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Trafficking
“Trafficking in persons” is the transportation of people, by means of the threat or use of violence, abduction or fraud for the purpose of exploitation. This exploitation includes forced prostitution and other sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery and even the removal of organs. Most countries have no specific legislation against trafficking, and victims are reluctant to report their experiences for fear of being killed or prosecuted and deported as illegal immigrants.
Trafficking and forced sexual exploitation is a truly global problem that touches every country, rich or poor, north and south. Since this is an illegal activity, there are no exact figures for the number of victims of trafficking. The most commonly cited global statistic comes from the US State Department which estimates, based on 2003 data that, at least 800,000 to 900,000 persons, mainly women and children, are trafficked annually across borders worldwide.
This is almost certainly an underestimate and the UN now believes that the number of children alone trafficked annually, internally and externally, is around 1.2 million and the number of women in forced prostitution and slavery to be between 5 to 10 million. The last recorded estimates indicate that as many as two million children, mainly girls but also a significant number of boys, are sexually exploited in the multi-billion dollar commercial sex trade each year. At any time, therefore, several million children will be engaged in sex work. In Southeast Asia alone, it is thought that one million children are involved.
Whilst sex work is most likely purpose of trafficking, it is certainly not the only one. Children are also trafficked for domestic service or put to work in shops or factories. Children as young as 4 have been sent to work in dangerous quarries, factories and sweatshops. Children have also been forced into being soldiers in conflicts around the world. Girls, including pre-teens, have also been forced into marriages.
Sex Tourism
Most exploitation of children takes place as a result of their absorption into the adult sex trade where they are exploited by local people. In the Philippines, for example, it is thought that nine out of ten customers of child prostitutes are Filipinos. Since the 1980s though, there has also been an increase in 'sex tourism' with pedophiles seeking out younger children, but more often by men or women who regard it as permissible to have sex with local people regardless of their age. While sex tourism is well established in many Asian countries, it is now emerging in other parts of the developing world, including Africa and Latin America.
Many of the children working in the sex industry do so in horrific conditions. This is especially true of children who have been trafficked, who may be effectively imprisoned in the brothels. In Cambodia, for example, one survey of 53 girls found that most lived in small dark rooms and served five to ten customers per day. Almost all had suffered physical abuse at the hands of brothel owners and customers, the most common forms being hitting and kicking. Children in brothels have also been drugged to make them submissive – on the other hand, they may have turned to prostitution to maintain a drug habit.
Children working in brothels are also exposed to sexually transmitted infections, as well as early pregnancy, and repeated abortions and increasingly, HIV/AIDS. A number of men now specifically seek out children for sex assuming that they are less likely to be infected. While many adult sex workers now insist that their clients use condoms, children are in a weaker position, either because they do not appreciate the danger, or because they are powerless to insist on condom use. Children working in the sex industry also suffer social stigma and mental illness.
Child pornography
One of the most insidious and pervasive aspects of the commercial sexual exploitation of children is through the distribution of child pornography. With the internet and video this problem has grown. Much of this material is generated as a record of sexual abuse by pedophiles and is often exchanged rather than sold. Nevertheless, such images are also available for sale on commercial sites. It also seems likely that organized crime is moving in.
Since this is an illegal activity, statistics are scarce, but the scale of the problem is evident from the result of just one operation. A child pornography ring that has since been broken up, the “Wonderland Club”, had 180 known members spread across 49 countries, possessing 750,000 pornographic images and over 1,800 hours of digital video of thousands of abused children, boys and girls as young as 2 years old.