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Rachel Ewing
Mrs. Beck
Research Paper
2nd Semester
Modern Slavery of Today
“Over the years we have done everything in our power to stop slavery''

'' We really don’t know what to do about it. We just fight the forms of it we see at
the time.''

“Slavery is a great struggle to fight''

“It's too powerful. It’s not planning on leaving anytime soon. ''

“In the l800s, the U.S. broke out in Civil War. The North and South fought to
decide the future of slavery. The North won and slavery was abolished.''

“You wanna bet?”

The Civil War decided the future of Racial Bonded Slavery. It was fought to keep
the Union together and to free blacks. Guess what. They freed the blacks but they didn't
stop slavery.

''We are not fighting for slavery. We are fighting for Independence. '' -- Jefferson
Davis

Jefferson Davis said the truest words of the whole war. While the Civil War started
with slavery and ended freeing slaves, it mostly just kept the South and the North
together. Slavery was not really abolished, though some efforts were put forth, during
that time, because they didn't realize all types of slavery. During the Civil War, Bonded
Slavery was the most common type of slavery. Today, slavery still exists but Forced
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Prostitution is the common form. Slavery is a horrible part of life that has been part of
almost every piece of history since Biblical times. Slavery exists and it is powerful. There
will be no end to the timeless trade until we learn how to stop it. I believe knowledge of a
problem can be the key to solving the problem. The Civil War was not about slavery.
Slavery will never be stopped by war or by laws. So here we are. Atlanta, Georgia: one of
the biggest cities in America. Atlanta: also known as the sex slavery capital of America.
We can thank our local airport, Hartsville Jackson, for that. With one of the biggest
airports in America, we are a temporary stop for every trafficked girl into and around the
US. So where is the hope? It is in the hearts and desires of abolitionists around the world.
It is in the soul of the person who hears this cry and is appalled and ready to fight. Hope
for the people suffering around us exists in every person who is prepared to help.

The sex trade is driven by supply and demand. (Batstone) There is an ever-growing
need for new girls to market. There are many ways girls are trapped into prostitution.
Some girls in third world countries do not even know what prostitution is. They are more
likely to ask for the situation because of what they believe prostitution is. A common
picture in their minds is "wearing western clothes in a restaurant." This is the image
supplied by their friends and family in the business. (Bales) Four forces rip apart families
and make easy prey for pimps, (1) Poverty, (2) war, (3) rapid modernization, and (4)
over-population Poor or stricken families in other countries readily accept the opportunity
to give their daughters a scholarship or job in America. However, once the girls reach
America, the foretold good fortune is not to be found. They end up in brothels and
massage parlors. Many girls are trapped by their own relatives. Some parents market their
daughter's virginity as a stone time only sale to the highest bidder's After the "sale'' the
girl's life may return to normal. However, “an open whiskey bottle can never be
resealed.'' (Bales) Other men "sponsor'' a girl by paying the parents to raise her to be
beautiful and healthy. When he is ready, he comes to use her as he pleases. Pimps
normally have a "bottom;'' a woman who earns the trust and agreement of a victim's
parents.
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"Slavery is a disease with no vaccine." (Bales) Disease is something the people of

South Asia know much about. Both sickness and slavery strike the land there like
wildfire.
South Asia is the largest supplier of sex slaves in the world. (Batstone) People there
are Buddhist, which only adds to their danger. The Buddhist belief is that a person has
many lives and the form they take in each life is the result of past life karma. A girl is
worthless and her past life was full of bad karma. Girls are taught that they must earn
things for their parents and must endure harsh punishment for past sins. Prostitution is
one of those punishments in a Buddhist girl's life. Cambodia is ranked as one of the worst
places for human trafficking. 30,000 Cambodian children are sex slaves. (Batstone)
Thailand is also famous for its prostitution. Once a Thai man has a reason to celebrate he
has a party and gets drunk. The night out usually ends at a brothel. (Bales)

“With any newfound wealth Thai men go to brothels in increasing

numbers. Several recent studies show that between 80 and 87 percent of
Thai men has had sex with a prostitute, up to 90 percent report that it was
their first sexual experience. Somewhere between 1 0-40 percent of
married men have had commercial sex in the past year. Though it is
difficult to measure, these reports suggest 3-5 million customers for
commercial sex. But it would be wrong to imagine these men sneaking out
of the house. Commercial sex is a social event and part of a good night out
with friends. Most Thai men and women feel that commercial sex is an
acceptable part of an ordinary outing of men” (- Disposable People by
Kevin Bales.)

The sex industry in the Netherlands is estimated to make most $1 billion each year.
It is a major Western European destination country for trafficked women with 2,000
brothels and numerous escort services, using an estimated 30,000 women. Moreover, 68-
80% of women in its sex industry are from other countries, a factor highly indicative of
sex trafficking.
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There is a long and horrid road for many girls in ('the business's Two thirds of all
sex slaves are not even kept in their own country. A girl is most likely taken across the
border at least once before she reaches her final destination. Women from Colombia were
smuggled as far away as Japan, and Dominican women ended up against their will in
Switzerland. Young Mexicans were enslaved in several states, including Texas, Florida
and New Jersey. Costa Rica and Belize became destinations for impoverished women
from Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Without passports or money,
they were forced to supply sex to tourists, usually from the United States and Europe.
Traffickers fly the women to Canada or Mexico, and walk or drive them into California.
In Canada, they slip through Indian reservations off-limits to the U.S. Border Patrol,
often at night, and sometimes along snow-packed trails. In Mexico, the traffickers lead
the women over the same treacherous desert paths worn down by migrants heading to
''El-Morte'' The North, for work. More women come through airport customs in San
Francisco and Los Angeles, using fake passports and student or tourist visas made for
them by their traffickers. It is relatively easy for traffickers to evade authorities at the
checkpoints -- land, air or sea -- because women still do not realize at that point that they
are being tricked. “It’s not like the movies where you open a trunk and you interview
them and they tell you everything,'' said Lauren Mack, special-agent-in-charge with
Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Diego. ''They aren't going to tell you
they're victimized because they aren't -- Pete's it's an underground world, but in more
than 100 interviews with experts and sex trafficking victims in California and South
Korea, a picture emerges about how international traffickers buy and sell women between
Asia and the West Coast. Overseas, the trafficker is usually a woman. She recruits from
clubs, bars, colleges, pool halls and restaurants, said Deputy Special Agent Mark F.
Wollman, who oversees San Francisco for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Recruiters fill the want ads in papers and the Internet, targeting vulnerable young women
with fake job offers for waitresses, models and hostesses in America.

Belgium, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Thailand, Turkey
and the United States are countries ranked ''very high'' as destination countries of
trafficked persons. The Balkan Trail is famous for human trafficking. It is used to get
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victims from Asia to Europe. Europe's prostitutes typically come from Russia. A girl
travels from Russia to Romania to Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Albania, and to Italy; the
sex capital of Europe. Italy is usually the destination or semi-destination for Europe's
slaves. Anywhere a girl stops along the long trip, they are put to work. In Switzerland
girls are brought in on "Artist Visas'' and in addition to being forced to provide sex they
must work as strip-dancers. In Germany girls pass the border as clear girl's Illegal aliens
also have the risk of deportation and torture if they return to their home countries. (go
club owner in Chicago can make an order for three beautiful Italian virgins and a few
weeks later he has new merchandised He doesn't care where or how, he just knows the
girls are there. Twenty-seven million people are human trafficking victims today. Over
3/4 of that 27,000,000 are sex slaves. 90% end up in Europe or America.

Sex slaves are usually placed in brothels. Brothels are buildings that can hold up to
200 prostitutes. Victims trafficked into prostitution and pornography are usually occupied
in the most expositive forms of commercial sex operations. Sex trafficking operations can
be found in highly-visible venues such as street prostitution, as well as more underground
systems such as closed-brothels that operate out of residential homes. Sex trafficking also
takes place in a variety of public and private locations such as massage parlors, spas, strip
clubs, and other fronts for prostitution. The girls are kept there until a "john'' comes and
chooses his favorite. The business model of forced prostitution is remarkably similar
from Pakistan to Vietnam to the United States. Pimps use violence, humiliation, and
narcotics to shatter girls' self-esteem and terrorize them into unquestioning, instantaneous
obedience. Their ''owners'' confiscate their travel documents until the women pay off
exorbitant sums. Often captors will ensure the women never pay off their debts, by
tacking on fees for food, clothing, or rent. Some fine the women for displeasing
customers, being late to work, fighting, or a host of other possible transgressions.
(Disposable People by Kevin Bales)

Pornography was used as an educational tool'' with 50% of victims. For some,
stripping was the entrance point into the sex industry, after which they were constantly
pressured into prostitution. Victims of trafficking are forced into various forms of
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commercial sexual exploitation on the side including prostitution, pornography, stripping,

live-sex shows, mail-order brides, military prostitution and sex tourism. Methods used to
control women in the sex industry included: denying freedom of movement, isolation,
controlling money, threats and intimidation, drug and alcohol dependencies, and physical
and sexual violence.

Money is no option in brothels. It is a threat business'' as overheads are low, the

turnover high, and the profits immense. Buying a girl for ten minutes is like buying a
round of drinks in Thailand. 800,000 - 900,000 people are sold as forced prostitutes. A
woman or child can cost as little as $50. Even CHILDREN under the age of 10 can be
bought into the trade and kept until ready for public use or used right away. An
"unspoiled'' girl can cost as much as $500 - $1 000. Virgins are highly valued. A virgin is
usually kept in a separate room for unveiling. A hotel is commonly rented for
"deflowering'' the girl. A pimp and an assistant are usually present since beating is
required for submission. One day a virgin can earn $750 for a visit from a nameless
"john.'' The next day she could be earning as little as $2.50 for ten Johns. Once she is no
longer a virgin she can earn 300 times less than originally. No matter the little earnings
she is earning, a girl could bring in $10,000 a month. Multiply that by as many as 200
girls a blimp's might own. Girls are cheap and bring in the cash.

After a girl is used once, her only thought is not getting kicked out. Shame, torture,
and death await most girls who are thrown out of the brothel. HIV/AIDS are transmitted
at an alarming rate in brothels and sex bars. After a girl becomes ill or HIV positive, she
is "dumped.'' She is literally killed or tortured and handed over to police who are akin the
looped Yuki, 25, who fears for her safety and only gave her first name to The San
Francisco Chronicle during an interview in Seoul, said she was trafficked from South
Korea to a karaoke bar in Inglewood (Los Angeles County), where she was assured that
she would simply be serving drinks to men. Once there, she was ordered to sell $3,000
worth of drinks each month. When she failed, she was sent to the ''touching room” a
private suite where men could have their way with her for $400. Sex slaves who work in
massage parlors and bars are often locked in their place of business by double security
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doors, monitored by surveillance cameras and only let outside under the guard of crooked
taxi drivers who ferry them to their next sex appointment. Women report being beaten,
raped and starved by their keepers. Kim, who also withheld her last name, told The
Chronicle in an interview in South Korea that she was forced to pay $4,400 for plastic
surgery to open her eyes and make her nose thinner and pointier, ''like Marilyn Monroe.''

Both women eventually escaped their captors and now live as shut-ins in Seoul,
spending their time on the phone or the Internet or watching TV, too afraid to go outside
and cross paths with someone from the network that trafficked them. They are scared
because sex trafficking rings are often run by criminal organizations that aren't afraid to
use violence to protect the billions they generate. Women are scared for good reason.
Those who have become witnesses have been burned with acid, have disappeared, or
have had their homes ransacked and their families harmed or threatened in their home
countries, said Dong Shim Kim, head counselor at a shelter for sex trafficking victims in
South Korea.
“A girl named Pross was 13 and hadn't even had her first period when a young
woman kidnapped her and sold her to a brothel in Phnom Penh. The brothel owner, a
woman as is typical, beat Pross and tortured her with electric current until finally the girl
passed out. She was kept locked deep inside the brothel, her hands tied behind her back at
all times except when with customers. Brothel owners can charge large sums for sex with
a virgin, and like many girls, Pross was painfully stitched up so she could be resold as a
virgin. In all, the brothel owner sold her virginity four times. Pross paid savagely each
time she let a potential customer slip away after looking her over. “I was beaten every
day, sometimes two or three times a day,” she said, adding that she was sometimes also
subjected to electric shocks twice in the same day. One girl working with Pross was
beaten to death after she tried to escape. The brothels figure that occasional losses to
torture are more than made up by the increased productivity of the remaining inventory.
Pross herself was never paid, and she had no right to insist on condoms (she has not yet
been tested for HIV, because the results might be too much for her fragile emotional
state). Twice she became pregnant and was subjected to crude abortions. The second
abortion left Pross in great pain, and she pleaded with her owner for time to recuperate. “I
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was begging, hanging on to her feet, and asking for restive Pross remembered. She got
mad.” That's when the woman gouged out Pross's right eye with a piece of metal. Pross's
eye grew infected and monstrous, spraying blood and pus on customers, she later
recounted. The owner discarded her, and she is now recuperating.'' (Kristof)

There are at least 90 massage parlors in San Francisco where sex is for sale,
according to the online sex Web site myredbook.com. The site has been around since
1997 and has more than 55,000 reviews of Northern California sex workers. It is used by
joins, yet is also a main monitoring tool for law enforcement. On average, there are about
eight women working in a massage parlor, police say. That would mean more than 700
Asian sex masseuses working in San Francisco, based on 90 illicit parlors listed on sex
Web sites and on police interviews. Nevertheless the scope of sex trafficking in San
Francisco is much larger -- women are also forced to work as escorts, outcast girls, erotic
dancers and street prostitutes. Women are also placed in ''RAMPS'' -- Asian Apartment
Massage Parlors -- which are little more than apartments rented by traffickers who staff
them with one or two sex workers. Business is done by word of mouth, and only
customers approved by the owner are allowed in.

South Asia binds sex slaves with her own beliefs and morals. "In a custom very
alien to Western sensibilities, the girls are enslaved in order to atone for sins committed
by family members, often rape. The girls may, in fact, be the product of rape, and their
enslavement to priests is seen as a way to appease the Buddhist gods. A girl, who MUST
be a virgin, is given to the local priest as a slave when she is about ten years old. The girl
then stays with the priest--cooking, cleaning, farming, even serving him sexually until he
frees her, usually another girl is provided after her freedom. '' Hell becomes a prison that
she willingly stays in. There is no way out.

When people walk through the doorways of Wal-Mart they see the many missing
person posters hanging on the bulletin boards. 3/4 of those missing Persons'' are currently
being trafficked into slavery. Only a small one-fourth of an average thirty faces on the
posters will escape or be released. Few ever return home. 1/3 of sex slaves in America are
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not from another country; they are American. 35,000 American people are sex slaves.
Sex slaves are also trafficked into our country from at least 35 different countries. 1 out
of every 7 people in the U.S. are sex slaves. They are captives in a country that boasts
freedom. "Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves.'' - Abraham
Lincoln Freedom is simply a word in the breeze to those who cannot concept the feeling.
America is hypocritical to those who cannot see outside of the captivity they experience.
Gel-he truth inbound when men creeper to pursue it's -for. Forced Prostitution is present
even a few blocks from the White House. All large cities have a poverty-stricken
environment and they are filled with forced prostitution. 65 percent of America's large
number of ||guests'' are victims and sex tourists. States with the largest sex industry are
Georgia, California, Florida, Texas, and New York. Thai and Philippine women have
been found in NYC, Seattle, Los Angeles, Hollywood, Atlanta, and Washington DC, as
forced prostitutes in brothels. Many times a girl is purchased or taken while the parent is
drunk, high, or desperate for access to either drugs or alcohol. Juvenile Jails are the
perfect place to find young girls that can be tricked into forced prostitution. Girls there
are not only vulnerable but some may have even been in the business before. Luckily,
there is now a high-level position in the US state department to combat the slave industry.

Many of San Francisco's Asian massage parlors -- long an established part of the
city's sexually permissive culture -- have degenerated into something much more sinister.
international sex slave shops. Once limited to infamous locales such as Bombay, India
and Bangkok, Thailand, sex trafficking is now an $8 billion international business, with
San Francisco among its largest commercial centers. Ethan Francisco's liberal attitude
toward sex, the city's history of arresting prostitutes instead of pimps, and its large
immigrant population have made it one of the top American cities for international sex
traffickers to do business undetected,'' according to Donna Hughes, a national expert on
sex trafficking at the University of Rhode Island. Because sex trafficking is underground,
the number of victims in the United States and worldwide is not known, and the statistics
vary wildly. The most often cited numbers come from the U.S. State Department, which
estimates that 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked for forced labor and sex
worldwide each year -- and that 80 percent are women and girls. Most trafficked females,
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the department says, are exploited in commercial sex outlets. Relying on research from
the Central Intelligence Agency, the State Department estimates there are 14,500 to
17,500 human trafficking victims brought into the United States each year -- but does not
quantify how many of those are sex victims. Some advocacy groups place the number of
U.S. victims much higher, while others criticize the government for overstating the
problem. ''The number will always be an estimate, because trafficking victims don't stand
in line and raise their hands to be counted, but it's the best estimate we haven't said
Ambassador John Miller, director of the State Department's Office to Monitor and
Combat Trafficking in Persons.

Women trafficked for the sex industry are predominantly from Southeast Asia, the
former Soviet Union, and South America. They arelured to the United States by
promises of profitable jobs as models or hostesses, only to be sold to brothels, strip clubs,
and outcast services and extorted into working off thousands of dollars in surprise travel
debts to their new ''owners.'' Federal investigators say that even those who come to the
United States with the idea of working as high-society call girls cannot imagine the
captivity and the degrading workload they face. ''Human trafficking is a multibillion-
dollar business. In terms of profits, it's on a path to overtake drug and arms trafficking''
said Barry Tang, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement attaché with the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security in South Korea. ''There's a highly organized logistical
network between Korea and the United States with recruiters, brokers, intermediaries,
taxi drivers and madams.''
The United States is among the top three destination countries for sex traffickers, along
with Japan and Australia. Once in the United States, traffickers most often set up shop in
California, New York, Atlanta, and Las Vegas.

Although it's not known how much money the San Francisco market generates for
sex traffickers, federal agents confiscated $2 million in cash from 10 Asian massage
parlors during a San Francisco raid in summer 2005. Police in Livermore, Concord, San
Mateo and Santa Clara have all found residential brothels in their neighborhoods in 2004
and 2005. ''There are thousands of trafficked women in San Francisco alone,'' said Norma
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Hotaling, who advocates for victims as director of the Standing Against Global
Exploitation Project in San Francisco.

She can watch men come and go at all hours of the day to a massage parlor across
the street from her office. ''In looking at the city, I've never seen it like this before in
terms of the number of massage parlors. No one is going after the johns.'' Once in
California or their destination, the women are taken most often to Los Angeles, San
Francisco, or other large cities, where they are hidden inside homes, massage parlors,
apartments and basements, only to learn that the job offer was just a ploy. Typically they
are locked inside their place of business, forced to have sex with as many as a dozen men
a day. Victims are forced to live in the brothel, too, where five or six ''cc-workers'' are
crammed into one room. Things like this are not just in San Francisco. America is a
goldmine for the sex industry. We turn corners in our cities and a blind eye to the things
lurking around us.

Europe and North America the police fight organized crime. In Asia the police can
BE organized crime.” Police and law enforcement often help "control'' captives and
runaways and beat them if they are caught trying to escape. The government often (A)
tries unsuccessfully to stop slavery or (B) supports shareholders. There is no lukewarm
positional; the government of all countries are either (A) or (B), those who do nothing at
all are supporting slavery. In not taking action they are clearing the path for slavery to
walk on by.
“Most Thai politicians do not take sex slavery very seriously. While
it is true that full and complete laws exist forbidding enslavement,
trafficking, and exploitation, they are not enforced. Actually that is not
quite true: they are very occasionally enforced whenever public scandal
requires that politicians need to be seen doing something. When the
enforcement crackdowns do occur, they take on a quality of comic opera.
After shocking accounts of child prostitution and sex slavery in the press
in 1992, the government moved quickly to set up a special anti-
prostitution task force. This task force consisted of six men and one car.
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And when the tiny task force proceeded in spite of resistance by local
police, it was disbanded”
A service establishment law was passed that told women in "entertainment'' that
they were expected to provide especial services.'' In 1986 the UN discovered kidnappings
in Sudan connecting to human trafficking. Ten Years Later, action was finally taken.
Unfortunately things like that still happen because the government is not stopping it.
They are not able nor are they trying.

Around the world are travel agencies'' that promote sex. People pay to have “quick
sex'' or buy an all-night "girlfriend'' Asia is the unsurpassed location for sex tourists.
These Johns touch, squeeze and even lay on their dares in public. It’s like an addiction--
once they get it, they come again. There were 7 million sex tourists in 1996.

“The brochures of the European Companies that have leaped into the sex tour
business leave the reader no doubt of what they are selling. ‘Slim, sunburnt, and sweet,
they love the white man in an erotic and devoted way. They are masters of the art of
making love by nature, an art that we Europeans do not know.’ (Life Travel, Switzerland)
‘Many girls from the sex world come from the poor north-eastern region of Bangkok. It
has become a custom that one of the nice-looking daughters goes into the business in
order to earn money for the poor family…you can get the feeling that taking a girl is like
buying a box of cigarettes…little slaves who give real Thai warmth.’ (Kanita Kamha
Travel, the Netherlands)”

In Thailand 7.3 million people fly in who are either sex tourists or victims. Without
passports or money, they were forced to supply sex to tourists, usually from the United
States and Europe. At least 70 Internet sites promote sex tourism in Costa Rica. 300,000
sex tourists from Japan alone are believed to visit the Philippines every year.

There are many people and laws helping to halt slavery in its tracks.
Sweden was to: first country to persecute the "johns,'' not just the owners and traders.
Victims in the U.S. who are illegal aliens and cannot return home without
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punishment and shame can obtain a T-visa. T-visas allow them to remain in the U.S. The
nationwide sting, called “Operation Cross Country” was a three-day undercover
operation. There were 642 arrests in 29 cities and the rescue of 47 children along with
adult women. More than 100 people have been arrested throughout the Bay Area in
California as part of the nationwide FBI operation. ‘‘It makes me sick to my stomached
said San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. ''Girls are being forced to come to this
country, their families back home are threatened, and they are being raped repeatedly,
over and over.”

The online classifiers company Craigslist said Thursday that it had reached an
agreement with 40 state general attorneys and agreed to tame its notoriously unruly
“erotic services'' listings. Prostitutes and sex-oriented businesses have long used that
section of Craigslist to advertise their services. Along with their ads, they often include
pornographic photos. Early this year, the attorney general of Connecticut, Richard
Blumenthal, representing 40 states, sent a letter to Craigslist demanding that it purge the
site of such material and better enforce its own rules against illegal activity, including
prostitution. The two sides began a series of conversations about what Craigslist could do
to prevent such ads from appearing. “They identified ads that were crossing the line,”
said Jim Buckmaster, chief executive of Craigslist. “We looked at those ads, we saw their
point, and we resolved to see what we could do to get that stuff off the site. We are
catching up and inspecting each one's he said. ''But prostitution is a police matter -- we
are looking for health and safety violations. lf we find anything suggesting trafficking, we
talk to police's Chief Newsom said, ''We aren't doing our job. We should take these
Internet lists and go down them one by one's In July, Newsom waited with city inspectors
one afternoon outside Sophia's Spa, an alleged brothel in an alley between an ultra-
modern cocktail lounge and a sex shop on Geary Street. A decoy, an Asian police officer
in jeans and a T-shirt, stood in view of the security camera over Sophia's front door and
pressed the buzzer. The metal security door opened. He duct-taped the lock so Newsom,
the inspectors, police, a social worker and a reporter could get in. It was a rude
awakening for the half-dozen men inside, one of whom was in the middle of a sex act
with a masseuse on the lobby couch. While sex between adults on the lobby couch
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indicates that Sophia's is not a holistic massage establishment, it's not a crime unless the
police see money change hands. Inspectors cited Sophia's for using the premises as a
living quarters, for inadequate ventilation, for improperly attired employees and for using
a bed instead of a massage table in one room.

Unfortunately there are a few set-backs involving support of the women

themselves. ''We have to explain the woman's mind-set -- she's often unsophisticated,
comes from a country with a corrupt government and would believe her captors' lies that
if she flees she could get arrested by police's one persecuted said. ''Juries have a hard
time. They wonder: lf the door was open, why didn't she just rung's Sex traffickers who
get caught are rarely convicted of sex trafficking -- and they know it. it's a frustrating cat-
and-mouse game for federal investigators and prosecutors, who spend a year or more
keeping a sex slavery network under surveillance, and then none of the women held in
captivity is willing to testify. Local police face the same problems. ''Our undercover
officers arrest women for prostitution weekly in the massage parlors" said Hettrich of the
San Francisco vice unit. ''We let her know if she cooperates with us, she won't go to jail.
But she is more afraid of her traffickers than us.”

Many famous people are doing their part to use their fame to spread awareness
about trafficking. Until we understand it we have little chance of stopping it's Some are
speaking out while others are financing raids on brothels and other measures to rid us of
slavery. Including Natalie Grant, a firm abolitionist against forced prostitution and a
famous Christian singer.
“In 2004, I was sitting comfortably in my suburban house, drinking
tea and half-watching an episode of Law And Order. As I was chilling out,
or really more zoning out, infract of my television, something on the
screen caught my attention. a little girl was being sold as a sex slave to
some man in a suit in New York City. New York? What? Okay, so I know
it's just a TV show, but I thought law and order was always loosely based
on some sort of reality. and some guy was buying a kid out of a van. I've
bought designer knock-off hand bags out of a van in NYC, but a child?
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Come-on, this was in no way real, right? Or was it? l couldn't shake what I
was seeing. They were depicting human trafficking, which at that point I
had never heard of before. I Googled. When in doubt, that's what I do, l
Google. what I discovered through that one search rocked me to the core
and would change my life forever.

Slavery still exists today. The sale of human beings is the fastest
growing trade in the world. Yep, you read that correctly. some of the
victims are as young as 5 years of age. and it's happening everywhere. In
total, the United Nations estimates that there are 12.5 million trafficked
children, women and men worldwide. But many say there are millions
more that we don't know about, and estimate the figure may be closer to
25 million victims worldwide. After I saw Law And Order and did a
significant amount of research, I traveled to India. With my own eyes I
saw little girls for sale on the street. l will never forget looking up in a
second story window and seeing a little girl, probably not more than 7
years of age, looking at me through the bars of a cage. I was horrified. I
was sickened. I was motivated. I had to do something. what, I did not
know. but l knew I must do something.

After I returned home to Nashville, the police broke up a brothel 1

mile from my front door. There were underage girls in the brothel, as
young as 12. This is not just an international problem. Each year, an
estimated 17,500 people are trafficked into the United States. Some may
be right next door.

So, if you haven't been disgusted enough by this issue, remember

this: The average age of a young girl who is forced into prostitution is l0.
She is raped repeatedly; the average is around 20-30 times a night. If she
does not meet her quota, she will be beat by her "pimp". Many of these
young girls are sold by their own parents. The parents don't know what
 Ewing 16

they are doing, but are told that the child will be given a good job with fair
money and an opportunity to go to school. Parents fall for the lie, feeling
they have no other choices or options for their children.

Listen, I’m not a hero, I'm just human. If this issue doesn’t make you
sick to your stomach then you might want to check for a pulse. And if we
have a heart beating on the inside of us, how could we possibly turn away
from the most innocent among us being ravaged and raped?'' -Natalie
Grant

Other famous people include our politicians. Many people in America are
wondering about our new president. Will he share the same passion and awareness to
protect his own two daughters? Designated by the US Congress, January 11th, 2009
marked the second annual Human Trafficking Awareness Day. Barack Obama's
presidency marks a triumph over the legacy of slavery, so it would be particularly
meaningful if he led a new abolitionist movement against 21st-century slavery the
trafficking of girls into brothels. The Obama administration will have a new tool to fight
traffickers: the Wilberforce Act, just passed by Congress, which strengthens sanctions on
countries that wink at sex slavery. Much will depend on whether Mr. Obama and Hillary
Clinton see trafficking as a priority. There would be powerful symbolism in an African-
American president reminding the world that the war on slavery isn't yet over, and
helping lead the 21 at-century abolitionist movement. During the confirmation hearing of
Secretary of State Designate Hillary Clinton answered a question on human trafficking:
Senator Barbara Boxer
“I don't think we can look away from the plight of women around
the world. Nicholas Kristof confronts this issue in a series of compelling
articles. . . Kristof tells us the story of a Vietnamese girl who was
kidnapped at age l 3. She was sold into sex slavery in Cambodia. When
she refused to see customers, she was tortured brutally with electric shocks
and locked in a coffin filled with insects. And Kristof details another story
in a piece called ''If this isn't Slavery than what isn't in which a young
 Ewing 17

Cambodian girl had her eye gouged out by a brothel owner after taking
time off to recover from a forced abortion. (story on page 7) I’m
introducing some legislation-|ne is a companion piece to Rep. Carolyn
Maloney and another is the Afghan Women Empowerment Act. That's just
the beginning. Senator I know how deeply you feel about this so l wanted
you to take a little more time to talk about your commitment to this
particular issue and obviously l would be so pleased if we could work on
legislation to fight this immorality.''
Secretary of State Designate Hillary Clinton:
''As Secretary of State I view these issues as central to our foreign
policy, not as adjunct or auxiliary or in any way lesser from all of the other
issues that we have to confront. I too have followed the stories. . .this is
not culture, this is not custom, this is criminal. And it will be my goal to
persuade more governments as I spoke with Beijing some thirteen years
ago that we cannot have a free, prosperous, peaceful, progressive world if
women are treated in such a discriminatory and violent way. I’ve also
ready closely Nick Kristof s articles over the last many months on the
young women he's both rescued from prostitution and met who have been
enslaved, tortured in every way-physically, emotionally, morally and I
take very seriously the function of the State Department to lead the US
Government through the Office on Human Trafficking to do all that we
can to end this modern form of slavery. We have sex slavery. We have
wage slavery and it is primarily a slavery of girls and women. I look
forward, Senator, to reviewing your legislation and work with you as a
continuing partnership on behalf of these issues we care so much about.
And finally, the work that the women of the Senate did in connection with
First Lady Laura Bush on behalf of the women of Afghanistan has been
extremely important. That program started in the State Department. It was
assisted by an organization I helped to start in the White House called
Vital Voices. Mrs. Bush has been outspoken on behalf of Afghan
women. . .and other women facing oppression around the world. . . We're
 Ewing 18

going to have a very active Women's Office a very active Office on

Human Trafficking. We're going to be speaking out consistently and
strongly against the discrimination and oppression of women and slavery
in particular because I think that is in keeping with not only our American
values but American national security interests as well ''

The British government announced plans Wednesday to make it illegal to pay for
sex with women forced into prostitution and to name men who solicit sex on the streets.
These are measures that prostitutes say will put more women at risk. As part of the Home
Office's "name and shame'' campaign, people who pay for sex with a prostitute
decontrolled for another person's gain'' could face criminal charges and a fine of 1,000
pounds ($1,500).The crime would be a instruct liability offense's which means men
would be held accountable even if they didn't know a woman had been trafficked or was
working for a pimp, according to the Home Office. "What I disapprove of is women
being exploited in this country, coerced, trafficked into the country, effectively treated as
slaves,'' Home Secretary Jacqui Smith told British Broadcasting Com. radio on
Wednesday.

George Bush mentioned the rising threat of force prostitution in his speech at the
United Nations General Assembly in September 2003. The UN Human Rights Chief also
gave a speech about sex slavery in 2002.

There is a lot of hope reigning in the world for those who are trapped in this horrible
environment. Sexual abuse is completely against what God planned for us. “Food for the
stomach and the stomach for food—but God will destroy them both. The body is not
meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.”-1 Corinthians
6: 13. “Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will
judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.”-Hebrews 13:4. “’For I know the plans I
have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to
give you hope and a future.’”-Jeremiah 29:11. Sexual abuse was present in the Bible just
look at Dinah and Tamar. (Genesis 34:2-3, 2 Samuel 13:12-13) Their stories are those of
 Ewing 19

the young girls who are forced into a world nobody should know. Betrayal by family and
friends tore these girls apart in a time when rape made a girl unclean. She was shamed
and rejected for the rest of her life. Sexual Abusers will have to answer to God for what
they have done. “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he
sows.”-Galatians 6:7. Even the youngest of those who are captive are loved by Jesus and
He hates those who persecute them. “He called a little child and had him stand among
them. And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children,
you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like
this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. "And whoever welcomes a little child
like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who
believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his
neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”-Matthew 18:2-6. lf you are interested in
helping to provide hope and freedom to human trafficking victims, research it further.
You can go to humantrafficking.com, slaverystillexists.com, or polarisproject.org.
 Ewing 20

Bales, Kevin. Disposable people: new slavery in the global economy. University of
California Press, 2004.

Batstone, David. Not for sale: the return of the global slave trade-- and how we can fight
it. Harper San Francisco, 2007.

Wexler, Mark. “Hillary Clinton Comments on Slavery.” ©2009 Not For Sale Campaign.
All rights reserved.
http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/news/category/world-news/.

Wexler, Mark. “Human Trafficking Awareness Day.” ©2009 Not For Sale Campaign.
All rights reserved.
http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/news/category/world-news/.

Trowbridge, Allison. “Craigslist Agrees to Curb Sex Ads.” ©2009 Not For Sale
Campaign. All rights reserved.
http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/news/category/world-news/.

Kristof, Nicolas D. “If This Isn’t Slavery, What Is?” Copyright 2009 The New York
Times Company,
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/04/opinion/04kristof.html?_r=1&ref=opinion.