Sex Trafficking v Prostitution: Judging the evidence

10 December 2008 by laura agustin | 17 comments | print print

Because I question unfounded statistics and uninformed statements about the extent of abusive human trafficking, certain critics say I am a pimp, associate of traffickers or paid by the international sex industry.

But all I want to do in this post is show how a mainstream news medium’s ‘undercover investigation’, one with live images, fails to prove its point about sex trafficking. In the following video, reporters filmed men and women in a field, sometimes running, sometimes walking, sometimes talking together.

Since the reporter says sex between the men and women was observed but not shown in the video, I’m willing to believe that we’re looking at prostitution, maybe in an informal outdoor brothel. But what we’re shown cannot be called sex trafficking unless we hear from the women themselves whether they opted into this situation on any level at all. They aren’t in chains and no guns are pointed at them, although they might be coerced, frightened, loaded with debt or wishing they were anywhere else. But we don’t hear from them. I’m not blaming the reporters or police involved for not rushing up to ask them, but the fact is that their voices are absent.

I want to consider what we think constitutes evidence about trafficking. If we remove the reporter’s dramatic, stylised commentary and the police officer’s opinions, what have we got? Images of people from afar, probably having sex outdoors, in conditions some of us might prefer to avoid - but not all of us.

Here’s the video from 2003.

Do you see what I mean?

These California fields have been the subject of other reports, including one calling them Rape Camps. But HIV-AIDS outreach undertaken with migrant farm workers who live in isolated conditions in the middle of nowhere find that many want to use some of their earnings to pay for sex and that there are people who arrange for women to come to them. The farm workers are paid badly and probably prefer, at least sometimes, to spend less by not going into town or more formally organised sex venues.

In the fields, it’s likely no one cleans up much, which makes things look sleazy. The location of the encounters shifts, which is the essence of an informal economic arrangement. Research in the US Southeast (the other side of the country, where latinos are also doing farm labour) has documented these phenomena.

There are lots of things we might find out about the fields near San Diego, and probably there’s more than one story there. But I do know that in this video, we don’t see evidence for the sex-trafficking story. Feeling titillated or disgusted ourselves does not prove anything about what we are looking at or about how the people actually involved felt.

What about the next example, said to be published 23 November 2008 by Al Jazeera (but I cannot find it on their own site)?

In this more conventional video, a reporter dressed like a tourist strolls past women lined up on Singapore streets, commenting on their many nationalities and that ‘they seem to be doing it willingly’. But since he sees pimps everywhere he wonders whether the sex workers are victims of trafficking. His investigation consists of interviewing a single woman who testifies to having had a bad time. She articulates clearly how her debt to travel turned out to be too big to pay off without selling sex. Then an embassy official says numbers of trafficked victims have gone up, without explaining what he means by ‘trafficked’, exactly, or how the embassy keeps track of them. Prostitution is legal in Singapore, by the way, so it’s silly to act scandalised at the numbers of women in the street or be surprised that they come from other countries.

So here again, there could be bad stories, but we are shown no evidence of them. The women themselves, with the exception of one, are left in the background and treated like objects.

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17 comments

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10 December 2008 at 00:35

Holly

On this video, authorities mentioned that the traffickers held these women against their will, but they said nothing about how law enforcement does the same thing under the criminalization of prostitution. It’s so hypocritical how there are people who on the one hand, oppose traffickers using force, but on the other hand, support and in some cases enforce anti-prostitution laws that are resulting in the police forcibly hand-cuffing sex workers and forcing these workers to live in cages at jail.
Also, though they speculated that at least some of these people running through the fields were underage and engaging in prostitution, I could not discern their ages by the video or whether these women were enslaved or consensual workers, and I could not even tell whether they were involved in prostitution.

10 December 2008 at 03:57

Thaddeus Blanchette

Laura,

We recently had a similar T.V. bit here in Brazil. Rede Globo ran a six month “investigation” into sex tourism in Forteleza which purports to show gringos exploiting children.

What does it actucally show? Supposedly foreign men kissing supposedly Brazilian women goodbye in the airport. None of the women looked like minors, but RG didn’t even try to find out if they were or not: everything was filmed from a distance.

Nevertheless, in order to give more visual “oompf” to their claims that these were kids, RG placed a little black “censored” bar over each of the women’s eyes. This, of course, lead uncautious viewers to believe that it had been “proven” that gringos were exploiting kids in the NE.

Ironically, the youngest looking individual of the bunch was one of the men: a kid I’d place at about 16. Of course, the mens’ faces were bare and clearly visible by everyone.

I’m an ex-exchange student. I was wondering what would have happened if someone had caught me kissing my highschool girlfriend goodbye when I left Brazil. I wish RG had actually done this to me - a gringo who’s also a citizen, speaks the language and knows how to fight back. I would have dragged their asses through so many courst for defaming my character. But unfortunately, as always, they shot pictures of itinerant foriegners who probably don’t even know that they were turned into poster-men for the foreign pedophile threat by Brazil’s largest T.V. network.

Keep up the good work!
Thaddeus Blanchette

10 December 2008 at 15:34

Ted Cheng

Hello, this is Ted Cheng from Taiwan
In Taiwan, prostitution is illegal and the prostitutes will be fined if they are caught, in comparison with brothels and customers who are not punished for prostitution (brothel may be if they are regarded as traffickers). Moreover, in the crimibnal code there is a statue of prevention of child and juvenile sexual trade which not only regulates child sexual trade but also punishes people psoting any related commercial information without an real victim. Because sex trade is illegal, especially sex trade with children, then the police and the government tend to see the trade as trafficking in persons, especially the trade with children definitely the trafficking, as TIP report suggests (TIP has strong influence on Taiwan, a place need international (us)recognition, in recent years). Therefore, in such a condition of illicity, sex workers are either criminals or victims (especially children or migrants), even though there is just a sex trade without any evidence of exploitation. At the same time, the mainstream anti-trafficking cause and discourses also became the other side of coin of anti-prostitution policy(also anti-pornography and anti-sexual dissidents policies) and further regulated sexuality of migrants and children.
Btw, I am really inspired by what you wrote, and i am a volunteer for a sex worker rights ogranization COSWAS in Taiwan. I translated your article CONTRIBUTING TO ‘DEVELOPMENT’: MONEY MADE SELLING SEX into chinese for the chinese version of RESEARCH FOR SEX WORK 9. Currently I am doing my MA thesis which is about the victimization of Taiwanese anti-human trafficking discourses and the state governance. I am arguing how sex workers and undocumented migrants are portrayed as criminals and victims in the mainstream antitrafficking discourses and how the government and certain NGOs are colloberating in the legal and particularly cultural pastoral work by such an exclusive but seemingly human (or reticient) discourse to constitute Taiwan national identity and morally infantile imagination.

11 December 2008 at 13:38

Kris the Donkey

Actually, there IS evidence of large scale human trafficking in the sex industry. And not so hard to find. Take a look at the website of tampep, read one of their newsletters:
http://www.tampep.com/documents/tampep_newsletter_2_7.pdf
Look at the section about the Netherlands, what they say about Eastern European prostitutes:
quote (page 14):”The women who work in the official prostitution scene are either Dutch nationals or aliens in possession of residence permit with permission to work or persons from the New EU countries who registered themselves in the Chamber of Commerce as self employed sex workers. Unfortunately, this last group of women, in spite of the fact that they can freely establish themselves as sex workers, still come with the help of the intermediaries with whom the have to share or give them all their earnings. There are also many women (Russian, Ukrainian, Albanian) whose work in prostitution is being facilitated by internation trafficking networks who supply the women with EU passports and control completely their situation and their earnings.”
another quote (page 15): “Last year the biggest group of newcomers have been from Hungary (often Roma) - they work in the window prostitution in most of the cities. The municipal policy with regard to their stay varies: in Amsterdam, they receive a permission for 3 months and after this they have to leave the town (or the country); in other towns they can stay as long as they want. They usually are in a position of dependency on third parties who organise their passage to the Netherlands and who strictly control the women.”

You can find much more. It’s funny to see that this information often comes from pro sex work movements who work with prostitutes. So I don’t suspect a bias. I’m surprised that anti-prostitution feminists and abolitionists don’t run away with this information and smear it into the faces of their enemies! (they always come with unfounded numbers).

Beware that not all forced prostitution comes accross borders. Registered victims of human trafficking in the Netherlands nowadays come in one third of the cases from the Netherlands itself. The situation in Germany is that same (about a quarter).

Thanks, by the way for fulfulling my earlier request! That was very interesting to read.

11 December 2008 at 17:54

laura agustin

Holly, thanks for pointing out that we can’t tell whether people are young or not at that distance.

Thad, what a great anecdote, thanks! Just the brown-and-white combination in an affectionate pose was enough to set critics off.

Ted, thanks for making the point that the US’s TIP reports are having real impacts on some countries’ national legislation. I am glad to hear about your work - could I even have a copy of your translation of my article?

Kris, this post is not about whether there are ever any trafficked people, it’s about how these two videos do not prove that there are - and these sorts of reports are typical. About the various reports you cite, the term ‘trafficking’ is being used differently by them, and by you, and by many other commentators. That’s a main point I’m making. We won’t all be communicating until we are more specific and subtle and stop using nearly meaningless labels.

12 December 2008 at 16:11

Ted Cheng

Hello, Laura, the link is your article in Chinese version, from page 10 to 13,
http://www.researchforsexwork.org/downloads/r4sw09zh.pdf

13 December 2008 at 22:36

Kris the Donkey

That’s a good one. What exactly is human trafficking? What is forced prostitution?

I think you have to look at sexual self determination. If a prostitute cannot decide when or where to have sex, or what kind of sex they do or don’t want to have, I think you could call that forced prostitution, or human trafficking for that matter. It would also be rape.

You question unfounded statistics, but what I read from reports by organizations like tampep, or the Red Thread or Cabiria who have lots of experience with doing fieldwork among prostitutes, and who don’t oppose prostitution per se, is that large groups of prostitutes are “in the power of”, are “completely controlled by” or even cannot work “independently from” certain third persons, called pimps, human traffickers and madams.

I think what they describe is not exactly sexual self determination.

I believe that forced prostitution must be very big indeed.

1 January 2009 at 04:31

Susan

Kris, it is not farfetched that most people in the world who work as sex workers are not at their work because of “sexual self-determination” or “career choice”. Because of the underground nature of the work and its lack of prestige, most people don’t consider doing sex work except under economic duress, i.e. as a last resort. And because they are under economic duress, this makes them vulnerable to those who would exploit them.

And the reason why the so-called anti-prostitution people do not use evidence from sex worker activist groups is because they don’t consider the latter to be legitimate organizations. If the antis used the evidence, then they would be legitimizing them and calling attention that these groups even exist.

And the thing you must really remember is that when anti-prostitution people use the term “sex slavery”, it is not the “slavery” that they are against, it’s the “sex”. Because if they were truly concerned about the slavery, they’d be doing a fucking lot more about it than they are now.

3 January 2009 at 20:57

MariaS

Small observation after watching the videos: regarding the second video, about Singapore, you write, “an embassy official says numbers of trafficked victims have gone up, without explaining what he means by ‘trafficked’, exactly, or how the embassy keeps track of them”

It seems quite clear from the video that he is talking about actual numbers of Filipino nationals who have approached their embassy in Singapore for assistance because they say they have been trafficked: 59 in 2005, 125 in 2006, and 212 in 2007. I imagine that the embassy keeps track of them in the same way it usually keeps track of the cases of its nationals who seek its help.

8 January 2009 at 19:15

gagged

“On this video, authorities mentioned that the traffickers held these women against their will, but they said nothing about how law enforcement does the same thing under the criminalization of prostitution. It’s so hypocritical”

“And the thing you must really remember is that when anti-prostitution people use the term “sex slavery”, it is not the “slavery” that they are against, it’s the “sex”. Because if they were truly concerned about the slavery, they’d be doing a fucking lot more about it than they are now.”

Susan and Holly have blown me away here. Comparing child abduction, torture and rape to jailing a prostitute? These are too very different situations and the thought that someone actually thinks this way is scary.

As long as some sex worker advocates jump down the throats of those fighting global sexual slavery, they will continue to completely ruin their credibility.

Criminalization of prostitution in the US = bad.
Sexual slavery/human trafficking = bad.

Get it together, girls.

8 January 2009 at 19:29

gagged

“this post is not about whether there are ever any trafficked people, it’s about how these two videos do not prove that there are - and these sorts of reports are typical.”

And you do not have enough evidence to prove there aren’t.

Stop the fight against the fight against human trafficking and suffering and you may find you can actually get somewhere.

15 October 2009 at 08:54

Nathan Findlay

My wife is Vietnamese. She lived in Cambodia for several years and had to deal with her friends being in sex trafficking. It is pure evil and dis heartening to see women, girls, children even boys treated like this. My wife has had close friends be forced to do thid dissgusting act. Those who participate in this crime I think should be executed for their behavior. For those people to refer trafficking to prostitution are in denial and need a rude awakening. They obviously do not have a soul or a heart. They need to just be quiet. I lose my respect for those kinds of people. These video clips were great examples that trafficking is being forced and not very many people care because it is getting worse. It is so deep into the system now that it is so hard to track them down and stop these people. When we went to visit Vietnam I saw many old men with young girls. I was nausiated by the sight. could not believe people still do this gross crime. The government there and in cambodia are also having people of their own in on this act. One story is on the border of Cambodia. A young girl wrote about it in an american magazine. She was 4 and now she is 20. My wife and I cried . We cannot believe this would happen. I am christian and do wish God would destroy these people now! But he is on his own time and I know he is there for them. I do pray for these women and girls for strength and courage. If any of you read these things that are in the trafficking you are dissgusting AND LOWER THAN GARBAGE. Those girls that are forced please tell someone and be brave if you can. Be smart about it. Please find help if you can reach it. I hope peace and tranquility to you all.

19 October 2009 at 04:32

Thaddeus Blanchette

Gagged says the following, which I believe puts the antis position into crystal clear perspective:

“And you do not have enough evidence to prove there aren’t.”

Gagged, Laura and I are both social scientists. Let me reiterate that point: SCIENTISTS.

You have just asked two scientists to prove a negative, which is a logically and empistemologically impossible thing to do. Either you do not comprehend how positive works, or you are arguing in incredibly bad faith. In either case, you are simply wrong.

It is neither my nor Laura’s responsability to “prove trafficking doesn’t exist”, a logically and empistemologically impossible task, and it is supremely ridiculous to ask us to do something that is impossible. (And, just for the record, it is not even our point that trafficking doesn’t exist, so why should we try to prove that? What we DO believe is that prostitution is being increasingly conflated with trafficking to no useful purpose).

It is the antis’ responsability to give us clear, non-contradictory definitions of trafficking and show us situations in which these definitions operate. For the most part, this is not occuring. For the most part, antis show prostitutes and say “enslaved trafficking victim”. There are, of course, exceptions, but I’d sayy 90% of the anti-trafficking propaganda out there confuses trafficking and prostitution and - worse - does so on purpose.