Sex trafficking proliferates the global HIV/AIDS epidemic

"Traffickers are always one step ahead"

"The first thing they do is laundry -- loads of it, over and over. If there was a way to burn everything, they probably would."

Trafficked boys and girls are frequently raped and exposed to violent sexual behavior, which can cause tissue tears that make HIV transmission more likely.  Trafficked boys and girls are rarely tested, diagnosed, and treated for the disease, thus allowing AIDS to develop.  When they contract HIV, they continue to be forced to have unprotected sex with hundreds or thousands of men before exhibiting any symptoms. The cross-border transportation which often accompanies sex trafficking operations also spreads the disease, as one infected victim can infect the men who buy a boy or girl in several different regions or countries. Those men may then infect other partners, both in and out of the commercial sex industry.  Furthermore, some cultural myths about AIDS, like the idea that sex with a virgin will cure an HIV infection, cause infected men to seek out unprotected sex with young trafficked boys and girls.  And so the cycle continues.

Eastern Europe and Africa are two of the fasting growing regions of human-trafficking and modern-day slavery in the world.  The USA is the number one country of destination for slaves to be trafficked to.  Children are abused, raped or beaten to death in the sex slave trade, professional begging or in forced manual labor camps. Then they are easily (and cheaply) replaced from this abundant ‘pool' of destitute children barely surviving in the sewers and tunnels of Romania and Russia… so on and so on.

Since 2002 international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have reported an increase in trafficked Romani children from Albania

Suriname was a Dutch colony until 1975 and it still maintains strong links with that country.  The case of Suriname reflects the domination exerted by the Northern countries over those in the South. There is an intense traffic in human beings for sexual exploitation between the Netherlands and Suriname.

Amnesty International is aware of reports of men and boys being trafficked into Greece.

Tim Barrus/ Human Trafficking and HIV (12/15/10)

There are only two member countries at the United Nations that refuse to ratify the International Rights of the Child.

Those countries would be Somalia, and The United States of America.

United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 

African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child 

There are well-kept statistics accumulated by organizations such as the United Nations (The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, and the additional Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons),  the International Child Sexual Exploitation Image database, and Interpol have lead to greater public awareness of the extent to which the traffic in human beings exists. 

Most of the statistical emphasis has been on females since a majority of the people trafficked are, indeed, female. Numbers are ascertained for females trafficked for sexual exploitation and for labor. Child labor is also tracked. But there are no numbers kept (because there are no numbers collected) as to the traffic of males; especially boys who are trafficked for prostitution. The number of boys trafficked to the U.A.E alone is estimated to be in the tens of thousands. The operant word is estimated. When local law enforcement officials participate in the prosecution of traffickers, more accurate data is en-massed. Many Asian countries are culturally reluctant to participate in data collection because there are cultural prohibitions against recognizing young males within a sexual and social context. 

The African Union is currently attempting to enforce African laws as they regard human being on ships and their access to ships.  There have been, however, no known maritime boarding and seizure law enforcement efforts targeting sexually trafficked children.  If you take the estimated annual number of twelve million people being trafficked, and extrapolate even ten percent (as opposed to an over-inflated fifty) as being male you have one to two million males. Even if you cut that in half, you still have 500,000 to 750,000 males in transit. Even if three-quarters of those are being trafficked for slave labor, you are left with numbers approaching 150,000 boys a year being trafficked for sex. If you take that number and apply a low estimation of HIV Third World infection rate at between fifteen to twenty percent, you arrive at figures between twenty to thirty thousand boys being trafficked who are infected with HIV. 

The African Union’s enforcement paradigm employs the use of ports: both coming and going to and from African locations. So far, no one has been arrested or prosecuted for trafficking boys for sexual exploitation. What is needed is a transnational task force imbued with the powers of arrest whose reach transcends borders. Any such law enforcement entity created to stem the tide in human trafficking should be educated as to how to address HIV/AIDS issues at the immediate point and place of arrest. Within this organization, safe houses need to be established for HIV positive children to live in a safe place that treats their HIV at the same time it provides a safe and confidential shelter from organized crime, parents, and government officials who have colluded with traffickers. Children who will testify against any of these people must be protected and their HIV must be vigorously treated with medical models constructed by the United Nations and the World Health Organization as to accepted treatments.

Greece: Trafficked for Sexual Exploitation 

Further Reading:

“Greece Uphold the rights of women and girls trafficked for sexual exploitation” by Amnesty International

http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?lang=e&id=ENGEUR250022007

“Trafficking in Women and Children: Greece, a country of destination and transit” by Ira Emke-Poulopoulos

http://www.mmo.gr/pdf/publications/mmo_working_papers/MMO_WP2rev.pdf

"Child trafficking in Eastern Europe: A trade in human misery" by Richard Tyler (2003)

http://www1.wsws.org/articles/2003/oct2003/traf-o25.shtml

An effective witness protection programme is not on offer, nor relocation to another country where they might escape reprisals. A higher priority must be given to respecting and protecting the rights of trafficked people.

Increasingly it is being recognized that the cooperation of authorities across borders, as well as between authorities and civil society organizations, is a necessity in efforts to combat trafficking.

International pressure has been significant in encouraging the Greek authorities to take steps to combat trafficking.

Amnesty International is concerned that the failure to identify trafficked women and carry out a risk assessment about their situation not only undermines efforts to combat trafficking but also places women at risk of further human rights abuses including re-trafficking.

Even in the urban centres of Athens and Thessaloniki, such identification of trafficked women appears often to be based on subjective criteria

Amnesty International considers the system not only fails to provide assistance and protection to all trafficked women but is also not compliant with the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings.