Fundraising walk will aim to draw attention to sex trafficking

(by Matt Blickenstaff - September 16, 2009) 

To many, sex trafficking is a distant problem existing in far-flung places. But this exploitation is not restricted to the seedy red-light districts of Bangkok or Calcutta. American children are also victimized by the sex industry and the crime goes largely unseen.

Sex trafficking is defined as a modern-day form of slavery in which children are abducted or otherwise coerced into performing sex acts for the sole financial benefit of their captors. 

“I’ve seen war zones and refugee camps, but nothing grasps my heart like the face of a young girl that has been held captive by sex trafficking,” said Pat Bradley, the president and founder of International Crisis Aid, a St. Louis-based relief organization. “It happens right here, in our own back yard.”

Bradley is no stranger to human tragedy and strife. Since 1989, he has worked with myriad aid organizations across the globe. After an operation in Sudan in 2000, he decided to form his own aid agency, ICA. The group has worked in seven countries assisting in the aftermath of tsunamis, earthquakes, droughts, famines and conflicts.

While implementing these aid programs, ICA volunteers noticed a horrific situation involving the sexual exploitation of young girls. Today ICA operates five rescue homes in Ethiopia and one in Cambodia. These homes shelter girls as young as 4 years old. 

When ICA finds the funding and creates enough awareness, it plans to bring the same shelter to American victims who still languish on the fringes of society and the justice system.

Bradley is speaking with Missouri agencies and lawmakers to ensure victims can be sent to rehabilitation programs instead of correctional institutions, where they can receive the help they need to recover and stay off the streets and out of the hands of predators. 

In October 2008, ICA met with members of the FBI to discuss sex trafficking in the United States. Over the course of the conversations the FBI informed ICA only 49 beds were available nationwide to shelter the victims of child prostitution. If these beds are full when girls are rescued, law enforcement agencies have no choice but to place children in the juvenile criminal system.  

“If police find victims, they have nowhere to take the girls and there’s no program to rehabilitate these victims,” said Jennifer Jones, an ICA representative. 

Working with other children’s homes, ICA plans to open new shelters specifically designed for the victims of sex trafficking, with the first to open in St. Louis. Initially, ICA hoped to open its own facility with 24 new beds, but a shortage of funding has limited its plans to six to eight beds. 

In order to raise funds and awareness, ICA and St. Louis University will host the inaugural 5K Run for Freedom on Sept. 19 on SLU’s campus. ICA hopes to raise $25,000 in startup money for the creation of its new shelter, but sponsorship has been hard to come by. 

“We’ve approached most of the big corporations in St. Louis, but most of them said no,” said Derek Velazco, an ICA volunteer and the 5K run coordinator. “Folks are afraid of the stigma. A lot of these companies think the girls had chosen that lifestyle, which is not the case.”

Aside from funding, ICA has two other hurdles to jump before its shelter can operate: education and the law.

“People are just not aware of sex trafficking or how prevalent it is,” said Bradley. “It’s basically in every community in America and it’s an even bigger problem worldwide.” 

A United States Department of Justice survey found more than 300,000 American children are at risk of trafficking into the sex industry annually. Worldwide, an estimated 1.2 million children are forced into the sex trade each year.

In the United States, young runaways and castaways are promised work, food and shelter by predators. Soon after, says Jones, these lost and desperate children are coerced into prostitution by their false benefactors. 

One reason sex trafficking slips under the radar in America is because underage prostitutes appear as if they are working alone, but behind the scenes, pimps use threats, violence and drugs to force their victims into the streets. 

“It may look like it’s by choice, but what you don’t know is what’s going on in the background,” said Jones. “They’re threatened that they’ll be killed, they’re threatened that their parents will be killed. There’s a lot of things that go on psychologically within the sex slave industry to make these girls think that there’s no other way out.”

These same girls are victimized again, this time by the legal system. When caught, trafficked girls are often prosecuted for underage prostitution. 

“State laws do not make provisions for girls who are victims,” said Bradley. “There’s no recourse left but to follow existing law, and victims end up in the system.”

Upon release many of these children return to the only life they know and go right back into the streets. 

When a sex trafficking victim is brought in, courts must grant permission for the victim to be placed in a recovery program. Permission must also be given to the recovery organization to act as the victim’s legal guardian. Without a proper legal framework, victims don’t get the help they need and aid organizations can’t act on the child’s behalf. 

Currently, sex trafficking is not listed as  a type of abuse for children in Missouri and because of this, programs designed to help victims cannot legally receive funding from the state, said Jones.

 “In Missouri, there are laws that deal with child abuse and things like that, but for girls that are victims of sex trafficking there is nothing specific for those kinds of cases,” said Bradley.