It’s Missing Person’s Week.
Appropriate really, after the book I just finished reading.
It’s titled: “Mummy, Come Home” and was written by Oxana Kalemi.
The book is the story of Oxana’s life. She was born in the Ukraine. Desperate to earn money, she ended up overseas, following the promise of work. She found herself sold to a human trafficker and her life changed forever. She was sold to different men until she ended up in London, forced to work in massage parlours.
After being sold so many times, locked away in small rooms and forced to sell her body, her self-esteem was crushed. By the time she was in London, she had dodged bullets crossing borders with her pimps and was terrified that any misbehaviour from her would result in pain and harm to her three children, back in the Ukraine. Language barriers and the fear of imprisonment also prevented Oxana from seeking help. It’s difficult to imagine a life such as Oxana’s.
Human Trafficking is so rarely heard about that it is easy to ignore. But when you learn a little about it, it is impossible to ignore. After reading the book, I was inspired to learn more about Human Trafficking. It is defined as a person being taken against their will and being forced into sexual slavery, domestic service, sweat shops, labour, sale of human organs and child marriages.
I learned that this is a multi-billion dollar, international business. It has surpassed the gun trade in terms of profit.
It is second only to the drug trade.
It’s the fastest growing international crime in the world.
Each year, it is estimated that over two million women and children are sold into sexual slavery. The worst area for abductions is South East Asia. Children as young as 5 are sold and often, for just $20.
It is estimated that between 2 and 4 million men, women and children are trafficked every year. That equates to more than one person every minute, every day. UNICEF estimates that 1.2 million children are trafficked each year.
Trafficking affects most countries, including Australia. Young women are attracted to Australia “The Lucky Country”, where they believe they will easily get work and make a lot of money. They soon find themselves sold into prostitution, paying back thousands and thousands of dollars to the men who bought them. The majority of Australian women are strong and refuse to be treated abusively by their partners – the young girls are forced to fill this void. Some of these girls are
forced to work in isolated rural communities.
There are several sites on the web which provide more information about human trafficking.
Somaly Mam was trafficked as a child from Cambodia. She has started a foundation, which can be found at http://www.somaly.org/ .
The Jammed is an Australian film about human trafficking, about three girls sold as sex slaves.
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