The child next door? Yes sadly, human trafficking has reached into our enclaves of peace and tranquility, as articulated recently at a panel discussion in Craven County, North Carolina recently. But this is not new news, we can look back at the story of Theresa Flores and her book, The Slave Across the Street which detailed how she was groomed, sexually compromised and then enslaved by those who trafficked her for sex – she was a teen, she was also fortunate she survived the two years – she was 15.

In her book, Flores says, “I wasn’t a runaway. I wasn’t abused at home. I had professional parents, loving siblings, and a privileged lifestyle. Yet I had been a victim of human trafficking. I had been commercially, sexually exploited as a child. I had been a teenage sex slave in the United States.”  She continues, how “To the men who used her night after night, I was not a human being. As they performed the most intimate act a man and a woman engage in, I was only a dollar value. A commodity.“

This is not to say that the miscreants who are preying on our children are only in our suburbs, no they traffick from other countries and smuggle the children into the United States. We are all sensitized to the number of children whose families have no hope in their own town or country sending their children north to the United States to find a distant relative or simply have an opportunity to survive. Those who are being discovered by the US Border Patrol may be the luckiest of them all.  It has been known for many years that while Texas has an above average law enforcement focus on human trafficking and the sex trafficking of minors (who are victims, not criminals) the I-10 corridor is the highway of souls.

In 2011 a documentary on this heinous crime was released on DVD: “Nefarious: Merchant of Souls” The proceeds from the film go to the Exodus Cry organization. An organization working to abolish sex slavery.

Here is the description taken directly from the film’s site:

Nefarious: Merchant of Souls is a hard-hitting documentary that exposes the disturbing trends of modern day sex slavery. From the first scene, Nefarious gives an in-depth look at the human trafficking industry, showing where slaves are sold (often in developed, affluent countries) where they work, and where they are confined. With footage shot in over nineteen different countries, Nefarious exposes the nightmare of sex slavery as experienced by hundreds of thousands daily, through the eyes of both the enslaved and their traffickers. Nefarious features expert analysis from international humanitarian leaders, and captures the gripping and triumphant testimonies of survivors in order to galvanize hope and vision.From initial recruitment to victim liberation—and everything in between—the previously veiled underworld of sex slavery is uncovered in the groundbreaking, tell-all Nefarious: Merchant of Souls.Exodus Cry: In response to the sex trafficking crisis, Nefarious: Merchant of Souls director, writer, and producer, Benjamin Nolot, founded Exodus Cry, an international anti-trafficking organization. Exodus Cry is built on a foundation of prayer and is committed to abolishing sex slavery through Christ-centered prevention, intervention, and holistic restoration of trafficking victims. Learn more about Exodus Cry at exoduscry.com.

In 2009 I wrote “Children as a commodity” yet here we are half-way through 2014 – they still are. Let’s do something to address this.

Thank you for your time,
Christopher

Some additional reading on this topic:

Please also visit: www.burgessct.com