International Women's Day

As of May 2004, the U.S. Government estimates that 14,500 to 17,500 people are trafficked annually into the United States, and 600,000 to 800,000 are trafficked globally. Approximately 80 percent of the victims are female; 70 percent of those females are trafficked for the commercial sex industry.

Today is International Women’s Day, a celebration for women across the globe, yet each year over 560,000 women are trafficked through the world for sexual purposes. There isn’t much to celebrate for women internationally, as we are allowing our sisters to be bought and sold in order to fulfill the demand for sex workers. 45% of those were sold by their own parents/family in order to circumvent debt, humiliation and/or the burden of another mouth to feed. Over half of these women are minors. The important distinction is that when a woman is “trafficked” she has been taken away from her country and moved across a border. These aren’t just prostitutes…these are women who have essentially been kidnapped or sold in order to be taken somewhere else to work in the sex industry. Above are just the documented numbers for trafficked women. Researchers suggest that these number could be doubled and that would give a rough estimate of the entire amount of sexual trafficking taking place…there are hundreds of thousands of cases that we do not know about. With that there are millions of cases of non-trafficked sex workers…forced to perform for money or servitude. Women and girls forced to do the unthinkable.

In Human Rights we often refer to the Sexual Trafficking plight as a “black hole” something that we could talk about and research on non-stop for years yet have neither correct data nor a solution. When someone brings up sexual trafficking projects in the office a laugh escapes as we know that we have no tools that would allow us to further this plight. Demand is too high and in countries like Costa Rica sexual tourism brings in incredible amounts of money. Men and (some) women travel to Costa Rica in order to participate in “tours” that facilitate these sexual binges. Research shows that requesting time with minors on these tours even produces results. One would think that such requests would be shunned but inevitably a minor is found and yet again that demand has allowed for one more trafficked girl to be used.

If we think this is just a problem abroad then we must note that about 15,000 women are trafficked into the US every year as well. We have at least 15,000 women (that we know about) brought here from other countries, against their will, to fulfill sexual practices. We are culprits. In a society that takes such great pride in being Westernized and the “leaders of the free world” and takes great strides to regulate violations of other countries…we are not even able to stop the trafficking women and girls into our borders for sexual purposes.

On International Women’s Day I ask that you remember that those of us with a home, food, shelter, family, jobs, education and access to technology must take steps to eradicate the incredible wrongs we have pushed upon the world’s women and children. Although it seems endless, the fight must continue until we have stopped the demand and ended the trafficking.

For more information feel free to visit Break the Chain, Rescue and Restore, Human Rights Watch, CATW.