[This article was originally published as Innocence Lost for the Salvation Army in July 2005.]
I dreamed a dream in time gone by When hope was high and life was worth living.
I dreamed that love would never die,
I dreamed that God would be forgiving …
I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I’m living.
So different now from what it seemed,
Now life has killed the dream I dreamed.
- I Dreamed a Dream (Fantine’s Song) – Les Misérables
“So the man took his concubine and sent her outside to them, and they raped her and abused her throughout the night, and at dawn they let her go. At daybreak the woman went back to the house where her master was staying, fell down at the door and lay there until daylight. When her master got up in the morning and opened the door of the house and stepped out to continue on his way, there lay his concubine, fallen in the doorway of the house, with her hands on the threshold. He said to her, ‘Get up; let’s go.’ But there was no answer. Then the man put her on his donkey and set out for home” (Judges 19:25-28).
One of the most haunting stories in the Bible is the story of the Levite and his concubine in Judges 19 and the ensuing battle against the Benjamite tribe, which left a hole in Israelite society. It is a shocking story about the human condition, a story that strikes at the very heart of evil―the desire on the part of some to dominate, abuse and destroy their fellow human beings, and the intentional or unintentional participation of other ostensibly “good” people in such schemes. It is a story about the relative powerlessness of women in certain societies and situations. It is also a story of wanton lawlessness, poignantly captured by the words: “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit” (Judges 21:25).
I wish I could dismiss this story as a thing of the past, a tale of an ancient time and place that no longer exists. Modern societies respect and value women and their children and protect them from exploitation. Women’s rights movements and labour unions ensure women are paid just wages and their working conditions are safe. Horrors and rights violations of this magnitude simply do not exist in the modern civilized world, or so we would like to think … Unfortunately, the seeds of domination, exploitation and indifference still reside in human hearts, and each year thousands of woman and children find themselves in the position of the Levite’s concubine.
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You can help them |
What is sexual trafficking?
The sexual trafficking in women and children―buying and selling people or threatening them, or their families, for the purposes of forcing them into prostitution―is a multi-billion dollar industry that preys on the poor and the marginalized, offering the false promise of a better life. It is part of a larger industry of human trafficking, which involves the migration or “shipping” of people, intra-nationally and internationally, and forcing them into highly dangerous or low-paid labour, slavery-like conditions, non-consensual marriages and prostitution.
Human trafficking is defined in various ways. One commonly accepted definition is that offered by the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, also known as the “Palermo Protocol.” It defines trafficking as:
The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons,
- (a) by means of
- (i) the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or
(ii) the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person,
(b) for the purpose of exploitation.
At the heart of human trafficking are coercion, deception and exploitation. Unlike human smuggling, which is an attempt to get someone out of or into a country by illegal means and with the smuggled person’s knowledge and consent, human trafficking is almost always non-consensual and intentionally exploitative. Sexual trafficking is an especially offensive form of human trafficking, which renders women and children sexual slaves who are forced to service their “owner’s” clients until they can pay off their “debts” or persuade their captors to let them go.
Drawing attention to the plight of trafficking victims, the Initiative Against Sexual Trafficking points out that women who are trafficked usually find themselves living in fear of violence against themselves and their families. Some trafficking victims suffer extreme physical and mental abuse including rape, imprisonment, forced abortions and physical brutality. In addition, traffickers play upon the women’s fears of arrest and deportation, manipulating victims by controlling their travel and immigration documents.
Sexual trafficking is estimated to affect between 600,000 and two million people around the globe and to generate between $7 billion and $12 billion US annually. While there are various ways into sexual trafficking, women and children who find themselves trafficked usually enter through one of three avenues.
In some cases, women or children are coerced or duped into sexual slavery. They are abducted by traffickers or sold by family members and shipped off to another region or country, where they are forced to work in the sex trade without their advance knowledge or consent.
In other cases, young women respond to bogus job offers and discover, when they get to their destination, that they are required to do work they had not agreed to in order to pay off “debts.” The women, who are seeking jobs as waitresses or domestic servants, are sold by one mobster to another, and they are forced to work off their purchase price by providing services to the mobster’s clients. According to a July 2002 Vanity Fair article, “By the time they realize what is going on, it is too late. Deprived of their passports, gang-raped, often forced to take drugs, and disoriented by lack of food and sleep, these women find themselves virtual prisoners of whatever brothel they wind up in.”
A third group of women enter the sex trade “voluntarily,” believing there are no other options available to them. Women from Russia, the Ukraine and Moldova migrate to countries such as the United States or Canada and agree to work as exotic dancers and even prostitutes. Unfortunately they often borrow hefty sums from their madams or pimps in order to get to their new homeland, and when they arrive they are enslaved by debt and have to work it off before they can get out of the trade and begin their new lives.
How do we combat sexual trafficking?
Regardless of the reason why people enter into the sex trade or how they end up being trafficked, one thing is clear. People are making money trafficking in human beings and women and children who are trafficked are often abused, neglected and cheated out of their due. Women’s rights, the “best interests of the child” and just wages are irrelevant to human traffickers, who are usually members of organized crime and play by a different set of rules.
Although the general consensus is that women who are trafficked are victims, some believe that women who choose to work as exotic dancers or prostitutes in foreign countries should not be portrayed as such. Some feminists believe that women who voluntarily “choose” such work in order to have a chance at a better life should be respected for their choices, as such respect will empower rather than disempower them. Where women choose the sex trade and do not feel exploited, it may be inappropriate to refer to them as victims. Where, however, young women and children are sold or lured or forced into prostitution, and are threatened with physical harm if they try to leave, justice demands that their needs be acknowledged and addressed.
What are governments doing?
Governments have been attempting to address the problem of human trafficking for decades. Unfortunately the approach they have taken is most often criticized for its emphasis on law enforcement and migration control, rather than on the needs of the victims and the importance of protecting women’s and children’s rights. Addressing global economic disparities does not even factor into the analysis, so the root causes of sexual trafficking―extreme poverty, lack of opportunity, the impossibility of putting food on the table―are not even identified.
People who find themselves victims of trafficking are often in the country illegally and if caught, face detention and deportation. The traditional approach of governments has been to arrest women involved in prostitution or sexual trafficking and to lock them up in jails or detention centres until they can be deported. Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act specifically targets for detention people who have been smuggled or trafficked.
Non-governmental organizations have begun calling for arrested trafficking victims to be housed in appropriate shelters, not in jail or detention facilities, and are urging governments to allow such women to “regularize” their status in the country to which they were trafficked. Although some countries allow trafficked women to become legal immigrants, some of them also make testifying against the women’s traffickers a condition of regularizing their status. This may prove difficult, especially where the women’s families have been threatened with violence if the women do not co-operate.
What can you do?
General Larson has expressed concern about sexual trafficking and is anxious for 21st century Salvationists to do something about it. Although the Palermo Protocol requires governments to adopt measures to address the needs of people who have been trafficked, these measures are not a high priority. Governments have focused on prosecuting and punishing traffickers, but they have not taken many steps to allow those who have been trafficked to make the transition to a genuinely better life.
Concrete action is required to address victims’ needs in a meaningful way. This includes establishing:
- shelters for persons involved in sexual trafficking
- mental health support services for persons involved in sexual trafficking
- changes in immigration laws to allow sexually trafficked women and children to obtain landed immigrant status in the country into which they are trafficked
Governments need to be encouraged to take trafficking victims’ needs seriously and non-governmental organizations can provide much-needed support. Canadian Salvationists can make a difference in the lives of trafficked women and children by learning more about this issue, contributing to organizations that are already helping trafficking victims and by developing local support.
Women and children should not have to live in fear, sexual servitude or captivity. The days of the Levite concubine should be a thing of the past. Will you join me in raising awareness of those whose lives are affected by sexual trafficking and work toward a more just society?