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Channel / Source:
TEDx Talks
Published: 2016-12-14
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyhF7q3_bpk
win any sex trafficking and especially sex trafficking in Thailand it is like this might pop into your head that's understandable research is showing that when we don't have firsthand experience with an issue we craft our understandings based on media representation but this is the Hollywood version the reality is often very different by definition trafficking means forced work a victim of sex trafficking is someone who is
forced to work in the sex industry against his or her will sex trafficking happens in every country on earth in both urban and rural areas in fact some people are misled by the word traffic to think that it must involve cross border movement but that's smuggling a person could be trafficked in their hometown it's also worth noting that boys can be traffic to in much the
same way that girls can but I sometimes they're left out of the conversation this boy and his younger brother they grew up in a rural hill tribe village in northern Thailand not far from the Myanmar border these hill tribe communities are ethnic minorities in Thailand's and highly discriminated against boys mother died of a heroin overdose and he and his younger siblings were left in the care
of their stepfather it's closely comin in this part of the world and many others for children to bear the financial obligation of caring for their families being the oldest child way south immense responsibility there's also a great deal of migration in this part of the world particularly people coming from Myanmar to Thailand seeking a better life however just because the baby is born in Thailand that
baby is not guaranteed Thai citizenship oftentimes it's dependent upon the citizenship of their parents boy was born in Thailand but his parents are from Myanmar the us only as well as many other children and adults lack citizenship in any country term that is called the statement without citizenship in Thailand you can't go to public school you can't access health care and you can't move freely outside
of your profit as a result boys options for earning money for very limited when he was twelve years old he follows an older boy from his village to the northern Thailand city of Chiang Mai seeking work we grew up speaking a language unique to his village he didn't know much tie or English so when you got to check my he started by trying to sell flowers
to tourists in a night market but he wasn't making much money so he followed one of the other boys to a bar in hopes of making more money there just after nightfall the bar situated in the heart of Chiang mais red light district filled with young boys just like oi it did not take him long to see what this job entailed way eventually stream we reluctantly
followed in the footsteps of the other boys it started with drink orders and massages but in order to make enough money to care for his younger siblings it quickly turned into a toy having sex with foreign men I dreaded every evening that he worked he started drinking and taking drugs to numb himself but he knew that he would never be able to make enough money working
in a restaurant or selling souvenirs so he continued on he felt as if he had no choice he still wasn't making enough money so during this time we made the decision to steal eighty dollars from one of his customers he was arrested and receive a lengthy jail sentence likely as a result of discrimination against members of these hill tribe communities for stealing not eighty dollars we
spent four years in jail and his customer walks completely free boy is a victim of sex trafficking and his story represents the sober realities this life to be clear though not all sex work is trafficking they're consenting prostitutes and they deserve to have their rights respected some people willingly choose to work in the sex industry but many do not and that's where trafficking comes and well
every instance of sex trafficking is different boys story is much more common in Thailand among both men and women that are instances of people being kidnapped and chained to beds most victims of sex trafficking are physically free but not psychologically free on one hand boy is not chained to a bed in theory you can walk away from the situation at any time however if he does
that family will not be able to afford to eat his younger siblings will have to work maybe in the sex industry and because of the financial obligation he'll likely bring announce shame to himself and his family is it really a choice that he can make he has no choice I'm fortunate to have been born into a middle class family and raised in a nice suburb outside
of boulder I have a great deal of privilege and the US vast choices when I started researching sex trafficking in two thousand and eight I thought it meant the girls were kidnapped and chained to a bed but since then my understanding of the issue and how best to stop it has evolved and I want to take you on that journey with me many western NGO's staffed
with well intentioned folks like myself started working on anti trafficking efforts around the world specifically in Thailand some of these western organizations have begun conducting what are called smart breeds they identify a facility a bar a brothel in the Sarge parlor and they read the facility they remove the people that they believe are trafficked and often times they remove all of the sex workers in that
facility they don't take them to a shelter well this might sound like a noble effort in effective in addressing the broader social political and economic web as issues that create such problems at times it even exacerbates the problem its subjects these individuals to possible deportation and long involuntary stays in shelters many report feeling like they are in prison and because it ignores the economic causes that
resulted in this person working in the sex industry in the first place it can mean the younger sibling has to enter the sex industry support the family additionally the social system in place does not provide appropriate after care or rehabilitation so many people end up back in the brothel with increased trauma in increasing distrust of NGOs but you can see where these well meaning westerners got
the idea smart raids makes sense for rescuing girls chained to a bed they don't make sense for a dressing complex cycles of intergenerational poverty they are merely a reactionary approach to a false notion of the problem the Hollywood version they're called smart raids but I think they should really be called not smart at all raids so what can we do we can start by acknowledging the
fact that trafficking is the result of complex social political and economic problems but just because there's a lot of gray area it doesn't mean there aren't concrete steps we can take to stop it first as westerners it's about time that we confront the issue of demand as long as there is a demand there will be a supply we want the purchasers of this act to look
like greasy creepy back alley men that live in far away places but they're not many are clean cut well dressed accessible Americans they are our sons and brothers and neighbors and co workers given the surreptitious nature of sex trafficking we don't know the specific statistics about how prevalent Americans are in purchasing this sex but by many estimates and my own observations Americans account for the majority
of sax purchase from trafficked individuals in Thailand what are we doing in our society today to raise people to think that it's O. K. go to Thailand or go down the block in their hometown and pay to have sex with a child we have the choice to address this issue of demand fed on by having difficult conversations with our loved ones about what are privileged actions
are doing to those that have few choices additionally we can leverage our privilege in other ways we can advocate for policy changes the address the root causes of any quality locally and globally labor laws immigration lies gender inequality access to education and healthcare we can funnel resources into programs that promote after care and rehabilitation for trafficking survivors this is a recent picture of oi he was
released from jail earlier this year and with the help of the chain my based anti trafficking organization called urban light he received health services transitional housing legal services and language and employment skills he now works full time helping other boys get the resources that they need to have the choice to leave the bar we can succeed in transforming the lives of sex trafficking victims at home
and abroad but we must first deal with the reality what things like citizenship and statelessness and language skills don't make for as exciting of a documentary as a raid does they have a lasting impact on breaking the cycle of poverty that causes trafficking ultimately if we want to end sex trafficking we need to rethink how we understand what it is let's cut through the Hollywood hype
