http://avxhome.se/blogs/crazy-slim

46

I was

a homeless teenager when my

nightmare unfolded. The whispers

of love and protection, followed by the seemingly

innocent request to be involved in an exclusive

“art project”, eventually led to my being forced by

my 40-year-old trafficker – on a daily basis – to do

unthinkable things while he recorded it all on camera.

I would often wake up suddenly and not know what

had happened to me. Each time I was sexually abused, I

died a little inside. But having then no understanding of

how I was being exploited, I was deceived into believing

that I was special. He kept all my money and isolated

me from the rest of the world in a tiny flat, leaving me

no one else to turn to.

Fortunately, I was not left numb to my situation,

and one day, I managed to escape. I was able to put the

past behind me – or so I thought. After that chapter of

my life ended, I felt inexplicably sullied and broken. In

2009, he died of colon cancer, and the first thing that

sprung to mind was that I urgently needed to get the

pictures back. I met with one of his family members,

who gave me a huge box. I had no clue what I had

left at his house that was so substantial in volume.

I opened the box and discovered that he had been

mass-producing and selling the photos. In my mind,

he would have kept perhaps 20 photos for his personal

pleasure – not thousands.

right Kathmandu,

Nepal: Maiti Nepal is an

organisation fighting the

sex trade in Nepal and

the trafficking of girls and

women into India. In Maiti

Nepal’s legal department’s

office there is a wall covered

with convicted criminals.

Their lawyers have sent over

600 traffickers to prison

Trafficking for the purpose

of sexual exploitation

accounts for

58 %

of all trafficking cases

detected globally, while

trafficking for forced labour

accounts for

36 %

Globally,

approximately

10 million

children are subjected to

various forms of sexual

exploitation in the

commercial sex industry

As of 2014, the estimated

annual profit from trafficking

for sexual exploitation

alone is

US$99 billion

worldwide

(UNODC, 2012)

(International Labour Organization)

(World Vision, 2009)

More than

2 million

children enter into

the commercial sex

industry annually

(Child Wise, 2006)

THE BIG PICTURE

(UNICEF, 2007)

The International Labour

Organization estimates that

around the world,

1.2 million

children are trafficked annually.

43 %

are trafficked for commercial

sexual exploitation

Even at this point, I was not certain what sex

trafficking was, so I did not understand fully what the

pictures meant. Then I came across an article about

a girl who had been trafficked into pornography, and

it hit me that our stories were essentially the same. It

didn’t just happen to desperate prostitutes coerced into

entering the industry. I too was merely a monetary tool

for an adult predator whom I loved.

Nothing quite prepares a juvenile for a realisation

of this magnitude. I began self-harming, lurking in the

dismal streets in the dead of the night. I wondered to

myself: Was this how the brainwashed sex workers felt,

padding back and forth the dingy alleys of the brothels

and strip clubs, living life in a dreadful, futile routine?

Each time I was sexually abused,

I died a little inside.

*This figure includes perpetrators of child sex tourism (Ch

More than

250,000

sex tourists visit Asia

each year, with

13 %

coming from Asia

d Wise, 2006)