A while ago, on Freedom Day (March 25), I had the possibility to participate on an anti-trafficking event in Brussels. Yesterday, I had the possibility to read and finish the above book. Whilst the March event concentrated on prostitution and trafficking of mainly Eastern European women to Western Europe for purposes of forced prostitution, Allende's events take place first in Chile, then in California of the gold rush years in the 1850's. Despite the periodical distance, the similarities of situations are so large that the connection becomes disturbing.
At the anti-trafficking event a pastor, accompanied by two former trafficking and forced prostitution victims, told about his work in the red light district of Antwerpen. Almost all of Western European cities have similar districts so it doesn't really matter where he comes from. Anyway, women are lured under various pretexts to leave their families and countries. Their passports are taken away and they are repeatedly violated by their smugglers and captors until they realize that they have no escape from their hopeless situation. They are auctioned, sold, resold, violated and raped repeatedly. Sometimes they are killed when they are no longer sufficiently beautiful or young - and that life makes a woman old in no time. The women spend their time servicing, how many "customers" ever their pimp forces them to see. Violence is routinely used and at the end of a "work day" all money goes to the pimp.
In Allende's book, Chinese women (among others) are trafficked into California under similar pretexts. They are violated by sailors on the ship on the way to California, then they are auctioned to pimps, chained into a bed in a small room where they have to service customers. When they get ill, they are killed. Similarly to the pastor of the first story, the Chinese man, who tries to help them, has to be careful because the pimps would easily have him killed.
Eastern European men, and even some women, are lying to and selling women to horrible abuse, rape and murder. Western European men are buying these women just the way the were bought in the 1850's. Nothing has changed. Police is complacent all over the world claiming lack of evidence. Sufficient evidence would be to go and see if these girls have their own passports. Any adult not in possession of his/her own travel documents can be within reason thought of as a trafficking victim.
To quote Allende:
"When the little sinsong girls were too sick to continue working, they were taken to the "hospital",as they called the secret rooms...and left there with a cup of water, a little rice and a little lamp with oil enough for a few hours. The door was opened again some days later when somone went in to be sure the girl was dead. If she was alive, she was killed; none ever saw sunlight again."
This is the reality of the 1850's and today's world. No one ever sees sunlight again!
posted by Emilia.kk @ 3:01 PM
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