Daryl Hannah, Sex Slaves & the New Global Sex Trade
by www.SixWise.com

Every year, an estimated 14,000 girls are smuggled into the United States from Eastern Europe and Asia and forced into secret sex slave rings. Actress Daryl Hannah, who recently revealed her own near-miss with a sex-slave ring, is now hoping her experience may help spotlight an issue that is long over-due to get American and worldwide attention.

Hannah, now 46, revealed that in the late 1970s she was offered a chance to model for an album cover in Las Vegas. However, she soon realized the offer was actually a scam to force her into a sex slave ring. Upon the realization, she and another girl were able to escape from a window and get back to Los Angeles unharmed -- however, thousands of other girls are not so lucky.

Hannah is hoping to bring awareness to this issue through a low-budget film that's in the works. The former "Splash" actress will be going undercover with hidden microphones and cameras to document what's really going on in brothels around the world.

"The more I learn, the more I am moved to take action," Hannah said.

"The Natashas" Reveals the Shocking, Dark Reality of Global Sex Trade Rings

In all, an estimated 1 million young women are sold worldwide for sex every year. In the Middle East, the women are known as "Natashas" (regardless of what country they came from), and they're the subject of an eye-opening and highly recommended exposé, "The Natashas: The New Global Sex Trade," by Canadian investigative journalist Victor Malarek.

The book reveals that girls as young as 10 are sold into this "21st century slavery," and forced to work in brothels, massage parlors, strip clubs and in apartments as private sex slaves in just about every corner of the world, including Europe, Asia, the Middle East, the United States and Canada.
Malarek reveals how women are smuggled into various countries under false pretenses, only to be beaten into submission, raped repeatedly and sometimes murdered.

"They think they're going to be waitresses, nannies, work in a hotel, that kind of thing. Then they get busted and broken," said Malarek. "Once women are beaten into submission, they never question their pimps after that. They do as he says or he will kill them, and the other girls see it."

A $12-Billion Industry, Supported by Officials

Sex trafficking, though hardly ever talked about, is the third most profitable black-market commodity.

"This is a $12-billion-U.S.-a-year industry, and it represents the world's third largest criminal money-making venture behind drugs and weapons," Malarek says.

While the women receive nothing (and are lucky to even get food), the gangs behind the sex rings earn huge profits, selling women for $500 to $10,000 (and the pimps that buy them easily make back the money, Malarek says).

Adding to the already desperate scenario, the people who are supposed to be rescuing the women are often in on the scam. In some countries, Malarek says, "the largest number of users of these trafficked girls, these slaves, are United Nations peacekeepers, international aid workers and international police officers, who come to bring freedom and democracy."

"You had people being arrested for war crimes, including on charges of rape, and then in comes this international group which is essentially doing the same thing, but calling it R-and-R -- rest and relaxation. That's the irony," he says.

Malarek has uncovered many of the scandals reported in "The Natashas" first-hand, by visiting countries from Bosnia to Isreal to the Ukraine. Though what you will read is shocking, "The Natashas: The New Global Sex Trade," is an indispensable cry for help from women and children forced into sex rings, and represents a major call to action for people worldwide.

Recommended Reading

How to Avoid Rape: An Article to Read & Pass on to Every Woman You Know

20% of High School and College Students Victims of Being Stalked: What to Do if You're Stalked

Sources

The Sun Online January 6, 2007

The Ukrainian Weekly