Human Trafficking

After being abused enough by her father, she decided to start searching for a job not only in her hometown , but also in its surrounding areas. She applied for a waitress job, earned the job and moved to the new town. The owner never paid her the settled salary, treated her in a very unprofessional manner and sexually harassed her.

Under these conditions she trusted a close friend who was a man (she would eventually find out he was her boss’ friend) who offered her a job in a well known Italian resort, where she was supposed to work for famous clients. She agreed to work for a 1000 EURO salary. With the help of a close friend, the man who had recruited her provided a false passport for her and moved her to North Italy. Immediately after her arriving there, all her documents were taken away from her and the leader of the criminal grouping forced her to work as a street prostitute from Trevizo to Mestre (11km).

In this area the Serbian, Albanian and Russian Mafia operated, organizing the sex market. When she found out and refused to do this, she was beaten and raped for 3 days and 3 nights, which also happened to other women who put up resistance. As a result of this traumatic experience she gave up and went out in the street, but having in mind the plan to evade as soon as the occasion occurred. She gained 800 EUROS a night and she had to hand over the money to the trafficking grouping.

After 10 days she managed to escape with the help of an Italian client, succeeding in reaching the Serbian border where she exposed the entire case to the frontier police. Most members of the grouping were arrested and the case was investigated by the Belgrade organized crime special court. Although the victim received professional assistance and care both in the shelter and in hospital, she tried to commit suicide twice(151). This is just one situation where one young women’s life is dramatically turned by a group of sex traffickers. Sex traffickers are part of a global issue that must be confronted.

Sex traffickers enslaving women as young as 16 years of age, sex trafficking results in destructive physical, emotional, and psychological effects that often require years before the victim of sex trafficking recovers. In order to snare young women, sex traffickers look for those who fit the “perfect victim” profile and who can be easily lured with “false promises. ” Robert Uy said: “Imagine for a second a person who was sixteen when she first started working for her employer. At the age of 19, this person was offered a chance to come to the United States with her employer.

Then picture that once she arrived, she had her passport taken away, was forced to work seven days a week, sixteen hours a day for nineteen years, was not allowed to leave the home of her employers, faced constant threats, and was barely paid a $1,000 per year, during that nineteen-year period. Imagine if this person was told that that she had entered the United States illegally, was isolated by language, and had her movement severely constrained. Now stop imagining.

This story is real and is what the trafficking survivor in United States v. Calimlim faced. (212) This is a great example of how the “perfect victim” is chosen. Most of the time the young women who is being chosen comes from a poor upbringing with no work available. Sex traffickers pick up on this and attempt to lure in the young women with “false dreams” and take advantage of their ignorance. Perhaps the young women is still a virgin. She is lured by a sex trafficker and raped on video. The sex trafficker knowing that she is a muslim threatens to show her father the video of her being raped unless she agrees to work for the sex traffickers.

The young women agrees because she knows that her father would have her killed because of the loss of her virginity before being married. This is a sad but true experience that one young women has to live with. Instead of being able and go home to ask her father for help she is terrified of the outcome and would rather endure a life of imprisonment in sex trafficking. The sex traffickers control and manipulate the young women through physical abuse and sexual exploitation. Physical abuse and beatings are a fundamental way for sex traffickers to control and manipulate the young women.

Often upon arrival the young women are “broken in” with beatings to assume control over their victims. This gives the young women the confirmation that they must be submissive to prevent further abuse. In some situations the victim has had bones broken without medical help for days. After enough physical abuse the women are forced into prostitution. Living conditions are another fundamental way for sex traffickers to control and manipulate the young women. The sex traffickers will lock their victims in a small cage for days with no food or water.

This is an effective way to force control over the young women. In certain cases the young women have their hands and feet infected which later must be amputated. This helps the sex traffickers control and manipulate their victims, in some cases they combine merciful beatings followed with the caging to further abuse their victims. Sexual exploitation is another fundamental way for sex traffickers to control and manipulate the young women. After weeks of abuse and confinement the sex traffickers force their victims into prostitution.

If the young women refuse the sex traffickers drug their victims and continue with the sexual exploitation. Even though condoms are used during sexual exploitation the young women are still in danger. Bozidar Banovic explains that the use of condoms provides false safety regarding AIDS transmission, and leads to other sexually transmitted diseases and viruses such as: Chlamydia infection, condilomi (genital warts), genital herpes as well as urinarz tract infections, scabies (Sarcoptes scabies), lice (Pediculosis pubis), gonorrhea, syphilis, hepatitis A, B, and C.

Condilomi is caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV). ?? V condiloma causes cervical cancer in women and treatment must be initiated straight after detection. ?? V is commonly transmitted through sexual contact, regardless of regular contact, anal or oral sex. It can also appear even if the condom is used, as a partner could be a carrier of the virus, without any visible symptoms. The touch of infected skin or contact of body liquids during sexual contact is sufficient to get infected.

Statistics provided by the US Centers for Prevention and Disease Control, state that at least 20 million people in the US suffer from HPV. Estimations indicate that around 80% of sexually active population has some form of this virus. In Croatia, it is estimated that about 60% of sexually active women is infected. In Serbia, there are no valid statistics but it is expected that the numbers do not significantly differ (95). The young women would be forced to have sex up to 25 times per day. The traffickers often raped their victims, causing the young women to undergo several crude abortions.

Young women often contract sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS through sexual exploitation which put them in a state of helplessness. The young women give up and never fight back since they believe that with diseases their is no reason to try and escape. Even if the young women are rescued they still end up being mentally imprisoned by their history of abuse. The rehabilitation of the young women, primarily the psychological rehabilitation is a long involved process. Human trafficking victims require medical treatment as well as psychological support and assistance.

Mental state examination and psychological treatment are performed on the basis of needs’ hierarchy. Each victim requires individualized treatment. Human trafficking victims suffer from chronic, long-term trauma. Bozidar Banovic indicates that events represent a threat to life or physical integrity or close contact with violence and death. Commonly, human response to danger causes increased flow of adrenalin alarming the state of alert. Individuals in such crisis situation may choose to ‘fight or flight’, displaying strong emotions (fear or anger) that can mobilize or paralyze them.

Normal human reactions to abnormal events, such as traumatic experience of human trafficking involve: 1) physical reactions: headache and stomach pain; sudden sweating and heart disturbance; changes in sleep and appetite; weakened immune system; alcohol or drug misuse; and 2) psychological reactions: shock and fear; disorientation and confusion; oversensitivity and distress; rumination of trauma; nightmares and flashbacks; minimization of the experience; isolation and detachment; problems with trust and/or feelings of betrayal; feelings of helplessness, panic and loss of control; decreased interest for daily activities; lack of sense of order or justice in the world; and fear of the future.

The intensity of acute reactions of the victims depends on the experienced trauma and emotional pain, and is often combined with maltreatment and abuse during childhood, which is important in the domain of clinical consequences caused by enslavement and sexual abuse(96). During psychological counseling the young women showed signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): flashbacks, nightmares appearing on a base of ‘numbness’, disregard of environment, emotional flatness, isolation from others and depression.

The young women are treated with a sex trafficking victim approach to help them overcome their past. Often the young women have difficult issues with drug abuse and speaking about their issues. After enough counseling the victims can recover, learn to put aside the horrors they faced and start living an enjoyable life.Sex traffickers lured and abused innocent young women physically and psychologically for years until they either died or got away with nothing but a hope and a “real dream” to live a regular life again.