Human Trafficking Issues Quotes

Our guns were still strapped onto our backs, because a gun meant life. Without it there was no life in the LRA. After crossing the water and walking for a long time, there was a whisper in my heart, telling me that if we kept the guns we would get killed.

I was learning to listen to this gentle voice that spoke to my heart. This time what was said was hard to accept. I didn't know how I would convince my friends to throw away what seemed to be their last hope. The voice would not leave me alone. It continued to whisper in my ears to drop the guns. ~ Grace Akallo

The menace of human trafficking continues to endure only because, there are some heartless men who are taking advantage of the lives and bodies the gullible victims get trapped into. ~ Sunday Adelaja

The people of the city of Savannah within their collective conscience could follow previous examples in history and forgive the atrocities of actual slavery committed against slaves themselves. But what was it [the city] to do with the knowledge that children completely unaware of the greater ramifications of slavery were led to the Civil War slaughter in its name? How does one acknowledge with forgiveness such an unforgiving mutilation of one's own mind, body, soul, and legacy? ~ Aberjhani

Maybe slavery has been with us for centuries because of the inclination to maintain economic systems geared more toward commodifying human existence than developing its spiritual, creative, or scientific potentials. Such commodification instantly erases any recognition of humanity as a priceless value unto itself and reduces individuals as well as entire races, or a specific gender, to a bargain-priced 'other. ~ Aberjhani

I cannot fail these girls by diverting my eyes from the invisible residue of slavery that clings to them like a shadow. ~ Marquita Burke-DeJesus

In his fierce, bold determination to see the lives of modern-day slaves up close, Benjamin Skinner reminds me of the British abolitionist of two hundred years ago, Zachary Macaulay, who once traveled on a slave ship across the Atlantic, taking notes. Skinner goes everywhere, from border crossings to brothels to bargaining sessions with dealers in human beings, to bring us this vivid, searing account of the wide network of human trafficking and servitude which spans today's globe. ~ Adam Hochschild

Millions of our fellow human beings continue to live as contemporary slaves, victims of abominable practices like human trafficking, forced labour and sexual exploitation. Countless children are forced to become soldiers, work in sweat shops or are sold by desperate families. Women are brutalized and traded like commodities. Entire households and villages labour under debt bondage. ~ Ban Ki-moon

We sometimes hear people voice doubts about opposition to sex trafficking, genital cutting, or honor killings because of their supposed inevitability. What can our good intentions achieve against thousands of years of tradition? Our response is China. A century ago, China was arguably the worst place in the world to be born female. Foot-binding, child marriage, concubinage, and female infanticide were embedded in traditional Chinese culture...So was it cultural imperialism for Westerners to criticize foot-binding and female infanticide? Perhaps. But it was also the right thing to do. If we believe firmly in certain values, such as the equality of all human beings regardless of color or gender, then we should not be afraid to stand up for them; it would be feckless to defer to slavery, torture, foot-binding, honor killings, or genital cutting just because we believe in respecting other faiths or cultures. One lesson of China is that we need not accept that discrimination is an intractable element of any society. If culture were immutable, China would still be impoverished and [women] would be stumbling around on three-inch feet. ~ Nicholas D. Kristof

Josephine Butler (1828-1907) writes in her journals, pamphlets and diaries of the second half of the nineteenth century about seeing thousands (yes, thousands) of little girls, some as young as four or five, in the illegal brothels of London, Paris, Brussels, and Geneva ... The children had a life expectancy of two years, yet the brothel owners, frquently women, seemed to have an unlimited supply ... 'Clean' children, who were free from venereal disease, commanded a high price. All this is well documented, but strangely Mrs [sic] Butler never mentions little boys, though this branch of the trade must have been going on. ~ Jennifer Worth

The mental leaps from "I've got a daughter" to "she's dead" and then to "she's been murdered" could span the Grand Canyon. ~ Bob Mueller

It is by standing up for the rights of girls and women that we truly measure up as men. ~ Desmond Tutu

As I learned more about choice, and looked over the extensive evidence in all of the cases I had testified in, I realized that what was happening in the FLDS was human trafficking-both for labor and for sex. In mainstream society, money and lust are the currency. In the FLDS, salvation and position are the currency, but the forced acts of labor and sex are the same-the very definition of slavery. And whether greed or God is the currency, it is not right to own another's free agency. ~ Rebecca Musser

Ben Skinner's brains and courage take us into the belly of the beast and expose the ugly truth of modern slavery. Instead of sensation, A Crime So Monstrous gives us desperately needed insight and analysis. This is an important book, the first deep look into America's confused relationship with human trafficking and slavery today. Skinner's balanced dissection of our government's haphazard policies will be controversial, but it can also be the foundation for a new anti-slavery agenda, one that ends the political games being played with the lives of slaves. ~ Kevin Bales

Rape is a vicious thing.It's not gentle or considerate.To the recipient it's violent & painful. ~ Gladys Lawson

Summer turns and marches away, fed up with being handled like a child. Like she's a glass doll that might break at any minute. She hasn't been a child since the day she was whipped into muteness. Anxiety might strangle her sometimes, but she's not some baby needing to be coddled. ~ Laura Kreitzer

Did you ask to have sex with all those men? "Did you ask to be sold as a sex slave? ~ Gladys Lawson

Children are the most vulnerable and susceptible to become victims of human trafficking. ~ Asa Don Brown

But he couldn't feel self-pity in the face of the memorial. He hadn't lost nearly enough as these children, who'd lost their homeland and, in many cases,their whole families. Perhaps they had gained something, too, though. They had at least escaped the concentration camps, been taken in by good, caring families, and had grown up to live their lives in relative freedom. ~ Peter Robinson

CATHERINE'S INTRIGUE
"Paige Edwards is a writer readers will want more of. Her exciting debut novel is destined to lead the way to more enjoyable books."
Jennie Hansen, Meridian Magazine ~ Paige Edwards

[S]ex trafficking and mass rape should no more be seen as women's issues than slavery was a black issue or the Holocaust was a Jewish issue. These are all humanitarian concerns, transcending any one race, gender, or creed. ~ Nicholas D. Kristof And Sheryl WuDunn

It's so weird to live in this world. What a bizarre tension to care deeply about the refugee crisis in Syria and also about Gilmore Girls. It is so disorienting to fret over aged-out foster kids while saving money for a beach vacation. Is it even okay to have fun when there is so much suffering in our communities and churches and world? What does it say about us when we love things like sports, food, travel, and fashion in a world plagued with hunger and human trafficking? ~ Jen Hatmaker

Where do people get off telling people what to do? It's their bodies. If you legalized sex work and legally protected the sex workers, you wouldn't see anything like human trafficking. All of that would be obliterated. ~ Margaret Cho

All too often, the victims of smuggling and trafficking are encouraged to engage in the use of illegal substances. ~ Asa Don Brown

American diplomats had been slow to understand the scope of the change being driven by Chinese migration to Africa. The phenomenon had been flagged in State Department cables as early as 2005, with diplomats identifying the budding, large-scale movement of people from China to Africa as part of a campaign to expand Beijing's political influence and simultaneously advance China's business interests and overall clout. These early, classified warnings also spoke of the spread, via emigration, of Chinese organized crime, particularly in smuggling and human trafficking. For the most part, however, it seemed that American diplomats were still in search of the right voice, the right message. All too often, Washington struck a paternalistic tone that came across as: Listen up children, you must be careful about these tricky Chinese. ~ Howard W. French

Human trafficking is a human tragedy. It's an outrage against any decent people. ~ Mark Shields

The only people benefiting from the status quo in immigration in the USA are the people trafficking human beings across the border, and the people who are hiring illegal labor for cheap purposes. ~ Marco Rubio

I hate all men associated with stealing children,selling & sleeping with children. ~ Gladys Lawson

Slavery has not been abolished, it has been sanitized ~ Bangambiki Habyarimana

On the question of comfort women, when my thought goes to these people, who have been victimized by human trafficking and gone through immeasurable pain and suffering beyond description, my heart aches. And on this point, my thought has not changed at all from previous prime ministers. ~ Shinzo Abe

You sound off," he said. "Why are you whispering? I thought you and Ana were having dinner together." I bit my lip.
"It's kind of a funny story, but you have to promise not to yell."
"Why would a funny story make me yell?" he asked warily. "Well," I drawled. "I was on my way to meet up with Ana, and there was this truck parked in an alley that didn't look right. So, I left my bike on the street and went to check it out." "Jordan." I didn't need to see him to know he was pinching the bridge of his nose, something he'd been doing a lot in the last few months.
"Don't worry. They didn't see me."
His tone sharpened. "Who didn't see you?"
"The Gulaks. They were too busy loading the girls into the back." I paused as the truck slowed going around a curve. "I slipped on without them having a clue I was there."
He swore. "Do not tell me you climbed into a truck with a bunch of Gulak slavers." I scoffed softly. "Of course not. Give me some credit. I'm on the roof of the truck." He growled something, and I heard another male laughing. It sounded like Mario, one of the warriors we were working with on this job, along with his mate, Ana. We'd been in Panama for two weeks, at the request of the government, to locate and shut down a human trafficking ring. But this one was a lot more sophisticated than any other Gulak operation we'd encountered, and they'd managed to evade us completely. Until now.
"This is not a funny story," he said in an exasperated ~ Karen Lynch

Your character will always go ahead of you and speak words - good or bad - words will be spoken. ~ Blood Borne Connections - Gladys Lawson.

When you walked into my life, I knew at that moment who I am, everything inside of me was no longer mine. One touch from your hand is all it took, from that second on, I knew that I will always belong to you. ~ Karen-Anne Stewart

When bad things happen to men we say it's terrible, but when bad things happen to women we say that's just a cultural practice, says Lou de Baca, U.S. Ambassador at Large, Office to Combat and Monitor Human Trafficking. ~ Nita Belles

The Proverbs 31 woman is a star not because of what she does but how she does it - with valor. So do your thing. If it's refurbishing old furniture - do it with valor. If it's keeping up with your two-year-old - do it with valor. If it's fighting against human trafficking ... leading a company ... or getting other people to do your work for you - do it with valor. Take risks. Work hard. Make mistakes. Get up the next morning. And surround yourself with people who will cheer you on. ~ Rachel Held Evans

The Democrats are using the human trafficking bill's language that's been there for 40 years, regarding the use of federal funds for abortion. ~ Barack Obama

Unfortunately, what anti-human trafficking NGOs [non-governmental organizations] really do is instead quite damaging: they normalize existent labor opportunities for women, no matter how low the pay, dangerous the conditions, or abusive an environment they foster. And they shame women who reject such jobs. ~ Anne Elizabeth Moore

No wonder prostitution is so rampant in China, I mused as I watched the four girls watch us: why stand on your feet all day for slave wages when you can get rich on your back? ~ Tom Carter

Just imagine what would happen if your daughter was standing there. What would you do, how would you fight? So you have to join hands, you have to take each child as your daughter. Soon you will feel their sorrow and then you will feel the strength that comes out of you to protect them. ~ Anuradha Koirala

help victims of human trafficking before her boss voted on it, but failed ~ Anonymous

One of the things you never really see in a romance book is a woman who has self-esteem issues. I mean, I'm sure they're out there, but they're few and far between. Like they can have eating disorders, post-traumatic stress from sexual assault or mental abuse. They can be sold into sex trafficking and they can carry epic amounts of grief. We have female characters who have suffered every loss imaginable and ones who are scarred physically and mentality, but where in the hell are the average women? Ones who look in the mirror and cringe a little? Like, why are all those others acceptable to women, but reading or knowing another woman who has a low self-esteem is, like, worse than all that drama llama? ~ J. Lynn

There are people that smuggle drugs, human trafficking, and terrorism but there are throngs and throngs of people that come through that aren't seeking to hurt anyone. They just want to feed their family. ~ Myka 9

A drone is often preferred for missions that are too "dull, dirty, or dangerous" for manned aircraft."

PROLOGUE

The graffiti was in Spanish, neon colors highlighting the varicose cracks in the wall. It smelled of urine and pot. The front door was metal with four bolt locks and the windows were frosted glass, embedded with chicken wire. They swung out and up like big fake eye-lashes held up with a notched adjustment bar.

This was a factory building on the near west side of Cleveland in an industrial area on the Cuyahoga River known in Ohio as The Flats.

First a sweatshop garment factory, then a warehouse for imported cheeses then a crack den for teenage potheads. It was now headquarters for Magic Slim, the only pimp in Cleveland with his own film studio and training facility.

Her name was Cosita, she was eighteen looking like fourteen. One of nine children from El Chorillo. a dangerous poverty stricken barrio on the outskirts of Panama City. Her brother, Javier, had been snatched from the streets six months ago, he was thirteen and beautiful.

Cosita had a high school education but earned here degree on the streets of Panama.

Interpol, the world's largest international police organization, had recruited Cosita at seventeen. She was smart, street savvy, motivated and very pretty. Just what Interpol was looking for.

Cosita would become a Drone! ~ Nick Hahn

Let it not be said that I was silent when they needed me. ~ William Wilberforce

None these organizations [terrorists] could continue operating without the narcotics networks, human-trafficking and oil smuggling. Addressing it requires a truly creative global response similar to that used to stand up against Germany's aggression in World War II. ~ Ashraf Ghani

So I was sold at last! A human being sold in the free city of New York! The bill of sale is on record, and future generations will learn from it that women were articles of traffic in New York, late in the nineteenth century of the Christian religion. ~ Harriet Ann Jacobs

So, whenever you hear or see violence, there is violence on both sides of the border, or it's both country's responsibility. When we talk about trafficking with weapons, with human beings or with drugs, we talk about it on both sides of the border. ~ Demian Bichir

Do we run from money in fear of being a slave to it? I know I did that for a while.

I don't think that's the answer, though.

I think the answer is our mission.

Are you on a mission?

Not only with your money, but with your life – are you on a mission?

I have a feeling that if we were on a mission, if we were working towards something - whether it be the end of human trafficking or abortion or poverty - if we were on a mission, we would do what ever it took. We would sell everything if it meant furthering the mission.

Money's not the problem. The problem is our heart. Money only reveals it.

Money reveals what our mission really is.

Money reveals if we care for ourselves more than we care for our neighbors. ~ Cole Ryan