The Hard Truth About Human Trafficking

Slavery today is more rampant than even the transatlantic slave trade of the 1700 and 1800's, which is hard to imagine since we don't see it on a day-to-day basis. But even in Atlanta, human trafficking is flourishing. Atlanta has the unfortunate distinction of being the human trafficking capital of the United States.

Here are some of the hard-and-fast facts:

• Some estimates indicate that anywhere from 13-27 million people are enslaved around the world today.
• Human trafficking is simply another form of organized crime. It currently ranks behind drug trafficking but ahead of arms trafficking in size of organized crime. It is, at bottom, a profitable business.
• Women and girls are sold or stolen into forced prostitution. This is not a choice they make out of economic desperation. Usually, the families of the girls do not realize what is happening. They are promised that the girl will have a good job in the city and send money home - as a maid or a cook - but in reality the girls are sold to a brothel. The family receives no money, but the "broker" gets a fee from the brothel. The girls, however, are told they must work off the family's debt. Of course, the girls do not receive any money.
  
• The girls are kept against their will with ugly physical abuse, humiliation, rape, threats against family, and drugs.
• In the developing world, there is a common belief that sex with a virgin will cure AIDS, so men are seeking sex with younger and younger girls. Girls as young as 5 have been rescued.
• Rule of law is not a refuge. When women have escaped and run to the police, the police will return them to the brothels. While anti-slavery laws are on the books, they are generally not enforced. Police, politicians and monks frequent the brothels and will return and/or rape girls who try to escape.

As I was learning about this issue, I kept asking myself how this could possibly be happening in today's world. The big picture answer is that our world is fallen; evil exists and preys on the basest parts of human nature. It reminds me of nothing other than the Old Testament descriptions of God-less towns.

The dynamics in the developing world and the United States are somewhat different, but the bottom line is the same. It's the "throwaway" girls who end up in slavery - runaways and at-risk youth here, or the most impoverished or low-caste in the developing world. These are girls that society does not value and that nobody misses. But, all of these girls are God's children. God misses them and, I think, God is mad. He hates injustice.

My prayer for these women is that they will come to know and understand that God values them and God loves them, and that I can communicate God's love (we will be interacting with girls and women who have already been rescued). This is a challenge because Cambodia has only a 1-3% Christian population. But, how better to communicate God's love than just go over there are love on them? My hope is that at the end of the trip we will have impressed upon at least some women and girls with how my daughter describes God: "God lives in Heaven and in your heart and when you feel sad, he can come down give you a BIG hug even if you can't see him."