Modern Day Slavery in Southeast Asia

Mada Lee

Global Perspectives on Gender and Sexuality

December 4, 2013

Modern Day Slavery in Southeast Asia

            As women, we are viewed as the weakling, the overly emotional one, and “second class” to men. I see these assumptions being thrown around in every day life. Because of this, 12.3 million people across the world are victims of sex trafficking. Of that, 1.39 million are commercial sex slaves and women along with young girls make up 98% of it (Smith). Sex trafficking can also be refer to as “modern day slavery”. It is rapidly growing and is the top third criminal business (Walker-Rodriguez). With the little value that is put upon women, these victims are being subjected to violence and abuse against their will causing them to suffer life-long consequences. There should be more aid to help these women.

            Southeast Asia is viewed as the most profitable region for human sex trafficking because of it’s large population, and the increase in poverty (Kaufman). Women are being trafficked from close neighboring countries such as Laos, Vietnam, Nepal, India, Cambodia, Burma into Thailand, which is the heart of it all (Seager). Cambodia traffics Vietnamese women into their country; proof has shown that the brothels on Cambodia’s islands sold women at sea (Beyrer).

            The sex trafficking industry is well organized. Traffickers know who to attack and the methods to get it done in an efficient way. Girls that come from dysfunctional families that were full of abuse and violence are the easiest targets. They are promised marriage with a life they’ve dreamt of. Traffickers claims how much they love the girls and the money that she made from the service she gives is towards their future together. Another is building a “daddy and daughter” relationship because many of these girls may not have had a male figure in their life to protect them so calling the trafficker daddy makes the girls less likely to break that bond (Walker-Rodriguez). A trafficker confessed to telling his gang to rape a girl and he would come and help making it seem like he “rescue” her and force her to work for him to “repay” him back. As women, we’d think that we wouldn’t do anything to hurt our own kind but the traffickers have someone, typically she’s been with him long enough where she’s gained his trust, recruiting girls. This person is known as “the Bottom” (Walker-Rodriguez). I’ve actually been to a play about sex trafficking where it was about the investigators interviewing “the Bottom”, it definitely confused me why a woman can do this to others but according to Walker-Rodriguez, the reason for why she still kept providing for the trafficker is because of Stockholm Syndrome; the development of feeling so attach to the trafficker that the victim cannot backstab him. These manipulative methods are how this industry is so profitable.

            It is often assumed that the trafficker is a total stranger to the victim but sometimes it can be parents, relatives, friends, significant other, and neighbors (Tan). In Maya’s story, she speaks about getting sexually abused since she was 10 years old and then got married off to a man who had another wife and their two children. Maya ended up in Mumbi Brothel where she got raped for months serving 35 clients a day. She now has tuberculosis and is HIV positive (Janardhanan). This is just one of the many stories that women suffer through everyday on a daily basis. Traffickers take women out of their homeland so they will be vulnerable and due to the language barrier they won’t be able to escape. They are often time lock up in a room with no food until they agree to serve men.

Of course with so many sexual partners, these women develops many health consequences such as infertility, ectopic pregnancy (fetus development in the fallopian tubes instead of uterus), malignancies (tumor involving STI’s like AIDs and cervical cancer), depression, PTSD, just to name a few (Beyrer). With the lack of access to health clinics these women suffered life long consequences. Burma is the second to the last in healthcare services with contraceptives only being available to 18% of the population. The HIV rates are higher for the Burmese sex workers that were trafficked into Thailand than the Thai women working in that industry themselves (Beyrer).

The Southeast Asia countries are appealing to sex trade because it is known for cheap and available sex, their police force is corrupted, and has no involvement with the Western law enforcement (Beyrer). They advertised that Burmese women are more “passive, compliant, ‘unspoiled’, and willing to provide an array of sexual services” compared to Thai sex workers. Traffickers also gone as far as putting these women on the Internet called “sex-for-sale” sites (Beyrer). According to United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), Burma has the highest maternal mortality rate due to septic abortion (a form of miscarriage that is associated with a serious uterus infection). Lack of education and poverty leads to being trafficking, and also in the culture women are oppression. There’s a saying in Nepal, “to be born a daughter is a lost destiny” (Janardhanan), women are viewed lower and if a girl was born the oldest, she is expected to provide for the family. In Cambodia, one-third of the trafficked people are children as young as 7 years of age (Tan). After their first sexual encounter with a client, they are then considered “used goods” and their value drop to as low as $2.00 (Tan).

With all these information present it is still difficult for government to stop human sex trafficking. Since these women are being trafficked to other countries, it’ll need every single one to get involved and enforces the laws. They also kept in mind that protecting these women can ironically end up taking away the women’s human rights as in their privacy, and freedom of choice. With all the trauma that has been put onto the women, they may be unable or unwilling to report the abuse because the trafficker has caused them so much fear that they are scare of the consequences that can be taken upon them if they don’t end up escaping (Smith). With the little education that they have, they think that the only way to be free is through paying back their “debt” that they owe the trafficker which is nearly impossible; they charged the women for food, clothing, medical expenses, abortions and on top of that take money from the earnings they made (Tan). The government doesn’t have accurate data, especially with the majority of these third world countries living in poverty they won’t be able to afford the research, and provide aids (Campagna).

Another reason why there can’t be a stop is because people with privilege aren’t using their power wisely. There have been some errors within the government officials. The UN peacemakers have become known for supporting prostitutions and sex trafficking (Smith). Police officers have free access to brothels and don’t have to pay which makes it challenging to catch these traffickers (Beyrer). With the staggering HIV rates increasing rapidly, Thailand has started a service called “100% Condom Campaign” where they give out 100 million free condoms per year to sex workers, but it didn’t make a difference because the undocumented sex workers are unaware of HIV risks and have no ability to negotiate with the clients (Beyrer). The Union Nation established the Palermo Protocol but their inability to enforce it was a downfall (Smith).

            A form of art therapy called “Art2Healing” has recently arise in Asia; it is a non-profit organization that helped the survivors of sex trafficking return to living a normal life. The art therapists are aware of cultural differences because women generally don’t stand up for their opinion. The survivors don’t want to embarrass their family because some time it’s their family that sold them off into the sex world. The therapist slowing but surely builds a relationship with the woman to gain her trusts by not being judgmental and accepting. A Cambodian saying goes , “Once a cloth is dirtied, the value is lost and we have to throw it away.” The women feels like they’re worthless but through this process the women are surrounded by an environment that they know is safe to tell their life story which makes them so powerful. The process involves the women painting out their life story before, during, and after being trafficked. They also talk about their plans for the future, which gives them hope (Tan).

            Through the tragedies that women had undertake, the government has to step it up to put a stop to this. Educating our women is a part of it, but these traffickers are the source. Blaming our women by saying it was their fate or they shouldn’t be wearing this or that doesn’t solve anything. Instead teach these traffickers to stop what they’re doing because like Gladys Lawson once said, “Did you ask to have sex with all those men? Did you ask to be sold as a sex slave?”, the answers are both “no”. No one deserves this kind of life and working together, and enforcing the laws will stop this industry from growing.

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