For many girls living like a princess or marrying a sheikh sounds like valid a reason to leave their trivial lives behind and hop on a plane that would take them straight into a fairytale. At least, this is the picture drawn for them by cunning recruiters, quick to promise everything a small-town girl may dream of. Some women involved in prostitution are well aware of the kind of job they were being hired to do, but many are shocked to find themselves working in brothels instead of dancing in nightclubs or waitressing in restaurants.
In the middle of a foreign land, abused and exploited, they have no one to turn to. “Arabian nights” suddenly turn into harrowing nightmares. Interpol and numerous NGO’s around the globe are tirelessly working to expose international human trafficking rings, but only a tiny percentage of cases is investigated and brought to court.
Some traffickers kidnap their victims in open daylight, as happened with young Argentinian Marita Verón. Her grieving mother started a social campaign and wouldn’t rest until it culminated in numerous arrests of sex traffickers and corrupt politicians covering up for them.
A gang that lured girls into getting jobs abroad but sold them to brothels in Bahrain was recently exposed and prosecuted in the Perm region of Russia. Several of the victims were, luckily, released. But how many sexually exploited girls around the globe will forever remain anonymous, and vanish, like Marita? And is decriminalisation of prostitution furthered these days in many countries a step in the right direction? Or will it only make the recruiters’ jobs easier, thanks to the changing morals and a new degree of acceptance?
26:05
