Sex trafficking is wrong and more needs to be done to combat trafficking

Tsivya Miller
5/10/13
Sex trafficking has many definitions, none of which are very good. It is defined
by the Victims Protection Act of 2000 as the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision,
or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act (Tiefenbrum, 167). It is
considered to be violence against women; sex trafficking..for the purpose of subjection to
involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery (Tiefenbrum,167). Women are often
sold to sex traffickers for money by their families, who desperately need the money or think that
they will be going to the city and living a better life. Women are often kidnapped, and hard to
find because they have disappeared. Sex trafficking is broadly defined because it can happen to
anyone at any time, and they may not be aware of it themselves until later. Women are bought
and sold and then brought across borders, that is one of the reasons this has become such a large
issue. There is a huge problem with trafficking in Thailand. Also, the international community
cares about trafficking because it is traumatizing, and no person should ever go through anything
like what these women have gone through. People dont want to think about it being close to
their home, reading other peoples stories they allow themselves to detach, but in that one
moment that you allow yourself to connect to the women and their stories, you cant help but
want to stop trafficking. As an international community, there is more to be done in the effort to
combat trafficking. There are several ways that the international community can do. There could
be more exposure about the horrors of human trafficking and more prevention in the form of
education. The international community needs to see this as an important issue, and be better at

enforcing laws and programs. The last thing that needs to happen is all the false ideas that
people have about trafficking and the victims need to be discussed and the true facts need to
come to light. Also, there needs to be support in helping survivors of human trafficking.
While it may seem as if the international community is already doing this, there needs to
be more exposure to human trafficking and more preventative measures being taken. If not
everyone knows about what is going on in their own countries and around the world, then
something is going wrong. The first step to changing something is through education, because
once someone knows that something is an issue they can not claim ignorance. Because this is
such a horrific, graphic, and emotional issue, there will be a pull of the heartstrings when people
listen and see these womens stories. There is a book by Nicholas Kristoff called Half the Sky
became a sensation, and was even turned into a movie. The reason that he wrote the book is
because he witnessed the sex industry in places such as India and Thailand, and wanted to make
it known what was going on there. Statistics are very moving as well; while America is not
known for high numbers of trafficking domestically according to the FBI estimated 293,000
American youths currently are at risk of becoming victims of commercial sexual exploitation
(Walker-Rodriguez, Hill).
Once there has been exposure to the suffering of women, it is easier to talk about
preventative measures that will keep them from being trafficked. Education will be the biggest
preventative measure, and will have direct results for these girls lives. Because of the girls lack
of education, she is more vulnerable to traffickers. She is usually suffering from poverty and
therefore will do what it takes to make money for her and her family. She is not going to say no
when someone offers her a better life and access to education in the city. She is home doing
housework and hanging out in her neighborhood. She is unable to identify who a trafficker is. If

she was still in school there wouldnt be time for her to be trafficked. With more educational
opportunities, she would have more prospects for future jobs. Through education she will come
to know her self-worth and that while she is still vulnerable because of where she lives, she can
prevail against her society. In two ways education is key to combating trafficking; the first is to
educate the world and the second is to educate the girls. While this sounds idealistic and great, it
doesnt address the issue that Thailand has a certain opinion of women and do not think they are
entitled to education. Thailand struggles to educate most of its population. Thailand also benefits
from tourism especially the sex industry. It is hard to ignore statistics as well, in the past few
years approximately 4,200,000 men have come to Thailand for the sex industry (Prostitution in
Thailand: The Sex Trade Supply and Demand). Thailand sex industry will be hard to combat
because it goes back to World War II, when Asian women were used as comfort women for
men from the Japanese military. This continues when in 1967 there is a Rest and Recreation
Treaty between Thailand and the United States because of the United States involved in Vietnam,
and many women were used for sex during that time(Young,146-148).
In addition to education there needs to be global enforcement against trafficking. There
are policies already put in place, and they need to be enforced. On a local level there needs to be
enforcement by the police and government officials in tracking down pimps and holding them
accountable for their actions. This is hard especially in countries such as Thailand because there
is major corruption with police, they collect fees from brothel owners to make sure that the law
does not come for them, and many policy officers go to the brothel and engage in sexual acts
with the women. There needs to be more legislation that states that buyers should be penalized
almost as much as brothel owners because without them there would be no business. There is the
13th amendment from the United States Constitution that forbids slavery, and should be thought

of when thinking about how to enforce trafficking. The United Nations from the beginning has
been against slavery with one of its goals being to get rid of slavery. The United Nations General
assembly created the U.N. Convention Against Trans-national Organized Crime and the
Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and
Children (Tiefenbrum,168-169). The Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights was created, the problem
though is that these are non-binding agreements and are hard to effectively enforce.
While it has been said by some that developed countries shouldnt judge the cultural
norms that are observed in developing countries, this idea does not apply to sex trafficking. It is
true that there may be cultural causes that contribute to sex trafficking though sex trafficking is a
global crime, and will be treated as such. In articles 53 and 64 of the Vienna Convention on the
Law of Treaties the principle of jus cogens was created, and that means that sex trafficking is a
global issue(Tiefenburm,169). International norms play a huge role in international issues, and if
the norm is not accepting of sex trafficking, then all countries would have to abide by that and
put pressure on their neighboring countries to do the same. There is an issue with trying to
eliminate trafficking across borders. While the United States doesnt have a huge number of
Americans being sex trafficked in the country, there are many women being brought in from
other countries. In an article from 2002 it was found that; The immigration and Naturalization
Service has discovered over 250 brothels likely to be involved in trafficking in 26 different cities
of the United States(172, Tiefenbrum). The numbers have presumably surpassed 250 brothels
in, and if the United States is saying that they dont have a part in trafficking then the officials
need to look at the numbers. Women are trafficked by boat as human cargo (238, Rieger).
The other way she will get into this country is to travel by plane using a false visa and passport.

It should be hard to get into this country, and there needs to be a better way to tell false records
and a psychologist could even come in to show the workers what a women who has been
trafficked would look like emotionally. An interesting idea was created by the Asia Watch
Womens Rights Project trying to deal with stopping traffickers at border points. The idea is that
there should be law enforcement officials that are specially trained at the border points, and there
should be investigations into employment agencies and recruitment networks in places that are
known for trafficking. This would require cooperation and agreement between Thailand
Myanmar, also it would be required that everyone caught in these operations would be returned
safely. Cooperation and agreement is what the international community needs to enforce and
create laws that are effective against sex trafficking.
Although, it is very important to have acts that help protect women who have been
subjected to sex trafficking, the wording of the act needs to be thought of because it will have a
significant impact on how the act is viewed. There are several problems with the Victims
Protection Act of 2000. One being that there is a difference between severe sex trafficking and
trafficking. One of the differences is age, under 18 is considered severe sex trafficking and it
goes into further activities. There is no difference though because a girl could be made to do
those same activities and the only thing stopping her from getting the same treatment is that she
is over the age of 18. It has already been made clear that consent does not exist when
discussing sex trafficking, because no one can consent to being enslaved. There is something
wrong with defining what a non-consensual worker is forced prostitution and voluntary
prostitutes(Tiefenbrum, 167).While there is understandably a difference, it does a disservice to
separate the women who will encounter the same struggles in the end. While there are some
issues with the Victims Protection Act of 2000, it is very thorough and clearly defines how to

deal with different issues that come up and it changed the problem from being one of
immigration to one of human rights. Also, it paved the way for other acts to come such as the UN
Convention Against Trans-national Organized Crime. The most important thing to acknowledge
though is that it is the way things are written that will change how they are used, and the world
only wants acts that further move along the process of eliminating sex trafficking.
Many people argue that the sex industry should be decriminalized. Some people say that
they would only want it to be decriminalized for the women, and some would like the whole
business to be decriminalized. While these people make the case for legalization, one thing that
is clear is that it will never be a legitimate business, there are too many laws that it breaks for the
business to be legitimate. Pimps would be considered businessmen, and the johns would be
considered legitimate costumers. Before there were international treaties, a group called the
Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women internationally was advocating that the sex
industry be decriminalized stating that women have the right to contract with third parties, now
known as pimps, redefining them as third party business agents for women in the sex industry
(Adelman, 392).In 2003, the government of Thailand wanted to legalize prostitution because it
was making around $4.3 billion a year. Of course, governments that could have their economy be
benefited by the legalization of prostitution would be supportive of it.
Unfortunately for the people who say that legalizing prostitution would stop the
promotion of sex trafficking, it has been proven otherwise in countries where it is currently legal.
After the legalization of prostitution, 80% of women in the brothels in the Netherlands are
trafficked from other countries(Somswasdi). Legalization does not stop the expansion of the sex
industry, it has grown by 25% in the Netherlands. Legalization also doesnt protect anyones
health because the only the women are required to get tested, and can still pick up diseases from

their clients. This goes to show that while legalization is one idea to help combat sex trafficking
it is not one that is effective and is more destructive than good.
Undoubtedly, people across cultures have an idea of the women that are subject to sex
trafficking. Over the years people have received these false impressions that impact how they
view the women of sex trafficking. If we acknowledge these false ideas that our society has that
can help us understand how to better combat trafficking. Women are seen as worthless and
foreign women are seen as exotic. Across the globe, womens sexuality is seen as something that
can be bought and sold easily as if woman are goods to be exchanged.In developing countries
this idea that women are inferior is more prevalent but even in countries such as the United
States women are objectified and are seen as sex objects when they are naked on ads for
perfume. These ideas are false and whats worse is that if you tell women enough that they are
inferior, they may end up believing it. Another false perception is that women being trafficked
are not victims, that they brought this on themselves. The Victims Protection Act of 2000 states
the opposite supporting women who come from all backgrounds, they dont have to have even
been forced to travel for them to be considered trafficked. These women do not want the lives
that they end up living, even if they go to work of their own free will when they are beaten and
raped, they are not of their own free will anymore. The recidivism rate for prostitutes and sex
trafficking victims is quite high, and the international community judges the women for this. If
someone has never been forced into sex trafficking then they must not know what it is like. In the
countries were sex trafficking is popular, there is a stigma around the girls. After they get out of
it their families often do not want them around for fear of shaming the family name. It is
common that the brothel owner can end up finding them and make them come back. The women

are so distraught that they dont know how to go on with their lives and because of not having a
support system to help guide them, they end up going back to the brothel.
Undeniably, it is hard to continue life after being subjected to sex trafficking. The
international world needs to help support the survivors. The true support the women will get will
be from each other but financially there can be other ways that they are helped. Foreign aid in
developing countries is needed, and creating more Non-governmental organizations and
programs that will go in and help the women find a job or give them money to start their own
business. The reason that they are each others strongest allies and support system is because
they have all been through similar things. Unfortunately, they will bond over their terrifying
encounters and share battle wounds, but in the end they can help rebuild each others lives. This
can be modeled after Somali Mam who is from Cambodia and was once subjected to sexual
slavery until one day after she saw her best friend killed she decided that she had to escape. In
2007 she established the Somali Mam foundation that is an anti-trafficking foundation that has
helped around 7,000 victims (http://www.somaly.org/somaly-mam).She fears for her and her
families lives but doesnt stop wanting to help other survivors. She makes it sound as if this is
her calling, and will continue to help people until she can not do it anymore. The international
community needs to support the efforts of people like Somali Mam, who have experienced the
sex industry but can now help other people cope with the effects of it.
Trafficking is a global issue and will take the whole international community efforts to
combat trafficking. A way to combat trafficking is through educating the world to the facts of
human trafficking, and providing girls and education to lessen their chances of being trafficked.
The international community needs to come together and enforce already passed acts, and
address the faults in current acts for better effectiveness. False perceptions of girls and sex

trafficking victims need to be addressed in order to have people want to help eliminate sex
trafficking. Finally, the world needs to help support survivors of sex trafficking move on with
their lives. All of these things will help combat trafficking, it wont be easy but with the
international community backing it can be done. As Ghandi once said be the change you wish
to see in the world. We all want to see human rights accessible for all and when we eliminate
sex trafficking we will be one step closer to reaching our goals.

Works Cited
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http://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/ibru/publications/full/bsb4-1_grundy.pdf
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http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?
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http://www.somaly.org/somaly-mam (about Somali Mam foundation)