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Heavy Traffic

Adair Fincher captures the complexities of human trafficking in this compelling article written for Chronogram.

Excerpts from full report:

In Alexandropoulos, Greece, a Nigerian woman spends her nights servicing men in the hopes of paying off the 40,000 euro debt that she owes the man who smuggled her there. Promised a better life working in a Greek bar, she has instead been forced into a life of sexual servitude. She cannot leave because the man has made sure she fears the native African voodoo spell that has bound her to repay the 40,000 euros.

In Seoul, a Filipina dances naked on a tabletop. Lured to Korea with the promise of marrying an American GI, her third day there finds her bound by her travel debt and unable to speak the language.

In Bombay, a premenstrual girl, bought in the rural Indian countryside, cries out as a silver-haired brothel patron, who has paid for her virginity, rapes her. If she starts to bleed, the madam of the brothel will give the girl ice before sending the next man in. This night, 25 men or more may rape her. If she resists, she will be beaten.

On May 13 of this year a wild-eyed Indonesian woman covered in bruises runs into a Dunkin Donuts dressed only in pants and a towel. Forced to work as an indentured servant for a wealthy couple in Muttontown, Long Island, her life is a hell of physical abuse involving sticks, knives, and cigarettes.

Trafficking of human beings—the domestic or global transfer of people for cash, through deceit, exploitation, or force—is one of the most lucrative forms of international illegal trade, second only to drug smuggling. According to the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report, approximately “600,000 to 800,000 people—mostly women and children—are trafficked across national borders” each year. This does not include the millions trafficked within their own countries. Human trafficking—a contemporary form of slavery—is a global industry with sticky, money-hungry tendrils that extend to every nook and cranny of the world.

According to Andrea Bertone of Humantrafficking.org, a web-based human trafficking watchdog organization, due to the underground nature of this modern-day slave trade, truly accurate numbers of the mass of people trafficked and exploited annually are elusive, as are which countries have the worst human trafficking records.

Each country has specific issues that it must tackle and each country must tackle their issues differently. According to Humantrafficking.org’s Bertone, overall it can be said that countries with large migrant populations typically have the largest reports of abuse. Internationally, the US is the most progressive country in the fight against human trafficking, with the Bush administration, in particular, being the most aggressive. Although former president Bill Clinton signed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 directly prior to his leaving office, incoming president George Bush was left to implement the act—a task he took on with great vigor.

Adapted from: Adair Fincher. "Heavy Traffic." Chronogram. 21 June 2007.

To read entire report, visit: Heavy Traffic: Modern-Day Slave Trade