Children

When one in the US thinks of sex trafficking and exploitation, they tend to think of girls from lands with mostly unpronounceable names. Images of Russian “Natasha’s”, young Thai girls, girls on the streets of India, etc., however those images are not the only picture one must see in order to see the harsh reality of sexual exploitation and child sex trafficking.

While it is true that sex trafficking exists in every corner of the globe, young American girls are not immune form this demand driven plague of the flesh. Young vulnerable girls who are quite literally hunted, like animals in forest the girls are scoped out lured in by the weakness and naivety of innocence, the hunter the pimps who know how to infiltrate their minds with promises of love, affection and the attention they miss and crave.

The average age of entry into prostitution in the United States is 12 years old, 90% of those in the commercial sex industry have histories of abuse, thus making them easy prey in the jungle of demand and exploitation.

The film Very Young Girls, which follows the girls of NYC’s GEMS (Girls Educational and Mentoring Services, takes you into this harsh reality of the life of so many young All American girls. The film opens with a gritty intro into the mind of two pimps, Anthony and Chris Griffin shoot their own footage in an attempt to see their names in lights, or on MTV at the very least. Hoping for fame and fortune they used the camera to show the raw life of the very girls they exploit and essentially enslave, thankfully the same footage later put both behind bars.

“Ho Daddy”, as he likes to be affectionately called, has been pimping for 6 years and when asked how many girls he had, he responded with; “I’ve pimped over 100 Ho’s”. Then his brother asked what they were going to do, he responded with; “Gona find me a Bitch, find you a Bitch, we could split a Bitch in half.”

The graphic nature of the pimp languages is nothing compared to the actual life these young girls find themselves in on the streets. Insults are only the beginning of the mental breakdown and torture that these girls will face daily on the cold hard streets under the watchful eyes of their pimps.

How does it all begin, how do these girls get lured onto the streets? Youth makes one easy prey , and girls are targeted for their naivety and vulnerability. Like hunters the pimps look for the perfect target…they stake the girls out and woo them, learn their weaknesses and then when they have fully infiltrated they fire. Girls are lured in under the guise of girlfriends, pimps often act like the absent Father figure, caring for, protecting and buying the girls things until manipulation is second nature.

“I thought it was cool to be 12 and an old dude to be into me.”

When it is all you know temptation is the chain that holds these girls innocence. Girls are often lured back by their pimps with promises of love and affection, other times its pure threats, regardless it never leads to anything better than before. Girls are overwhelmed with confusion; an emotional cocktail of fear, shame, devotion, uncertainty…lead many back to life on the streets.

The word love can become a mental shackle on a girl…you often hear the girls mention the word “dating” when speaking of pimps. When you see the everyday face of these girls you are not just struck by their stories of life on the streets, but you watch them slip into stories and banter like school girls going over the daily gossip. The girls in the film are real, their stories are shocking, but they are sadly not uncommon and they are all innocent victims who need protection, guidance and hope, thankfully they have found it in GEMS.

In conflict there are many weapons that may be employed and while the Kalashnikov or IED may be favored arms in modern warfare, there is one weapon all men carry and all to often choose to use. Cheap and effective, men are choosing to use their bodies as weapons - in fact their manhood - to attack women and girls.

The use of rape as a weapon is one of the most violent and humiliating offenses inflicted on the enemy, the brutalization of rape permanently scars the victim’s mind, soul and often body. Victims are often shunned by their families and communities, permanently scared physically and mentally. Many victims become pregnant as a result of their rapes, leaving a permanent reminder through the birth of a child, placing both the mother and child in continual victimization and isolation.

Recently eyes have fallen on Zimbabwe, as evidence of the continued use of rape as a weapon of war has emerged. While the use of by Zimbabwe’s authoritarian government’s paramilitary National Youth Service, which was established in 2000, is well established little has been done to see its end. Therefore one now finds more news of Zimbabwe militias accused of keeping sex camps at ruling party bases. The some 900 camps were established by the ruling ZANU–PF’S party, as forward-operating bases for the shock troops after the March electoral defeat, for which they served as a base to target the opposition forces and intimidate voters, using violent tactics including murder. However the camps continue to operate despite the controversial re-election of President Robert Mugabe. In the camps the girls and young women captured to serve as sex slaves for the soldiers continue to be raped daily.

One who looks back on the use of rape in conflict is not surprised that the rapes continue, for thought Mugabe’s reign he has used the useful tool to control and wield power, and despite international knowledge of the crimes Mugabe and his forces went unpunished. The silence over the use of rape as a weapon of war, runs as long and deep as its historical use. The use of rape in conflict is rooted deep in world history and well established in modern warfare, however it can no longer remain an issue silenced by suppressive governments, ignorance and fear. The idea that rape is a normal by-product of war, due to its continual use historically and currently, only perpetuates its use. The seeing of it as normal and its continual impunity increases its use as a weapon, the perpetrators are less likely to be tried for rape than murder.

On June 19th, in the wake of 8 recent reports on rape in Zimbabwe by Amnesty International alone, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice following the U.N. Security Council debate on a U.S. resolution on wartime rape, led a second session on Zimbabwe, for which she called for more international pressure on President Mugabe. For more on the UN resolution see my previous post War Crimes Against Women and Girls

More on the use of rape in Zimbabwe:
Mugabe thugs raping teens: aid staff
Zimbabwe: Mugabe troops use rape as weapon
Dora, 12, gang-raped by Mugabe’s men for four hours
Zimbabwe’s torture training camps
ZIMBABWE: Focus on rape as a political weapon
ZIMBABWE: Women refugees in South Africa claim rape and torture at home
Reports of Rape and Torture Inside Zimbabwean Militia

NIGERIA:  The trafficking of girls and abuse is worsening, as girls from villages to cities in Nigeria is increasing and the state is powerless to stop the trade. “The business of recruiting teenage girls as domestic help in rich and middle-class homes is booming despite our efforts to put a stop to it”, Bello Ahmed, head of the Kano office of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP). (IRIN)

UN:  The importance of effective multilateralism, the need for UN reform and the fight against human trafficking were all high on the agenda during talks with Austrian leaders and UN officials on the second day of General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim’s official visit to the country. Kerim and Austrian President Heinz Fischer discussed the value of multilateralism and the ongoing efforts to reform the UN during their meeting June 27, according to a statement released by Kerim’s office. They also talked about the priority issues of the current session of the 192-member Assembly. (UN News Service)

Great Brittan:  Police say 167 victims, including 12 children, have been rescued in a major crackdown on human trafficking. More than 500 people were arrested in the operation, which involved 55 police forces in England, Wales and Scotland. The six-month operation targeted the sale of women and children for prostitution and forced labor. But the Home Office said police were struggling to look after the victims of trafficking, as many did not trust the authorities and refused to cooperate. (BBC)

Tonight at 11:30PM EST, ABC Nightline will air an episode inspired by the first chapter of A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery. The book by E. Benjamin Skinner’s, has been heavily touted and a much needed eye opener into the world of modern day slavery.

Tonights episode, How to Buy a Child in Ten Hours, will look into the lives of Haiti’s 300,000 estimated child slaves, and shock you with the ease that one can buy a child’s life. Early reviews of the episode are saying that the piece is devastating, see a Good Morning America broadcast a teaser here. The episode, which shows ABC’s Dan Harris traveling undercover to Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince to broker a deal to purchase a child, all in the matter of time most American’s spend in their work day. It is all in a days work to enslave a child.

Earlier this year I brought you the post A Crime So Monstrous and Ending Slavery Shake DC to the Core, where you can see more on this book that will both engulf you into the seedy world of modern day slavery and shock you into action. Skinner’s book is truely a must read for anyone with an ounce of moral fiber.

For more on the book please click here, where you can learn more on the plight of modern slavery. A portion of the proceeds from the book will go to Free The Slaves and Anti-Slavery International.

For more on the current situation of children in Haiti, please see my previous posts including; Haiti’s Children the Poor of the Poor and Kidnapping and Violence on the Rise in Many Countries

345 suspects, of which an estimated 290 where adult women charged as prostitutes, have been arrested in a child-sex sting.  How many of the women arrested where actually victims of trafficking is unknown.  In addition some 21 children where rescued as a result of the raids. Over a period of five days, in 16 cities, the FBI,  have been conducting sting operations to catch the those involved with these criminal networks, which prey on young and vulnerable children. The cities targeted in the sting operation where: Atlanta; Boston; Dallas; Detroit; Houston; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Miami; Montgomery County, MD.; Oakland; Phoenix; Reno.; Sacramento; Tampa; Toledo and Washington.

The stings which are dubbed, “Operation Cross Country”, is part of the FBI’s Innocence Lost National Initiative, which combines efforts with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, is now in it’s 5th year. This is the largest operation of this type in the initiatives history, however some 308 individuals have been convicted and more importantly the initiative’s efforts has see the recovery of 433 children. The Innocence Lost Initiative was established in 2003 in an effort to tackle the increasing problem of child sex trafficking and prostitution in the United States.

“Child trafficking for the purposes of prostitution is organized criminal activity using kids as commodities for sale or trade,” said Ernie Allen, President and CEO of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. “These kids are victims. They lack the ability to walk away. This is 21st Century slavery. We are proud to have worked hand-in-hand with the FBI and Justice Department in a partnership that is unprecedented, historic, and working” (FBI press release).

In an FBI statement Our Criminal Investigative Division partnered with the Child Exploitation-Obscenity Section of the Department of Justice and with the nonprofit National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) to bring together state and federal law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, and social service providers. The initiative’s 24 task forces and working groups have recovered 433 children to date and seized over $3 million in assets.

At a press conference, an excerpt of which can be seen in the video below, FBI Director Robert Mueller said ;

“The sex trafficking of children remains one of the most violent and unforgivable crimes. What is different as we stand here today is that we are faced with the increasing use of social network sites and other advances in technology to carry out these crimes and facilitate these criminal enterprises.”

While the efforts and scale of the Innocence Lost Initiative are grand, the full scale of the problem remains even more imposing than one could imagine. The US government has stated that there are some 17,500 victims of sex trafficking in the United States each year, more than half of which are children. Just how many more have been funneled through this high commodities market over the years is unknown, and each child is one child too many. Please see my previous article,Trafficking and Slavery in the US, for more information.

Please see my other posts on Child Trafficking. Please also see my pages on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Links, Human Trafficking and Slavery Related Movies and Documentaries, and Slavery and Trafficking Related Books for more information.


In other US news the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday, June 25, 2008, that child rape doesn’t merit capital punishment . In a 5-to-4 Supreme Court decision, which overturned death penalty laws in Louisiana and five other states. See more in the NY Times article, Justices Bar Death Penalty for the Rape of a Child.

Countries which are involved in conflict and strife are seeing an increasing use of violence against children, including kidnapping, torture and even murder. UNICEF issued a statement on the continued abduction, torture and rape of children around the world, saying;

“It is everyone’s duty to ensure children are safe from harm, and governments have a responsibility to enact and enforce measures that provide a protective environment for all children”.

Countries for which UNICEF has reported similar ochering incident in a number of countries including Central African Republic (CAR), Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Iraq and Haiti.

In CAR armed gangs have profited from the conflict ridden countries vitality and instability, focusing on rural communities for which their terrorizing often includes kidnapping children and holding them for ransom. Earlier this month both CAR and Chad had agreed to the Release of Child Soldiers , however a number of armed groups continue to increase their ranks of child soldiers.

The DRC has seen thousands of children forcibly recruited by armed militant groups to be used as child soldiers, porters and sex slaves. UNICEF has estimated that some 30,000 child soldiers are in place in the DRC, many are girls and the situation has been noticeably on the increase as seen in my post, Child Soldiers in the Congo are Increasing

In Iraq the number of reports of children recruited and used by militias and insurgent groups are increasing, as is the abduction of girls who “are increasingly subject to murder, kidnapping and rape, or are being abducted and trafficked within or outside Iraq for sexual exploitation”.

UNICEF has paid particular attention to the Impoverished of Haiti, where kidnappings have become all too common. Since the beginning of 2008 alone more than 50 children have been abducted, more than half of which where girls. Earlier this month on June 4th UNICEF made a nation wide call to halt the kidnappings of Haitian children, the call came after a recent incident where a 16-year-old hostage was murdered and other hostages, including infants, where lynched and rape. The call from UNICEF was joined by Haitians demonstrating against the kidnappings in the streets of Port-au-Prince. UNICEF estimates that some 2,000 children are trafficked each year to the Dominican Republic, and another 1,000 are working as spies, messengers or soldiers for armed gangs in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.

According to the Child Soldiers Global Report 2008 issued by the Secretary General of the United Nations, the number of armed groups and government forces using child soldiers increased from 40 in 2006 to 57 in 2007. The issues, such as poverty, disease and economic destabilization that face children in conflict countries are only compounded by the increasing violence against children. As the use of rape as a weapon of war, conscription of child soldiers, and other violence, including gender based violence, that directly targets children, not only exacerbates the conflict itself, but impedes the post conflict recovery for not only the children, but their entire community and the country on the whole. Therefore it is essential that individual states and the international community on the whole end the long running impunity of these violent crimes, and take greater steps to see that children are no longer used as the weapons and pawns of war.

“For millions of people around the world, the fight against human trafficking is a matter of life and death,” she told the debate. “To reunite families that have been torn apart, to restore childhood to kids who have been robbed of their youth, to bring back dignity to all those violated by these abuses – we must act now.” -Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro called on all countries to ratify the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, June 3, 2008.

The US Department of State released the 2008 Trafficking in Persons Report on June 4, 2008. According to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, “The 2008 report covers more countries than ever– 170 total” and for the first time ever examines global prosecution data to unveil new findings regarding the sentencing of perpetrators, see her full comments. For further information visit the U.S Department of State’s Office to Monitor & Combat Human Trafficking.


The UN General Assembly took on human trafficking Tuesday, debating what should be done to best tackle the scourge that is exploiting an estimated 2.5 million people, mostly women and children, around the world. Read the UN News Centre’s release.


Burkina Faso steps up penalties for child as they have enacted new legislation to increase penalties for those found involved in child trafficking. But observers worry that a lack of resources to combat the trade means the battle is far from over.


In Burundi the Forces nationales de libération (FNL) rebels ’still recruiting children’, despite steps to end the conflict. The FNL is the countries only active rebel group remaining, however they continue to hold strong and have increased their recruitment efforts. On 6 May, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy, called for the immediate release of all children in the hands of the FNL. Welcoming the release of 232 child soldiers after months of negotiations involving the government, civil society, UN agencies and a faction of the FNL, she said: ‘Grave concern remains for the approximately 500 children associated with the FNL of Agathon Rwasa.’

Afghanistan has yet to find a strategy to cope with the growing practice of “loan brides,” young girls traded into marriage as a result of the opium trade. While traffickers get rich by loaning money to impoverished poppy farmers, the families are often are unable to pay the debt. Families are thus forced to give their daughters over as a form of repayment for the debt they have incurred. The instability of poppy farmers is ever growing as efforts to eradicate Afghanistan of the opium trade push on, however one battle over good has now only lead to another battle for the countries mainly poor and illiterate rural poor. It is estimated that some half a million families in the country survive off of poppy farming, and as efforts to introduce other crops continue to fail.

The opium brides of Afghanistan not only leave families shammed and torn apart, but blight the nation with the lasting scars of a generation of lost girls. Girls as young as infants have been know to be promised in marriage over debts, others are teenagers who where looking hopefully towards the future until they where ripped away by the drug trades increasing hold on the countries struggling families. Families such as Shah who has now given his 9 year old daughter Khalida in exchange for a debt off some $2,000 which he was unable to repay after a government crop-eradication team destroyed the families two and a half acre poppy field. ” Now the family can only wait for the 45-year-old drug runner to come back for his prize. Khalida wanted to be a teacher someday, but that has become impossible. “It’s my fate,” the child says.”

In Afghanistan reports from the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and UNICEF, claim as many as 60-80% of marriges in the country are forced and 57% of marriages involve girls under the age of 16, which is the legal age for marriage in the country. The Afghan government put a new 15-page formal marriage contract, the ‘Nikah Nama’, in to place this past March. “The new marriage contract is a strong legal instrument that will end child marriages and will empower women’s legal status after marriage,” said Nibila Wafiq, a women’s rights programme officer for German NGO Medica Mondiale (IRIN).

Child marriages are not just a social and gender problem, but also a health problem as they lead to higher instances of domestic violence and early pregnancies, which leave girls at high risk for death in childbirth, complications, and low birth weights. Please see my other posts on Child Marriage

Child labor may seem like a thing of the past, a relic last left in the cloudy days of the Depression, sadly the use of child labor has never been erased and it has proved to be a stalemate in societies. In India, child labor proves hard to end, as millions of children continue to work to aid their families financial burden. The ‘old tradition’ of child labor has become an increasingly difficult cycle to brake, in spite of both government efforts and international pressure. The biggest hurdle in combating child is that in India it is not illegal, bar the work is not seen as “hazardous” for those children under 14 years old. According to the government there are at least some 12.6 million children out of school and engaged in labor, however NGOs put the true number as high as 60 million children.

India’s child labor includes girls like Jasmina, who was sent to work with her sister as maids, by her mother, after her father died. Jasmina revives 100 rupees, or $2.25, for her work each month. Abuse is ripe in the world of child labor, and stories like Jasmina’s are not unique:

“I get tired and forget things, so they hit me,” Jasmina said, her eyes cast down. “They want the shoes polished. If I don’t do it fast enough they hit me with a cooking spoon. They want to go to the toilet. If I don’t get the water fast enough I get a beating” (International Herald Tribune).

Children are not just forced into domestic work, as millions are found working in industry such as glass-blowing, fireworks, and more commonly, carpet-making factories. Children are forced to work long hours for little or no pay, often given little nourishment and no education; leaving a generation with no sustainable skills for the future, and leaving them ripe for abuse and exploitation. While societal pressure is increasing, the battle to end child labor in India is one that will not be won over night and it is blatantly clear that legislation alone will not end the suffering of millions of children. The root of child labor is deeper than just cultural backwardness, while it is a huge factor for change, the deeper root lies in the economic stability of families and communities.

Every year some 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders and some 27 million people remain enslaved across the globe, over half of which are children. Romania is in no way an exception from the scourge of modern slavery, as children, are trafficked internally for sexual exploitation and forced begging. Roma girls are especially vulnerable for victimization from trafficking both internally and externally.

Earlier this month in Romania more than 40 representatives of national and international NGOs, Churches and government committed to combating human trafficking met in Bucharest to establish the most efficient and effective strategies for trafficking prevention campaigns. The conference set out to find the most effective identification programs, efficient and consistent laws, therapy and support systems, as well as reintegration strategies trafficking victims. The program began in February 2008 through World Vision Romania, with a pilot project dedicated to preventing human trafficking in a rural areas, where large scale migration has increased the children’s risk and exposure to trafficking.

‘There are many people interested in working abroad, especially young people who are ‘charmed’ into believing unverified success stories presented by friends or relatives who have already left the country in search of a better life. Our work in this community right now consists of organizing monthly informational sessions for over 180 children and vocational courses for another 60 young people in the community, in order to help them access better jobs, here in Romania’, said WVR project coordinator. (World Vision Middle East/Eastern Europe office (MEERO))

It is fitting that the conference took place in Bucharest, home to thousands of street children, some estimate as high as 10,000. Boys and girls who plague the cities streets begging by day and filling their nights sniffing glue to erase the pains of hunger and abuse that shrouds their lives. Young boys and girls, some only mere toddlers, who often fall prey to sex tourists and traffickers. This months conference is a step in the right direction in working to see these children of the streets, and so many others across Romania and the globe are properly identified, and that successful and sustainable prevention, prosecution, treatment and rehabilitation programs are established.

Links:
UNICEF Romania - Evaluation of Anti-trafficking Policies in Romania
UNICEF - Guidelines on the Protection of Child Victims of Trafficking