The Issue

Every minute two children are prepared for sexual exploitation.

 If you are not disgusted by that fact, something is wrong. 

Girls stuck in the bondage of sexual exploitation have been manipulated into thinking that it is normal and acceptable. For some, it's all they have ever known...it's their life. Some girls are desperate for food or a place to stay and they sell their bodies as a way of living. Victims of sex trafficking can be women or men, girls or boys, but the majority are women and girls. There are a number of common patterns for luring victims into situations of sex trafficking, including: 

• A promise of a good job in another country 

• A false marriage proposal turned into a bondage situation  

• Being sold into the sex trade by parents, husbands, and boyfriends  

• And being kidnapped by traffickers  

Sex traffickers frequently subject their victims to debt-bondage, an illegal practice in which the traffickers tell their victims that they owe money (often relating to the victims’ living expenses and transport into the country) and that they must pledge their personal services to repay the debt.  

Traffickers are evil and crafty, adding debt, making it impossible for girls to be free. Sex traffickers use a variety of methods to “condition” their victims including starvation, confinement, beatings, physical abuse, rape, gang rape, threats of violence to the victims and the victims’ families, forced drug use and the threat of shaming their victims by revealing their activities to their family and their families’ friends.

Psychological harms include mind/body separation/disassociated ego states, shame, grief, fear, distrust, hatred of men, self-hatred, suicide, and suicidal thoughts. Victims are at risk for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) – acute anxiety, depression, insomnia, and physical hyper- alertness. It is common for victims to also suffer from traumatic bonding – a form of coercive control in which the perpetrator instills in the victim fear as well as gratitude for being allowed to live. 

A few statistics:

1.2 million children are being trafficked every year; this is in addition to the millions already

held captive by trafficking (UNICEF)xxviii

• Every minute two children are prepared for sexual exploitation.

• The average age of a trafficked victim is 11-14 years old (U.S. Department of State) Though some girls are as young as 5 and 6 years old.

• UNICEF reports approximately 30 million children have lost their childhood through sexual

exploitation over the past 30 years (IAST)

• Human trafficking has surpassed weapons and is second only to illegal drug trade. It is estimated that human trafficking will surpass drug trade within 2-5 years.

• The International Labor Organization—the UN agency charged with addressing labor standards,

employment, and social protection issues—estimates that there are at least 12.3 million adults and children in forced labor, bonded labor, and commercial sexual servitude at any given time. Of these victims, 1.4 million are victims of commercial sexual servitude. Also, 56% of all forced labor victims are women and girls. In the case of all forced labor, 40-50% of persons exploited may be children. (ILO)xxxii

• People are trafficked from 127 countries to be exploited in 137 countries (UN)xxxiii

• The total market value of illicit human trafficking is estimated to be in excess of $32 billion annually (UN)xxxiv

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/about/fact_sex.pdf

http://www.crisisaid.org/ICAPDF/Trafficking/traffickstats.pdf