Life is the gift of our creator.. .

and it should never be for sale

Hannah Cochran Mr. Ballinger 31.5.12 8E

Womens trafficking is one of the main forms of slavery. There are laws in about every country against slavery, and yet, these laws are not enforced. There are many consequences that come when being trafficked. Not only do these slaves face the scary and rude slave holder who is keeping them from their family and the ones they love, but they have the risk of endangering themselves by catching the HIV virus or carrying a baby which they dont even want. These problems arent humane and should be stopped once and for all. Of all the forms of slavery, sex slavery is the most lucrative and exploitative with about 200 000 slaves bringing their slave holders to about $10.5 billion per year (Galiana Carmen, trafficking in women.) Article 4 in the human rights clearly states that No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms. Although, the slave trade breaks this right, no one should be sold for the profit of others. Also, article 5 states that No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment(UHDR). Humans want a profit and some people will do anything to get it, but selling someones body is plain inhumane. Imagine yourself, meeting someone new every day, forced to do things that you wouldnt want to do, but your life depends on it. Youre being held by your will and how long you live, matters on everything you do, every movement, every sound. You cant escape from this horrible person which could possibly kill you. You have children, but they are at home. They dont have a clue where you are, no one does. How would you feel? You are silenced by someone who tortures you and threatens to end your life. You have no privacy with anyone you meet. Your family is in poverty, you were promised a job. You only wanted to help. But now you might never see your family again. How would feel knowing that if only you stayed with your family that you

wouldnt be in this situation? People always talk about the few minutes where you had a life threatening moment. But youre always in a life threatening moment. You cant escape, ever. If you try to escape, your life could be over. This is how over 200 000 people have felt, mostly female and some male. Would you ever like to feel this way? Most of the sex slaves are female although a smaller percent are male. It is said that women are more vulnerable than men, in this case, they are. Women are used and victimized more than anyone else in the world. The typical case is that a womens family is in poverty and they are offered a job. Thinking that the money from the job will bring their family out of poverty they accept. Based on a small sample of 108 women who contacted the NGO in the Netherlands, the table shows that only on-fourth of women understood they would be expected to perform sexual services at their new job(Galiana Carmen, trafficking of women). The majority has been lured into migration with the promises and thoughts of legitimate jobs (chart 1, Galiana Carmen). It is important to emphasize that in both cases, whether they were aware or not that they were going to work as prostitutes; these women were forced to work against their will and were deprived of their earnings, therefore becoming slaves. So many women are abused, tortured and scared every single day. How would you like to be one of these people? Think of yourself having HIV because of someone you were forced to be with, or carrying a baby that you dont even want. When that baby is born, you will be reminded of everything that happened, you will never forget the memory of that threatening time, if you are ever able to escape alive. HIV threatens and kills many lives. It is a sexually transmitted disease and it is incurable. HIV is epidemic in

Thailand with wives and girlfriends, the women are typically with men who buy prostitute sex from sex slaves (Humantrafficking.org) HIV is more common with women because men are typically the ones who buy from the slave holders. Aids effects many lives and can possibly kill therefore many women who are trafficked are in danger of the effects of catching aids and should have medical attention. All the slaves that are trafficked are emotionally and mentally hurt, although because of aids the slaves can also be physically hurt. HIV/ AIDs can damage many people and end lives, especially females therefore, women shouldnt be for sale because anyone can easily end their life unintentionally. Although some governments deny it, the World Health Organization finds trafficking everywhere frequently( Humantrafficking.org). Governments will deny that trafficking is found in their country because it makes them seem like a bad government, which would make people protest against them and therefore a new leader would be assigned. Many governments try their hardest to keep knowledge about their country a secret so that people wont leave and so that they wouldnt be replaced. This is a problem because families move to certain countries so that their children can be safe, but if the government is hiding information that could threaten people, then they arent actually safe and the risk that their children could be trafficked is higher. Sex slaves are emotionally, mentally and physically hurt. Being sex slaves causes the slaves to possibly get pregnant or to have HIV/AIDS. Most sex slaves are female although a few are male. Everyone realizes the pain in the midst of being trafficked, but no one thinks of the consequences afterwards, if they make it out alive. They will always remember what happened, they will always have the nightmares about it, about their near death experience. How their bodies were used for

the pleasure of others. How would you feel if this were you? 200 000 people have felt this way. Would you want to?

Works sited Page

1. Galiana, Carmen. "Trafficking in Women." European Union: Civil Liberties Series. 2000. The European Parliament. 21 / 05 / 2012 http://www.europarl.europa.eu/workingpapers/libe/pdf /109_en.pdf

2. UDHR: http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/ 3. Humantrafficking. Org http://www.humantrafficking.org/countries/thailand

Chart 1 from Galiana Carmen Jobs Prostitute Waitress Domestic worker Dancer Other Unknown Total: 2 19 35 108 Number of people 27 21 4