This PSA was put out by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime as part of a series of awareness media on human trafficking.
For a person living in a country with little opportunities and desperate poverty, the offer of an overseas job in a hotel, restaurant or factory can be an irresistable chance to better their lives. Traffickers prey on this hope and desperation. The trafficking victim is often approached by someone they know and are told of a great opportunity. They take it and are taken through well-worn trafficking routes (sometimes over several international borders) into the destination country. On arrival, they are stripped of all identification and told they must work to pay back their traffickers. For men, slave labor is the common end. For women and girls, to their shock and anguish, this road often ends in a brothel. Brutal beatings, gang rape, and emotional torture are used to prevent escape and control the victim. She is under constant watch. She is told that the police, if they find her, will deport her or even kill her. And the money she is to pay off? It's a sham. Each day they charge her for her food, bed, and any little thing provided her, usually at high cost to inflate the invisible debt. Men, women and children all over the world fall victim to trafficking and are held in slave conditions with little or no hope of escape.
The hardwork of local governments, NGOs and daring family members and local citizens are their only hope. Learn more about human trafficking at the websites below. Learn what you can, share what you learn. Donate, volunteer, start a discussion group in your community. Trafficking victims are everywhere from Tokyo to Amsterdam, New York to Atlanta, Bangkok to Dubai. It is relevant to us all.
http://www.ecpatusa.org
http://www.catwinternational.org
http://www.ijm.org
http://www.captivedaughters.org
http://www.humantrafficking.org
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/rls/33109.htm
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