Early in our development of CARE, Jo and I were visiting various places, learning as much as we could about the area of trauma. We were learning so much, and it was often painful information. We came across information about human trafficking of women and children we found an article titled “55 Little Known Facts About Human Trafficking” that cause Jo and me both to pause and contemplate that what we had been aware of for years is now becoming more widely known by the general public. Here is a sampling of those facts:
Approximately 75-80% of human trafficking for sex.
Researchers note that sex trafficking plays a major role in the spread of HIV.
There are more human slaves in the world today than ever before win history.
There are an estimated 27 million adults and 13 million children around the world who are victims of human trafficking.
An estimated 30,000 victims of sex trafficking die each year from abuse, disease, torture and neglect. Eight percent of those sold into sexual slavery are under 24 and some are as young as six years old.
Although human trafficking is often a hidden crime, accurate statistic are difficult to obtain, researchers estimate that more than 80% of trafficking victims are female. Over 50% of human trafficking victims are children.
According to a 2009 Washington Times article, the Taliban buys children as young as seven years old to act as suicide bombers. The price for child suicide bombers is between $7,000-$14,000.
Over 71% of trafficked children show suicidal tendencies.
Sex trafficker use a variety of ways to “condition” their victims, including subjecting them to starvation, rape, gang rape, physical abuse, beating, confinement, threats of violence toward the victim and victim’s family, forced drug use and shame.
According to the FBI, a large human trafficking organization in California in 2008 not only physically threatened and beat girls as young as 12 to work as prostitutes, they also regularly threatened them with witchcraft.
Psychological effects include developing clinical depression, personality and dissociative disorders, suicidal tendencies, Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome and Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome.
I receive e-mails daily that spotlight the problem. This is one I recently received from a woman describing herself as nine months pregnant and in chains, Haben’s torturers beat her ruthlessly demanding a $35,0000 ransom from her husband. She gave birth in shackles, beside other terrified captives, with only rustle metal to cut the umbilical cord. Amazingly Haben survived, but she is one of thousands of East Africans who have been abducted by criminal trafficking rings and tortured in Egypt’s Sinai until their desperate families pay huge ransoms for their freedom. We need to show Egypt’s leaders that this dirty secret is out and damaging the Sinai’s tourism reputation as the “Red Sea Riviera.” they could break the trafficking rings and free these slaves. Every hour these men, women and children are in captivity is an hour too long!
The Divine Design
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