United States

Trafficking | Prostitution | Pornography | Organized and Institutionalized Exploitation

"It is a violation of human rights when women are trafficked, bought and sold as prostitutes." (Hillary Clinton, Lviv Opera House, Lviv, Ukraine, "First Lady To Fight Prostitution," AP Online, 18 November 1997)

Trafficking in women plagues the United States as much as it does underdeveloped nations. Organized prostitution networks have migrated from metropolitan areas to small cities and suburbs. Women trafficked to the United States have been forced to have sex with 400-500 men to pay off $40,000 in debt for their passage. (Avita Ramdas, president of the Global Fund for Women sponsoring a recent prostitution conference, Brad Knickerbocker, "Prostitution’s Pernicious Reach Grows in the US" Christian Science Monitor, 23 October 1996)

In mid-1997 in Queens New York police were informed of more than 60 Mexican immigrants including 12 children ranging in age from 6 months to 6 years, being held in "involuntary servitude". (Deborah Sontag, "Deaf Mexicans Are Found in Forced Labor," New York Times, 20 June 1997)

The United Nations now lists Mexico as the number one center for the supply of young children to North America. Most are sold to rich, childless couples unwilling to wait for bona fide adoption agencies to provide them with a child. The majority are sent to international pedophile organizations. Many times the children are snatched while on errands for their parents. Often they are drugged and raped. Most of the children over 12 end up as prostitutes. Hector Ramirez, a former deputy, or Mexican Member of Parliament, stated that "many of the state and city authorities [are] doing absolutely nothing to stop what is going on." (Allan Hall, The Scotsman, 25 August 1998)

5,000 women of Chinese descent are in prostitution in Los Angeles. (Kathryn McMahon, Daniel B. Wood, "A Crusade to Free Captive Daughters," Christian Science Monitor, 12 March 1998)

Chinese women are being trafficked into the United States for brothels in New York and North Carolina. They are held in $40,000 debt bondage. ("Chinese women ‘forced into prostitution’ in US," BBC, 3 March 1998)

Traffickers force Chinese immigrants into indentured servitude, women into prostitution and men into the restaurant business. In September 1998, 153 men and 21 women, including 35 juveniles, arrived in San Diego, California from China via Mexico, after paying smugglers $30,000. In 1997, 69 and in 1993, 650 Chinese immigrants were intercepted in the same area. If caught by immigration (INS) officials, most will be sent back to China, unless they receive political asylum. The smugglers may face jail time in the United States. (Paula Story, "Chinese Immigrant Boat Reaches US," Associated Press Online, 19 September 1998)

Traffickers in Miami were receiving Asian children who were being trafficked through Europe by Japanese and Chinese criminal gangs. In one month, at least 15 children were smuggled into the United States for prostitution. ("Pedophilia ring uncovered in Italy," USA Today, Nov. 1997)

25 distinct Russian organized crime groups are operating in the United States in the areas of prostitution, fraud, money laundering, murder, extortion and drug trafficking and the Federal Bureau of Investigation has approximately 250 pending investigations targeting Russian gangs in 27 states. (Barbara Starr, "Former Soviet Union a playground for organized crime: A gangster’s paradise," ABC News, 14 September 1998)

Case

Five people have been accused of planning to traffic two Chinese women to Arkansas in the United States. (Associated Press, 8 July 1998)

Girls, as young as 13, were trafficked from Mexico via Texas, into Florida and held under $2,000 debt bondage for smuggling fees by the Cadenas, a criminal Mexican family, themselves illegal immigrants. The brothels, in operation since 1996, catered exclusively to Hispanic migrant workers. (John Pacenti, "Family Accused in Prostitution Ring," Associated Press, 25 February 1998)

Marvin Hersh, a Florida Atlantic University professor, was charged with alien smuggling and passport fraud for going to Honduras and bringing a teen-age boy back to Boca Raton, Florida for sex. Affidavits described Hersh as a longtime pedophile who traveled to Central America and Asia to find victims. He passed the boy off as his son. Hersh’s friend, Nelson Jay Buler, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida was charged with travelling for the purpose of illegal sexual contact with a minor, and aggravated sexual abuse of a child in Honduras. According to Title 18, Section 2423, a federal statute in the US, it is a crime for any American citizen to travel abroad with the intent to sexually abuse children. Sentences can be up to 10 years of imprisonment plus fines of US$ 250,000 ("Bond set for man accused of Honduras juvenile-sex trips," Associated Press)

Illegal immigrants from Asia were forced into prostitution to repay a $40,000 fee for their transport. In one case in California, the women were in their late teens or twenties. Three to six women were at each house and often made as much as $5,000 a week for the traffickers. (Midway City Police, Geoff Boucher and Steve Carney, "6 Arrested in Raid on Alleged Brothel," Los Angeles Times, 13 September 1997)

An international trafficking ring in San Jose, California and Toronto, Canada, trafficked women from Southeast Asia for prostitution. The women were prostituted under debt bondage to 100s of men to pay off a $40,000 debt for their passage. (Bill Wallace & Benjamin Pimental, "San Jose Women Held After Raid in Sex Slave Cases," San Francisco Chronicle, 13 September 1997)

Roman Israilov of Brooklyn, New York enslaved and raped a 20-year-old immigrant Russian woman and sexually abused her. He had intended later to sell her. Police who were notified by a neighbor arrested him. The police were having problems questioning the woman because she had just recently arrived and spoke very little English. (Frank Edozien and Larry Celona, "Man Kept Immigrant as His Sex Slave: Cops," New York Post, 15 September 1997)

Donald A. Young, a Pennsylvania lawyer is being charged with raping and imprisoning two Honduran women he met through magazine ads. He is also accused of abusing the women’s children in his home. Authorities believe he also imprisoned several other foreign women. He had bars on the windows and deadbolts on the doors. ("Man is charged with raping women he brought to US," Associated Press, 16 August 1997)

Richard Blau, a Manhattan businessman, has been charged with abusing an immigrant Burmese woman whom he kept chained in his bedroom for nearly two weeks after offering her work as a cleaning woman. (UPI, 20 August 1997)

Latvian Women Trafficked:

At least 5 Latvian women were trafficked to Chicago and held in slavery-like conditions, forced to strip at Chicago nightclubs. The women would earn as much as $600 a night in strip clubs, but were forced to give all but $20 to the traffickers.

The women were contacted by Alex Mishulovich, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Russia, who posed as a nightclub owner. He and his wife, Rudite Pede, approached the young woman on the streets of Riga, Latvia, and told them they could earn up to $60,000 a year dancing for men who wouldn't be allowed to grope them. Mishulovich, who claimed allegiance with the Chechnyan mafia, helped the women obtain immigration papers, but as soon as they arrived in Chicago he took their papers, locked them in apartments or hotel rooms, beat them and threatened to kill them. He told the women his mobster associates would kill their families in Latvia if they refused to obey him. At times, he held a gun to a woman's head or put a knife to her throat.

Mishulovich was charged with visa fraud, peonage - keeping someone in servitude- and conspiracy to commit peonage. He faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted. Pede was charged with visa fraud and conspiracy to commit peonage; she faces 30 years in prison. Three other people were also charged. The trafficking ring was uncovered by an American embassy official who became suspicious when many of the women listed the same address where they would be staying in the United States. (Federal Bureau of Investigation, Eric Fidler, "Two charged for enslaving stripper," Associated Press, September 1998)

Official Response and Action

United States President Bill Clinton, and Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi together have officially recognized and addressed trafficking in women and children for the purpose of forced prostitution. They have established a working group in order to deal with the problem. ("Clinton, Prodi discuss slave trade," United Press International, 6 May 1998)

Mail Order Brides

There have been 5,000 Filipina mail order brides entering the United States every year since 1986, a total of 55,000 as of 1997. (Gabriela, Statistics and the State of the Philippines, 24 July 1997)

Two Honduran "mail-order-brides" were imprisoned with their children and raped by attorney Donald A. Young in Pennsylvania. Young was charged with rape, assault, false imprisonment, harassment, stalking, and child abuse (Boston Globe, 6 August 1997)

The American mail-order bride industry has become a multi-million dollar business, marketing women from developing countries as potential brides to men in Western nations. (Lena H. Sun, "The Search For Miss Right Takes A Turn Toward Russia "Mail-Order Brides" Of The '90S Are Met Via Internet And On "Romance Tours," Washington Post, 8 March 1998)

In the United States, mail-order-bride agencies are developing everywhere. One business, A Foreign Affair, has had more than 15,000 male buyers since it began three years ago. Now there are 200 to 250 of these companies in the United States, a third of which started in 1997. At least 80 of these focus exclusively on Russian and Eastern European women. A Foreign Affair has about 3,500 women from Russia, Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America. The business claims they are responsible for an engagement or marriage every week. (Lena H. Sun, "The Search For Miss Right Takes A Turn Toward Russia "Mail-Order Brides" Of The '90S Are Met Via Internet And On "Romance Tours," Washington Post, 8 March 1998)

One Internet mail order bride service, RWL, Russian Women’s List, has more than 800 members, including military personnel and computer programmers. Ken Wells of the United States bought the addresses of about 600 women from 15 international marriage agencies over the Internet. (Lena H. Sun, "The Search For Miss Right Takes A Turn Toward Russia "Mail-Order Brides" Of The '90S Are Met Via Internet And On "Romance Tours," Washington Post, 8 March 1998)

A Bethesda MD based Encounters International mail order bride company began in July 1993. The business claims it has had 104 marriages, 55 engagements and four divorces as of February 1998. (Natasha Spivak, Lena H. Sun, "The Search For Miss Right Takes A Turn Toward Russia "Mail-Order Brides" Of The '90S Are Met Via Internet And On "Romance Tours," Washington Post, 8 March 1998)

Congress passed legislation that requires mail order bride agencies to give information about marriage fraud, legal residency and domestic violence to women in their agencies or risk $20,000 fines. The legislation, introduced by Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), estimated that 2,000 to 3,500 American men find wives through such agencies each year. (Lena H. Sun, "The Search For Miss Right Takes A Turn Toward Russia "Mail-Order Brides" Of The '90S Are Met Via Internet And On "Romance Tours," Washington Post, 8 March 1998)

In 1995, a computer lab technician shot and killed his Philippine wife in a Seattle courtroom. In 1996, a Texas man was convicted of murdering his fourth wife, a Philippine bride. (Lena H. Sun, "The Search For Miss Right Takes A Turn Toward Russia "Mail-Order Brides" Of The '90S Are Met Via Internet And On "Romance Tours," Washington Post, 8 March 1998)

Trafficking | Prostitution | Pornography | Organized and Institutionalized Exploitation