Social Effects Of Sex Trafficking

Up to 200,000 women and children were trafficked through the Balkans in 2004 alone. Eastern European countries such as Romania, Moldova, Albania, and the former Soviet Union Republics are especially impacted by sex trafficking, due to lack of anti-trafficking law enforcement, high poverty and domestic violence rates. Each year, between 600,000 and 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders, two thirds in the sex trade and 20% under the age of 18. Sometimes women voluntarily sell their bodies as an economic strategy, often encouraged by family members, but then realize too late the trap they have fallen into. Human traffickers often prey on the financially vulnerable and offer legitimate sounding jobs. Julia Savacool describes …show more content…
Patriarchal social structures from the past still exist in these rural areas, in which women are expected to be submissive to the male family members. 1.2% of Albanians live in extreme poverty – on less than $1 a day, while 12.4% live in absolute poverty – lacking basic means for survival. On rare occasions, the sale of family members occurs due to very difficult economic conditions, primarily among divorced or single parent families. In a report on the trafficking of women after socialism, Kligman explains that “since agriculture was not initially a funding priority in post socialist states, rural poverty has grown dramatically.” Gendered labor markets as well as the lack of literacy and mass media in rural areas have led to a source of vulnerable women who are uninformed about the risks of accepting foreign jobs. Push and pull factors come together to create a very strong market for the trade in women in Eastern Europe. Poverty and gender discrimination push women to seek well paying job opportunities abroad even if they appear untrustworthy. The sex trade is a lucrative business for traffickers combined with ready underground sex markets around the globe with a demand for women. International and country initiatives must address both the push and the pull factors if they wish to exterminate human …show more content…
They have taken over many of the sex trafficking networks in Italy and other Western European countries. A recent crackdown on speedboat routes between Albania and Italy has resulted in more overland travel from Albania through the former Yugoslavia. Women enslaved by Albanians have reported extreme violence including regular beatings, torture and rape. Victims of Albanians typically work on the streets from dusk until dawn, controlled either visually or by phone by their pimps or female guardians. Many are beaten and given sexually transmitted diseases either by the pimps or their customers. The mental, physical and sexual trauma victims endure continue to haunt them even after escape. The women often feel it is their fault they are in this situation and are ashamed to return to their families due to stigmas that exist about sex