"Trade - Willkommen in Amerika" ist ein Politthriller, den Kreuzpaintner nach einem amerikanischen Drehbuch in der Produktion von Roland Emmerich in Szene setzte. Hochemotional, in der Bildsprache auf einen halb-dokumentarischen Touch setzend, wird die wohl schlimmste Form des mafiösen Menschenhandels thematisiert: die Versklavung minderjähriger Mädchen als Prostituierte. Das Drehbuch basiert auf der Aufsehen erregenden Titelgeschichte aus der "New York Times", die unter dem Titel "The Girls Next Door" die Menschenhändlerringe zwischen den USA, Mexiko und Europa recherchierte.
Deutschlandradio__________________
The Girls Next DoorOn a tip, the Plainfield police raided the house in February 2002, expecting to find illegal aliens working an underground brothel. What the police found were four girls between the ages of 14 and 17. They were all Mexican nationals without documentation.
But they weren't prostitutes; they were sex slaves. The distinction is important: these girls weren't working for profit or a paycheck. They were captives to the traffickers and keepers who controlled their every move. ''I consider myself hardened,'' Mark J. Kelly, now a special agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security), told me recently. ''I spent time in the Marine Corps. But seeing some of the stuff I saw, then heard about, from those girls was a difficult, eye-opening experience.''
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Sex trafficking is one of the few human rights violations that rely on exposure: victims have to be available, displayed, delivered and returned.
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In the past several months, I have visited a number of addresses where trafficked girls and young women have reportedly ended up...
These places all have at least one thing in common: they are camouflaged by their normal, middle-class surroundings.
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''This is not narco-traffic secrecy,'' says Sharon B. Cohn, director of anti-trafficking operations for the International Justice Mission. ''These are not people kidnapped and held for ransom, but women and children sold every single day. If they're hidden, their keepers don't make money.''
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I.J.M.'s president, Gary Haugen, says: ''It's the easiest kind of crime in the world to spot. Men look for it all day, every day.''
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''There's a vast misunderstanding of what coercion is, of how little it takes to make someone a slave,'' Gary Haugen of International Justice Mission said. ''The destruction of dignity and sense of self, these girls' sense of resignation. . . . '' He didn't finish the sentence.
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''The girls can't leave,'' Mamacita said. ''They're always being watched. They lock them into apartments. The fear is unbelievable. They can't talk to anyone. They are always hungry, pale, always shaking and cold. But they never complain. If they do, they'll be beaten or killed.''
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Who can expect a young woman trafficked into the U.S., trapped in a foreign culture, perhaps unable to speak English, physically and emotionally abused and perhaps drug-addicted, to ask for help from a police officer, who more likely than not will look at her as a criminal and an illegal alien? Even Andrea, who was born in the United States and spoke English, says she never thought of escaping, ''because what's out there? What's out there was scarier. We had customers who were police, so you were not going to go talk to a cop. We had this customer from Nevada who was a child psychologist, so you're not going to go talk to a social worker. So who are you going to talk to?''
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When I first met her, Andrea told me: ''We're way too damaged to give back. A lot of these children never wanted to see their parents again after a while, because what do you tell your parents? What are you going to say? You're no good.''
read the whole article inThe New York Times____________________
The article's assertion that sex slavery was widespread in the United States is disputed in the Slate Press Blog.
Assessing LandesmanHow well does Peter Landesman's sex-slavery investigation in New York Times Magazine stand up?
The Sex-Slavery Epidemic That Wasn'tRevisiting the numbers behind the New York Times Magazine's sex-slave story.
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GAO - United States Government Accountability Office
Report to the Chairman, Committee on the Judiciary and the Chairman,
Committee on International Relations, House of Representatives
HUMAN TRAFFICKINGBetter Data, Strategy, and Reporting Needed
to Enhance U.S. Antitrafficking Efforts Abroad
Why GAO Did This StudyHuman trafficking is a worldwide form of exploitation in which men, women, and children are bought, sold, and held against their will in involuntary servitude. In addition to the tremendous personal damage suffered by individual trafficking victims, this global crime has broad societal repercussions, such as fueling criminal networks and imposing public health costs. In 2000, Congress enacted the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) to combat trafficking and reauthorized this act twice.
This report reviews U.S. international antitrafficking efforts by examining (1) estimates of the extent of global trafficking, (2) the U.S. government’s strategy for combating the problem abroad, and (3) the Department of State’s process for evaluating foreign governments’ antitrafficking efforts.
What GAO FoundThe U.S. government estimates that 600,000 to 800,000 persons are trafficked across international borders annually. However, such estimates of global human trafficking are questionable. The accuracy of the estimates is in doubt because of methodological weaknesses, gaps in data, and numerical discrepancies. For example, the U.S. government’s estimate was developed by one person who did not document all his work, so the estimate may not be replicable, casting doubt on its reliability.
Moreover country data are not available, reliable, or comparable. There is also a considerable discrepancy between the numbers of observed and estimated victims of human trafficking.
The U.S. government has not yet established an effective mechanism for estimating the number of victims or for conducting ongoing analysis of trafficking related data that resides within government entities.
Read the report____________________
Further readingThe Truth Behind the Sex Trade
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Doña Carmen e.V.
Pressemitteilung:
18. Oktober - Europäischer Tag gegen “Menschenhandel”
Schluss mit der Hysterie!
Die Prostituiertenorganisation Doña Carmen e.V. (Frankfurt/Main) fordert ein Ende der verbreiteten Hysterie zum Thema „Menschenhandel“. Die Debatten darüber beruhen in den seltensten Fällen auf Fakten, sondern auf fiktiven Annahmen.
So bedauerte das Europäische Parlament in einer Stellungnahme vom Januar 2006 „den Mangel an verlässlichen Daten über das Phänomen des Menschenhandels in Europa sowie die Tatsache, dass weder die Kommission noch Europol noch irgendeine andere Einrichtung der EU in der Lage war, konkrete Zahlen über das EU-weite Ausmaß des Menschenhandels zu veröffentlichen, und bedauert insbesondere den Mangel an Daten über stärker gefährdete Gruppen wie Frauen und Kinder…“
So erklärte ein im Juli 2006 veröffentlichter Bericht des US Government Accountability Office (GAO) - eine amerikanische Regierungsbehörde mit Sitz in Washington D.C.: „Die US-Regierung schätzt, dass jährlich 600.000 bis 800.000 Personen über internationale Grenzen gehandelt werden; nichtsdestotrotz sind solche Schätzungen der weltweiten Menschen-handelsopfer fragwürdig. Die Genauigkeit der Schätzungen wird aufgrund methodologischer Bedenken, Lücken bei den Daten und zahlenmäßiger Abweichungen in Zweifel gezogen. Die Schätzung der US-Regierung wurde - um das zu verdeutlichen - von einer einzigen Person entwickelt, die nicht ihre gesamte Arbeit dokumentiert hat, so dass diese Schätzung nicht mehr nachvollziehbar ist und damit Zweifel hinsichtlich ihrer Verlässlichkeit aufwerfen dürfte.“
Laut bundesdeutscher Polizeilicher Kriminalstatistik zur Entwicklung des Straftatbestands „Menschenhandel“ sind in der Zeit von 1998 bis 2005 die Zahl der Fälle sowie Tatverdäch-tigen bei Menschenhandel um 39%, die Zahl der mutmaßlichen Opfer sogar um 69% zurückgegangen. Pro Jahr werden lediglich 140 Personen hierzulande als Täter verurteilt.
Es ist das Ziel der Kampagnen gegen den so genannten Menschenhandel, die freiwillige Migration insbesondere von Frauen in reichere Industrienationen zu unterbinden. Dies trifft besonders Prostituierte. Dagegen wendet sich Doña Carmen.
Dass sich mit dem Film „Trade“ jetzt auch noch die Märchenfabrik Hollywood mit „Menschenhandel“ befasst, ist nur konsequent: Dichtung und Wahrheit gehen munter durcheinander, die Fakten bleiben auf der Strecke. Diese aber besagen: „Menschenhandel“ ist kein Phänomen von gesellschaftlicher Relevanz.
