What will you do if you were in the place of Emma?
She is a very beautiful and young girl from a small town. She didn’t have a good life, her family had a lot of financial problems, but she still has a lot of dreams. Now she found a new boyfriend. She cannot think about anything else and is so in loved that she is ready to do anything for him. He suggests her to go with him to work in another country. She knows there is a chance to succeed and accepts and NOW she is on her way for a better life.....
She takes her luggage and they leave….
She expects in future to have enough money for a beautiful house, she talks about a successful work in the new country and why not a big family with her awesome boyfriend, but instead of a new home, she gets that -->
What do you imagine when you hear the words “Human trafficking”? --> Refugees and migrants, who want to go to a foreign country and there are some gangsters, who make a business out of that???
If we think about Emma, we will realize that her boyfriend seems as a nice guy, they had a lot of dates, fell in love AND now he is her new pimp. She is also a human trafficking victim, but she is not a refugee, not even a poor girl. She is not grabbed, pushed into a van and kidnapped, just the opposite, we find her going with the trafficker completely willingly.
But.....WHY?
Because that’s the method of “the lover boy”. The problem is that Emma is not the only victim.
Every year thousands of people are forced to prostitute. The sexual exploitation is only one of the modern ways of slavery. Other known ways are forced labor, people kidnapped for organs or for babies trafficking.
Victims like Emma are transported to unknown countries – without documents, money or any relatives. They even don’t know the official language and are aware that they are in the country illegally, which increases their dependence on the traffickers.
The girls are often drugged and get addicted, that's also one of the many reasons they stay with their pimps.
HOWEVER,
let’s suppose that after some months of prostitution, substance abuse and risks of HIV infection, Emma has the chance to escape. There are shelters for victims, who offer food and protection, but nevertheless, she doesn’t go there. Why?
Her life is awful, she has the chance to make it better and to start again.
But why does she stay?
Here, comes the fear and not for her own life, but for her family. In most of the cases women work to support their families or in others, they are just afraid of the reaction of their relatives towards their job. Victims are often deprived of food and sleep and they are unable to move around freely. In order to keep women captive, they are told their families and their children will be harmed or murdered if they try to escape or tell anyone about their situation. This is more effective than any prison or locked door.
Not all of the victims are poor, some of them come from really good and educated families. The problem is that these girls, work there unwillingly for so many years, that they accept this job as their own destiny and don’t even try to change it.
Often, before servicing clients, women are forcibly raped by the traffickers themselves, in order to initiate the cycle of abuse and degradation. Some women are drugged in order to prevent them from escaping. Once the victims are broken and see no way to escape, they can serve up to 30 men a day, and are vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases, HIV infection, and unwanted pregnancy.
Everybody could become a victim and be in their place, but why???
Because the traffickers know how exactly to make the victim accept their offer, know what the victim needs, just look at Emma, she just wanted to have a better life and that’s what every living creature wants, AND nobody deserves to be sold, forced or beaten.
People trafficking is the fastest growing means by which people are enslaved, the fastest growing international crime, and one of the largest sources of income for organized crime.
Human trafficking is the second largest source of illegal income worldwide exceeded only by drugs trafficking.
There are even reports that some trafficking groups are switching their cargo from drugs to human beings, in a search of high profits at lower risk.
Now, maybe you are asking yourselves: How could I stop something so big and dangerous?
First of all, you should know how to prevent yourself and then you can help other people.
I want to show you some simple, but very effective things that you should remember when it comes to travelling, working and living abroad. Don’t forget that everybody is a potential victim!!
Check every advert very carefully. When it comes to work or travel, want more details, more information and real names and addresses. Always give your friends and relatives enough info about where and with whom you are going.
Find your “secret” word. Tell your parents/friends that when there is something wrong and you can’t talk freely with them on the phone, you will ask a weird question? For example: Mum, how is my brother? (And in fact you don’t even have a brother).
IF you know someone, like Emma, who was a human trafficking victim and somehow have the luck to escape, try to not accept them as one, because that’s the last thing they need, they are not different and they need to be let back in society, so that they can have a real live. It is really important!..
Now, when you know the story of Emma, would you try to change the situation?
Thanks for reading!
Best,
Denitsa