Activists Protest Child Trafficking

Susie, born in Serbia, was sold into service by her father at the age of eight and ended up cleaning an apartment in the United States for four years. When she escaped, however, the Family Service Center sent her back to Serbia. Her father then resold her as a slave in the Sarajevo sex trade.

Andrea Powell, co-director of Fair Fund — a group formed to engage youth in civic activism — retold Susie’s story at the D.C. Stop Child Trafficking Now Walk on Saturday. D.C. Stop Modern Slavery, with the help of Stop Child Trafficking Now, organized the walk, which was part of a series of national walks this weekend designed to raise awareness of child trafficking.

“Teachers, social workers [and] state government official[s] failed to notice, but most importantly, those who lived in the apartment never questioned what this small girl was doing with a mop twice as big as her,” Powell said.

Hundreds of people interested in the issue of child trafficking gathered at Meridian Hill Park to participate in the walk. Members of Georgetown University’s Students Stopping the Trafficking of People also participated in the walk.

Other organizations, including the Polaris Project, International Justice Mission, Agape International Ministries, Bridge to Freedom Foundation and Project Meridian Foundation, gave out information on child trafficking at the event.

Georgetown Law Center professor Laura Lederer, founder and former director of the Protection Project — a human rights research institute at The Johns Hopkins University that focuses on human trafficking — shared her understanding of the issue.

“We say we need three Ps: prevention, protection and prosecution,” Lederer said. “I am nowadays focusing on tackling the demand side of the market by trying to find out those who actually buy and sell and to prosecute them so as to contract the market itself.”

But this can be complicated due to the secretive and complex nature of the human trafficking market.

“Child trafficking is a very organized activity; there are more than 10 people involved in trafficking a child,” said former Rep. Linda Smith (R-Wash.), founder of Shared Hope.

The Department of Justice estimates that 14,500 to 17,500 people are trafficked into the U.S. each year, excluding domestic trafficking. It speculates that these numbers are even higher.

“There are 12.3 million adult and children slaves around the country, 83 percent of them are involved in sex trafficking and 100,000 are youth. And 13 is the average age for prostitution,” D.C. Councilmember Phil Mendelson said.

There are an estimated 27 million slaves around the world today, with the United States being the second-highest destination for trafficked women, according to Stop Modern Slavery.

“Child trafficking, although frequent among the poor, can happen to anyone [anywhere], from a lost kid in a mall to a passer-by on the street,” Alexandra Levine, an intern at Project Meridian Foundation, said. “So it is important to know that it is the matter [for] everyone.”