Tabbi Coffman: Speech

Tabbi Coffman

Mr. Logsdon

AP English

13 December 2015

Modern Human Slavery and Trafficking

The majority of the people in this room are taking a US history class, and for the few of you who are not, let me fill you in on what we have been studying.  Last week we finished up our last unit of the year: the Civil War.

One of the important outcomes of the Civil War was the addition of three important amendments to our Constitution:  the 13th, 14th and the 15th.  For my purposes, we’re just going to focus on the 13th Amendment.

The 13th Amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude in the United States. So no more slavery! What a happy ending.

If that were true, I wouldn’t have chosen modern slavery as my topic. Modern day slavery and human trafficking may be below the average person's radar here in the US, but worldwide, and even here, it is still a serious problem, and should be of concern to us. 

First, let me define the difference between slavery and trafficking. Human trafficking is the illegal movement of people through the use of violence, deception or coercion for the purpose of exploitation. Slavery is the exploitation of people, often through forced labor or sex.

There are also many forms of slavery, including bonded labor, child slavery, forced marriage, forced labor, trafficking, descent based slavery and sexual slavery.  All of these forms are being used worldwide... though there is no exact number of how many slaves there are, the estimates are still staggering:  21 to 36 million.

Now these are pretty scary facts, but I am going to narrow the topic even further to the one form of slavery that affects mostly women, but also some children and men: sexual slavery, which can take several forms, being forced to have sex for money, or being forced to have sex with the slave owner, for example.

This exploitation of people for the purposes of forced sex work mostly happens to women and girls, but also a small percentage of boys and men.  The women who are trafficked usually come from poor, unstable countries where women look for economic opportunities.  This search for work is often how they become tricked or coerced into sexual slavery.

Slavery is most prevalent in Africa, India and Russia, but is also found around the world, and even in the US.  So let's discuss the areas where there is significant slavery, beginning with Africa, specifically, Niger.

Niger is a land locked West African country, one of the lowest ranked by the United Nations Human Development Index, and slavery is still a prevalent issue.  It is estimated that 5% of the population is enslaved.  One of the slaves was Tamazrat Ousame.

Ourame is a woman who was enslaved 20 years ago by a high ranking nomadic family. Taken as a small child, at age 5, she was forced to work from early in the morning until late at night, sleeping on the ground outside the master's family's tent.  For twenty years, she was forced to cook, clean and bear children until she escaped.

The next prominent region is Asia. Asia is home to nearly half the world's slave population. There are 14 million in India, 2.9 million in China, and 2.1 million in Pakistan. Of the 14 million in India, 1.2 million are children being used for sexual exploitation.

Hazel Thompson is a journalist who has spent 11 years of her life investigating and documenting the horrors of the red light district in Mumbai, India.  A red light district is an area of the city that contains brothels and other sexual or sex related businesses.  In the case of Mumbai, the red light district is an area of the city where thousands of girls are enslaved, caged and raped.  Over her years of research and investigation, Thompson is able to share here documentations of the brothels she's seen.  She describes the conditions that the girls are kept in.  Prostitutes had described "cage rooms" where they'd be held in boxes, not knowing if it was day or night, for months or even years on end.  Keeping the girls locked in cages for extended periods would "break" them so that they wouldn't run away.

And this description is just for one particular brothel, when there are hundreds of brothels in Mumbai, and thousands in all of India. 

Red light districts are not just in Asia...they are in Europe too.  But in Europe you certainly don't think of slavery.  It's developed there, not a poor developing country like Niger.  Prostitution is legal, and the red light districts of Europe are a sexy tourist destination: nothing to fear, nothing to hide, and nothing to be ashamed of…except for the thousands of trafficked victims, and hundreds of enslaved women in those red light districts.

One of the most infamous red light districts is in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, where 80% of the prostitutes are foreigners, and 70% of them don't have the proper paper work, meaning they have probably been trafficked.

Lauren Bethell, an international consultant for Netherlands International Ministries often volunteers with organizations to investigate the red light district.  In an interview she was able to discuss the how's and why's of these women getting there. 

For many of the foreign women, they came voluntarily knowing they would be working as prostitutes, to earn money to support their families.  What they don't know is that they will become trapped, and won't be able to leave. For native girls, you’re targeted when you’re around our age—or younger—when you’re naïve and insecure. It's a process called grooming, where a pimp will develop a co-dependant relationship with a girl, so that as soon as she turns 18, she can be coerced into prostitution whether she wants to or not.

But that doesn't happen here in the United States, right?  That's in other places and happens to other girls.  "It won't happen to me...I have nothing to worry about."

Let me make this relevant to the people sitting in this room.

300,000 children are at risk of being coerced into the sex industry annually, and 86% of US counties report sex trafficking as a significant issue.

In 2014, there were 113 sex trafficking cases in Kentucky.  Of those cases, there were 160 victims, the average age being 21, the most frequently occurring age, 17, 86% female, and 14% male.

Sex Trafficking and Human Slavery happen all over the world, and even in Kentucky.

I don't mean to scare you with these statistics, but in my opinion, one of the most dangerous things about sex trafficking is how little people know about.  We all need to be aware of the dangers of slavery in America. This problem is not going to be solved by donating to a fund.

Many of us are 17.  Being a teenager, you are at a vulnerable age.  We're all young and pretty, and almost adults, but still children. We should be kept aware of this issue; by social media, and by our schools. We also have to have strict laws enacted to bring an end to human slavery and sexual trafficking.  This is not the 1860’s; and slavery should not be an issue.

Bibliography

·         Conrad, Naomi. "Modern Day Slavery Still Rampant in Niger." Dw. Deuste     Welle, 22 Aug. 2014. Web. 13 Dec. 2015.             <http://www.dw.com/en/modern-day-slavery-still-rampant-in-niger/a-         17871711>.

·         Feingold, David. "Sex Trafficking." Human Trafficking Gsgp. JSTOR, 27 Apr.       2013.Web.13Dec.2015.<http://humantraffickinggsgp.weebly.com/amsterd ams-red-light-district.html>.

·         Gates, Sara. "More Than 29 Million People Live As Slaves, According To New            Report." Huffington Post 18 Oct. 2013. Print.

·         Goldberg, Eleanor. "10 Things You Didn't Know About Slavery, Human         Trafficking (And What You Can Do Against It)." Huffington Post 15 Jan. 2014. Print.

·         House, Thomas. "Human Trafficking." Anti-slavery International: Today's Fight           for Tomorrow's Freedom. The Stableyard, 19 Sept. 2015. Web. 13 Dec.      2015. <www.antislavery.org>.

·         Marquez, Emcarnacion. "Sold Into Sex Slavery: The Plight of African Women             Migrating To Europe." Online interview. 15 July 2015.

·         Saar, Malika. "Girls, Human Trafficking, And Modern Slavery In America."     Thinkprogress. Center For American Progress Fund, 6 Oct. 2012. Web. 13 Dec. 2015.

·         Thompson, Hazel. "Inside the Brutal and Hopeless World of Mumbai's Trafficked       Teenage Sex Slaves." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited, 28 Sept. 2013.                                   Web. 13 Nov. 2015. <http://www.theguardian.com/orld/2013/sep/28/trafficked-in-india-red-            light-districts>.