The Daily Californian
Exploitation of Humans in Sex, Labor a Global And Local Issue
By Tonia Bui
Special to the Daily Californian
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Modern-day slavery exists in the form of human
trafficking. It is a crime that happens globally, but more disturbingly,
it happens here in the Bay Area of California.
When humans are trafficked, bodies become
objects of commodity. Human trafficking is the recruitment,
brokerage or sale, harboring, transporting and receipt of persons
for forced labor. Human trafficking comes in many forms. Women
and children are commonly sold for sexual exploitation. Sex
trafficking victims are forced into prostitution or into servile
marriages as mail order brides. Humans are also sold for cheap
labor. Trafficking victims may end up working in sweatshops,
factories, domestic servitude conditions, restaurants, hotel
housekeeping or agricultural fields.
Human trafficking is a crime that occurs in
public spaces, especially in areas of tourism, high concentrations
of labor and even in our own neighborhoods. Ironically, trafficking
activities remain hidden because trafficking victims perform
their labor in public areas.
Human trafficking activities are only detected
when extreme incidents occur. Take for example the Lakireddy
Bali Reddy case. In 1999, a young woman named Chanti Prattipati
died in Reddy's apartment due to a carbon monoxide leak. Prattipati's
death took place near the UC Berkeley campus.
After Prattipati's death, the case revealed
that Reddy trafficked many young women from India to work in
his restaurant located on Shattuck Avenue and to become his
personal sex slaves. Reddy's case demonstrates that human trafficking
is revealed when the victim is physically harmed. Reddy would
not have been caught for the illegal trafficking and forced
sexual and labor exploitation of young women if Prattipati had
not died.
Today, so many human trafficking cases are
left undocumented by law enforcement. Research by the UC Berkeley
Human Rights Center identified 57 forced labor operations in
almost a dozen cities in California between 1998 and 2003. With
such a small number of trafficking cases, we can remain skeptic
about how many human trafficking activities have been undetected
by law enforcement.
How many victims have not been rescued from
their captivity? No one knows for sure the exact number, because
victims disappear, or they do not survive to tell their story.
Trafficking victims and survivors remain hidden
because they are voiceless. Captors often use threats to prevent
victims from telling others about their working conditions.
In addition, victims may not be familiar with the location they
are in and may not speak English. As a result, victims have
difficulty seeking help or escaping. They become vulnerable
and depend on their captors for survival. Victims continue to
be silenced even when they become trafficked survivors. The
media does not interview former trafficking victims. Instead,
trafficking survivors are represented in the media by law enforcement
or lawyers who speak on their behalf.
Trafficking victims and survivors are a group
of individuals who are under-represented in society. The type
of labor victims perform is often stigmatized by the public.
This negative attitude would only cause for human trafficking
to remain invisible.
Laws, policies and raising awareness are possible
solutions to combating this modern day slavery. But before implementing
those solutions, many should consider the reasons why trafficking
activities go undetected on a daily basis.
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