CatholicMom.com Columnist Susan Handle Terbay

Modern Day Slavery
Part II - Human Trafficking
How victims are trafficked and misconceptions between trafficking and smuggling…

Comment from a young girl:

“I was forced to be on the streets at the age of 14. When I was 14, I ran away from home to be with a ‘wonderful guy I met’ that was in his mid-20’s. We had a great plan about us being together, making money together and becoming rich. I thought this was everything I had always wanted; until he told me that if I loved him, I would help make money for us. By the time I thought I was in love with him, he had given me too much to go back home. I was then introduced to the other women that he was pimping, who I hadn’t known about before. That’s what happens with pimps – at first, it is just you and them, but then there were four of us. At first he told me to have sex with one of his friends, and I didn’t want to, so his friends raped me… Right after that is when he picked my clothes out, told me what to wear, and forced me to go out on the streets.” – Tina, a 14 year old American girl and victim of sex trafficking.

A Case Study on human trafficking:

Drissa was forced to work as a slave on a cocoa plantation in Cte d’Ivoire. He was stolen from his parents, shipped to the Ivory Coast and sold to the cocoa farmers. He earns no money for his work, is barely fed and is beaten if he tries to escape. He and the other child slaves have to work from six in the morning until about 6:30 at night in the cocoa fields. He will probably never see his family again.

The two above cases are just one of so many out there in our world. These particular ones were presented to us at the conference along with five other cases. Many victims of trafficking are exploited through force that involves the use of rape, beatings and confinement to control victims. Forceful violence is used especially during the early stages which are used to break the victim’s resistance. Fraud often involves false offers that induce people into trafficking situations. For example, women and children will reply to advertisements promising jobs as waitresses, maids and dancers in other countries and end up in prostitution once they arrive at their destinations. And finally, coercion involves threats of serious harm to or physical restraint of any person, any plan intended to cause a person to believe that failure to perform an act would result in serious harm to them.

Often we confuse smuggling with trafficking and there are important differences. Migrant smuggling includes those who consent to being smuggled. Smuggling is a breach of the integrity of a nation’s borders and is always transnational. With human trafficking the victims either do not consent to their situations or if they initially consent, that consent is rendered meaningless by the actions of the traffickers. The exploitation generates illicit profits for the traffickers and trafficking doesn’t necessary involve physical movement of the person but exploitation of the person.

One important note that was stated from the U.S. Department of State is that unlike smuggling, which is often a criminal, commercial transaction between two willing parties who go their separate ways once their business is complete, trafficking targets the trafficked person as an object of criminal exploitation. The purpose from the beginning is to profit from the exploitation of the victim. It is also important to remember that human-trafficking victims need not be physically moved across any borders to be exploited for labor or commercial sex.

The most difficult part of the presentation for me was the video and the presentation of cases involving children and their abuse and use by the sex trade which included physical acts or pornography – or both. A beautiful child – a gift to the world – is used like an inanimate object for the pleasure and desecration by another human being(s). The presentation spoke of young girls who thought they were seeking a new life out of the poverty of hopelessness only to find themselves in the depths of hell on earth. While I wanted to turn away and not hear any more because in ‘my world’ I didn’t want to know about such matters, I knew I had to stay and learn. God’s little children, babies, women and men are sobbing through the night and while I do not want to ‘hear them’ my soul cannot silence their cries nor my eyes turn blind to their faces. What can I do? I can write; I can speak; I can share the information and help educate others just as others are helping to educate me. I can do what the victims cannot do – speak, and make a choice….

Part I - Human Trafficking

Human Trafficking Part III - Coming Soon
Helping the Victims – what is now in place and what needs to be in place; connections and links to websites for more information….

By Susan Handle Terbay

05/05/07

Click on titles for additional information

Susan Handle Terbay is co-author of Gifts: Two Hospice Professionals
Reveal Messages From Those Passing On. She is the mother of six and also a grandmother. Susan serves as administrative assistant to the deputy superintendent of the Catholic Schools Office for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati

Amazing Grace for Mothers features a story by Susan about the death of her own mother. She shares, "There is a sisterhood among women who lose their mothers as a child. It is a pivotal moment that leaves a hole in your heart that never gets filled; an emptiness and longing. The title of my story is In Search of my Mother. All my life I have searched for her in other women. That moment in my life changed me forever and has created the path I now journey. Through my work with children's grief groups I was able to reach out and understand their pain and tried to give them hope to continue their paths."

A Mother's Rule of Life: How to Bring Order to Your Home and Peace to Your Soul
by Holly Pierlot
Read More about this Book Club Selection

Vilya Design Studios - Creators of art that you can wear. We hand make a variety of jewelry, such wire sculpted pendants, gemstone watches, necklaces, bracelets, rosaries. Our artisans also create beautiful crocheted doll dresses and custom order christening gowns. (Features the creative artistry of Susan's daughters Jennifer and Jocelyn - I love their work, and know you will too! Lisa)

Susan shares the following about her writing:

As I look back over my life I have come to some profound conclusions. The most valuable gift both given and received is love. Throughout my life I have been blest with the wisdom of children, the wisdom of the elderly and especially the wisdom of the dying. Not one person on their death bed wished they had made more money or worked more hours. They all wished they would have spent more time with their loved ones, enjoyed the beauty of this world and taken a chance to love someone. I learned so much in my life and have faced some difficult challenges. I hope that maybe something I write touches another and reminds someone they are never alone in this world - someone understands, someone has been down the same path and always God is within each of us. Of all the experiences in my life the greatest gifts I have ever received were six precious lives who came into my life and forever changed me. . From the moment each were placed in my arms at their birth, my children have taught me about life and love. Now the gifts continue with my beautiful grandchildren as I await to listen to their stories yet to be told, and their wisdom yet to be learned. Motherhood is a gift - something to be treasured - always.

Susan Handle Terbay