“You may think human trafficking has nothing to do with your life, but it could be happening just around your neighborhood,” said Wang Shu-chen (王淑貞), a Garden of Hope Foundation specialist.
Wang made the remarks yesterday in Taipei during a presentation of a series of films the foundation had arranged for public viewing. The foundation hopes to raise awareness of the issue with a film festival that focuses on human trafficking.
“When you say sexual harassment or domestic violence, people know what it is right away. But when you say human trafficking, it probably doesn’t ring a bell for most Taiwanese,” Wang said.
“That’s why we wanted to organize a film festival, so that the public could better understand human trafficking through movies and documentaries,” Wang said.
Stories of human trafficking victims are stories of modern slavery — although slavery was outlawed in most countries a long time ago, Wang said.
“Today, there are 27 million people enslaved through human trafficking — higher than the figure at the peak of the African slave trade centuries ago — and the average price for a modern slave is US$90,” Wang said.
The 88-minute film China Blue tells the stories of child laborers from rural China working at sweatshops manufacturing jeans for famous name brands in the US and Europe.
These child laborers often work 18 hours a day, are paid little and their boss deducts meal and lodging costs from the little amount of money they earn.
“This is what we call ‘labor trafficking,’” Wang said.
“When you buy jeans or other things at very low prices, does it ever come to mind that these products may have been made by victims of labor trafficking?” Wang said.
Another movie produced by the foundation, Working for a Better Future, documented how Vietnamese migrant workers left their homes to work in Taiwan to pay off the debts their families owed, and how they were treated as “merchandise” by employments and their employers.
“One of the Vietnamese migrant workers in the documentary, A-ching, was transferred from one employer to another 14 times within a year,” the foundation said.
Other than labor trafficking, there is also sex trafficking that sometimes takes place under the guise of marriage.
Citing an example, Wang said the foundation once handled a case in which a Vietnamese girl was forced to work at a brothel by her “husband” upon her arrival in Taiwan.
The girl refused and said she would be happy to work at any other job but the brothel, Wang recounted.
The girl’s husband told her, however, that working as a prostitute was her only option, Wang said.
Screenings of the films will be held next month in Taipei, Taichung, Kaohsiung and Taitung, with forums being held at the end of each screening.
Admission is free. For more information, visit www.goh.org.tw.
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