Posted 162 days ago
Abolishing Human Trafficking
The Statistics
Trafficking of persons is modern-day slavery, involving victims who are forced, defrauded or coerced into labor or sexual exploitation.
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) now believes that the number of children trafficked annually is around 1.2 million. It is estimated that two children per minute are trafficked for sexual exploitation.
It is estimated that at least 27 million people are currently enslaved around the world, many who have been enslaved through being trafficked. This is more than double the number of Africans enslaved during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Human trafficking generates between 10 and 12 billion dollars a year for organized crime (UNICEF estimate).
The Heart of an Abolitionist
This month, MSA staff interviewed Justice for Children International’s (JFCI) President, Rob Morris, about his experiences in fighting child trafficking and the work of his organization.
MSA: When we first met, you mentioned that human trafficking, specifically child sex trafficking, is one the biggest human rights violations our generation is experiencing. First, can you outline what child sex trafficking is and then would you elaborate on why this issue is so important for us to understand today?
RM: Trafficking in persons is modern-day slavery, involving victims who are forced, defrauded or coerced into labor or sexual exploitation. Justice for Children International focuses on the child trafficking problem. Trafficking in children is a global problem affecting large numbers of children. Some estimates have as many as 1-2 million children being trafficked every year. There is a huge demand for trafficked children as cheap labour or for sexual exploitation—children are the most vulnerable to being exploited. Some common methods of trafficking are physical force, coercion, physical and emotional abuse, threats against self and family, and passport theft. Child sex trafficking is important for us to understand today because it is a huge issue that affects millions of people, and most people don’t even know that it still exists. We need to raise awareness about this issue so we can do all we can to abolish it.
The “demands” of a multi-billion dollar global sex industry puts children throughout the world at-risk of becoming the “supply.” Dire poverty, lack of education, and limited job opportunities are typical factors that make a child vulnerable to be being a victim of trafficking. Children and their families are often unaware of the dangers of trafficking, believing that better employment and lives await them in other countries. Many are lured away by false promises, some sold by relatives, countless others abducted; all suffer an assault on their dignity, freedom and safety. Criminal gangs, pimps and pornographers seek to profit from this “demand” by enslaving and abusing children, preying on those made most vulnerable by poverty, lack of education, minority status, gender bias and homelessness.
Often, captors will threaten, beat and starve new recruits to condition them for the fate that awaits: sex with multiple customers every day. Eventually this abuse “breaks” the children. They learn to force a smile for the pedophiles, sex tourists and others that frequent their establishments.
Sexual exploitation and abuse have grave consequences on any person’s well being, especially a child’s. Unprotected sex, gang rapes, forced abortions and manipulation can cause severe psychological and physical damage, including HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases or conditions. Trafficked children are even arrested and detained as illegal aliens.
You have been to Southeast Asia several times to visit children in safe homes, and you have been into brothels to get a better grasp on what is happening in the child trafficking industry. Can you tell us a story that has really stuck with you about a person or an experience that has impacted you?
My first exposure to the issue took place about five years ago when I was invited by another organization to take a first hand look at the anti-trafficking work they were doing, specifically in Thailand. We were all briefed on how to act like customers, and then we walked into the brothel and pretended to be the very thing we were repulsed by. It was a bizarre and uncomfortable experience to be shoulder to shoulder with predators in a small room looking at girls through a window. All of the little girls had matching red dresses with no name, just a number pinned to their dress. The brothel manager was telling us what each girl was good at while the girls were blankly watching cartoons on a TV—perhaps this was to distract them if that was even possible. This really shook me—the blank look on their faces, no light in their eyes, there was just no life. Missing this was shattering. There were only these blank robotic stares. This was shocking to me because I have children of my own. If there is anyone left with life in their eyes it should be a kid. And to know these could be one of my three daughters, one of my little girls. Well, it is someone’s daughter. All these emotions began to wreck me.
The next thing that shocked me was one particular girl. The only girl in the room not looking at the TV. Number 146. She was staring out the glass at all of us. She was probably new and there was still a fight left in her eyes. Fight and life. I wanted to smash through the glass and tell her to keep fighting. It was beyond bearable.
I left that place wondering what can I do? Part of me wanted to smash through the glass and beat everyone up. But that would only be a temporary, immediate solution. The truth is most kids would be brought back to the brothel if there was not a reintegrating process back into the community. If no one walks them through a process of reintegration and healing they will probably be trafficked again within two weeks. But my biggest frustration was to leave the kids knowing they will be raped again that night multiple times.
This was my first face-to-face encounter with the issue. And this is an important point: so often we move in the realms of causes and issues. And they just remain that. Causes and issues. We are talking about individuals, kids who have had their childhood taken away. For me, this experience took the issue and the cause to something very personal. At the brothel, I was looking into the eyes of a child and no longer looking at a cause. For me, that has created an engagement instead of rallying around an issue.
Looking back, it was a personal encounter that inspired JFCI. An individual—the girl numbered 146, birthed an organization. I came back from Thailand and a few of us from the group began seeking solutions, but in looking for answers we found more gaps. If people rescued more children there would need to be more safe homes and caregivers to support them. So we started seeing the gaps and wanted to find ways to fill those gaps. We did not want to reinvent the wheel, but we realized that we did have a voice and a public platform that could help to contribute in some way to this atrocity. We aren’t lawyers or prosecutors. JFCI was formed to be helpful and end the horrors of trafficking while at the same time caring for the kids. Our first years were spent researching, educating, and networking so we could find where some of the solutions were lacking. All of our programs have been birthed out of talking to people on the ground. We want to work towards long-term solutions and one of our goals is to shut these brothels down and this is a very complex situation.
In our second year of operation, we were really challenged. We were in Cambodia and met with the director of a human rights organization. She looked at me and said, “Do you know what your problem is as Americans? You don’t think.”
I’m like Okay. Elaborate.
“Instead of thinking you normally react. Out of good motivations you want to fix it. But because you haven’t thought through a response, you react. Your reaction causes more harm than good down the road. My encouragement to you is to think. Think so that your solutions will be well educated and effective and hopefully you will have a good impact”.
But this advice is hard because you want to react to this issue, but we know that some of the reactions might do more harm than good. Nevertheless, there is a continuing tension because time is ticking away. This is not a cause it is an emergency. While we are thinking through our solutions UNICEF tells us that millions of children are being sold and raped. This is the tension we live with. Knowing 2-4 kids every minute are being sold. As that clock is ticking we are loosing kids. But, at the same time, we want our solutions to be long lasting in order to end this thing and care for survivors. All people working with human rights are living with this tension. The Western world wants the satisfaction of something being completed now, which is not a reality. This is not something that can be solved overnight as William Wilberforce proved.
People always ask me, “How do you keep your head in this all the time? It is so depressing.” There are great people doing amazing things who are committed to the fight and also to each other. This mutual inspiration is encouraging.
MSA: You have gone from being a church planter to fighting child trafficking. What has this issue done to your understanding of Jesus and what God is up to in the word?
RM: That is a big one. Wow. This issue has transformed my understanding of the gospel. Yet, at the same time I wonder if it isn’t God purposely saying, “Isn’t it about time you get on the same page as me?” Coming face to face with this gross injustice has made me ask God what he is thinking. I’ve started looking with new eyes at the Word. Every page of the gospel is about justice for the poor. Jesus says, “This is why I have come to set the captive free”. God is concerned with justice big time. It is his beating heart. How did I miss that point before? This issue has transformed my thinking. Say you never noticed a certain car on the road. Then one day you buy that car and suddenly that is all you see on the road. You see it because you have a personal attachment. This issue did that for me in regards to understanding God’s heart for justice. I see it everywhere now.
Do you have to have a personal encounter with suffering that will make you engage? Because that is what happened to me. For me not to have an encounter means I have so insulated myself from the pain of people’s lives, that I have tried to protect myself. But the reality is that injustice is happening in my neighborhood, in my city, and globally. To not have a personal encounter says something about my life.
Have we so insulated ourselves as a church? Have we missed the point? If we don’t have a personal encounter I think that means we have gone off the path. Some people don’t want to hear about trafficking because they feel they have enough of their own broken hearted experiences. But think about the painful stuff these kids are experiencing. I’m afraid the church and individuals have become too self absorbed. Read the Bible with open eyes. Mother Teresa said that if you are looking for Jesus go to the broken places. Where can you find Jesus in the gospels? People would point to the most horrendous places. We have moved in the opposite direction. I’m likening it to the Titanic. The church has looked at the human race as the sinking ship, and we are on the first life boat off trying to escape the messiness and darkness. We are paddling like crazy…to where? To heaven? To a better life? I don’t know, but it is the wrong direction. You can hear God saying, “Where are you going? This is where I am! I have joined the human race so people can know that I am with you in this mess.” God joins the human race so we can know that he doesn’t just clean it up, but he is there with us. We have done a disservice in removing ourselves from being human and the brokenness of being human. Am I jumping off the lifeboat or trying to turn it around? I don’t know. I do know everything has been transformed. I don’t know if it was the issue or God that transformed me, but I am not alone. I’m finding that there is more and more hope on the horizon because people are understanding. The church is the sleeping giant in the realm of injustice. In our Christian history and heritage, compassion and justice were our marks. Is that happening now? Is that our mark? I think there is an awakening happening. The church is awakening to recover who she was meant to be.
MSA: From your perspective, what is the church and individual Christians doing to take a stand against human trafficking?
RM: I had an individual from state department tell me the key to change is in the transformation of the human heart. That is a huge mandate for people of faith. It is time to begin to take a stand. The Catholic Church has always been involved with justice and compassion. Beautiful examples of our heritage of faith include William Wilberforce, Amy Carmichael, Martin Luther King and Dorothy Day. These people of faith have transformed societies. So you ask, “What can one person do?” A lot! And we have the history to prove it. As a person of faith, my response was to take action. I’m not going to be a bystander any more. I’m going to take a stand. Who is doing what? Find out what people and organizations are doing and align yourself with them. Don’t try and reinvent the wheel. Ask where you can be helpful. What is your vocation or education in? Social worker? Legal worker? There is room for everyone to be involved. The power is not always in the individual voice, but by you adding your voice to the collective shout. Historically, it is the shout from the group that gets things done. It inspires and changes legislation. I always fall back on history knowing that there have been changes. I’ve recently been reading slave anthologies. John Rankin) was one of the fathers of the slave abolition here in the U.S. He and so many others risked their lives for the sake of abolition. Their homes were burned and the lives of their families were put in serious danger. These people inspire me. People who risk their lives for the sake of abolition. People said it would never happen, but they continued to fight.
There are practical things too. JFCI is currently encouraging churches in our network and who are supporting our projects financially to start anti-trafficking task forces within their communities. Just this week 2 children in Bridge Port, Connecticut were rescued from a brothel. The issue is right here in our own cities. The Department of Health and Human Services has a program called Look Beneath the Surface that helps people get involved particularly, health care providers, social service organizations and law enforcement officers.
We need to bring the issue up before our churches. I have this idea that would be tremendous. On the radio one day, I heard that the social justice committee of Saint Anne’ s Church would not be meeting that night due to icy road conditions. I thought a justice committee for the church? This is awesome. Of course. We need a think tank of sorts in every church that is concerned with justice issues in their own communities, their state and in their world whether that is trafficking, genocide in Darfur or the injustices in their own neighborhoods. We need people in the church to get together and look at some of these various issues and decided what they can do as a church body. Once a month they could get in front of the church and ask for a person who is a doctor, nurse, carpenter or legal worker and solicit their help. Most people don’t get involved because it is too complex. But in our churches there are so many people we could access who have the skills to help. So I’ve been on this little campaign to insert a new kind of committee in churches. I think it would be an amazing resource to have a group of people who do all the thinking, so they can figure out what needs to be done in their own community and then make things happen. Again, read the Bible. Every prophet that rose up said I’m coming against you because you have exploited the poor.
MSA: What are a few practical steps people can do to take action?
RM: One of the things I often hear people say is, “Hey I’m not a social worker, investigator, or lawyer. What can I do?” But I feel the same way. Look at my bio. It lacks luster. I can give hope to the normal person. I only have 3 years of college under my belt. What we are doing is done by normal ordinary people who have seen the issue and are trying to do something about it. We hire the people we need with the expertise we need. We staff our weaknesses. Vocation is an interesting thing. There is a difference between a career and a vocation. How can I use my vocation? Everyone has a sphere of influence. Use that sphere to be a voice. It is all about the collective shout. Use your influence with your friends to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. Connect and align yourselves with people who are already doing the work. Contact them. Tell them, “Here are my skills, how can I help you do what you do?” Educate yourself. Find out what is going on. Don’t react. We are continually learning. And we are learning from people who have been doing this a lot longer than we have. Take on the mantle of learning. So many resources are on the web. Learn the issue so when you talk about it you will know what you are talking about. Being an abolitionist is not just a cool word. It is action. I don’t want to use this word lightly because I don’t want it to be a gimmick scenario or a catch phrase. We want to honor people who have gone before us.
MSA: Can you outline a few ways that JFCI working to end trafficking?
RM: Justice for Children International works alongside many other organizations to abolish child sex trafficking. JFCI specifically works toward the abolition of child sex trafficking and exploitation through advocacy, prevention and aftercare. JFCI trains aftercare workers, multiplies safe homes, aids socioeconomic development programs in high-risk communities and provides a voice for these victims of modern-day slavery. Here are some details about our aftercare program:
AFTERCARE: Children cannot be liberated from bondage only to end up at risk of starvation, homelessness, or being re-trafficked and exploited. These children need to be removed from this extremely difficult and harmful situation, and taken to a safe place. But these children do not just need a safe place; like any child, or any human being, they need a home. These children need a safe home. At this very moment, children in brothels around the world could be rescued if additional safe homes and trained caregivers existed. Without homes where these child survivors can seek psychological and medical treatment, the road to recovery cannot begin. JFCI is dedicated to developing these places of safety and restoration as part of the ongoing safe home program. Working alongside a partner organization, JFCI has recently purchased the land and now the exterior security walls are in place. These walls are an essential part of providing the protection the young girls will need. Today construction on the new safe home is underway.
Furthermore, children rescued out of sexual slavery cannot be placed in empty buildings – they need qualified and trained aftercare workers. These trained counselors are the backbone of the safe home, where without effective therapy, there can be no restoration. JFCI to this effort through the Diploma Training Program in Aftercare (DTPA). The program responds to the need for training that will develop competent and effective practitioners in aftercare and prevention, who will also build the knowledge base in aftercare and prevention through scientific research. With the help of trained aftercare workers, the child survivors can seek psychological and medical treatment, and begin on the road to recovery.
In March 2006, JFCI officially launched its training program in Aftercare. Fifteen caregivers attended this unique grassroots training program. Dr. Gundelina Velazco, PhD, who is overseeing the JFCI Aftercare initiative, believes that “the intervention of a trained worker makes the difference between continued suffering and a broken life on the one hand, or restoration and freedom on the other hand.”
For people who want to educate themselves and their communities, what are some resources you would recommend?
David Batstone has just come out with a new book Not For Sale
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