Thursday, March 02, 2006
Human Trafficking is a huge problem
ADDENDUM: Charles Colson addressed this recently as well and gives a lot of references.
I attended the Colorado Osteopathic Association conference yesterday and gave a talk on HPV disease. The talk following mine, by Jeffrey Barrows, DO, of the CMDA, was absolutely riveting. Dr. Barrows showed some anecdotes at the beginning, of women who were hoodwinked into becoming prostitutes against their will in other countries. Then he showed some amazing statistics:
600-800,000 men, women, and children are trafficked (enslaved) across international borders each year.
80% are women and girls.
50% are minors.
12 million people are currently enslaved, more than just before our civil war.
80% of these slaves are prostituted women, girls, and boys.
250,000 American children are prostituted (runaways, homeless, etc.)
The US passed the trafficking victims protection act in 2000, re-updated in 2005. It increases penalties, helps with legal status, and allows easier prosecution.
There is a huge demand for women and children as prostitutes worldwide. Services offer "sex tours" to, for example, southeast asia where the tourist gets to rape young girls. Amazing.
We in healthcare may be able to help. We need to watch for things very similar to spouse abuse:
patient accompanied by a controlling person;
does person accompanying insist on giving information;
signs of physical abuse;
submissive, fearful patient, language or cultural barriers;
does patient have any identification?
The US government has a website on human trafficking. It includes worksheets and data sheets on identifying victims and what your options are. Hotline: 1-888-3737-888.
Stay posted for more from CMDA.
I attended the Colorado Osteopathic Association conference yesterday and gave a talk on HPV disease. The talk following mine, by Jeffrey Barrows, DO, of the CMDA, was absolutely riveting. Dr. Barrows showed some anecdotes at the beginning, of women who were hoodwinked into becoming prostitutes against their will in other countries. Then he showed some amazing statistics:
600-800,000 men, women, and children are trafficked (enslaved) across international borders each year.
80% are women and girls.
50% are minors.
12 million people are currently enslaved, more than just before our civil war.
80% of these slaves are prostituted women, girls, and boys.
250,000 American children are prostituted (runaways, homeless, etc.)
The US passed the trafficking victims protection act in 2000, re-updated in 2005. It increases penalties, helps with legal status, and allows easier prosecution.
There is a huge demand for women and children as prostitutes worldwide. Services offer "sex tours" to, for example, southeast asia where the tourist gets to rape young girls. Amazing.
We in healthcare may be able to help. We need to watch for things very similar to spouse abuse:
patient accompanied by a controlling person;
does person accompanying insist on giving information;
signs of physical abuse;
submissive, fearful patient, language or cultural barriers;
does patient have any identification?
The US government has a website on human trafficking. It includes worksheets and data sheets on identifying victims and what your options are. Hotline: 1-888-3737-888.
Stay posted for more from CMDA.
