Stop Selling Sex

Most victims are trafficked for prostitution, but others are used for pornography and stripping. Most children tend to be trafficked within their own countries, while young women may be trafficked internally or internationally, sometimes with the consent of their husbands or other family members. One study estimated that some 10,000 women from southern and central Mexico are trafficked for sexual exploitation to the northern border region each year. The U.S. State Department has estimated that at least 100,000 Latin Americans are trafficked internationally each year, with large numbers of victims coming from Colombia and the Dominican Republic, amongst others. Interpol has set the number trafficked out of Colombia each year at 35,000. The U.S. State Department has identified Spain, Italy, Portugal, the United States, and Japan as major destination countries for Latin American trafficking victims.

There are also intra-regional trafficking problems. A report by the IOM asserts that the Caribbean’s relatively open borders, lax enforcement of entertainment visa and work permit rules, and legalized prostitution have contributed to the problem of trafficking there. Destination countries for Latin American trafficking rings include Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic. Argentina and Brazil are destination countries for women trafficked from the Andes and Caribbean countries. Panama has been a destination for women from Colombia and Central America trafficked to work in the sex industry. Trafficking has also occurred at border crossings throughout Central America and Mexico, especially the Mexico-Guatemala border, as undocumented women who have not been able to get to the United States end up being forced into prostitution. Source countries (i.e. Colombia, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Mexico, Dominican Republic, etc), tend to be poor, and the government’s infrastructure broken down by years of corruption, civil war, or other forms of violence and economic crisis.

Trafficking of children for sexual exploitation is most common in countries that are both popular tourist destinations and centres of sex tourism. The available data shows that the number of children (girls and boys) sexually exploited in the region is increasing while the average age of exploited children is decreasing. Of the 40,000 sexually exploited children in Venezuela, 78% are girls between the ages of 8 and 17. Although street and orphaned children are particularly vulnerable to trafficking into the sex industry, a large percentage of children who have been trafficked remain living with their families and engage in commercial sex activity in order to contribute to household income. One study of child prostitutes in El Salvador found that 57% of those interviewed lived with their parents or other close relatives. Factors associated with children at risk of trafficking include poverty, infrequent school attendance, physical or sexual abuse, drug or alcohol addiction, and involvement in a criminal youth gang.

Latin America is experiencing an increasing problem with sex tourism. Red light districts have grown up around tourist destinations, such as popular beaches and hotels, with many brothels deliberately catering to paedophiles. This form of trafficking is especially prevalent in places like Brazil, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic.

Brazil has become the fastest growing hotbed for child sex tourism in the world. According to UNICEF, there are an estimated 250,000 child prostitutes in Brazil, and that number is growing. Sex tourists from all over the world, particularly the United States and Europe, are flocking to that country in droves for the promise of cheap, young, and easily accessible prostitutes. But Brazil is scheduled to host the World Cup in 2014, so it will be interesting to see if we are going to have the same issues and concerns about the safety of the country’s young and vulnerable when we start to gear up for the largest sporting event in the world. It will be up to Brazil’s government and police force to crack down on forced prostitution, trafficking, and other forms of exploitation long before talk of the World Cup even begins. Sadly, the likely response will be to push sex tourism hotspots to non-World Cup host cities rather than decreasing the instances of abuse throughout the country.

Costa Rica is another of the world’s most notorious destinations for sexual predators, with an unusually large number of sex tourism venues in operation. According to Casa Alianza, more than 3,000 girls and young women work in San Jose’s 300 brothels. Now rivalling Thailand as one the world’s leading sex tourism destinations, Costa Rica is credited with having Central Americas largest child prostitution problem and has thus been flagged by Interpol, as the country is fast becoming the hemispheric capital of sex tourism.

Mexico is another leading destination for sex tourism in Latin America. Every year, rings engaging in human trafficking entrap or abduct 10,000 women in the southern and central states of Mexico for sexual exploitation in the northern part of the country. Monterrey, the biggest city in northern Mexico, is one of the most frequented destinations of sexual tourism thanks to its proximity to the United States. Most sexually exploited women are brought by gangs from other regions under the false pretence of getting them jobs. Once the women get to the city of their destination and find they are being duped into working in brothels, most of them decide to return home – at which time they are threatened and submitted to all kinds of physical, sexual and psychological violence to make them stay. It is estimated that out of every 10 women trafficked from the states of Michoacán, Oaxaca, Guerrero, Veracruz and Chiapas, 3 are taken to the United States and 7 are exploited within the country.

Women and children are trafficked into the sex industry to satisfy not the demand of the traffickers, but that of the purchasers, who are mostly men. The insatiable demand for women and children in massage parlours, strip shows, escort services, brothels, pornography and street prostitution is what makes the trafficking trade so lucrative. Many individuals may be unaware, ill-informed, or in direct denial of the abusive realities of sex trafficking situations as they exist within the broader sex trade. When sex trafficking is present, victims are often subjected to violence, threats, controlling behaviours, false promises, lies, and manipulation perpetrated by the traffickers/pimps. Popular media, including certain books, movies, television shows, and music, sometimes glamorize and romanticize the commercial sex industry without properly acknowledging the presence of sex trafficking. This glamorization then fuels the demand for paying someone else to have sex with them. Additionally, it is common that victims of trafficking will not discuss their situation with customers or ask for help because they are trained by their traffickers to lie and keep up the act. As a result, the ‘punters’ may not fully realize the truth behind the facade, or the pain behind the smile. In places and communities where there is a demand to buy sex, sex traffickers directly respond to the demand by seeking to offer a ‘product’ to be sold for profit. To sex traffickers, the ‘product’ they sell are the women and children they control.

Perhaps if individuals knew that many women in Latin Americas growing sex industry have been trafficked and forced to sell their bodies they would think twice before handing over any money. If you are ever tempted to use a prostitute in Latin America (or anywhere else for that matter) you must think ethically and go far beyond the usual considerations of health and safety, etc. Dealing with moral issues is often perplexing but in this case you simply need to get the facts (i.e. to ensure the woman has not been trafficked, etc) and appeal to human values. There are two different types of prostitution, one of which is the result of free choice to participate in the prostitution business while the other is the result of coercion, vulnerability, deception, or other pressures. Of these, only the first type would be considered morally acceptable. Ethical actions are those that provide the greatest balance of good over bad (provide the greatest good for the greatest number); thus, it is absolutely essential you distinguish between victims and independent sex workers. Women are not objects to be manipulated; it is a violation of human dignity to use women in ways they do not freely choose.

If you want to learn more about the issue or find out ways to help, look at relevant websites (i.e. www.libertadlatina.org and www.humantrafficking.org), read books, articles, and watch documentaries. If you’re a student, use this topic for a research project for school, college or university. If you are a teacher or youth group leader, inform students about sex trafficking. Talk about this issue with your friends, family, and co-workers – generally spread the word about the horrors of the global sex trade. Organize an awareness event to share information with your community, school, friends, youth groups, etc., about sex trafficking. Write to your Member of Parliament, voicing your concern about sex trafficking. Support local and international non-governmental organizations that combat human trafficking (financially or via the donation of materials/supplies). Volunteer your time/energy to fight trafficking or volunteer with a local organization that is fighting trafficking (i.e. at a local outreach centre). Speak out against sexism/gender inequalities that come up in everyday life. Start your own fundraiser and donate the money to an organization that is working to recover victims of sex trafficking. You could buy a girls freedom for a few hundred dollars (12 year old Central American girls are sold for US$100-US$200 each). Finally, be on the lookout for those who may have been trafficked and report any suspected cases immediately.

As you can see there are many ways we can reach out and help. Remember that no culture, race or gender is unaffected by sex trafficking. A common misconception is that the problem exists elsewhere but there could be trafficked women in your home town or neighbouring city. Nothing demonstrates the hidden and dark side of everyday life more than the Super Bowl (a magnet for child traffickers and sex slaves from Latin America). To cater to the hoards of people heading to Dallas a huge number of additional strippers were required. While some might find the presence of strippers simply a moral issue, there is more to it than that. With the increase in strippers, comes the increase in the trafficking of young girls, primarily from Latin America. Thousands of unassuming teenage girls were trafficked into Texas from Latin America. These girls are beaten, raped, and their families threatened, and forced to have sex with as many as six men a night, when they were initially promised good jobs that would allow them to help their families back home. “The Super Bowl is a magnet for child sex traffickers” said Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott. “People are thinking of the Packers and the Steelers and the game on the field, having a good time. Most don’t think about a 12-year-old being forced to dance naked.” 50,000 people are trafficked into the United States annually as slaves. At least one-third of those victims are Latin American women and girls.

To bring home the true horror of being a sex slave please read this firsthand account:

Catalina Suarez was 9 years old when a grandfatherly neighbour lured her with a gift, kidnapped her and kept her chained to a bed in a rural Puerto Rico shack, forcing the child to have brutal sex with a succession of men. It was the beginning of 18 years of sexual slavery throughout Latin America and the United States. By her own account, Suarez should have died several times from drugs, disease, beatings and neglect, but the San Francisco resident testified before the United Nations about her ordeal. “I was always under the influence of some kind of drugs, or I was traumatized by the beatings or the pain or the fear,” said Suarez, 36. “I was put into trunks of cars with rats and roaches. I screamed and screamed and screamed. No one would help me.”

Sex trafficking is more than an issue of crime or migration; it is an issue of human rights, a manifestation of persistent gender inequality and the subordinate status of women globally. We shouldn’t forget this message on the centenary of International Women’s Day.

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Article republished from volunteerlatinamericablog.com

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