Post by joshua on Dec 25, 2008 0:07:58 GMT -5
That's a quote: "We've come to learn that cases of trafficking are all around us in plain sight. Today, you can buy a human being for $200 in any major city around the world."
There was a news story recently published by MSNBC, written by reporters Alex Johnson and Caesar Rodriguez.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28161210/
The story itself reads a little like an exposee rather than focusing on a singular event. Authorities had arrested Maribel Rodriguez Vasquez three months prior to the writing for trafficking at least a dozen young women into the country.
It loosely ties two other important stories together using the violent nature typical of these crimes: one where a couple of guys kept a Mexican woman as a sex slave, and another about a little old lady aged sixty-one who ran an extensive prostitution ring. As the reporters let us know in no uncertain terms, all of the victims here were physically abused to keep them cooperative.
And business is apparently very lucrative; the reporters used this to provide cohesiveness. Indeed, almost every authority interviewed said that human trafficking was a bigger problem than the general public perceived it to be, in so many words. Immigration and Customs officials estimated that the sex slave industry makes 9.5 billion annually, but there is no reference for this figure.
A plug for the Justice Department's human trafficking hotline is included amid the article's close.
I found the piece to be very informative. If anything else, it should grab the attention of anyone who had no clue before.
On a less somber note, Merry Christmas everyone!
There was a news story recently published by MSNBC, written by reporters Alex Johnson and Caesar Rodriguez.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28161210/
The story itself reads a little like an exposee rather than focusing on a singular event. Authorities had arrested Maribel Rodriguez Vasquez three months prior to the writing for trafficking at least a dozen young women into the country.
It loosely ties two other important stories together using the violent nature typical of these crimes: one where a couple of guys kept a Mexican woman as a sex slave, and another about a little old lady aged sixty-one who ran an extensive prostitution ring. As the reporters let us know in no uncertain terms, all of the victims here were physically abused to keep them cooperative.
And business is apparently very lucrative; the reporters used this to provide cohesiveness. Indeed, almost every authority interviewed said that human trafficking was a bigger problem than the general public perceived it to be, in so many words. Immigration and Customs officials estimated that the sex slave industry makes 9.5 billion annually, but there is no reference for this figure.
A plug for the Justice Department's human trafficking hotline is included amid the article's close.
* * *
I found the piece to be very informative. If anything else, it should grab the attention of anyone who had no clue before.
On a less somber note, Merry Christmas everyone!
