Sex trafficking : inside the business of modern slavery

320 Pages·2009·13.369 MB·English

by  Kara, Siddharth

Praise for Sex Traffi cking
“Siddharth Kara possesses that rare and valuable combination of passion
for his subject, insight, and rigorous research. His analysis is persuasive
and his descriptions heartbreaking in their clarity. Human traffi cking in
all forms is slavery, no matter how you cut it, and in this book Kara
brings a modern- day scourge to the light of day.”
— erica stone, president, american himalayan foundation
“A disturbing and illuminating study.” —irish times
“I approached this book with a certain weariness. Having worked on the
subject of sex traffi cking for many years, I was unenthusiastic about yet
another exposé or cri de coeur from a business executive turned anti-
slavery advocate. I could not have been more wrong. This is a unique and
inspiring book— an honest, lucid, and im mensely intelligent account of a
devastating yet pervasive aspect of contemporary globalization. It de-
serves to be widely read by anyone who wants to understand one of the
most per sis tent and complex human rights violations of our times.”
— jacqueline bhabha, harvard law school
“An impressive, scholarly book that will prove an asset for the global anti-
traffi cking movement in the next decade.”
—stanford social innovation review
“As an experienced investigator of human traffi cking off ences, I was not
expecting to discover anything new from this book. The reality was the
opposite—t his book off ers unique and invaluable insight into the w hole
subject of human traffi cking. The global fi nancial perspective was espe-
cially helpful, and I have found the analysis and recommendations ex-
tremely useful in my work as an investigator and policy adviser. I strongly
recommend it to others involved in the fi ght against human traffi cking.”
— stephen wilkinson, se nior investigating officer
on human trafficking, united kingdom
“This book could not be more important. After years of witnessing slavery
and meeting with slaves, Siddharth Kara illuminates one of our most
pressing human rights issues. He off ers brand-new research and reliable
facts, shattering the myths and sensationalism that tend to surround this
topic. Everyone should read this book: it will change the way we think
about our world.” — zoe trodd, harvard university

s e x t r a ffick ing
Inside the Business of Modern Slavery
Siddharth Kara
Columbia University Press New York
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
Copyright © 2009 Siddharth Ashok Kara
Paperback edition, 2010
All rights reserved
A Caravan book. For more information, visit
www.caravanbooks.org.
Library of Congress Cata loging- in- Publication Data
Kara, Siddharth.
Sex traffi cking : inside the business of
modern slavery / Siddharth Kara.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978- 0- 231- 13960- 1 (cloth : alk. paper)—
ISBN 978-0-231-13961-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)—
ISBN 978- 0- 231- 51139- 1 (e-book)
1. Human traffi cking. 2. Human
traffi cking—Prevention. 3. Minorities—Crimes
against. 4. Minorities—Social conditions.
5. Minorities—Economic conditions.
6. Globalization—Economic conditions.
7. Prostitution. 8. Slavery. 9. Sex- oriented
businesses. I. Title.
HQ281.K37 2009
364.15—dc22
2008021988
Columbia University Press books are printed on
permanent and durable acid- free paper.
This book is printed on paper with recycled
content.
Printed in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5
p 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
References to Internet Web sites (URLs) were
accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author
nor Columbia University Press is responsible for
URLs that may have expired or changed since the
manuscript was prepared.
Their vessels now had made th’ intended land,
And all with joy descend upon the strand;
When the false tyrant seiz’d the princely maid,
And to a lodge in distant woods convey’d;
Pale, sinking, and distress’d with jealous fears,
And asking for her sister all in tears.
The letcher, for enjoyment fully bent,
No longer now conceal’d his base intent;
But with rude haste the bloomy girl defl ow’r’d,
Tender, defenceless, and with ease o’erpower’d.
Her piercing accents to her sire complain,
And to her absent sister, but in vain:
In vain she importunes, with doleful cries,
Each unattentive godhead of the skies.
—Ovid, Metamorphoses

Contents
Preface ix
Ac know ledg ments xvii
1. Sex Traffi cking: An Overview 1
2. India and Nepal 45
3. Italy and Western Eu rope 83
4. Moldova and the Former Soviet Union 108
5. Albania and the Balkans 129
6. Thailand and the Mekong Subregion 152
7. The United States 179
8. A Framework for Abolition: Risk and Demand 200
viii contents
Appendix A: Selected Tables and Notes 221
Appendix B: Contemporary Slavery Economics 227
Appendix C: Selected Human Development Statistics 259
Notes 263
Works Cited 279
Index 285
Preface
After my third research trip into the global sex traffi cking industry,
I brooded for twenty- four hours on a fl ight from Mumbai to Los Angeles,
wondering how to write this book. Countless faces of torture, savagery,
and abject slavery swirled in my mind. I did not know how I would con-
vey these stories; I knew only that the truths of the scores of sex slaves
I met in brothels, massage parlors, street corners, and apartments across
the world must be told, however unpalatable those truths may be. Though
I originally intended this book as a systematic narration of my journey
into the sex traffi cking industry, a much broader intention began to form
in my mind. I realized I wanted to recount a life- altering journey, one
that motivated in me a newfound mission to contribute to more success-
ful international eff orts to abolish sex traffi cking and all other forms of
contemporary slavery.
That slavery still exists may surprise some readers, but the practice of
violently coerced labor continues to thrive in every corner of the globe.
There w ere 28.4 million slaves in the world at the end of 2006, and there
will most likely be a greater number by the time you read this book (see
table A.1 for detail). Some are child slaves in India, stolen from their
homes and worked sixteen hours a day to harvest the tea that middle- class
consumers drink or sew the carpets that adorn their sitting rooms. Others
x preface
are bonded laborers in South Asia, Latin America, and Africa, who accrue
or inherit debts that can never be repaid, no matter how long they work.
Slaves in the United States harvest agricultural products: onions, avoca-
dos, and corn in Texas, California, Florida, and the Carolinas. Up to 5
percent of the world’s cocoa beans are picked by slave hands in the Ivory
Coast. Slaves continue to harvest coff ee in Kenya and Ethiopia, and they
burn wood in hellish furnaces in Brazil to produce charcoal that is used to
temper the steel in everything from garden shears to car axles. Approxi-
mately 1.2 million of these 28.4 million slaves are young women and chil-
dren, who w ere deceived, abducted, seduced, or sold by families to be
prostituted across the globe. These sex slaves are forced to ser vice hun-
dreds, often thousands of men before they are discarded, forming the
backbone of one of the most profi table illicit enterprises in the world.
Drug traffi cking generates greater dollar revenues, but traffi cked women
are far more profi table. Unlike a drug, a human female does not have to
be grown, cultivated, distilled, or packaged. Unlike a drug, a human fe-
male can be used by the customer again and again.
The brutalities associated with sex slavery are perverse, violent, and
utterly destructive. Whips, cigarette burns, broken bones, starvation—
every slave has suff ered these tortures, but sex slaves suff er each of these
as well as innumerable counts of rape - ten, fi fteen, twenty or more times
per day. In brothels across the globe, I met women and children who suf-
fered unspeakable acts of barbarity. Meeting these victims was not easy.
With each interview, I became increasingly fi lled with heartbreak, sor-
row, and rage. Nothing I write can possibly convey the sensation of peer-
ing into the moribund eyes of a broken child who has been forced to have
sex with hundreds of men before the age of sixteen.
I am often asked how I fi rst became “interested” in the topic of sex
traffi cking. The seeds of my research were sown years ago when I was
an undergraduate at Duke University. A story on CNN spotlighted a
young Croatian girl, fourteen years old, from a well- to- do family in
Zagreb. She was breaking swimming reco rds across Eur ope and in-
tended to swim for Croatia in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
Hopes w ere high that she would bring home more than one gold medal
to the fl edgling country. One night, as she slept, a bomb sent shrapnel
fl ying into her bedroom, shattering her legs. She would never swim
again.
As I watched this story in the midst of stressful fi rst- semester exami-
nations, I was fi lled with indignation. This young girl’s talent put her