Unseen Forms of Modern-day Slavery

Along with a few of my fellow classmates I attended the talk about hidden forms of human rights last Thursday. I found the talk to be very unsettling and surprising. Like many people who hear about human trafficking, I assumed that it was an issue solely concerned with women and prostitution. It became apparent very early, however, that many of the human trafficking issues that plague the world exist apart from the plot of Taken. The event was set up in the format of a panel discussion with each panelist taking up a talking point dealing with a different issue related to human trafficking.

On of the main issues that the first two speakers dealt with was that of domestic slavery. Tiffany Williams from the Break the Chain Campaign commented that even here in the Washington D.C. area there is a very large human trafficking problem when it comes to modern day slavery. She explained that many high-ranking federal officials and foreign diplomats are responsible for a majority of this problem; people who are untouchable or extremely hard to prosecute. Moreover, many of the victims are kept in seclusion within the perpetrator’s residence and have no idea that there are avenues for them to exploit to escape from their torment. They do not know about human trafficking support centers, social workers, or police officers. On top of all that, it is extremely difficult for officers to find these hidden slaves because they are so invisible and look just like homemakers hired for pay. One of the reasons that these victims are so hapless is because many of them are children or teenagers forced to migrate from foreign countries. They do not speak English, understand U.S. laws and protections, and are physically weaker than their captors.

The next speaker would go on to explain her personal experience as a victim of human trafficking. As a child in Cameroon, she was taken from her parents to the U.S. to serve as a domestic slave. It was actually her uncle who set up the migration of the speaker to the U.S. The woman who took her and who became her captor was an American citizen who was well respected among those in her community. The speaker’s parents thought that their daughter was being taken to the U.S. to get an education and have an opportunity for a great job. Many in Cameroon seek to move to the the U.S., so it was very easy for the transaction to take place. While here in Washington, the speaker was abused, beaten, sleep-deprived, forced to clean and take care of her captor’s children, and starved for weeks on end. While there was no sexual abuse in this situation solely because the victim’s captor was a woman, it is certainly not unusual that rape and sexual assault are perpetrated against people human trafficked for the purpose of domestic servitude.

The next speaker, Chrissy Mueller, focused on an area of human trafficking that is rarely ever discussed: the human trafficking of men and boys. Ms. Mueller explained that one of the most common ways that men are exploited is through the fishing industry. Men from villages in South East Asian countries are commonly promised work in factories or agriculture, but are eventually traded by their transporters to fishing ship captains. The speaker explained that these captains take the men to a karaoke bar the night before they leave port. There the men are tricked into racking up a substantial debt, which they are then forced to pay off through their labor onboard the fishing vessels. There is no chance for escape once onboard, the men are forced to work 20 hour days, starved, threatened, and beaten. What is so unfortunate is that the men who are exploited will rarely ever seek support after their ordeal because of a sense of personal failure combined with machismo.

The reason human trafficking is such a severe problem stems from its global nature. Victims are taken far from their homes, usually to the opposite side of the world, and become docile and complacent as they realize they have nowhere to run. The victims have really no knowledge of any protections that are in place to protect them, many do not speak the regional language, and all are fearful of the pain that would come with retaliation. The entire situation is exacerbated by a lack of knowledge of these hidden forms of human trafficking.