“He shoved out the wooden box I was standing on, and I was
left hanging in mid air naked, suspended by my wrists. It was the
beginning of my “˜training’ for a position as a
prostitute that catered to “˜clients,’ who wanted to act
on their violent bondage/torture fantasies,” reads the
testimony of a survivor of sex trafficking on
humantrafficking.com.
And that was only the beginning of her story. She reported that
her everyday life included being tortured and raped by her
pimp’s “clients,” several times almost to
death.
After a failed abortion attempt and being left in the trunk of a
car until she nearly died of dehydration, she finally escaped when
her pimp was arrested for unrelated charges.
While many people are aware that sex trafficking exists, most
don’t understand that many victims of sex trafficking
actually originate from within the United States.
According to the United Nations, human trafficking is the force,
fraud or coercion of any human being for sexual or other
exploitation. Therefore, sex trafficking includes both foreign
nationals trafficked from abroad and U.S. citizens trafficked
domestically.
And without someone bringing attention to this urgent human
rights issue, it will never end.
We, as students, have the power to mobilize and give a voice to
unheard victims of modern-day slavery by pressuring policymakers
and law enforcers to take action.
According to the San Francisco Examiner, each year 400,000 young
children, coming from the heartland of the United States, are
sucked up into the sex trade in cities like Los Angeles and Las
Vegas because our market just can’t get enough of them. Most
of them are between 13 and 14 years of age.
These young women aren’t impoverished immigrants from Asia
and Eastern Europe, these are working and middle-class white girls
from the Midwest. Either they’re running away from broken
homes, looking for adventure and excitement, or abducted from
foster homes or teen shelters.
But they are all young and naive ““ exactly what pimps are
looking for. And once in the hands of pimps they are subjected to
psychological and physical abuse.
Pimps use different tactics to manipulate their victims. They
have been known to pretend to be a young girl’s boyfriend
until she is so head-over-heels in love that she’ll do
anything for him, or starting gang rapes that completely dehumanize
their victims.
And as time goes by the pimps gain more and more power over
their victims, until they control every aspect of their lives.
Trafficking in persons is the third-largest and fastest growing
criminal industry in the world and one of the most critical current
human rights issues.
While it is also an international industry, lawmakers and
enforcers often ignore domestic trafficking.
People have the misconception that all who are forced into
prostitution are immigrants from impoverished nations. But domestic
sex trafficking is closely linked to the child pornography and sex
industries.
Students have the power to enact change. We can be the pressure
that causes politicians to take action. We can help stop modern-day
slavery.
The Polaris Project is an international non-profit organization
working to end human trafficking, and tomorrow the UCLA chapter
will be hosting tables in Bruin Plaza to bring awareness to the
hundreds of thousands of men, women and children trafficked around
the world and here in the United States for forced labor and
commercial sex.
In collaboration with Los Angeles anti-trafficking agencies and
13 UCLA student groups, the Slavery Still Exists campaign will be
informing students about specific topics pertaining to human
trafficking and opportunities for student involvement.
“It’s hard to convey to people that it’s
happening in L.A.,” said Karen Chan, co-director of the UCLA
Polaris Project. “I lived in DuPont in D.C., which is a
really nice area, and there was a brothel above the Starbucks,
where we had a client that was trafficked. … It’s just
crazy that every day this stuff is going on above our
heads.”
Policy makers and law enforcers just don’t have enough
pressure on them to stop these atrocities from happening, but
students can put that pressure on them. “Students are a great
untapped resource in terms of mobilization and voice,” said
Chan.
If you believe in optimism, e-mail Lara at
lloewenstein@media.ucla.edu.