► Sex work is illegal in many countries, but there are still thousands of commercial sex establishments (source)
► Parents who have no source of income and who simply live off the land in their bamboo homes on the fields are approached by “beautiful city people” and are offered a year’s wages in exchange for their sons and daughters who are age 11 and 12. The kids then “owe” that money in services. They sacrifice their bodies to provide for their family.
► Girls provide for the family’s sustenance for this present life; boys gain merit as monks for their parents’ afterlife.
► A professor at the local university said: “In this society, boys begin to buy women when they are around 13 years old; 50 per cent of 16-year-old boys and 90 per cent of university students go to brothels. Married men also think it natural to entertain business clients and friends by taking them to brothels, and they visit brothels themselves as a part of the joy of travel.'” – Yayori Matsui, Women in the New Asia
► Our nation where we work is listed in the top 5 countries with the highest rates of child prostitution. (source)
► Although the following article is about Cambodia, this depicts well what is happening in numerous Southeast Asian countries, as well. Virginity is sold for a high price. We do similar holistic ministry like the NGO mentioned in the article. (Warning – this article could be rated R). Read the article.
► There’s a saying here that “Men are like gold and women are like cloth. If you drop gold in the dirt, it washes clean and still shines. If you drop cloth, the stain never comes out.” As a result, it is often hard for girls to marry or get regular jobs if they admit that they have been sold, sexually exploited, or abused.
► “Girls, often aged between 12 and 16 years from the hill tribes are subjected to commercial sexual exploitation under ‘prison-like’ conditions. The majority of these known victims, however, come from outside this nation, with the highest number coming from neighboring countries.” (source)
► When a government does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and when the government has not shown evidence of increasing efforts to address human trafficking compared to the previous year; the nation is placed on Tier 2 Watch List. If the government does not have a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute making significant efforts to meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, they are recognized as Tier 3. Most nations in SE Asia are on Tier 2 on the TIP Watch List. (source)
► 5 million migrant workers live where we volunteer (UNAIDS 2012). It is these who are at highest risk of being trafficked into labor and sex work.
► 21-Year-Old Woman Arrested For Prostituting Teenage Girls. (source)
Let’s stop reading statistics and start changing them!
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TRUTH: “Globally, the average cost of a slave is $90.” – www.dosomething.org
DARE: “Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.” – Benjamin Franklin
TRUTH: “According to some estimates, approximately 80% of trafficking involves sexual exploitation, and 19% involves labor exploitation.” – www.dosomething.org
DARE: “The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it.” – Chinese Proverb
TRUTH: Human trafficking not only involves sex and labor, but people are also trafficked for organ harvesting.
DARE: “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” – Anne Frank
TRUTH: “Although human trafficking is often a hidden crime and accurate statistics are difficult to obtain, researchers estimate that more than 80% of trafficking victims are female. Over 50% of human trafficking victims are children.” – Source:Skinner, E. Benjamin. 2008. A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery.
DARE: “It is by standing up for the rights of girls and women that we truly measure up as men.” – Archbishop Desmond Tutu
TRUTH: “Human trafficking is the only area of transnational crime in which women are significantly represented—as victims, as perpetrators, and as activists fighting this crime.” – Source: Aronowitz, Alexis A. 2009. Human Trafficking, Human Misery: The Global Trade in Human Beings.
DARE: “We only have two choices – do something or do nothing.” – Tony Kirwan – Founder Destiny Rescue
TRUTH: “Several countries rank high as source countries for human trafficking, including Belarus, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Albania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Romania, China, Thailand, and Nigeria.” – Source: Skinner, E. Benjamin. 2008. A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery.
DARE: “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” – J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
TRUTH: “Belgium, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Thailand, Turkey, and the U.S. are ranked very high as destination countries of trafficked victims.” – Source: Skinner, E. Benjamin. 2008. A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery.
DARE: “The doors will be opened to those who are bold enough to knock.” – Tony Gaskins
TRUTH: “Human trafficking is one of the fastest growing criminal enterprises because it holds relatively low risk with high profit potential. Criminal organizations are increasingly attracted to human trafficking because, unlike drugs, humans can be sold repeatedly.” – Source: Shelley, Louise. 2010. Human Trafficking: A Global Perspective.
DARE: “Let it not be said that I was silent when they needed me.” – William Wilberforce
TRUTH: “Many times, if a sex slave is arrested, she is imprisoned while her trafficker is able to buy his way out of trouble.” – Source: Skinner, E. Benjamin. 2008. A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery.
DARE: “Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.” – Albert Einstein
TRUTH: “Today, slaves are cheaper than they have ever been in history. The population explosion has created a great supply of workers, and globalization has created people who are vulnerable and easily enslaved.” – Source: Skinner, E. Benjamin. 2008. A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery.
DARE: “You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.” – William Wilberforce
TRUTH: “Brazil and Thailand are generally considered to have the worst child sex trafficking records.” – Source: Shelley, Louise. 2010. Human Trafficking: A Global Perspective.
DARE: “Person, not possession; child, not commodity” – Anonymous
TRUTH: “There are many causes of human trafficking in Thailand. Many argue that Thailand is a destination for human trafficking because of its relative affluence in the Greater Sub-Mekong Region. Other cited vulnerability factors include: statelessness, poverty, lack of education, awareness and employment, or dysfunctional families.” – Source: UNIAP: The Human Trafficking Situation in Thailand (last updated 2008), 2011 Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report
DARE: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead
“The dislocation and disenfranchisement of refugees make them highly susceptible to false job offers…refugees are rarely paid, and because they have no legal basis to work in a Thailand, they have no recourse when they are mistreated.” – Kara “Sex trafficking Inside the Business of Modern Slavery”
“Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.” – God (Jerimiah 22:3)
“Despite increased policy, law enforcement, and media attention on sex trafficking, the industry continues to thrive. The reason for this persistence is simple: immense profitability with minimal risk. Sex slavery is illegal in every country in the world; there should be inherent risk in participating in the exploitation of sex slaves. However, the glaring absence of almost any measurable real risk related to sex-slave crimes directly contributes to the expansion and ongoing health of the sex trafficking industry.” Kara – Sex trafficking-Inside the Business of Modern Slavery
“Nobody did a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.”
Some of the reasons sex slavery is a very low risk business for the perpetrators are:
Corruption in law enforcement, border control, and judicial systems.
Lack of international coordination and cooperation in investigating and prosecuting trafficking crimes.
Little money dedicated to specific law enforcement focused on slave related crimes.
Weak punishments of sex traffickers.
Weak protection for victims, whose testimony is required to convict sex traffickers. – Christa Crawford
“Help make the business more risky and less profitable for the perpetrators by getting involved!” https://www.ijm.org/get-involved
“The moral challenge today is not how to convince people that slavery is wrong, but how we can act effectively on our universally held belief in the absolute and essential quality of human dignity.” – Bales-Stopping the Traffick: A christian response to sexual exploitation and trafficking. Miles and Foster
“Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.” The Bible
“In 2014, the International Labor Organization estimated that forced labor generates $150 billion in profits a year worldwide.” www.polarisproject.org
“We would want to end this crime even if it meant great sacrifice, but, in fact, ending slavery costs little. Whether it takes ten or twenty billion dollars, the cost is a small fraction of what we spend on the most trivial of our entertainments. Share this cost among us all, citizens, businesses and governments over twenty-five years, and it is little more than pocket change.” – Bales-Stopping the traffick: A christian response to sexual exploitation and trafficking. Miles and Foster
Freeing slaves can be hard work, but if you cut away the disguises the facts are simple:one person controls another through violence. Penetrate that violent control, and the slave comes free.Help that slave gain autonomy, and that person stays free. Bales-Stopping the traffick: A christian response to sexual exploitation and trafficking. Miles and Foster
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed …Jesus
At the international level if you compare countries on the strength of their economy and how many slaves they have, the picture is clear; the more slaves, the weaker the economy. Bales-Stopping the traffick: A christian response to sexual exploitation and trafficking -Miles and Foster
Whoever oppresses the poor to increase his own wealth, or gives to the rich, will only come to poverty. The Bible (Proverbs 22:16)
If we make the decision and apply ourselves, slavery could be gone in twenty-five years. We could decide now, and in our lifetimes achieve something that makes landing on the moon like a minor historical footnote. Bales-Stopping the traffick: A christian response to sexual exploitation and trafficking. Miles and Foster
May we not think of freedom as the right to do as we please, but as the opportunity to do what is right. Peter Marshall
Although some of the fundamental systems of our economy are stacked against slaves, a revolution is not needed to free them, just a little bit of justice..Bales-Stopping the traffick: A christian response to sexual exploitation and trafficking. Miles and Foster
Partner with Freedom 418, so that the truth can reach hundreds of thousands of the most impoverished people on earth, and so that many can be rescued and restored.
Journey with us to freedom!
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