After natural disasters, children become extremely vulnerable to abductions. This pattern repeated itself in the aftermath of the tsunami in Southeast Asia and Pakistan’s earthquake. Aisha, 6, from Pakistan, lost both her parents in the earthquake and was subsequently sold by her relatives to a prostitute who planned to exploit Aisha in the sex trade.[7] Women and children also become victims of trafficking after civil conflict and rapid economic changes. The chronic state of civil war in Burma made Burmese girls especially vulnerable to traffickers from Thailand, while sudden transitions to market economies in the countries of the former Soviet Union led to a huge increase in the number of women trafficked to Western Europe.

Living in Agony

"When I look back, nightmares keep coming back. I shudder to visit my memories. I was just 10 and my aunt sold me to a red-light area in Mumbai. The torture, the pain, all those beatings…can I ever forget them? Most of the time I had no idea what was happening. They made me drink and then the men came and came and came. How many years was I there? I don’t know — maybe five or six?…My body was weak, I was sick, and I wondered, 'When will all this end?'”

— An Indian girl speaking of her experiences in the brothels [8]

Sex trafficking is one of the most widespread forms of torture today. The traffickers use a variety of methods to break down their victims: starvation, confinement, beatings, rape, forced substance abuse, isolation, threats against the victims’ families and shaming the victims by revealing their activities to their communities. Aneela, rescued after three years in the brothels, was gang-raped and burned with cigarettes when she refused to have sex with customers. Deepa, who was abducted from her village, did not see sunlight the entire year she was locked in the brothel.

In Indian brothels, trafficked girls can have as many as 10 clients on a weekday and more than 20 clients on each weekend day. This form of coerced indentured servitude forces girls to reimburse their own purchase price to brothel owners and to carry a continuous debt.

The physical and emotional pain that victims of trafficking endure is unfathomable. Once they are trapped in the complex trafficking network, there is practically no way out. Most of these girls had simple dreams — to study, marry and raise families. After being trafficked, they recall their agonizing life in the brothels with fervent anger and uncontrollable tears. Trafficking not only robs them of their families and friends, but also their social identities,[9] any hope of realizing their potential, and — most tragic of all — their desire to live.

Stop Trafficking and Oppression of Children and Women (STOP), a prominent anti-trafficking NGO in New Delhi, estimates that the HIV infection rates range from 60 percent to 80 percent in many of the red light districts of India. Not only are these girls vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, but it is HIV/AIDS that also contributes to trafficking. Men seek young females or virgins to avoid becoming infected themselves, and those who are already infected mistakenly believe that having sex with a virgin will cure them of AIDS. Other sexually transmitted diseases, assault injuries, pain from abortion procedures, and drug and alcohol addictions are all common physical consequences.

Negative mental health outcomes include depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, suicidal thoughts and psychological burdens of rape, slavery and exploitation.[10] According to USAID, the global trafficking enterprise generates $7 billion per year — it is the third largest illicit trade after narcotics and weapons. Those who benefit from this systematic slave trade include recruiters who scout the girls, traffickers who deceive them, pimps who sell them, customers who provide the demand and police officials who are bribed into ignoring the problem.