The Continuum of Trafficking and the 20 women we liberated this month from sexual slavery IN EUROPE.

Trigger warning: Sexual violence, gender, trafficking

My double life

My time has come to make parts of my humanitarian work public that I have kept hidden by request my hero and RED leader, Don Luis.

Don Luis and I met during the Colombian unrests, and since we met we have been involved in preventing massacres, genocides, and extracting volunteers who are being politically persecuted or kidnapped in Colombia and in Ukraine.

As volunteers of RED, Luis' charity registered in Spain, we have sat in tables that were of historical importance with national figureheads whose names everybody knows, and yet nobody knows us. We are always in the shadows, volunteering our time for no fame or glory.

"No one will ever know our names or even that we were here" we tell each other sometimes celebrating a major win after a meeting.

We sit with those leading policy and country so that we can save lives and uphold human rights for the victims of conflict and trafficking. But nobody must know our names or those of RED volunteers. We have had volunteers and their family members kidnapped, tortured, and killed because of our work. We have grieved together in silence, nights spent in turns breaking down and lifting each other up to continue to fight. Everything in the shadows of anonymity so that we can all live long enough to save more people.

"It is time to show our faces, Dianita" he tells me, "we need to do it for the victims of trafficking".

I am hesitant because I know what that means, showing my face means a thug might come tomorrow and make me a victim too, threaten and kill my family too. But I know why it is needed: we have just spent the first half of the meeting listening to a mother telling us the story of how her daughter was being trafficked to Spain for sex slavery. Cameras off, I'm crying on mute.

A girl, like me, with dreams and hopes, thinking she will come to join a family in Spain as baby sitter. They have called on video with her, showed her the house. For nearly an hour the mother elaborated on the lies, the coercions, the violence threats, the fighting that mother and daughter endured simply because of being ambitious and wanting a better life.

"It was an aunt who got her this 'job', she was living in her house"

I once came to Europe with similar dreams, and at the time I was lucky that 3 people told me "we think you are being trafficked". In the end, I knew I was not, and I emigrated to Europe with my European partner of 8 months at the time (we were together for 10 mostly-happy years in total).

At the time I thought "who is going to traffic someone like me". Colombia is a country where online and in person sex work is a major industry and a viable alternative for many girls that seek to have a financially comfortable life. I know many feel worse about themselves for it, but many don't. And they are a lot prettier than I am too. "Why would I be trafficked when such girls exist?", I thought. I now realise how naive I was, while listening to this mother's story.

"This could have been me".

Intervention isn't prevention

In 2022 our organisation RED rescued 60+ girls from sex trafficking. In January 2023 alone 20+ victims have been rescued, and the month isn't even finished. We are mopping with the faucet open.

It is clear that we must scale up our work and enter into prevention. To do this we need to talk about this plague, tell our role and our story. Explain to normal people how this happens around you without you seeing it.

It has become a fixture of our reality, ever present but always invisible to those who are not looking closely enough. The rest of us want to believe that this is something that happens only in other countries, in other realities not in my backyard, not in my shops. But in this interconnected world the chances are that you know someone that knows someone who is a trafficked slave, sexual or otherwise.

Now you have me, 1 degree of separation from modern day slaves.

Modern slavery

Modern slavery is often difficult to recognize because victims may not realize they are being exploited until it becomes obvious. Additionally, many victims are not protected by law due to their irregular legal status, and in some countries, they may be considered accomplices rather than victims, making it challenging to define the crime legally.

When victims are rescued, they may face further trauma by having to prove their innocence in court. This can be particularly difficult as they may have to relive their abuse while the burden of proof falls on them.

Many victims may not want to acknowledge their situation as slavery until something forces them to, such as standing trial or realizing that the promises of a job offer were not fulfilled.

For example when they go back home after months or years just to realise the promised payments never reached their families back home, or perhaps they have their freedom and integrity violated. Some are told once arriving at their destinations that they owe more money than they paid for the trip and so now they have to work to pay for it.

Sex trafficking

In the case of those trafficked for sex the realisation comes the moment their bodily integrity is violated against their will.

"I will kill myself tonight if you do not take me out. I will be raped and beaten endlessly when I get back, I cannot got through it one more day" one trafficked girl told our team.

She had been trafficked less than a month ago, se said this as our team explained to her we couldn't get her out until we knew her family back in Colombia was safe. The trafficking mafia was holding them as ransom so that she wouldn't think of escaping or denouncing, they would be dead in less than an hour. Don Luis is who calmed her down, set out to organise the protection of her family and her extraction from the brothel.

The Trafficking Continuum

The Trafficking Continuum is a model proposed by Professor Liz Kelly, a leading expert in the field of gender-based violence and trafficking. The model describes the various forms of exploitation and abuse that individuals may experience along a continuum, ranging from "low-level" exploitation to "high-level" trafficking. The model also emphasizes that trafficking is not a one-time event, but rather a process that can occur over time and in different contexts. The purpose of the model is to help practitioners and researchers understand the complex and nuanced nature of trafficking, and to develop more effective responses to this global problem.

The Trafficking Continuum model is based on the idea that trafficking is not a single, homogeneous phenomenon, but rather a complex and multifaceted issue that can take many different forms. According to Kelly, the model includes five main stages:

1. Pre-recruitment: This is the stage in which individuals are targeted and groomed for trafficking. This may include tactics such as deception, manipulation, and the use of force or coercion.
2. Recruitment: This is the stage in which individuals are actively recruited or transported to a location where they will be exploited. This may include tactics such as kidnapping, false promises, or the use of false documents.
3. Exploitation: This is the stage in which individuals are forced, coerced, or deceived into performing labor or services. This may include tactics such as physical abuse, psychological abuse, or withholding of documents.
4. Post-exploitation: This is the stage in which individuals continue to be controlled and manipulated, even after they have been removed from the immediate situation of exploitation. This may include tactics such as debt bondage, threats, or blackmail.
5. Reintegration: This is the stage in which individuals are assisted in returning to their communities and rebuilding their lives. This may include tactics such as counseling, education, and vocational training.

The model also emphasizes that these stages are not necessarily linear and individuals may experience multiple stages at once or move back and forth between stages. Kelly argues that this model allows for a more nuanced and holistic understanding of trafficking, which in turn can help practitioners and researchers design more effective responses to this complex problem.

No statistics

In the end our team the trafficked girl that wanted to end her life was successfully extracted and her family was protected by our team of RED volunteers.

But I know, for all the women we have taken out there are millions in Europe who have no such luck, from many more nationalities. This year alone thousands of Ukrainian women have landed in similar situations, in particular I know of the Albanian mafia having trafficked many underaged and young ukrainian women with promises of work, hosting... sometimes all that was needed was a free ride offer. Nobody knows where to.

There are no statistics as the current statistics for trafficking were collected during the pandemic and do not reflect the reality where trafficking of people has surpassed pre-covid times due to the increased human migration towards Europe from Latin America and Ukraine.

"Yes Luis, we need to show our faces and scream it from the rooftops. That the facade of the reality we live in, hides a nasty hidden secret that we all have the responsibility to acknowledge and address".

Time to invite others to break the shackles, and indeed together with your help WE WILL! Please DM me if you want to know how, and help end this tragedy.

Many of our volunteers and supporters are people like you and I who is simply set in saving lives, no fame no glory. Only a determination to uphold human rights and support victims.

Thank you!

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." (Margaret Mead).

Part of this blog may have been generated by an OpenAI or ChatGPT language model.