Kev Kennedy's Blog

It's time to stop the traffik

800,000 people are trafficked across borders every year. 2 children every minute are trafficked for sexual exploitation. The trade in human beings is worth about $12 billion a year – and the profits to be made are second only to trafficking drugs.

You can read figures like that and they don’t really mean anything. But then you read a story like this:

“I was taken to an apartment… [and was told] I was now in prostitution. I became hysterical, but a guy started hitting me and then others there raped me. I was taken to a place where they sold me – just sold me!” – Marina, who was locked in a windowless basement for a month, without food, and a toilet as the only source of drinking water.

It’s shocking that things like this are happening today. It’s shocking that we all allow it, simply by not doing anything. It also kind of puts things into perspective when we start to moan about things. We complain about the rush-hour traffic, that’s nothing compared to the lives of those who have been trafficked.

Through Care for the Family, Looking at Life is part of Stop the Traffik – an international campaign against modern-day slavery and abuse. If you want to know more you can order the campaign book with a 20% discount until the end of October. But be warned, reading it could make you very angry indeed.
 

Created on Mon 19th October 2009 15:29