Human trafficking in Europe?
 

I saw the movie TAKEN which depicts the kidnapping of American young women in France and an elaborate network that sells them into sex slavery.

I know that human trafficking is a problem worldwide. But is this movie at all realistic? How many westerners are trafficked? My impression has been that human traffickers target women from eastern Europe and the third world and lure them into slavery with false job advertisements and help with illegal immigration.

Does anyone care to educate me further?

Ahh..the magic of Hollywood. What strikes me about your post is that you might actually believe this is true. I'm sure its happened to Westerners..but probably more to Eastern European women. I also think that we have to understand that other people in the world who see American TV and movies also think that what they see is what America is really like.....gangs, drugs, shootings, rape, violence.. you name it. It helps fuel a lot of ill will towards our way of life... or what they think is our way of life. Travel and education for us all is the only hope. Apparently only about 27% of American's hold a passport......so we too are quite vulnerable to what we might be told, rather than what we have experienced.

I think you should not rent the movie "Hostel".

I did not see this film, which got pretty lukewarm reviews.


But I do know that there are many western women working in the sex trade in India, Japan and other Asian countries. And there are many western women from Latin America who are victims of trafficking and working in the trade here in the US and overseas.

Another recent film on the subject is HOLLY.

Is your question whether or not many "white" western women are kidnapped and sold into sexual slavery?

kleroux, yes, I thought it might be true. Hence my question. I'm asking to be told the truth. So are you saying the movie is inaccurate? How would I know without asking the more informed? I do have a friend who believes it's all true. Give me credit for asking.

ekscrunchy, I guess I'm asking if educated women from the U.S. and Canada who are vacationing in Europe have been targeted for human trafficking as the movie depicts. White, black, Hispanic...it really hadn't occurred to me.

My guess is that the answer is "no." But I have no facts to back up this hunch; I do have a feeling that if this had happened there would be a lot of press coverage.

I think that it is mostly luring under false pretenses rather than actual kidnapping that sends most women into that life.

I was surprised to see the young prostitutes lining the roads south of Naples in the morning.
Our driver told us that these were mainly eastern Europeans.


If you have an interest in the subject,I highly recommend this film:

LILYA 4EVER

http://tinyurl.com/d4o8an

ek wrote, "I do have a feeling that if this had happened there would be a lot of press coverage."

That was my feeling, too. The movie is kind of annoying, because while I understand that fiction is fiction, it depicts this as a widespread problem. Seems silly to watch a story that has no basis in reality.

According to the most recent statistics of the German equivalent of the FBI, there had been 689 cases of sexually-related trafficking in Germany in 2007. Which stands for a gradual decline from the late 1990s when the yearly figure was around 1,000.

95% of those 689 victims had been women.

Nationalities of victims:
European 614 (among those: German 184, Bulgarian 77, Romanian 66, Czech 57, Polish 56, Russian 38, Hungarian 31, Other 105)
Asian 18 (among those: Thai 10)
African 29 (among those: Nigerian 19)
Americas 11 (note: NOT only US)
Unclear/Unknown 17

Even if you calculate a number of x unreported cases on top of the 689 on record, I doubt that the overall distribution of nationalities will differ much.

Seems silly to watch a story that has no basis in reality.

What?????? I'm certain you aren't limiting your viewing to National geographic documentaries these days.

On the face of it it would seem that a so-called 'educated' etc person of EITHER sex would find some way to get off the road south of Naples when they had the chance but then there is the addition of drug addiction, withheld documentation such as passports, etc., which would have additional power to enslave.

Sometimes I wonder about all those kids who are now working in US "amusement parks"....it seems as if half of them are from some country "that used to be behind the iron curtain" not to mention the folks now working the cruise ships.

Of course, it isn't human slavery but when you hear some of the stories which inevitably start out, "It isn't the way I thought it would be..." lots of movie fodder...

"Taken" was a fun action film but that's what it was, an action film. Luc Besson also wrote "The Professional" and I'm pretty sure NYC hasn't had a spate of Italian (and juvenile female) assassins getting into shooting and explosive wars with doped-up members of the NYPD. I'm really disturbed by the number of people that take Hollywood fantasies (or nightmares) as history or documentaries.

If you're worried about crime while traveling then look at the country warnings and advisories put out by agencies like the US State Department. They are conscientious about protecting American citizens and therefore advising of crime trends.

Okay, I get that movies are just movies. Maybe there is something in my own wiring that made this movie feel like it was based on actual events--a fictionalized expose. Or maybe it was that I went into it having been told by my friend who saw it before me that it makes her wary about travel to Europe (the same friend who believes in a Masonic conspiracy.) Believe me, I know the difference between movies and real life. Again, the fact that I came here asking should make it clear I'm not some airhead who believes everything Hollywood dishes out. Thanks for the info...

I think you are asking a number of questions
1) Is the film a work of fiction? Yep
2) Do people get stolen for sex industry? Yep
3) Do many Western Europeans or North American's? Nope
4) Do some? Yep

Well I am a well educated (have a masters degree and am a Chartered Accountant) Canadian and live in London and have lots of friends from N. America with the same background and have never heard of this being hte case. I have travelled almost yearly to Europe since 2001 and move here in 2007 and have never felt threatened. I agree that maybe it is more common with Eastern Europeans being trafficked in Western Europe and being put into prostitution, but thats just a hunch due to the advertising on the tube, not another scientific.

Here's a pretty good link about it. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5343036.stm

I'm not saying it NEVER happens (a US citizen being kidnapped) but it doesn't fit in with any of the standard trafficking operations. Young women, with little money or influence, are conned into coming abroad to work as nannies/homehelps/waitresses etc. They are prisoners from the moment they leave. Their families can be threatened. Their families and communities have no economic or political 'clout'. It happens to thousands of them and a few are rescued but it continues with few prosecutions.

With this comparatively easy option, why would any traffickers risk kidnapping people who are going to be high-risk and high-profile. Of course, the odd one or two Americans go missing in the world, for all sorts of reasons, but if hundreds or thousands of young American women were, don't you think the media would be full of it?

It's sad to realise that lives from one country are valued more greatly than lives from another. But it's true.

"but if hundreds or thousands of young American women were, don't you think the media would be full of it?
It's sad to realise that lives from one country are valued more greatly than lives from another. But it's true."

No, people take much more of an interest or value if the crimes affect someone of their nationality. In other words, the american media would be full of it if thousands of young american women were kidapped but the mexicans or nigerians wouldn't care. The british media would be full of it if thousands of young british women were kidnapped but the hondurans wouldn't care and the chinese media would be full of it if thousands of chinese were kidapped but not so if british or americans were kidapped and so on.

I've also seen this movie. It's based on reality as there are women forced into prostitution or kidnapped but these are almost always women who are poor and with little or no family backing. It is highly unlikely they would target a well off woman with family backing from any country including the woman in this story. Hollywood's job is to entertain and they made the woman well off and upper class to add to the shock factor. A fictional account based on reality.

<i>With this comparatively easy option, why would any traffickers risk kidnapping people who are going to be high-risk and high-profile.</i>

This is exactly right. There are much easier targets than tourists. Not all criminals are stupid. Like any other worker, you can expect them to take the easy way out. This means preying on immigrants, runaways, the poor, refugees, etc.

As in the rest of the world - the US has many prostitutes too - generally it is the young/naive and poor - who run away from or are lured away from home by ridiculous promises and often end up as hookers - and not singers, movie stars, models (or in the case of young women from third world countries, nannies or maids).

Very little is done by force - it's done by guile - except in rare cases.

Several years ago we had friends of friends from England visiting us. When they went to Las Vegas they did not go out after dark because they had heard that it was too dangerous!
You should take your friend with you "as security" and you both may learn how wonderful Europe is.

kleroux, you make way too many assumptions. I have been to Europe probably a dozen times, including extended stays while studying at Oxford and the University of London. I KNOW how wonderful Europe is. I have zero fear when I go there. In fact, your attempt to paint me as a nervous Nelly is quite ironic as I have been a recent participant on a thread in which I tried to calm the hysteria about the dangers of traveling in Mexico.

I asked a serious question, not out of fear (I'm a worldly, rather beefy, forty-something male), but in an effort to learn something about a subject I was recently exposed to. No need to be so condescending...

You might find this interesting: www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/slaves/

Thanks, thursdaysd. The interviews are fascinating...a great way to learn how this trafficking actually takes place. So sad for these women.

Here is another film about the subject of trafficking from eastern Europe. Considering that it is a Hollywood movie, I thought it was well done:

http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Human_T...1?trkid=496751

Since there is a high statistical correlation between drug abuse and street level prostitution in the US, one assumes that the same thing applies in other countries (not ignoring poverty-based sexual slavery in eastern/southern Europe or Asia). Therefore the chances of a Western girl/woman with a serious heroin or crack jones finding herself prostituted are not zero, but I don't think it would be anything most people would have to worry about.

Hi Cim,

I am far more concerned about young American women who are visiting Caribbean islands being lured out on dates and given rufies before being raped and murdered.

((I))

Good morning Cibrone. I certainly didn't mean to be condescending... I only meant that your friend who you said was afraid to go to Europe might profit from going with you... I thought from your original post that you too were nervous to travel. Since you say you have lived in Europe, I'm curious as to why you would think this movie depicted reality for American tourists?
I still say that what the American entertainment industry exports to other countries gives a very poor view of life in the USA.

kleroux, I didn't think it depicted reality. I thought that it MIGHT depict reality, that somehow I missed this situation in the news. I didn't think so, but I was just making sure. As I said above, to me the movie had the flavor of a fictionalized expose. Why that is so, I can't say for sure.

Actually, I have travelled with my friend to Mexico twice now, including to Zapatista territory and we have swam in waterfalls under the watchful eyes of machine gun-toting soldiers. I wasn't nervous at all. But my friend has not been to Europe and she thought the movie was depicting reality, and I watched it under that preconception--which has now been soundly squashed by more knowledgeable Fodorites. :)

I have every hope that my friend and I will travel to Europe together someday, and that I can protect her from all dangers...real and imagined.

Thanks for all the added links and responses.

swam? swum? I think it's "swum." Me the English teacher...

Swam. At least in the Queen's English.

I was about to be scathing about that assertion and looked it up first. To my horror, it's right. Mt Webster's says "swum- old fashioned". Guess that's me, then

swim - swam - swum. Traficking in Norway is Africans and Eastern Europeans. BTW to buy, but not to sell sex, is forbidden here since Jan 1st 2009

thursday and sheila, I think you are confusing past perfect with past tense. It's "swum."

From a grammar website:

You use "swum" in the past perfect tense (with "have")

I have swum in the lake for the past 3 years. Correct.
I have swam in the lake for the past 3 years. Incorrect.

I swam in the lake yesterday. Correct.
I swum in the lake yesterday. Incorrect.

Cimbrone - right. I missed the "have" which I wouldn't have used myself in that context.

The unrealistic part of the movie is the father and the rescue. The part about the kidnapping is real. I speak from experience. I was a target in Nice. I loved the idea of touring France solo. However, my experience was earth shattering and I learned the word "carefree" needs to be exchanged with "caution." Of course, that applies to anywhere--even at home.
After a great month in Paris I headed down to Nice. I rented a terrace apartment in the Cimiez section. It was the wee hours. The lights were off and the window open. Some guys came up to the front on their mopeds. They did not know I was near the window. I overheard them talking, in french---about me. They mentioned "the American woman" and that they think my father has money in the US. They went on to say where I went during the day and what was in my garbage. Then they said how they can get in and where I slept.
I was so frightened. I called the woman I rented from. She and her son stayed with me my final days. They had a gun for protection. Perhaps my situation would have been a ransom thing. I don't know and I'm glad I never found out. I believe I was one of the lucky ones.
Human trafficking is very real. How can stats reflect true facts? How do they know what becomes of those who are never found? I agree that it probably happens less to US women than those in other countries. My husband and I know people involved in educating people about this and will ask around for additonal info.

Cimbrone, I saw that movie and I don't blame you for questioning it's reality because I too was curious. It has nothing to do with being nervous about traveling (I have been to 24 countries in Europe and am currently planning a trip to Romania) but more about what is perhaps a sad reality.

I have read reports, and watched news stories, about human trafficking here in the US. In one program (maybe Dateline or 20/20, I don't remember) two Russian (I believe) women were lead to the US by false pretenses and forced into stripping and prostitution. They eventually escaped and were the ones telling their story. I imagine that if it happens here it can happen anywhere.

As mentioned above, I doubt thousands of young American women are captured in Western Europe because it would be too big of a story, but I have no basis to back up that assumption.

Here is an interesting website if you are curious: http://www.humantrafficking.org/

Tracy

I just realized, I don't mean to dissuade you from traveling. After that experience, I continued to travel to France alone. I went to places where the people knew me. When going to villages, the hotel managers would hook me up with the right people and places. I followed the advice given in Fudors, etc (money belt, hotel safes, etc). When I walked and toured, I walked as though I knew where I was going. When leaving the hotels, I left flowers in the reception and tipped the maids, receptionists, etc. Perhaps it was overkill; but, then, I was a woman traveling alone. When returning, the people at these places always looked after me.

<<<You use "swum" in the past perfect tense (with "have")

I have swum in the lake for the past 3 years. Correct.
I have swam in the lake for the past 3 years. Incorrect.>>>

"Have swum" is not past perfect, it is present perfect. Past perfect would be "had swum."

Have swum = present perfect
Had swum = past perfect

Here's some reading for anyone interested in human trafficking in Europe:

http://search.worldbank.org/all?qter...cking%20europe

We have a fairly lively human trafficking trade right here in DC. Just get off the Gallery Place metro stop any weekend night and look around.

Michael Moore has made a whole career out of making movies based on no facts at all. Taken is a documentary compared to his propaganda.

I used to work in Hollywood and currently live in Eastern Europe in a country where personal watercraft are illegal because so many women were being trafficked on a daily (yes, daily) basis.

I also want to tell you that although Hollywood must add action and glamor to a movie to sell tickets, they do their homework. Obviously, the entirety of Liam Neeson's character in Taken is fiction. The only other part of the movie I would guess is fiction is the part where the women are paraded in a glass cage and bid on. However, I do not know for sure.

Unfortunately, due to the pendulemic propensity of man, many have made posts here that fly one way or another. Most have scoffed at the fact that you would even consider any part of a movie realistic which is unfortunate as Hollywood has made a strong shift (largely since James Cameron's painstaking attention to realistic details in Titanic) toward social and historical accuracy.

I think bilboburgler's succinct post above says it best. Most women who are trafficked are from poorer countries. However, I know of one instance first-hand of an Australian business woman who was almost trafficked in Italy. Fortunately, she understood Italian and fled the taxi under the guise of wanting to stop to buy cigarettes.

In the end, I would not recommend traveling in a taxi alone as a single woman regardless of where you come from. This is a business to these people. So, Eastern European or American, what they see is money, not race. And, the more you get away with something the more daring and cavalier you become (not caring about what embassy or force may be protecting this potential cash cow)...and these people have gotten away with a lot.