In collaboration with PASSIONS, VOICE OF ASIA is proud to present timeless articles from the archives, reproduced digitally for your reading pleasure. Originally published in PASSIONS Volume 44 in 2011, we present this article on sex trafficking, and how, unfortunately, it remains relevant in today’s context.
On the 6th of December 1865, when slavery was finally abolished by law in the United States, people joyfully celebrated the end of a dark era. Little did they know that slavery would stay on in the world, expanding in number and ferocity up until the 21st century, with no sign of it slowing down. With many turning a blind eye at the gravity of the issue of sex trafficking, many women and children have been subjected as victims of this dreadful trade and suffered the terrible consequences that come with it. Placing faces to the statistics, PASSIONS examines the topic of sex trafficking, sex slavery and child prostitution in the hope that this issue will gain an expiry date someday soon.
An Ugly Pandemic
When Demi Moore, co-founder of DNA Foundation, went to Nepal to capture the story of women involved in sex trafficking on film through Nepal’s Stolen Children: A CNN Freedom Project Documentary, the disgusting truth regarding sex trafficking was finally put on display for the world to witness and understand. Girls, as young as 10 years old are often drugged by pimps and brought to India to be sold. Locked up in brothels from then on, these girls who have been taken away from their families are then forced to perform sexual acts in exchange for their lives. Beaten, doused with boiling water or stubbed with burning cigarettes if they resist, just like hens in chicken coops, these young girls are even injected with hormones to ensure that their bodies develop at a faster pace.
“At the brothel I was forced to have sex with men and if I argued they would burn cigarettes on my body and beat me with a stick or spill hot water on me. I went with my baby son, but we were separated, and when he cried they burned his tongue with a cigarette,” said Radika, one of the rescued girls Moore met in Nepal. Together with Anuradha Karala, recipient of the CNN Hero Award 2010 and founder of the charity Maiti Nepal, which has rescued 12,000 girls from sex slavery in Nepal to date , Moore learned how these young victims have rebuilt their lives through training and care after so much pain at the hands of dominant strangers, showing that there is always a rainbow after the rain.
Unedited Stories
Radika is among one of the lucky ones to be rescued. According to the moving stories in the bestselling book ‘Half the Sky’, victims in Thailand and Vietnam are often taken in by these brothels at such an early age that they are easily brainwashed to think that what they witness is the norm of society.
When PASSIONS sat down with Datin Mina Cheah Foong, Managing Director of The Body Shop Malaysia, she said, “What usually happens with a child is that they are told to be obedient to the ‘auntie’ with whom they are left. So, this child will follow suit and do what the ‘auntie’ says even if it is having sex with grown men. Because children are compliant and are cowed into submission, they often deny their acts when faced with the police because they trust the brothel owners with whom they grew up.”
Also having a longer ‘shelf-life’, children are often the number one target for the lucrative sex trade business. “They interviewed a former drug-smuggler who had opted for the sex trade instead because of its longer lifespan. He said with drugs, once the user buys it, it’s gone. But with people, you can use them over and over again until the victim falls sick or dies,” explained Datin Mina. It is a disgusting and appalling business transaction which unfortunately still occurs all over the world, even in the United States and Malaysia. And because they are not exposed to life other than what is enclosed within those four walls, when these children do reach their ‘expiry date’, it is not surprising that it will be these same victims who will inherit the ‘family business’ by taking over the reins as ‘madams’ in these brothels.
A Face to the Statistics: Snippet from “Half the Sky”
When Srey Rath was fifteen, her family ran out of money, so she decided to go work as a dishwasher in Thailand for two months to help pay the bills. Her parents fretted about her safety, but they were reassured when Rath arranged to travel with four friends who had been promised jobs in the same Thai restaurant. The job agent took the girls deep into Thailand and then handed them to gangsters who took them to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia.
She was then drugged, beaten and forced to work 7 days a week, 15 hours a day sleeping with male customers. Condoms were banned, she was never paid, and she was fed just barely enough food to keep her alive. To escape, one night some of the girls went out onto their balcony and pried loose a long, five-inch-wide board from a rack used for drying clothes. They balanced it precariously between their balcony and one on the next building, twelve feet away. The board wobbled badly, but Rath was desperate, so she sat astride the board and gradually inched across until she reached freedom.
The girls took the elevator down and wandered the silent streets until they found a police station and stepped inside. The police first tried to shoo them away, then arrested the girls for illegal immigration. Rath served a year in prison under Malaysia’s tough anti-immigrant laws, and then she was supposed to be repatriated. She thought a Malaysian policeman was escorting her home when he drove her to the Thai border – but then he sold her to a trafficker, who peddled her to a Thai brothel.
Bordering Freedom and Imprisonment
“Malaysia has been singled out by the international community as a hot-bed for human trafficking because the country has been categorised under three headings; the source, the transit and the destination,” said Datin Mina. “Between 2008 and 2010, there were about 800 human trafficking victims from 19 different countries who were given protection orders by the government. So, can you imagine the number of people who are not given protection orders today?” Because of the difficulty of separating the true victims from economic migrants, it makes it that more difficult to truly identify those who need help.
It is even harder abroad. In the documentary, Moore mentioned, “It is like finding a needle in a haystack”, as unlike Malaysia, the 28 border crossings which Nepal shares with India are completely open, allowing local people to move in and out of the two countries without having to show any identification. Under Anuradha’s guidance, women guards are stationed at 10 checkpoints to spot potential sex traffickers and their victims who often cross the borders to India. Being former victims themselves, they can spot signs of drugged or dishevelled girls or even young girls who are overly-beautified to lure more potential customers.
When confronted, the male ‘chaperone’ is questioned separately from the women victims and if their stories do not add up, action is taken by the police and the women are given shelter at Maiti Nepal. In 20 years, 12,000 girls have been rescued by the organisation, but ironically, that is the number of girls victimised by the sex trade every year. Moore then moves on to question a police officer on his problems tackling this issue. “We definitely lack manpower and lack coordination with the guards of Maiti Nepal,” said an officer. She then discovered that the officers themselves were not well-versed in the subject of sex trafficking. People can point fingers at one another, saying that so and so is in-charge, but in the end, whose responsibility is it?
And as the pimps and madams become smarter and more diligent in their work, their footprints will be harder to trace if we still constantly fall two steps behind them.
Afterlife of Hell
Although some victims who are rescued from the brothels do end up fleeing from protective homes to go back to their old ways, this is thankfully the exception. During the CNN Documentary, Moore follows Tulli, a rescued victim of sex trade who was fooled by men who promised her a job in the city. Because of a mere misjudgement, Tulli was held captive for 6 months and forced into prostitution, until one day one of her clients allowed her to call her brother using his cell phone, which finally resulted in her rescue. As the van that transported them wound its way up 12000 feet into the hills, the Himalayan Mountains framed the background. This paradise is home to the most poverty-stricken communities in Nepal.
With an income of about US$200 per year or 56¢ per day, the Tamang people of Tulli’s village whom Anuradha described as ‘lovely people who easily trust’, making them an easy and popular target are at the highest risk for sex trafficking. Since being separated from her family, Tulli hasn’t seen her daughter. So as the family reunites, even the strong Tulli was drenched in tears as she carried her daughter in her arms. When Moore asked Tulli’s brother about what he feels should be portrayed to the world about sex trafficking, he said, “My sister has been a victim and was taken away from the family. The abductors should be put away in prison until they die.”
Tulli is one of the privileged few who were accepted back into her family and community after what had happened to her. There remain thousands of other women who are shunned from their homes because the people who once loved them cannot stand to look at them after what they have done, as if their actions were intentional. Faced with the shame and disapproval, Nepalese women seek shelter at Maiti Nepal, together with their children and other victims.
As Moore stated in the documentary, “Sometimes emotional scars are harder to overcome than physical ones”, Maiti Nepal offers holistic care to victims of abuse and abandoned children who are at high risk of being trafficked. Equipped with a hospice, school and rehabilitation centre, the organisation that started up with Anuradha’s small teacher’s salary has now grown to be a haven of hope for these women. They are taught skills such as sewing and beading. Medicine is also given to the victims who are HIV positive from their encounters at the brothels. And as Anuradha spreads awareness on sex trafficking across the most rural parts of Nepal, she shouts out with confidence to the sea of young women, “Girls are our pride!”
From a Trickle to a Tidal Wave
Sex trafficking is a difficult problem to solve because of its silent nature. “Because these acts are so heinous, sex trafficking is very much underground. When things that are more evident are raised, people tend to be more outraged. But with this issue, you will find that many people surprisingly, are not aware. They will ask, “Does it really happen?” said Datin Mina. Despite the strong political and community will to combat it, the problem lies in implementation. While there are many different groups of people involved in fighting sex trafficking, the coordination between the parties is a major obstacle.
“It involves a whole slew of people; immigration, customs, police, social welfare, courts, NGOs and the community. This is why Malaysia is making slow progress because the more people you have to coordinate, the harder it is,” added Datin Mina. However, although slow, there is no doubt that progress is being made. Worldwide, many NGOs have signed up in the abolitionist movement, with The Body Shop Malaysia being the leading company in the country advocating awareness regarding this silent topic.
With their ‘Say NO! to sex trafficking of children!’ campaign, they have collaborated with other major NGOs such as End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT), Nur Salam, Tegananita and P.S.The Children, to spread the truth of human trafficking to the local community. Last March, the organisation made history with an anti-human trafficking petition signed by 12000 people which was presented to Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein – the Home Minister and Datuk Seri Sharizat Abdul Jalil – the Minister for Women Family and Community Development, who promised that action will be taken to fight sex trafficking this year.
Real Men Don’t Buy Girls
As taught in economics, there is no supply without demand. There would be no child prostitutes or even a multi-million dollar sex trade if there weren’t anyone interested in the services. Through our campaign, I hope that the community is able to gain awareness. And with that, the ‘Whistle Blower’s Act’, which gives people an easy avenue to report suspicious activities to the police, will add force to this ,” added Datin Mina. It is a case of knowing what you are looking for.
If you don’t know about sex trafficking, you might come across a child in a shabby-looking brothel and look away unfazed. But if you are aware, you can analyse a situation and report dubious activities to the authorities so that they are able to take further action. “We can’t expect the government to do everything, the secret lies in hotel owners, taxi drivers and other members of community working together and conveying the necessary information, so it is definitely a team effort.”
To cut the demand from the source itself, the DNA Foundation, founded by Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, aims at reforming the thinking of men through their slogan ‘Real Men Don’t Buy Girls’. With their message that it is unacceptable to be involved in human trafficking in any way, they are using their celebrity status to shed more light on this taboo topic. On the last few days of Moore’s visit to Nepal, she together with Anuradha, had a meeting with the Prime Minister of Nepal, Jhalanath Khanal to discuss viable solutions to this pressing problem.
During the meeting, Prime Minister Khanal confessed that Nepal had a long history of patriarchal domination and that is what has caused most of the country’s women-centred violence. And with no compulsory education imposed on the children, families tend to send boys rather than girls to be educated in schools. At the end of the meeting, the Prime Minister promised to look into remodelling the checkpoints located at the borders for a more coordinated immigration system. At the same time, he pledged to look into making education mandatory up to 8th grade for both boys and girls to counter Nepal’s historical discrimination towards the female gender.
It is clear that sex trafficking should be everyone’s concern. Although it may take generations of abolitionists until the world finally bids goodbye to this disgusting trade, this route is much better than relying on other people to solve this problem while we ourselves, do nothing. People are not objects, they cannot be subjugated or used against their will. Thus, it is high time that we open our eyes to the truth. We must stand up for those who have been abused and those who have perished at the hands of modern-day slavers. Next time you hear about sex trafficking, try to imagine the victim was your daughter or your sister or your mother. What would you do? How would you fight?
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
