HUMAN TRAFFICKING OVERVIEW

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It is estimated that there are approximately twenty-seven million literal slaves in our world today - more than the number of slaves kidnapped from Africa over four centuries of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. (Andrew Cockburn, "Twentieth Century Slaves," (2003) National Geographic, http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0309/feature1/) Of that number, as many as 1.2 million children are forced into slavery each year.

Most of us are surprised to learn that slavery still exists in the world today. Also referred to as “human trafficking” or “trafficking of persons,” this form of modern-day slavery where people are bought and sold and forced into sex, labor and armies is the third largest and fastest growing criminal industry in the world, including the United States. With millions of people as victims and over $8 billion in profits (cited by International Labor Organization), trafficking is quickly becoming one of the most pressing human rights issues deserving our attention.

According to humantrafficking.com, human trafficking can take the following formats:

• in the sex industry

into forced labor in factories, restaurants, or agricultural work

into domestic servitude as a servant, housekeeper, or nanny

as a bride

of organs

Humantrafficking.com further explains the two-fold reasoning behind this highly lucrative industry: “1. high profits can be made quickly, with little or no start-up capital, and profits can be derived over a long period of time from the same victims (unlike drugs, which are quickly used up), and 2. despite its criminal nature, the risk of prosecution is usually negligible.”

Using various tactics of physical, psychological and economic manipulation, traffickers pray mostly on those from vulnerable populations who are the easiest to exploit and contain with minimal or no support systems in place. For example, undocumented migrants, at-risk youth and runaways are among those most targeted. Child traffickers will frequently deceive children into trafficking by feigning to be their friend and protector. Other children are sold into exploitation by parents who either naively think they are going to a better opportunity or else are desperate for the money. Trafficking of children can include prolonged labor – 10-15hr work days – in horrible work conditions, forced recruitment to commit violence against their own people as in Africa or, in places like South East Asia, sexual trafficking. According to the United Nations Trafficking Protocol and United States Trafficking Victims Protection Act, any act of sex for profit with a child younger than eighteen is considered sexual trafficking; the average age of children first being prostituted is in their early teens.

A UN-sponsored report stated in March of this year, "In general, trafficking is still perceived as an isolated social and criminal phenomenon that can be addressed separately from other problems. Although we know about the root causes of trafficking... and understand that socio-economic factors are strongly linked to vulnerability to trafficking, this knowledge has not yet been translated into policies and strategies." (cited from www.genevaglobal.com)  Indeed, rescuing children form trafficking will take a comprehensive approach addressing both the various needs of the child exploited (spiritual, psychological, physical, legal, economic/educational and social/familial reintegration) as well as the various social systems involved with the injustice (including political and economic factors).

Nicholas Kristof, observer and writer on this subject quotes "The Lancet,"the British medical journal, as estimating: "The number of prostituted children is thought to be increasing and could be as high as 10 million (worldwide). As to his studies in India, Kristof says: "India alone may have half a million children in its brothels, more than any other country in the world. Visit the brothel district in almost any city in India, and you can meet 14-year-old girls who have been kidnapped off the street, or drugged, or offered jobs as maids, and then sold into a world that they often escape only by dying of AIDS."  (N.Y. Times 22Jan06:WK16, "Slavery in our Times")

While such grave injustices often seem worlds away from our day to day life, we cannot sit passively by, allowing what could amount to another slave trade like the US-led one in the 1800’s to go down in our history.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1.       What are your reactions to this article? Were you aware of the modern day slave trade occurring?

2.       How do we stir our conscience to large injustices that often seem so distant to us?

3.       What do you see as the role of the church in combating such an injustice?

4.       If you were a youth worker in a city where there was child trafficking, how would you respond?

IMPLICATIONS

1.       Child trafficking is a serious global injustice that we need to be aware of and address.

2.       Christians are called, like Jesus was, to “preach good news to the poor….to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19)

Sources for this article:

Andrew Cockburn, "Twentieth Century Slaves," (2003) National Geographic, http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0309/feature1/

www.humantrafficking.com

www.genevalglobal.com – see their "human trafficking solutions"

Also, see www.ijm.org

 

Christen B. Yates cCYS

 

Bernstein, N. (13 May, 2007). “Taking the War Out of a Child Soldier,” The New York Times

 

 

Overview

This article details the story of Salifou Yankene, an Ivory Coast teenager who escaped civil war and forced conscription in a rebel army to begin a new life in New York. It is a story marked by an intense blend of legal circumstances, complex psychological summersaults, and the small community of committed people who dedicated themselves to helping Salifou weather it all.

 

There are 300,000 child soldiers worldwide, says Bernstein. Awareness of their plight is now on the rise, thanks in large part to the work of human rights organizations and the recently published best-selling memoir by Ishmael Beah (Long Way Gone), himself a former child soldier from Sierra Leone. But in the rare cases in which these children make it to America

to file as refugees, their way into a new life presents its own kind of struggle. 

 

Bernstein explains: “Their violent pasts pose hard questions: Should they be legally barred from asylum as persecutors or protected as victims? How can they be healed, and who will help them?”

 

Salifou’s father and sister were murdered when he was 12. By 15 he was conscripted by rebel troops who cut off his brother’s hand. After a miraculous escape involving considerable risk on the part of his mother and a mysterious foreigner called “Father William,” he made it to Geneva then overseas to KennedyInternationalAirport where, with a fake Swiss passport, he told customs officials “I want to make refugee.” But Salifou, then 17, found himself detained in a New Jersey jail as authorities tried to sort out his plea. Wracked by guilt, anger, and depression, he pleaded with them to send him back. Just days after his 18^th birthday, immigration authorities released him onto a street corner in Lower Manhattan. “They say, ‘You free to go,’” he recalled. “I say, ‘Go where?’” His lawyer, Elliot Kaye, offered Salifou a couch in his Brooklyn

apartment.     

 

It is not surprising that Salifou has been diagnosed with severe post-traumatic stress disorder. In Ivory Coast he was made his captors coerced him into looting, grabbing new conscripts, beating civilians, and shooting and people. Though he says he never knowingly killed anyone, his experience prompted immigration officials to label him a persecutor of violent war, and therefore liable for deportation. Alan Page, the judge for Salifou’s case, disputed this interpretation and continues to insist that, were Salifou deported, he would likely face jail, torture, or death in the Ivory Coast.

 

But Salifou’s ability to begin a new life in New York is beset by difficulties of another sort. Upon his initial immigration detainment he was evaluated as being a mental health risk. But uncertainties about his age meant he was not permitted to stay in a hospital pediatric ward, an adult immigration detention center also refused to hold him, and so he was placed in a county jail in western New Jersey. On top of this his deportation appeal remains pending.

 

His lawyer, Elliot, together with Laura Simms, who had helped Mr. Beah, have persistently advocated for Salifou and sought to help him get the therapy he needs. The community of support they have formed around him, including a friendship with Mr. Beah, makes up the backbone of this effort. Salifou now lives in a Harlem

apartment with an interpreter who is himself an African refugee. 

 

He has had no contact with his mother in Ivory Coast, and fears the rebels his former captors have punished or killed her on account of his escape.

 

 

Questions for Reflection and Discussion:

 

1.      Were you aware of the phenomenon of child soldiers around the world?

 

2.      Do you know any refugee families who have experienced similar situations?

3.      What conditions made Salifou’s arrival in America

difficult? Are these surprising?

 

4.      What resources did he need?

 

5.      What kind of challenges do you think Salifou will continue to encounter on his journey?

 

 

Implications:

When the realities of war and politics are embodied in the lives of teenagers the result is heartbreaking. If America is to continue to be a place of refuge for oppressed peoples then the bureaucratic challenge of receiving children such as Salifou will have to be met with sensitivity and discernment. Moreover, qualified advocates and caring communities are as vital for such teenagers as they are difficult to find and sustain. One cannot assume that American culture will bring immediate and ready relief to anyone, much less a former child soldier beset by incredible pain and trauma.

 

 

Christopher S. Yates cCYS