There are many reasons why it is hard to prosecute sex trafficking in the United States. One reason is that victims are afraid to talk about it and they just want to go home. For example, Okaloosa Florida County Sheriff Charlie Morris stated that "It’s tough to investigate and prosecute a human trafficking case because either the victims are too afraid or they just want to get back home as soon as they can. But we don’t give up.” This is understandable because usually when something traumatic happens to a person they have a hard time talking about it because they just want to forget it ever happened. Since this is not illegal in third world countries it is a hassle for victims who are not willing to come to the United States to testify.
Another reason is because the victims have to stay in the United States and testify. According to Collins, "These victims don’t want to stick around for two years and put their life back home on hold to testify. They want to go home and forget about it” (Donahue). Anna Rodriguez founder of the Law society of Florida Coalition against Human Trafficking states that, "the unwillingness of victims to cooperate with the authorities is one of the biggest obstacles in putting criminals behind bars"(Donahue).Victims are not willing to testify in the United States because they have there life back home, they need to support their families; and they do not want to put their life on hold. Since this problem is so common and nothing has changed victims believe that they will not make a difference. I ran away from my stepmother on my 18th birthday after she tried to force me to be circumcised. I refused and so she beat me, and burnt me with a hot iron on the insides of my thighs as punishment. After I ran away I worked on a market in the city and helped out at a brothel, making beds and cleaning. I was sleeping rough as I had no home to go to. The woman who ran the brothel introduced me to a man who said he would be able to help me. He said he could help me study in the UK as well as get part-time work. He did not say where I would be working, but I was desperate to get away; I was homeless and afraid of being circumcised. I flew on my own to the UK, on a false passport. I was given a telephone number and told to call it when I arrived.The plane ticket was arranged by the man and he told me I may have to pay him back once I got to the UK - but he didn't say how much. When I called the phone number I was given an address and went there by taxi. Two men lived there, with another woman like me. They made me watch pornographic films, telling me that's why I was here. They raped me again and again and I was kept locked in a room 24 hours a day. I was only allowed out to go to the toilet. They brought food to the room, but they didn't feed me if they were angry with me for something. I had to have sex with five to ten men every day, in the bed I slept in at night. If I disagreed or tried to refuse, they beat me up.Sometimes I asked the customers for help but they just laughed at me.Finally the other woman in the house helped me to escape and I went to the police.
Detectives think that as many as 100 brothels are operating in Cambridge shire alone. The county's police say sex traffickers are luring women into the UK from Eastern Europe, Africa and the Far East with the promise of lucrative jobs. Pentameter 2 is the second enforcement operation to focus on trafficking. Last year, the first crackdown ended in 88 trafficked women from 22 countries being rescued and led to 232 arrests, with 134 people charged. It also led to the creation of the Human Trafficking Centre in Sheffield. Ms Smith said human trafficking was a devastating crime: "Two hundred years after we banned the trade in slavery, it's shocking that this is still going on."
Pentameter two will focus on providing protection for victims who have been kidnapped, falsely imprisoned and raped and identifying the scale and nature of human trafficking in Britain. Ms Smith said that as part of Britain's programme of implementing the European convention against human trafficking, the operation would include a pilot scheme to formally identify victims as well as a 30-day "reflection period" before removal action against illegal entrants. She said she wanted to protect and support victims, but a blanket guarantee that none would face deportation "would be likely to act more generally as a pull factor." She hoped asylum case workers would bear in mind their exploitation when deciding their futures. Aiden McQuade, of Anti-Slavery International, said at the London launch of Pentameter 2 that most people trafficked into Britain had been left with illegal immigration status by the traffickers as a means of control: "It is too often apparent that irregular status should be regarded as an indicator of forced labour rather than taken as face value." The crackdown is to be accompanied by an advertising campaign by the Poppy project offering help to trafficked women. Denise Marshall, Poppy chief executive, said it had received £100,000 in government funding to cope with the increased referrals generated by Pentameter 2. It will provide beds and extra support for women's refuges in and outside London.
The government estimates that up to 4,000 women and girls are forced into prostitution after being trafficked from abroad. Last year Pentameter rescued 88 women and girls, including some as young as 14, who had been forced into the sex industry. Around half were from Eastern Europe, and the rest from the Far East, Africa and South America. A permanent unit, the UK Human Trafficking Centre, was set up after the first Pentameter operation, bringing together police, prosecutors and officers from the Serious Organized Crime Agency. Speaking on BBC radio's Today programme, Tim Brain, the chief constable of Gloucestershire, said: "The problem is large. It is growing because there are huge profits to be made in the exploitation of young women and young men for sexual purposes. "It is a form of 21st century slavery." Trafficked women can be forced to have sex with up to 40 strangers a day after being brought to the country under the false impression that they would be working in legitimate jobs, police said.
The Crown Prosecution Service revealed last summer that "slave auctions" of women for prostitution is taking place on the concourses of British airports. Brothel keepers bid for women as soon as they arrive on UK soil. Police believe the average prices for trafficked women are falling, with "innocent and virginal" females fetching the highest price up to $8,000. Beth Herzfeld, of Anti-Slavery International, welcomed today's initiative but called for more resources to help those who had been trafficked for prostitution and forced labour. "This is an important step forward but we can't underestimate the scale of the problem and therefore the resources that need to go into tackling it and supporting the victims of trafficking. "It's critical that all those trafficked people are provided with the support that they so desperately need and deserve." She said the number arrested in last year's operation represented the "tip of the iceberg" of those involved in the illegal trade. Ms Herzfeld also said there was only one dedicated project to house and support the victims of human trafficking, which had space for 35 people.
Some people wonder why sex trafficking is such a high crime and why isn’t the government doing anything to stop it, which they are they are setting up all kinds of supports groups for victims to be able to come forward and tell them what they have been through. Half the victims who are put through this unforgettable event don’t want to talk about it they just want to forget about it and go back to being able to live a normal life. Some people have come forth and talked to the police about it and things have been done about it. Most of the time the government doesn’t really do anything because they don’t really know when it is happening or where. In some countries they make it known what they are doing with these women and children and that’s how the police find out. They pretend to be interested in buying a women or child and for their own personal use and that’s how they rescue all these women and children from such a degrading crime. People are still getting away with Human Sex Trafficking because not all women who are going through this end up getting out alive. The only way a women or child can get out of Human Trafficking alive is if someone finds them and rescues them. For the women who do make it out alive they don’t want to tell anybody about what they have been through because they just want to forget about it and they don’t want to have to go to court and testify against the man who did this to them.
Only when the media informs the public about the extent of this horror can we begin to make a difference. Knowing this information will help people understand the consequences of the outcome of Human Sex Trafficking. This information is enough for people to understand the outcome and seriousness of this issue. Knowing this information can help people work together in changing this problem in third world countries.
Work Cited
Donohue,Patrick. "Human Trafficking: a million-dollar industry in Destin."Florida Freedom Newspaper.October 16, 2007. October 17,2007.
"Trafficking in Human Beings." 7 Nov. 2007 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trafficking_in_human_beings.
"Sex Trafficking." 7 Nov. 2007 http://www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/about/fact_sex.html.
"Human Sex Trafficking." 7 Nov. 2007 http://freespirit.members.gn.apc.org/traffick.htm.
"Sex Trafficking." 8 Nov. 2007 http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/89/357/15448_trafficking.html.
"Human Trafficking." 10 Nov. 2007
