08 June 2007
State Department Offers Film Program on Trafficking in Persons, June 6, 2007(Goal is to raise worldwide awareness of “modern-day slavery”)
By Eric Green
USINFO Staff Writer
Washington -- U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide are arranging screenings for foreign audiences of several films that vividly display the evils of trafficking in persons, the modern-day equivalent of slavery.
This film program is designed to raise global awareness of how trafficking victims are used for sexual exploitation or forced labor, according to the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP).
State’s Summer of Anti-Trafficking in Persons Movies outreach program coincides with the June 12 release of the department’s 2007 Trafficking in Persons Report. The annual report is intended to highlight the growing efforts of the international community to combat human trafficking and to encourage foreign governments to take effective actions to counter all forms of trafficking in persons.
The screenings of the films will take place exclusively through the auspices of the U.S. embassies and consulates.
An official in the TIP office told USINFO June 6 that “it is hard to count the number of human trafficking victims worldwide” because trafficking is a hidden crime that occurs “under the shadows.”
The TIP film outreach program, now in its second year, has gotten a “tremendous response” from foreign audiences, and the high-quality American films have proven “very effective” in raising awareness of the trafficking issue, the official said.
If this program results in saving “even one person from being a victim of trafficking, then clearly we have made a difference,” said the official.
TELEVISION FEATURE, DOCUMENTARIES
One selection from the TIP program is a full-length feature movie entitled Human Trafficking. It was produced in 2005 by the Lifetime Channel and stars award-winning actors Donald Sutherland and Mira Sorvino. The movie tells the story of unsuspecting individuals who are lured into an international sex-trafficking ring by ruthless criminals. The movie follows the investigations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents (played by Sorvino and Sutherland), who break up an international human-trafficking ring and rescue victims.
The TIP’s office has arranged for Human Trafficking to have subtitles in French, Portuguese, Mandarin, Russian, Romanian, Spanish, Thai, Turkish and Ukrainian. (See related article.)
Another offering is called Sex Slaves, a program produced by public television station WGBH in Boston. It was shown on the Frontline public affairs TV series in February 2006 and portrays how five women from countries in Eastern Europe and Turkey were duped into sexual slavery, beaten by traffickers and “pimps” and sexually exploited for profit.
Three documentaries, presented by the Washington-based nongovernmental group Free the Slaves, concern labor trafficking in the United States and India. The documentaries are called Dreams Die Hard, Freedom and Beyond and The Silent Revolution.
The documentaries drive home the message that modern-day slavery exists nearly everywhere in the world, and that the U.S. government is working to eradicate the problem and rescue victims at home and abroad.
The documentaries also show that “bonded labor” in South Asia is an all-too-common form of slavery, which is “passed from generation to generation.” Bonded labor refers to employers that give high-interest loans to workers whose entire families then labor at low wages to pay off the debt. It is considered the least known and most widely used method of enslaving people worldwide.
The documentaries also show that it is possible for victims of modern-day slavery to regain their freedom.
MAJORITY OF VICTIMS WOMEN, GIRLS
The State Department says an estimated 800,000 people are victims of transnational human trafficking each year. The vast majority of the victims are women and girls. Trafficking victims, who are frequently from rural areas and have little education, are tricked into traveling abroad for what they are led to believe are better job opportunities.
The U.S. government maintains that human trafficking deprives people of their basic human rights and freedoms and has serious public health implications, including the spread of HIV/AIDS. Human trafficking also fuels the growth of organized crime.
Since fiscal year 2001, the United States has funded more than $448 million for international anti-trafficking projects.
See also the electronic journal article, "2007: The Year of Abolition."
More information about human trafficking is available on the State Department Web site.
Additional information on human trafficking films in available on the Web site of the nonprofit group Vital Voices Global Partnership.
Further information about Free the Slaves and its three documentaries is available on the group’s Web site.
