|
S |
ura Rachel Machajm was just fourteen when she married her
husband in a silent wedding in Poland.
She dreamed of sailing to America with her new husband, but instead he
sailed her to Buenos Aires, Argentina, and forced her to work in a brothel.[1] Stories like this one were often heard all around the world
in the early nineteenth century. Interestingly, at the end of the nineteenth
century, Buenos Aires had a terrible reputation internationally. The city was
then known as the" Port of Missing Women," a place where kidnapped
European women were unwillingly sold into prostitution.[2] Today, that action would be defined as Òsex
trafficking.Ó The ÒVictims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000,Ó
in the Trafficking in Persons Report submitted to Congress by the US Secretary of State, sex
trafficking is defined as:
"(a) Éa commercial sex act that is induced by force, fraud, or
coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained
18 years of age; or (b) the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision,
or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud
or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage,
debt bondage, or slavery." [3]
Argentina remains a primary destination for women and
children trafficked for the purposes of sexual and labor exploitation. Foreign
women and children trafficked into Argentina for commercial sexual exploitation
are primarily from Paraguay, Bolivia, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Colombia,
and Chile.[4] In turn, Argentinean women and girls are trafficked to neighboring
countries for these same purposes.
Comparing
the statues of sex trafficking in Argentina now to a century ago, things seem
little different in Buenos Aires, except in the past it was known as ÒWhite
SlaveryÓ. To truly understand, and
determine, why sex trafficking exist in Buenos Aires today, the white-slave
trade of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century must be examined for
the reason, White SlaveryÕs basic functional elements maintained it throughout
history and incorporated it into modern times.
White Slavery 1875-1930
The famous French writer, Victor
Hugo coined the term Ôwhite slaveryÕ in 1870 to refer to the international
traffic in women and children for the purpose of sexual exploitation.[5] Yet, before that, the phrase Ôwhite slaveryÕ was first
used in the context of prostitution in the 1830s by London reformer, Dr Michael
Ryan.[6] The regard of the word ÔwhiteÕ
was thought to rally as much support as possible from Europeans who cringed at
the thought of their women being forced to have sex with men of foreign
nationalities and mixed races.[7] The earliest pioneers of the white-slave trade in Argentina
were David Auerbach and Leib Hirshkovits in 1867. Auerbach had set up a deal to traffic several women into
Buenos Aires from Budapest, but on his way to transport the women, he got
shipwrecked and died. Hirshkovits then continued AuerbachÕs deal and managed to
transport the women to Buenos Aires. There, he sold the women off as his own
daughters and nieces to respectable men who were desperate for wives. Hirshkovits
continued on for some time to trafficking more women into Argentina, until some
other procurers, who had obtained the first licensed brothels in Buenos Aires,
muscled him out.[8]
Although
Hirshkovits paved the way for the white slavery in Argentina, the trade did not
accelerate until after 1875, with the legalization of prostitution and extreme
poverty within Eastern Europe. Argentina
officially legalized prostitution in January 1875, when the Buenos Aires
municipal council permitted female sexual commerce within authorized licensed
bordellos (or brothel).[9] 
Immediately, this caused some attention abroad. Three months after the legalization,
the French court jailed two French men for trafficking young French women into
Buenos Aires. Twelve months after
this ruling, the same thing occurred to some Hungarians who were trying to
traffic a boat laden with Jewish women from East Europe to Buenos Aires.[10] In addition, the Times of London reported the arrest of two Russian men
in 1907 England, for trafficking two Russian Jewish girls from England to
Buenos Aires for immoral purposes. The news article noted that the offender,
Louis Gold, had been engaged in this type of trafficking for five years, and
his co-offender Harry Cohen, had previously procured a girl to Buenos Aires
before their arrest. [11] It became evident that international white slave traffickers
fed the bordellos in Buenos Aires.
Between 1889 and 1901, there were 6,413 registered prostitutes in Buenos
Aires, and only twenty-five percent were native–born. Nineteen percent were Russian and
Romanian, thirty-six percent were German and Austro-Hungarian, Italy yielded
thirteen percent yielded, nine percent came from France, and one percent was
from England.[12] In 1903, the German National Committee to Combat White
Slavery implied that most of the European women were of Jewish descent.[13] In fact, the rate of Jewish victims was so high that the
Jewish Association for the Protection of Girls and Women (JAPG&W) was
established to combat white slavery of Jewish females. The JAPG&W held a conference on the
suppression of the traffic in girls and women in London on April 5-7, 1910 in
which it gave statistics for Buenos Aires. The committee reported 199 licensed bordellos in Buenos
Aires at the end of 1909, and each bordello held about 537 women and
girls. Of the 537 prostitutes, 265
were reportedly of Jewish descent.[14]
Why
had so many Jewish women been sold into white slavery? Several factors led to
this result. First, in the
beginning of the twentieth century, six million Jews were living on the brink
of starvation. Social structures
collapsed all around Jews during the early twentieth century, followed by the
spread of refugee camps and outbreaks of religious persecutions in Germany,
Austria, Russia and Poland.
Between 1881 and 1914, more then a million Jews were escaping this
extreme poverty and anti-Semitic violence in Eastern Europe.[15] Because of this massive upheaval, it seems understandable
why some Jews turned to prostituting and procuring to make ends meet. Young girls were literally sold to pimps
by their own family members, who were so poor they were hoping for large dowry
payments.[16] Many European prostitutes during this time involved
themselves out of desperation.
Rabbi Chaim Aryen Horowitz (1851-1900) said that poverty lowered moral
standards.[17] Thus, the undertaking of white slavery by Europeans
from areas of economic difficulties, especially after World War I, became
frequent. Another Rabbi named
Bloch said, ÒOne must have seen the misery of the Polish Jewish cities for
oneself, in order to understand that trip to Buenos Aires is not frightening.Ó[18]
Procurers
(or pimps) did, in fact, target Jewish females more for white slavery, reason
being, during this time Jews were very impoverished, and therefore more
susceptive to their deceptive ploys. For most people who are impoverished do
take more chances if they think it might improve their economic
well-being. Another reason why
Jewish females could have been targeted may have been because of their orthodox
practice. For instance, if a husband abandoned a Jewish woman for any reason,
she could not remarry. In addition,
all valid orthodox Jewish marriages made all women inferior to their
husbands. Therefore, pimp-husbands
rarely had trouble forcing wives to ÔworkÕ to support the family.[19] Similarly, an abandoned wife had to support herself and her
children because she could not have another husband to support her.
The Network of White Slavers
Buenos
Aires was the main terminal for a majority of victims of white slavery in the
early twentieth century. The white-slave traders secretly operated in criminal
rings or underground networks. They operated in networks for offensive and
defensive purposes.[20] These networks were made up of
several members who had distinct and key positions in trafficking females to
Buenos Aires. At the head of each ring would be the principal, or the main
boss. This person would have the reputation of having white slave traded in
many different countries, and he would be known to devise ways and means in
dodging regulations. For example, principals typically aligned themselves with
corrupt officials who they would pay to use in their favor. In addition, they
were the wealthiest among all white-slave traders, and they acted as moneylenders.
They loaned money with heavy interest rates to other procures who wanted to
re-model bordellos, or open new ones. They also loaned money for travel
expenses to secure and transport girls into Buenos Aires. Principals were
typically good business managers, and to them, white slave victims were just
merchandise.[21] Further more, the profits made from white slavery in those
days were extremely good. A statement made by one principal who was interviewed
by a League of Nations investigator commented on how easy and fast it was to
make money from the prostitution industry in Buenos Aires during the early
twentieth century, ÒWhen I first came here I had a hard time of itÉin fourteen
months I made 60,000 pesos, I invested what I made in several other houses and
now I have a steady incomeÉÓ[22] Considering that the
investigation was done in the 1920Õs, sixty thousand pesos was a large sum of
money back in those days, especially when the First World War just ended.
Next
in rank from this criminal network of white-slave traders would be the madams,
or the bordello keepers. Often times these madams would be married to the
Principals. Her job was to keep
the bordellos supplied with new ÒattractionsÓ, and have all the women
registered and met all demands of state regulations.[23] In addition, these madams had close relationships with the
pimps, or rufianes, who supplied their houses.
Pimps (or what the League of
Nations called souteneurs) acted as intermediaries, the middlemen who brought
Madams in touch with white slave victims. These rufianes were responsible for recruiting
new girls and transporting them. They arranged the victimÕs destinations from
one country to another and arranged for their being illegally smuggled into the
countries. [24] They often lured their victims with gifts and
lavish dreams of a better life in grand places. Once these pimps obtained the trust of their victims through
deceit, whether it was of love and marriage, or hopes of good employment, they
continued to maintain these pretenses until they were on a ship bound for
Buenos Aires. That is when they revealed their true intentions to their victims,
which was to sell the victims to a bordello for seventy-five to a hundred
pounds or often times, more.[25] The pimps also told the new wives or employees that they
were now indebted to the rufianes, and that the women must prostitute themselves to pay for
their travel expenses. Next the
pimps would enforce the Òdemoralization planÓ to get the girls to comply with
their demands. This plan consisted of repeatedly raping and beating the girls
until they were scared and demoralized into compliance.[26] Another Times of London article, from 1898, gives an example of this
plan. The article reported the
arrest of two men, Joseph Banker and James Smith, for procuring twenty-one
year-old Rachael Larkin, whose roommate had introduced her to them. Larkin said that the two men gave her
drinks, and on one occasion, Smith offered to marry her and convinced her to
stay at a hotel. Smith kept Larkin
at the hotel for four days, during which he physically violated, assaulted, and
threatened her. Afterwards, he
told Larkin she must prostitute herself, and when she refused he assaulted her
further.[27] Other horrible tortures done to
disobedient girls included burns to the body with cigarettes and even cutting
off their fingers.[28]
Victims of White Slavery
Most
victims would not disclose the fact that they were a victim of the white
slavery, either out of fear, or embarrassment that they were easily duped.[29] Jewish women were most in demand and fetched at the highest
prices in the market of prostitution.[30] There were four different types of prostitutes being
trafficked to Buenos Aires at this time.
First, there were women who were already prostitutes in their own
countries who heard they could make more money in Buenos Aires because prostitution
was legal there. When these
prostitutes agreed to sail to Buenos Aires through white slave traders,
however, they ended up exploited by the rufianes. White slavers traders knew that
these prostitutes did not know their way around the country, therefore the
girls had to trust their enslavers.
Furthermore, white-slave traders laid huge traveling debts upon these
women, amongst other things, to extort money.[31] As a result, those prostitutes who sailed to Buenos Aires in
the hopes of economic gain had to strive harder there then in their own countries
to make ends meet. Another type of women who was trafficked by white slave
traders were those women who came believing that they were going to be
mistresses to rich successful men. Traffickers posing in this role pursued
those victims with fine clothing and jewelry. Unfortunately those girls ended
up in bordellos prostituting just as others did. Another group of girls who were duped, were those who use to
earn their living as artistes and entertainers. These girls answered scam ads
placed by traffickers for employment in dance halls and theaters abroad. The last group of girls who were
trafficked was the young and na•ve.
This group was trafficked the most, and was duped through false pretence
of marriages.[32]
Once
inside bordellos, white slaves victims face the same prospects as native- born
prostitutes. The treatment of
prostitutes in Argentina can be described as part time jail inmates. For
instance, all prostitutes had to register in their bordellos and were not
allowed to leave the premises for more then twenty-four hours. Also, they have
to under go biweekly medical inspections at a venereal disease hospital, carry
prostitute ID cards, and live alone (without family).[33] Debt bondage is how most bordellos kept the girls from being
able to leave or quit prostituting. One owner of a
bordello told a League of Nations investigator, who was investigating white
slavery for the Special Body of Experts on the Traffic in Women and Children
in 1927 Report, that just one girl in his
house could average around 1,500 pesos, (equivalent to 500 dollars) a week. [34] If an average prostitute did make
1,500 pesos a week in Buenos Aires, a majority of that was taken for the cost
of medical exams, food, clothing, rent, and so forth. Also, during the early
nineteenth century, and early twentieth century, an average client would pay
only five pesos for each sexual service. Therefore, if an average prostitute was making
1,500 pesos a week from clients, then in one day she would make 214 pesos,
which meant she had to serve 42 clients a day. The
owner of the bordello also told the League of Nations investigator that at the
rate his prostitutes were earning, they could retire in five years. [35] That statement is
hard to believe because what ever the girls made in a day, bordello owners
would take half, therefore it would take much longer to reach retirement status
as he said. Most of the time, white slave
traders did not see their victims as anything other then commodities. When a new shipment of women and girls arrived
in Buenos Aires the traffickers and bordello keepers often gathered in backs of
shops or cafŽÕs to view the new ÒmerchandiseÕ from Europe, then the girls were
auctioned off to different bordellos.[36]
Jewish prostitutes often came together in times of need. With
venereal diseases rates being high, along with the mass amount of clients they
had to serve each day, many prostitutes died. 
Therefore, after so
many deaths and burials without proper Jewish rights, some Jewish prostitutes
came together and organized their own burial society called the Jewish
Benevolent and Burial Association, in 1906. This association collected funds
from their members to buy a plot of land for a cemetery, and to provided
themselves with everything they needed for old age, prescription drugs,
physicians, hospital and child care.[37]
The Argentine Government on the issue of White Slavery
The Argentine GovernmentÕs reasons for having prostitution
legalized was to have prostitutes off the streets, enlarge city funds, and
control venereal disease at the same time. [38] Argentina indeed accumulated large
revenues from the steep licensing fees of prostitution houses, or bordellos, in
the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. The revenue generated
from the prostitution industry was significant enough that native women were
being harassed. For example, the state required all prostitutes to register to
a bordello, and any one who was accused of prostitution and was not registered
was automatically treated as a criminal and fined. During this time many innocent women and girls who were seen
in the company of men at night or walking alone at night were constantly
harassed by police who wanted to throw them in jail just to get a fine. If the
person was unable to pay the fine, the regulation was to place them in a
bordello to work off the fines. [39]
Ten years after the legalization of prostitution in Argentina,
public health and social control in the country turned severe. Reasons being, when the state had city
authorities enforcing the law for all prostitutes to get biweekly medical
examinations at venereal hospitals, and be clear of any diseases before
continuing to prostitute, that discouraged prostitutes from going to their
checkups. Many prostitutes who already knew that they were infected manage to
doge the examinations so they would not have to stop working; after all they
still had to pay the madams money for living expenses. Moreover, the medical
examinations themselves were costly, and many of the prostitutes in Buenos
Aires had children they needed to feed. Either that or they wanted to get out
of the industry as soon a possible, and that meant they had to keep working to
pay off their debts. Further more, clients of prostitutes often times did not
go in for check ups or treatments either, they did not want it to be known that
they are customers of prostitutes.
Also, at the time there were hardly any effective cures for most of the
venereal diseases. Not until the twentieth century were cures for syphilis or
gonorrhea found. These two reasons
alone cause venereal disease to spreads massively. In fact, more people died of
sexually transmitted diseases after the law was in place then they did before
its legislation. [40]
When the Argentine government was faced with the issue of white
slavery, it was unsure of its severity.
For one, several Argentine newspapers had printed articles covering the
white slave problems, but municipal officials found them to be skeptical. They
believed that the newspapers were acts of one group of white slavers trying to
expose and eliminate another white slave ring.
[41] In 1881, one Argentine newspaper, La
Pampa, reported several disturbing incidents of white slavery. The first involved a
fourteen-year-old girl reported missing by her mother. The girl was supposed to
be employed, and living with, a French seamstress named Margarita Charbanie,
but instead of having the girl sew clothing, she had men who paid her five
thousand pesos force themselves on the girl. After twenty-six days the girl was
found and released, and the French woman was arrested.[42] Another Argentine newspaper, called El
Puente de los Suspiros (the Bridge of Sights) was dedicated to the abolition of
white slavery, and urged women kept in bordellos against there wills to seek
help from the police:
Our story is your story, the tale of all European women who,
surprised and robbed of innocence, or because of misery, have been led to these
shores ignorant of the truth and lured by unfulfilled promisesÉ
Companeras: Listen to the voice of friendship and affection. Your
exploiters do not own you. If you want to abandon them, the police will protect
youÉStop being slaves and become ladies [senoras].[43]
Out of the three political parties in Argentina during the time of
licensed municipal bordellos (1875-1936), only the Socialist Party pushed for
laws that were aimed at ending female exploitation.[44] To spite the Socialist PartyÕs efforts,
most laws that were presented to Congress were not passed. For example, the
Palacios Laws, named after Alfredo Palacios who was the first Socialist in the
Chamber of Deputies, were a set of laws drafted by moral reformers called
Associacion Nacional Argentina Contra la Trata de Blancas. One law permitted
the incarceration of anyone, male or female, who seduced or otherwise forced a
minor into prostitution. 
The Palacios Laws failed to pass in
1913.[45] The Socialist Party actually
wanted to end licensed prostitution just to rid the country of White
Slavery. The Party did not get
very far in there persuasion of this; therefore they joined the several White
Slave Reforms abroad. Some
included the National Vigilance Association (Britain), International Federation
of Abolitionist, the International Bureau for the Suppression of the White
Slave Traffic, and the Jewish Association for the Protection of Girls and
Women. The Socialist Party
did manage to get one bill passed that was designed to punish rufianes, and it broadened the
definition of Ôwhite slaveryÕ to encompass the corruption of minors, both male
and females, and adult women under age of twenty-one. It also dealt with jail
sentences of foreign-born traffickers faced with deportation if convicted of
white slavery more than once.
This was a big step forward to the suppression of White Slavery;
however, the Socialist Party did not know how to deal with foreign-born
prostitutes, because most of the laws that they had tried to pass or did pass
dealt much with traffickers and pimps. [46]
The Argentine government had to reply to the questionnaire issued
by the League of NationsÕ ÒSpecial Body of Experts on the Traffic in Women and
ChildrenÓ in 1927. In its reply, the Argentine government expressed its
difficulties of dealing with traffickers. However, the Argentine government believed
if the state limited prostitution houses and the amount of girls within each
house that would be effective in the problems. At the end of the investigation,
the League of Nations stated that the Argentina government still had not
implemented anything toward the limitations that it had expressed. In addition, the Argentine government failed
to give any estimation or statistics on the amount of known traffickers within
Argentina. League of Nations
investigators obtained some statistical information from an Argentine police
department, which the police department said that it had a list of photographs
and fingerprint records of about 500 known suspects of traffickers and rufianes in the country. The problem was that having a
list of suspects did little to resolve the White Slave problems in Buenos
Aires, but the arrests of offenders would. Yet the police department failed to
mention its numbers of arrest made within the year. The police also stated they believed the municipal ordinances
were going to implement safeguards in freeing prostitutes who were held by
force, and that these safeguards were to be excellent measures. League of
Nations said, ÒAs of yet, there has been no activity carried into practice for
helping women to leave the practice of prostitution and earn their living honestly.Ó
[47]
In examining the questioner, it seems as if the Argentine
Government was unwilling to acknowledge that there was a problem of white
slavery. Perhaps the reason for
this is the Argentine Government did not want others countries to know the extent
of its white slavery problems because it was too embarrassed. The other reason
could have been because prostitution was legal in Argentina, and so the
Government may have assumed that all dealings involved with prostitution
including trafficking was legitimate.[48] 
More difficulties came
from having a handful of corrupted officials and law enforcers. Otherwise why
didnÕt the police give out any information on arrests made on white slave
traffickers or pimps? That leads
to the question, ÒWere there any?Ó Despite the massive loopholes within the Argentine penal
codes regarding human rights violations in forced prostitution, arrests were made.
One big bust was done a few years
after this investigation of the League of Nations, in 1930. It was in the
sections of La Boca, Buenos Aires. The police raided the dominant white slave
ring, the Zwi Migdal, issuing 424 arrest warrants against the members. The raid took more then ten days and
during the raid the police seized important documents that incriminated some of
the countryÕs highest-ranking politicians and civil servants. Out of the 424
served with arrest warrants, only 112 were arrested, including a few
high-ranking ring members.[49]
International reactions toward White Slavery
The white slave problem in Buenos Aires became widely known of by
1890.[50] As evidence of white slavery was
stacking, the international publicÕs image of Buenos Aires became viewed as the
evil city. Women and young European girls were discouraged from traveling by
train to cities in search of work, because they did fear that if they did they
would be kidnapped and sent to Argentine, most likely Buenos Aires, to work in
prostitution houses. The evidence that were being reported back to other
nations were not just the occasional reports of isolated cases of involuntary
prostitution, but more reports on organized pimping rings or other networks
associated with promoting sexual slavery. [51]
The tolerability of
prostitution varied widely among nations, however, most felt it was necessary
to proceed in steps to suppressing white slavery. Thus in 1902 and 1910 the
first two international agreements took place, it succeeded in getting white
slavery recognized as a juridical concept in international law, but only at the
price of consensus at the minimal level.
In other words, the signatories agreed to adjust domestic law to punish
procurers who offended abroad under any circumstances females under the age of
twenty, or who used force or fraud to procure for abroad any females regardless
of femaleÕs age. Shortly after,
anti-white-slavery leaders continue to push for the next advance in the
suppression of white slavery at an international diplomatic conference in
Paris, 1910. Not until 1933 did the anti-white-slavery movement have an
international convention agree to declare illegal the procuring of adults, voluntary
or not, for sex overseas. It is
evident that while white slavery was collectively opposed internationally, suppression
movements proved slow. [52]
Sex Trafficking in Present Day Buenos Aires
Each
year the Department of State is required by law to submit a report to the U.S.
Congress on foreign governmentsÕ efforts to eliminate all types of trafficking
in person. This report is the annual Trafficking in Persons Report, and is effective in its intent
to raise global awareness, highlighting the growing efforts of the
international community to combat human trafficking, and encouraging foreign
governments to take effective actions to counter all forms of trafficking in
persons. Statistics from the 2004
Report showed that an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 men, women, and children
were trafficked internationally each year, approximately eighty percent were
females, and fifty percent were minors. Also, a majority of those females were
trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation. Farther more
these statistics do not represent the thousands trafficked within its own
national borders.[53] Sex trafficking is a crime and one of the worst kinds of
human rights violation. ItÕs victims are violated by the following human
rights; the right not to be held in involuntary servitude, or in slave like
conditions; the right not to be exploited; the right to be treated humane and
free from discrimination based on gender. [54]
In
comparing and contrasting information of white slavery from 1875-1930 and
modern day sex trafficking in Buenos Aires, it determined that key elements
from white slavery are still implemented today. First, victims of sex trafficking are still most often from
poverty-stricken societies. Today, as it was during white slavery, families are
driven by poverty to sell their children into what they often think are
legitimate jobs or for the exchange of money.[55] Argentine victims of the sex trafficking are trafficked internally,
from rural areas to urban ones. Even in modern sittings, victims are abducted outright and forced into the
sex trade. Today, there are a few more recruiting strategies for sex
trafficking then there were in white-slave trade. For example, entering the
cycle of the sex trade could through gang relations, peer influences, and
sometimes formerly trafficked family members. When it is gang related, it is
done so to raise money for the gang. When it is peer influenced, it is often
children who are homeless or runaways that influence each other to being sex
trafficked. [56] A similar characteristic of victims in both times included
high degrees of vulnerability, either from low education or just from being
young. Further more, debt bondage is another important similarity. In the beginning the
victims may have be offered an advanced fund required to secure travel
documents and pay for the passage to their destination countries, or they may
have simply be charged a fee for their job search services and the scammers had
the collection postponed until the victim have been smuggled into the different
countries and put to work. Often times they encourage their victims to
liquidate whatever assets they have to help pay service fees, but still however
much they do liquidate, it will never be enough because traffickers need to
bond their victims by debt.
For example, in an interview a couple years ago, a Salvadoran women age
18, was promised a job in a cafŽ, in Guatemala, there for she cross the border
on a market day. Market Days were the only days when the countryÕs borders can
be crossed without a permit. After
she crossed, two Guatemalan women who had promised her the job took her to the
immigration office and processed her papers. After, the women told her she was
now indebted to them for 1,500 quetzals (Guatemalan currency), and needed to
repay or they will blackmail her by reporting her undocumented and of
theft. She then was forced to live
in a brothel.[57] Similar to in white slavery, brothel keepers try to keep
their victims enslaved as long as they could to extort more money from
them. One women interviewed by
Human Rights Watch just after her release after eight grueling months of debt
bondage stated Ò ÒI had calculated that I must have paid it back long ago, but
the [bar manager] kept lying to me and said she didn't have the same records as
I did. During these eight months, I had to take every client that wanted meÉÓ Ó[58] After the victims were duped into agreeing to traveling
arrangements or fees, their debts immediately are compounded at usurious interest
rates multiplying rapidly each day. In addition,
traffickers add charges for room, board, and other living expenses to
this already massive debt. Furthermore,
these debts may convince the victims that their enslavement is therefore legitimate,
and that they have no alternative but to comply. The reason why so many are entrapped in the sex trade for so
long is that traffickers can re-sell victimsÕ debts to other traffickers or
employers, therefore they are caught in a never ending cycle of debt bondage.[59]
Besides
being extorted sexually, victims have to endure terrible and coercive
conditions, including physically abusive clients. Compared to white slavery
days, victims today are further sexually extorted besides just forced
prostitution. Several victims of sex trafficking mentioned in an interview that
brothel owners videotaped them with clients and then sold the tapes to other
clients. Furthermore, victims were
still forbidden to leave the premises without supervision, and anyone who
caused a disturbance for the brothel keepers were threatened with being re-sold
and having their debt doubled. [60] Unfortunately, even now victims rarely denounce traffickers. Most of the time it is from fear; more
so than it is from the embarrassment or shame of being a prostitute. One can understood why many hesitated to
cry out for help. Their identification papers are often withheld from them, and traffickers
threatened violence against them and or their family members if they did not
comply. Yet the main fear
seems to be being arrested in a foreign country. As one victim said, ÒWithout
my documents I was sure I would be arrested and jailed by the police.Ó[61] This victim many not be wrong in
her fears of being arrested, because according to one article on sex
trafficking stated that victims are more likely to be arrested than rescued by
local authorities. [62]
Traffickers have not changed in characteristics from white slavery
days to now. In the early
twentieth century, traffickers or pimps would pose as rich tourists, or
important members of the theater, acting or modeling agents, and other such
deceits. This action still persist only now procures are adding salesmen,
successful businessmen or bureaucrats. [63] Sex trafficking networks are setup just
about the same now as they were in the past. They operate individually, or in
small groups. The trade is also organized into international criminal
organizations. 
After pimps secure the
girls through whatever deceit they used, they next have people to prep travel
documents, they have smuggles who transport victims, corrupt police and other
public official in there cooperation, is all similar to the past. These peoples
are intermediaries of each sex trade organization, they escort the victims to
their destination and the women have no control over the nature or place of the
work, nor the terms or conditions of their employment. [64] Another major participant within the network are
the mob bosses who are in charge of the lucrative smuggling operations.[65] In 2003, British police arrested a
twenty-six year-old Albanian Mafia boss who smuggled fifty to sixty women into
Britain. According to the trial transcripts, Luan Plakici lured his victims
from impoverished families through promises of marriage. PlakiciÕs victims had
to work every single day, servicing twenty or more men, to pay just their
traveling debts, which were £16,000 or more. He extorted so much money from his
victims he was able to buy himself several luxury homes. The police arrested him shortly after he
purchased a Ferrari Spider.[66]
Government efforts
The current 2006 Trafficking in Persons Report places Argentina on
the United StatesÕ Tier 2 list. This
means when a country fails to make significant efforts to bring itself into
compliance with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking in
person, per US law, they receive a ÒTier 3Ó assessment. Such an assessment could lead to the
withholding of non-humanitarian, non-trade-related assistance from the United
States to that country. [67] For Argentina to receive a Tier 2
assessment, means the Argentine government is failing to show enough evidence
of increasing efforts to combat trafficking over the previous year,
particularly in the key area of prosecutions. In fact, officials were unable to
provide adequate information regarding the progress of government actions
against traffickers, but what was given showed that there were at least ten
investigations relating to sex trafficking, about thirty-three suspects
including two provincial officials, and no conclusions on any convictions.[68]
A century ago, the Argentine Government had difficulties dealing
with white slave traffickers, and now they still have difficulties dealing with
sex traffickers, which maybe linked to the inadequacy of their national criminal
laws. Primarily, there are just too many loopholes in the laws so offenders
often are dealt with lightly. In
fact, the unclear legal status of victims is one of the traffickerÕs most
powerful protections against prosecution.[69] Also, there were just as many corrupt
government officials during white slavery as there are now. Argentina lacks proper anti-trafficking
laws and subsequently, they have to apply other laws to indict penalties
against traffickers.[70] Penalties placed on
sex traffickers are based on other offences. This often resulted in an
inadequate interpretation, and in penalties that do not always match the
seriousness of the crime. In addition, because of the absence of anti-trafficking
laws in Argentina, it is the reason why officials were unable to provide
accurate information regarding their extent of their combating efforts.
Most think that slavery is a horrible thing of the past; yet
millions of women and children are presently held in sexual servitude world
wide, and half of them are estimated to have been trafficked by force, deceit,
or economic oppression. The
phenomenon whether it be white slavery or Sex Trafficking, is fueled by several
factors in Buenos Aires, such as extreme poverty, legal prostitution, immoral
procures, corruption of governmental officials and civil servicemen, inadequate
laws, and mainly a willful ignorance by many. A century ago in Buenos Aires, the majority of girls who
were trafficked across the borders for sexual exploitation were European
females, today many are still being trafficked across for the same reasons but
now its done more with girls from other Latin American countries. Today, there are only two regimes that still have state
sponsored slavery in practice, Burma and North Korea.[71] Those others who implement this so called Ômodern day
slaveryÕ such as sex trafficking, are organized crime groups. Albert Londres,
one of the earliest reporters to chronicle the white slave trade, notes that
Ò[A]s long as women cannot get work; as long as girls are cold and hungry; as
long as they do not know where to go for bed; as long as women do not earn
enough to allow themselves to be ill; or enough to buy themselves a warm coat
in winter, enough to buy food, sometimes for their families and their childrenÉthe
white slave trade will exist.Ó[72] The examination of the
white-slave trade a hundred years ago and of sex trafficking of modern times in
Argentina is just a primary example of a world wide phenomenon, past and
present, and quite possibly the future. Since white slavery days, Argentina is
no longer the sex trafficking market of the world, over time the trafficking
trade shifted through different regions.
Although Ôwhite slaveryÕ changed in terminology through out the years,
the definition is still the same, the core elements are still the same, and the
action is still very much alive, therefore white slavery never ended.