked Evolution’s anti-trafficking music video with Jada Pinkett Smith singing “Nada.”
www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_SdBiTIocA

WHY is prostitution legal in the Netherlands?

In 2000, the Netherlands made prostitution legal. The idea was that the government could give health care to sex workers and cut down on trafficking. So far, this experiment has done mostly the opposite. Yes, there are more health checkups in brothels, but that doesn’t mean sexually transmitted diseases or HIV have faded. Trafficking and forced prostitution are still popular, and because people know they can’t be arrested for visiting brothels, the sex industry is booming.

WHY do patrol guards in India stop people from smuggling in pirated DVDs but not Nepali girls?

Nepali girls aren’t “worth” as much as a DVD. In many parts of India, it’s an unspoken rule that young men cannot sleep with their girlfriends until marriage. This is said to make them angry and sexually frustrated. So peasant girls are shipped in from Nepal to Kolkata. One border guard described it as a way to keep the peace.

WHY are Yemeni girls as young as ten forced into “marriages” where the men are decades older and often violent?

The parliament of Yemen still refuses to ban child marriages or at least set a minimum age for girls to get married. The United Nations and many other human rights organizations are trying to change this, but until the Yemeni government listens, there are many girls in danger. Some of them die during childbirth or even during sex because they are so young and treated so violently. Sometimes they’re being trafficked and married to their own cousins.

WHY does Sweden have the right idea?

The Swedish model of prosecution, which was started in 1999, means that in Sweden, Norway, and Iceland, the people who buy sex are punished instead of the people being sold. Since 1999, street prostitution and sex trafficking have both decreased significantly in these countries. So now the question is, Why isn’t the rest of the world getting on board with this idea?

WHEN

…will we all be truly free?

“I hope that someday people don’t have to celebrate their anniversary of freedom. I hope that everyone’s freedom date will forever and always be their birth date.”

~Minh Dang

These are just a handful of moments that are significant in the anti-trafficking movement. It’s crazy to see that even while we pass laws that “free” people, slaves remain. Feel free to write your own timeline with moments when you felt empowered or stood up for freedom. Then see how our stories are all connected.

1863:
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the
Emancipation Proclamation,
which commands all rebel states to free their slaves.

1910:
The Mann Act
is passed as a federal law. Also known as the White Slave Traffic Act, this makes it illegal in the United States to take women across state lines for consensual sex. It also makes it a felony to coerce a woman or a girl into prostitution, debauchery, or any other “immoral acts.”

1948:
The United Nations General Assembly adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which bans slavery globally.

1974:
The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) is enacted to protect children from abuse legally in the United States.

(Note: The federal Animal Welfare Act was passed eight years earlier in the United States.)

1976:
Maria Suarez comes to America with her sister and father. When Maria goes on a job interview, she is locked up and abused, becoming a sex slave for almost six years.

1981:
Maria Suarez is charged with conspiracy to murder her trafficker and sent to prison.

1989:
The United Nations General Assembly adopts The Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is an international law that is supposed to protect the rights of anyone under eighteen years old.

1991:
Somaly Mam refuses to be bought or sold for sex ever again.

1996:
Somaly Mam starts
Agir Pour les Femmes en Situation Précaire
(AFESIP) to rescue and restore victims of sexual exploitation. She opens AFESIP’s first shelter the following year.

1998:
Rachel Lloyd, trafficking survivor and activist, opens Girls Educational & Mentoring Services (GEMS)—the only organization in New York state created for girls and young women who’ve been through commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking. When she starts GEMS (out of her apartment), Rachel has $30, a laptop, and a hunger to change the world.

2000:
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) is passed in the United States. It defines human trafficking and the penalties for anyone convicted of trafficking. It is re-authorized in
2003, 2005,
and
2008
with the help of survivors speaking before legislators and demanding to be heard.

2003:
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger grants Maria Suarez parole on December 16 (and sends her straight to an Immigration and Naturalization detention center).

2004:
CAST opens the first and only shelter in the United States exclusively for survivors of trafficking.

2004:
On May 25, Maria Suarez is released from INS detention and declared officially free.

2005:
The first time Minh Dang says no to her father raping her. “It was kinda the first time I said no in general to anything he asked me to do. That night, my mom had left him and he asked me to return home to stay with him. And I said, ‘No.’”

2006:
The Department of Justice reports that 1,600 children are arrested for prostitution and commercialized vice (even though the TVPA is supposed to stop punishing any child caught in the trafficking system).

2006:
On April 14, Minh Dang tells her parents that she will no longer sell her body for them and that if they try to contact her she will alert the police.

2007:
Somaly Mam teams up with Jared Greenberg and Nicholas Lumpp to start the Somaly Mam Foundation. SMF is part of Somaly’s vision to “expand and improve victim services, to prevent trafficking with grassroots advocacy and education, and to provide a platform for the survivor voice to be heard around the world.”

2008:
The Safe Harbor Act is passed in New York and California, helping children who’ve been trafficked get protective services and counseling instead of being treated as criminals.

2013:
With the help of Equality Now survivors, the New York Safe Harbor Act is extended to protect persons less than eighteen years old from being treated like a criminal after they’ve been trafficked.

2013:
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, other law enforcement agencies, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) conduct Operation Cross Country VII. They recover more than a hundred children who have been trafficked for sex. There are also nearly one hundred sixty pimps arrested on state and federal charges.

HOW

… do we break the cycle?

More and more incredible organizations each day are reaching out and helping victims of sex trafficking. Many of the brave survivors, legislators, and counselors in this book are either founders or active members of these groups.