Forced Prostitution in Southeast Asia

Madison Murray History Block 1 Mr. Foulk 1 November 2009 Forced Prostitution in Southeast Asia One of the biggest issues happening today is forced prostitution in Southeast Asia. More specifically, in a country called Moldova, forced prostitution is one of the biggest issues they are personally fighting. Moldova is known for being the poorest country in Southeast Asia. Not only is it known for being the poorest country, Moldova holds the record for most children prostitutes. For this reason, people go from all over to Moldova for business in the sex slave industry.

Honestly, in this world, there are three things that people worry about. Those three things are money, work and sex. In this business, people get all three. The sex slave industry gets an estimated $6-$7 billion a year. In the country where people work for less than one dollar a day, that means a world of opportunities for the people who run the sex organizations. Wanting these three things becomes a desire and people are willing to go to extreme lengths to get it. The people of Moldova turn in family and friends to turn a quick profit from them.

Personal feelings get pushed aside once faced with an opportunity to get the dream of having money. The people that turn in family and friends get promised basic human rights that we take for granite and most of the time, they never receive them. Some of the time, when people turn in their family or friends they are told that the person is going to receive an education or work. It’s a shame that people are so desperate for these opportunities that they’re willing to possibly never see their families again to get them. Once the people in control have the victim, there’s no turning back.

Most of them take away the victim’s visa or passports so that even if they do escape, there’s no possible way for them to leave. This is obviously one of the biggest issues Southeast Asia is facing right now. Forced Prostitution is an issue that needs to be focused on right now. Despite the efforts of many organization, more could be done to help the hundreds of thousands of innocent people involved in this organization. Forced prostitution is something that needs to be stopped. Forced prostitution is one of the biggest problems Southeast Asia is facing right now.

In Southeast Asia is a country known as Moldova. Moldova is known as the poorest country in Europe. Most of this country is unemployed and for those who are lucky to have worked have an outrageously low income of less than a dollar per day. Due to the fact that there is almost no employment in this country, some people turn to prostitution as their source of income. In some places such as Thailand, people believe that because it is illegal, “prostitution does not exist”. The sex slave industry mainly takes place underground so it is hard to identify where exactly it is located.

Women in the sex trade industry are told to believe "You girls must take pride in your devotion to your country. Your carnal conversations with foreign tourists do not prostitute either yourself or the nation, but express your heroic patriotism. " Some of the women do prostitution as a way to get by, but most are tricked into it. The people in charge of the sex slave industry make women in desperate times believe that they will be able to get work and provide for their families. Little do these women know that that could be the last time they ever see their families. One woman by the name of Angela said, I did not want to go to work as a prostitute. I started crying and said I wanted to go back home, and I did not want to work. They told me, 'If you don't work, you'll end up dead and buried in sand in the desert. ' I got scared, and I went with them. From 9 p. m. to 3 a. m. , we had to work in a disco. All day long, we were locked up in a house. When we would not have enough clients, they would beat us up and lock us up until 9. When I did not want to work, they kept me locked up for a week and beat me. I got really scared, and I tried to swallow pills to make them get me out of the house [to a hospital].

But they simply sold me in another city," (Tomiuc, 2004). When women are being tricked into thinking they are going to be getting work, especially when these women are from other countries, they get their visas and any form of identity taken away from them. Once the women follow the person in charge, they are under their control. Often, violence is used and in some cases, the women are shot or tortured. Another thing that comes with the territory of being a forced prostitute is drugs. It isn’t that the women want to take them, but at a certain point if become necessary in order for the women to work.

After a working with a few different customers, the women feel it’s necessary to shoot heroine in order to get through the rest of the night. Moldova is also known for being the "top exporter of forced child prostitution”. This country holds the record for highest number of traffickers who earn their money by forcing underage children in the sex slave industry. A shocking forty percent of Moldova’s sex traffickers are minors. Between 2003 and 2007 the percentage of minors involved in trafficking increased by 7%. It rose from 15% to almost 22%. Annually, an estimation of 1. million children is entering the sex trade industry, according to UNICEF. In Southeast Asia, there are many important issues. However, I believe that forced prostitution is one of the most important. When adults choose to partake in prostitution is a bad situation. However, when a child is being forced against their will to partake in it, there’s no excuse for how bad that situation is. Moldova holds the record for most children solicitors exported from a country. The reason that the children are being forced to be a part of it is because people pay more money for virgins.

For the twisted minds of the people that pay for this, they find nothing wrong with this. The children that have to deal with forced prostitution are going to be permanently scarred for life. Or should I say that the few that make it out alive will be scarred. No one deserves to go through this and they need to be rescued. It is harder to find the sex industries because they have moved underground but with the help of organizations and the investigatory police, we can find them. The victims involved in forced prostitution are forced to use heroine in order to make it through the day.

With this addiction there is a slim to none chance of survival for the children that once had dreams to make it to adulthood and leave the horrible life in Moldova. It is up to us to help these children make it. ("Recession Boosts Child," 2009). There are several organizations that help with the problem of forced prostitution. One of the most commonly known organizations is called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund. It is more commonly known as UNICEF. It was first founded in 1946, but in 1953 was “extended to ddress the needs of children in the developing world. ” When this happened, the foundation shortened their name to United Nations Children’s Fund. The UNICEF foundation does what they do to help because they believe that children deserve a voice. UNICEF works to build a protective environment for children who have suffered from violence and abuse. Another organization for helping fight against human trafficking is Asia ACTs Against Child Trafficking. Due to this organization there have been 190 investigations of trafficking and 36 prosecuted cases.

Also, there have been shelters and long-term homes set up for trafficking victims. These victims also have been offered counseling. There are several other organizations that help with the problem of human trafficking. Another one of them being The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family (MOGEF). This organization holds seminars and hung posters in public places addressing the issues of forced prostitution. Some of the other organizations include CATW which helps stop promoting sex trafficking by eliminating shows that promote it.

One huge non-profit organization is Prevent Human Trafficking (PHT). Formed in 1999, their mission is to build a bridge between Southeast Asia and the United States to help stop human trafficking. All of these organizations are important, and they all need our help to get word around about how awful the sex slave industry is. (Kennedy, 2007). The issue of forced prostitution is a greater problem than most would believe. In countries such as Moldova, it is the one of the biggest problems a country faces.

Other than being the poorest country in Europe, it is also country that holds the record of most child prostitutes. When a country has an average income of one hundred dollars, people start to rely on prostitution in order to get by. The people living in countries like these get tricked into believing that if they themselves follow in the sex slave industry, they will receive basic human rights that we Americans take for granted. This “guarantee” has made the people of Moldova to turn in friends, even family to make a quick buck. It really is sad that this is what countries have come down to.

They are turning on their own just to get the basic necessities to live another day in a country where ninety percent of them do not even want to live there. Moldova is a place where people don’t have the opportunity to dream about futures like people in America do. Their future does not hold exciting opportunities. Being forced to prostitute in Moldova is something to be expected. This issue is important because it’s despicable how low the people of Moldova have become. Forced Prostitution is an issue that many organizations find important and are trying to help in any way that they can.

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