Trafficking of Women

1. Trafficking of Women

2. How are Women Trafficked? • The majority of women and girls are trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation. • Traffickers primarily target women because they are disproportionately affected by poverty and discrimination, factors that negatively affect their access to employment, education and other resources. • Women may become victims of trafficking when they seek assistance to obtain employment, work permits, visas, and other travel documents. • Traffickers prey on women’s vulnerable circumstances and may lure them into crime networks through deceit and false promises of decent working conditions and fair pay.

3. Women may go abroad knowing that they will work in the sex industry, but without full awareness of the terrible work conditions and violence that they will face. • Other women answer job advertisements for positions abroad, such as dancers, waitresses, and nannies, only to find themselves held against their will and forced into prostitution and sexual slavery.

4. What is Sex Slavery? • Sex trafficking or slavery is the exploitation of women and children, within national or across international borders, for the purposes of forced sex work. • Commercial sexual exploitation includes pornography, prostitution and sex trafficking of women and girls, and is characterized by the exploitation of a human being in exchange for goods or money. • Each year, an estimated 800,000 women and children are trafficked across international borders—though additional numbers of women and girls are trafficked within countries.

5. Some sex trafficking is highly visible, such as street prostitution. But many trafficking victims remain unseen, operating out of unmarked brothels in unsuspecting—and sometimes suburban—neighborhoods. Sex traffickers may also operate out of a variety of public and private locations, such as massage parlors, spas and strip clubs. • Adult women make up the largest group of sex trafficking victims, followed by girl children, although a small percentage of men and boys are trafficked into the sex industry as well.

6. What is the Impact of Sex Trafficking? • Trafficking has a harrowing effect on the mental, emotional and physical well being of the women and girls ensnared in its web. • Beyond the physical abuse, trafficked women suffer extreme emotional stress, including shame, grief, fear, distrust and suicidal thoughts. • Victims often experience post-traumatic stress disorder, and with that, acute anxiety, depression and insomnia. Many victims turn to drugs and alcohol to numb the pain.

7. Sex trafficking promotes societal breakdown by removing women and girls from their families and communities. • Trafficking fuels organized crime groups that usually participate in many other illegal activities, including drug and weapons trafficking and money laundering.

8. Forced Marriage as Slavery • A forced marriage happens when a person gets married without freely and fully consenting to the marriage because they have been coerced, threatened or deceived. • Forced marriage is not limited to any particular cultural group, religion, or ethnicity, and there are reports of forced marriage from all over the world. • 11% of women worldwide marry before reaching the age of 15. • Although boys can be affected by the practice, it is mostly girls who suffer slavery as a consequence of child/forced marriage.

11. Child Marriage • Child marriage can be referred to as slavery, if one or more of the following elements are present: • If the child has not genuinely given their free and informed consent to enter the marriage; • If the child is subjected to control and a sense of “ownership” in the marriage itself, particularly through abuse and threats, and is exploited by being forced to undertake domestic chores within the marital home or labour outside it, and/or engage in non-consensual sexual relations;  • If the child cannot realistically leave or end the marriage, leading potentially to a lifetime of slavery.

12. Children are in a weaker position to give free, full and informed consent to marriage than adults, even if they appear to ‘agree’ or don’t express refusal.  • Many children have little or no control over their movements or person within marriage, including over sexual relations. Girls in particular are commonly controlled through violence, threats and humiliation, as well as experiencing isolation and loneliness. • Children may not realistically be able to leave their marriage. For example, they may not be able to support themselves financially or may fear repercussions from in-laws and the wider community, as well as their own families. • Girls who leave their marriages without support are often vulnerable to other forms of slavery and exploitation. 

13. More than 100 million girls in the developing world will be married during the next 10 years. • In Southern Asia, 48%—nearly 10 million—of girls are married before the age of 18. • In Africa, 42% of girls were married before turning 18. • In Latin America and the Caribbean, 29% of girls are married by age 18.

14. Child Marriage Around the WorldPercentage of girls marrying before the age of 18: 1 Niger 76.62 Chad 71.53 Bangladesh 68.74 Mali 65.45 Guinea 64.56 Central African Republic 57.07 Nepal 56.18 Mozambique 55.99 Uganda 54.110 Burkina Faso 51.9 11 India 50.012 Ethiopia 49.113 Liberia 48.413 Yemen 48.415 Cameroon 47.216 Eritrea 47.017 Malawi 46.918 Nicaragua 43.318 Nigeria 43.320 Zambia 42.1

15. What are the effects of child marriage? Child brides are more likely than unmarried girls to die younger, suffer from health problems, live in poverty and remain illiterate. • Premature Pregnancy: Child brides almost always bear children before they are physically - or emotionally - ready. • Maternal Mortality: Girls younger than 15 are five times more likely to die during child birth or pregnancy than older women. Pregnancy-related deaths are the leading cause of mortality for girls aged 15 to 19 worldwide.

16. Infant Mortality: Mortality rates for babies born to mothers under age 20 are almost 75% higher than for children born to older mothers. The children that survive are more likely to be premature, have a low birth weight, and are more at risk for contracting HIV/AIDS. • Health Problems: Premature childbirth can lead to a variety of health problems for mothers, including fistula, a debilitating condition that causes chronic incontinence. Girls with fistula are often abandoned by their husbands and ostracized by society. There are approximately 2 million girls living with fistula, and 100,000 new cases every year. • HIV/AIDS: Married girls may be more likely to contract sexually transmitted disease, including HIV/AIDS, than unmarried girls. Young girls are more physically susceptible to STD's, have less access to reproductive education and health services and are often powerless to demand the use of contraception.

17. Illiteracy: Child brides are often pulled out of school and denied further education. Their children are also more likely to be illiterate. • Poverty: Child brides - already poor - are isolated and denied education and employment opportunities, making it difficult for them break out of the cycle of poverty. • Abuse and Violence: Child brides are more likely to experience domestic abuse, and violence than their peers who marry later. • Mental Health: Violence and abuse can lead to post-traumatic stress and depression. • Isolation and Abandonment: Child brides are often isolated from their peers and abandoned if they develop health problems like fistula.

18. What can be done to prevent child marriage? Education: Girls with a secondary education are up to six times less likely to marry young compared to girls with little or no education. • Education delays the age at which a woman marries. • Education provides an alternative opportunity for girls other than marriage. • Education increases socio-economic status and earning potential for girls.

19. Employment/Poverty Reduction:The world's poorest countries have the highest rates of child marriage. Families often marry girls off to lessen their economic burden and provide a future for their daughters.Girls from poor families are about twice as likely to marry young than girls from better-off households. • Girls who earn a wage may be seen as an economic asset, not a burden, by their families. • Girls who earn a wage are less dependent on others to provide for them.