Kat Rohrer has co-produced and directed a feature length documentary called Fatal Promises about Human Trafficking in Ukraine, the second largest country in Europe. Ukraine is a prime example of a country struggling to establish a stable economic and legal system. Human Trafficking is the single largest criminal enterprise. I’ll let that sink in for a moment. This is the second largest country in Europe we’re talking about.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union hundreds of thousands of men, women and children have been trafficked from Ukraine to the Balkans, Western Europe, Russia, and among others the United States. Even though Ukraine has subscribed to several international anti trafficking programs since 2003 and has created The Ukrainian State Programme to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings the number of children trafficked for prostitution has risen and sentences for convicted traffickers are light.
The documentary is unusual in that it also portrays the gut-wrenching situation for men who are trafficked. This post is about two of them. One in his early 20’s and the other his late 40’s, were offered what they were told was short-term labor on a fishing vessel at better wages than they had available to them in their area. They both said they were not afraid of hard work and would do it willingly to provide for their families. They accepted the job offers and were taken on a lengthy overland journey and then by ship to a dilapidated and unsound fishing vessel in a remote area. They were told they were over 1,000 miles from the nearest land, held in rooms with no food, beds or warm clothing for more than a week until they began to break. They were beaten and told if they did not work worse would come. The catch they were to work for was crab and when their captors finally began feeding the starving workers they gave them the rotting fish bait in the hold. They worked the men round the clock, 7 days a week. They gave rotating 15 minute breaks and the men had to decide if they would rather eat or sleep. Many dropped from exhaustion or were severely injured.
They were released when the boat was raided, some had been captive there for 6 years. The older man spoke of returning to his village and feeling ashamed because he had not provided for his wife and daughters. His last words in the interview were “That is what a father does, provide for his family.” The younger man’s health was completely broken and he could not find work . There was no redress for them.
Unlike colonialist slavery, there are no universal parameters of ethnicity or creed in this modern incarnation. The constancy is the greed of the slaveholders, and the robbing of its victim’s humanity, dignity and freedom.
I'll be sharing more about Fatal Promises.
Thanks. You're right, we don't often think of (or hear about) the men who are trafficked.
Posted by: Wendy | 12/06/2010 at 01:01 PM