The reasons why you have chosen to read about real life human trafficking examples and stories may differ, but your reactions upon finishing the article will be the same. You are bound to feel appalled, disgusted, and utterly speechless.
How common is human trafficking? More than you are willing to realize. This is not a type of crime which can be said to be characteristic of certain countries, depending on their economic state or whether they are at war, for example. Human trafficking is happening literally everywhere, even in the most developed and most powerful countries in the world (just take a look at our articles about 12 top states for human trafficking in 2018 and 16 top US cities for human trafficking in 2019). As far as we know, the horror could be taking place right next door, in your neighborhood (as you will be able to read about the neighbors from hell in one of the stories). Therefore, if the question is how many countries are affected by human trafficking, the answer would be: all of them. According to the World Economic Forum Report and their analysis, certain areas of the world are less likely to deal with human trafficking. Judging by the looks of the map they have drawn, it makes one wonder if human trafficking even happens in the UK. As you shall see from our stories, it does and it is just as horrible as in any other country. What country has the most human trafficking? Unfortunately, the competition is more than fierce, and based on a 2018 report by the U.S. State Department, it is Belarus, Turkmenistan, Iran, and Russia that are at the very top of violating human freedom in this way.
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In our selection of real stories of human trafficking survivors, we have mainly focused on sex trafficking, though it has to be mentioned that human trafficking, aka modern slavery, also refers to other types of imprisonment and abuse. However, there is a tendency to associate human trafficking with sexual abuse above all, so these human trafficking detailed stories are told by sex trafficking victims. Speaking of tendencies, women and girls are more common victims compared to the opposite sex, but we have also included a story from a male survivor. They are especially challenged by society, as the traditional masculine role simply excludes the possibility of a man or a boy suffering from sexual abuse. What is more, even in police raids the victims are usually observed as pimps at first glance. As well as that, in order to deal with the prejudices, you will be able to read about trafficking in the adult entertainment industry (yes, not all actors are performing willingly).
The data we have gathered for real life human trafficking stories came from various sources, including the Telegraph, the Guardian and Global Citizen. They are given in random order, though we must admit the first place belongs to a story which is peculiar in a way that the abusers were some of the most powerful European politicians, and even of royal origin.
Finally, prepare to read about the unfortunate destinies and miraculous escapes in our list of 10 real life human trafficking examples and stories.
10. Frida and the photographer
When you think about human trafficking stories in Europe and their victims, you probably have in mind a girl from a small town in a small Eastern European country. However, this story is nothing like that.
Frida Farell is from Sweden, and at the time of this horrible crime she was living comfortably in London when a photographer approached her in the street and complimented her good looks. Having first checked his references, Frida went to one photo session, after which she was offered a lucrative photo shooting. It seemed like a fair prospect, so she agreed to meet the photographer in his flat/studio again.
However, this time she was immediately locked and threatened with a knife. Having no room to escape, she accepted a glass of milk. What she could not have guessed was that the milk contained a powerful drug. The following three days she spent on drugs and was continually raped by different people until she seized an opportunity to escape.
Frida did not speak about it for a full decade, but when she shared her experience, she decided to make the most of it. She probably wondered how can she help human trafficking victims, and decided the best way would be to come out and show they are not alone, as one of the most dominant feelings victims experience is utter shame. Her award-winning film Selling Isobel is a word of grave warning, and to really make the statement, Frida herself is playing the lead role.
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9. A young bride
A lot of real life human trafficking examples and stories in Asia are about what the rest of the world takes pretty much for granted nowadays: the possibility of choosing your own partner. 13-year-old Tahmina was so traumatized that she couldn’t verbalize what she had been through, so she used a paper and pencil to draw her story. Amid the drawings, there was one figure: 50,000 rupees (about $700). Tahmina’s own sister and her husband tricked her into going on a day trip with them with the intention of selling her to the highest bidder. The groom was 30 years her senior (!). Fortunately, the child bride escaped from the “husband” after six weeks and found a safe house. The little girl was later reunited with her mother.
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8. 42,300
This is the approximate number of times Karla Jacinto was raped during the period of four years. One of the worst human trafficking stories in 2017.
This sex trafficking story starts with the line “she fell in love with the wrong man”, but this does not sum things up well enough. Karla was abused in her own family from a very young age, and she was only 12 when she met a 22-year-old man who started wooing her and claimed he was also abused as a child. With some kind words that she so long wanted to hear and the fact that he seemed to be well-off, it didn’t take much time for him to lure her into running away from home. After a couple of weeks living together, she was forced into prostitution and trafficked in different cities, suffering abuse daily (and even gave birth to a child) until she turned 16 and an anti-trafficking operation in Mexico City set her free.
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7. Blind trust
This is another example of a person completely deceived by someone who they used to know well. The victim and the sex trafficker attended the same high school. What makes this case particularly shocking is the fact that the kidnapped woman was blind, and the sex trafficker was female, too. The victim was looking for a job as a baby sitter and went to the criminal’s home without any doubts or fears. However, this is where the poor woman was assaulted and raped, and later forced to go to a hotel or otherwise she would be killed. It all happened in Jacksonville.
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6. Dangerous neighbors
A lot of human trafficking kidnapping stories begin right in front of a person’s home. In this story, the victim, who was originally from Romania and studying in London, was kidnapped right in front of her flat. Anna (not her real name) had no idea the couple living in her building were in fact traffickers. Threatened and beaten, she was taken to the airport with the promise to end up stabbed if she utters a cry or shows any sign for help. Eventually, the poor girl ended up in Ireland where when was held hostage, raped and tortured for almost a year.
When she came to realize they were going to transfer her to the Middle East, she started to work on an escape plan. Her mother was told she decided to become a prostitute on her own, and Anna had no one to turn to. She tried to steer clear of drugs and alcohol, which were frequently used by other girls to forget their doom for a short while. With a clear head and a bit of luck, she escaped one day, running to the city center. After two years of cooperating with the police, she managed to get some justice served.
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5. Porn slavery
You may not have expected to read about porn performers in a list of human trafficking real stories, but this is also one of the industries in which it is extremely easy to mask illegal activities. Which is worse, victims do not expect to encounter any understanding and believe it is extremely difficult to prove their innocence. For this reason, we had to raise awareness about it and make it a part of our 10 real life human trafficking examples and stories.
Linda Boreman, also known as Linda Lovelace, had the agreement of her husband to engage in the porn industry in 1972. However, she ended up being forced to have sex – what the company was filming were scenes of rape. Linda was threatened to film scenes or otherwise, her family will be killed. She later became an advocate of anti-porn campaigns and shared her horror story to the world.
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4. A boy’s story
In order to break gender prejudices, we’ve decided to incorporate a male point of view into our list of 10 real life human trafficking examples and stories. Tom Jones’s mother died at giving birth to him, and this is something his own father held against him since the day he was born. The father’s hatred resulted in molesting and trafficking his son between the age of 6 and 15. When he turned 15, Jones finally plucked the courage to go to the police and report his father, but the case was not easy at all. The story happened in the 70s in Missouri, and being a person of color did not make it any easier.
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3. A friend of a friend
It is natural to believe a person who your own company is familiar with, so when Sarah met her future trafficker in a club while surrounded with friends, she thought she had no reason to mistrust him. She was 21 at the time, and started to fall in love as the guy seemed to pay great attention to her an did lots of romantic and thoughtful gestures. They were in a relationship for a month when he suggested a “modeling job” to her. Going to a hotel to do the gig should have been a red flag, but… What followed was the beginning of 6-month horror in which she was repeatedly drugged and raped until she managed to save herself.
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2. The slave mark
Growing up in foster homes did not instill much confidence into a 16-year-old FV, who was easy prey to Edward Bagley. The young girl was a frequent visitor of his family, as she dated his son. It all began with showing her some pornographic material, especially of sadomasochistic type. When she ran away from home, the trailer residence was where she searched sanctuary and eventually started a sexual relationship with Bagley. Having been promised to become a model and a dancer, she agreed to do what she was told.
In the next 6 years, FV was subjected to the most brutal sadistic activities, while the public thought she was doing so willingly. She even ended up on a cover of a magazine, with a full interview. What she failed to mention in it was the fact she would have been buried alive if she had tried to escape the torture. As a special sign of humiliation, her trafficker had her tattooed a bar code and a Chinese sign for a slave.
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1. The most powerful traffickers
The final story to end our disturbing list of 10 real life human trafficking examples and stories took place in Belgium and is told by Anneke Lucas. It is hard to name all the reasons why her confession can make you feel disgusted. Perhaps it’s the fact that her mother started trafficking her at the age of 6 in 1969, or that she was forced to eat human feces at orgies. Or maybe the part that her pedophile customers were the very creme de la creme of European politics, and even belonged to royalty. The people who abused her were real household names. They were perfectly able to take human lives without any consequences (as she saw herself when they faced her with a murdered body when she once rebelled), and they literally ruled the world. Like all the other victims, she used to wonder who on earth would believe her. After all, a Belgian cabinet minister was the head of the pedophile network.
Anneke was set free in when she was 11, as her life was spared in the last second after a session of extensive torture. She was told to remain silent or they would finish the job. And for 40 years, she struggled with her demons in silence. Today, the whole world knows her story. The culprits were found, but not all of them were punished. Sometimes, justice indeed is blind.
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