Buying a Slave's Freedom: What Not to Do

categories: Human Trafficking Awareness, Money and Economy

Published October 03, 2009 @ 09:00AM PT

When I was just out of college, I had a job answering phones for an anti-trafficking NGO, which meant I got a lot of interesting calls. One day a pastor called to say that his church had been conducting fundraisers all year long and had raised just under $1 million to help trafficking victims. He estimated this was enough to buy hundreds of women and children out of prostitution. He was planning to take a team of five to Thailand in two weeks, and wanted to know if someone from my NGO would come along to help them find the best places to buy these women. At this point in the conversation, I had so many red flags going up in my head that my brain felt like it was full of cheerleaders on No-Doz being trained for air traffic control. So I talked him through the reasons why buying a trafficked person's freedom is not a good idea. Here's what I told him:

First and most importantly, what do you think a trafficker will do with the money he gets when you buy a slave from him? He might buy himself a nice car or something else, but chances are he's going to use it to traffic more people and make more money. Like any entrepreneur, he'll invest his returns (which you're giving him) in his business. So if you pay $2000 to free a women who is in prostitution against her will, the trafficker might be able to find two more women for that amount to enslave. Give a trafficker money, and he'll use it to traffic more people.

Secondly, by buying a person's freedom you're putting a financial value on that human life just as surely as the traffickers do. How do you negotiate a price? Is a man or a woman worth more? An adult or a child? When you buy slaves, even if it's to buy their freedom, you reinforce the human trafficking culture -- that the freedom of any individual has a price tag.

Lastly, when the penalty for trafficking people is more money and no jail time, trafficking becomes a much more attractive industry for criminal entreprenuers. The drug dealer and the arms trader both risk prison if they are found out, but when you buy people back from human traffickers, they profit without the punishment. A practice of buying freedom is a good way to encourage more people to go into the trafficking business.

The pastor who called me that day had the best of intentions and had worked hard to raise money to help trafficking victims. He just didn't understand that flying to Thailand to buy women from traffickers with cash would have all sorts of bad results, not to mention be dangerous for him and his team. Luckily, after a couple longs talks, he changed his plan and instead used to money to fund local Thai NGOs to identify and remove victims to safety and to train law enforcement to find and prosecute traffickers. He ended up helping hold traffickers accountable for their crimes, not encouraging them to commit more.

When people learn about the reality of modern-day slavery they often react passionately and emotionally. They want to ride in on a white horse with a stack of American dollars and free people. It's not bad to have this emotional reaction, but to do the most good, you need a different approach. Making a donation, volunteering, and writing letters to the government may not feels as exciting as as sureptitious trip to Thailand to buy slaves and set them free, but it helps more people out of slavery while maintaining their humanity. And while it may not make you feel like a hero, the survivors who now have their freedom thanks to you might disagree.

Photo credit: amagill

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Comments (7)

Indeed.

You handled that situation very well and I agree that putting a price tag on someone...Even in the name of freedom...Does far more harm than good.

Posted by Thomas McHugh on 10/04/2009 @ 07:14PM PT
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Human trafficking is a violation against human rights yet many people still commits it. Due to poverty and low quality of living many people are forced to sell themselves or to sell other human person. They are forced to do domestic slavery, work in farms and in factories, be a beggar and be a scavenger. Even the little ones are being abused.

This is a problem that everyone must be aware of. Everyone must take the responsibilities of being a human. Everyone must be aware of the sufferings that people and their families are undergoing because of human trafficking. Some even sell themselves. Even small amounts of payday loan can help them. Everything we can, anything we have either big or small can help this people. Take chance to be of help to others.

Posted by justinc c on 10/05/2009 @ 02:48AM PT
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Thanks for your illustration on how to handle these most difficult of well wishing methods of helping.

(What did i just say??)

Anyway, when and if i do help, I will try to be extraordinarily considerate and thoughtful... and yes, probably best to donate to the experts like ijm.org, etc. They are HEAVEN sent.

Posted by Cdin Org on 10/06/2009 @ 12:19AM PT
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Excellent blog! This really makes some great points about the issue and great ideas on how to help. I can see how someone might think that buying people's freedom is the answer, and you really explained well how that's not the solution and that it only perpetuates the cycle. You can buy one persons freedom, but it could be at the cost of 5 others enslavement. At first I thought the only way I could do anything was by traveling to all these different countries. Then I realized that I (along with everyone else) can do just as much, if not more, to help this cause right in my own country and location! Volunteering, donating, and raising consciousness and awareness are just as important as being directly on site to help.

Posted by Danielle Kelly on 10/07/2009 @ 06:01AM PT
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Great post. You gave great advice that I'd like to hear more about. Too many people misunderstand human trafficking and its severity and think making extravagant gestures will help these women out of these situations. Your advice to volunteer and donate and get involved with a supporting organization instead seems logical and would benefit these victims in the long run.

Posted by Melissa Hale on 10/07/2009 @ 09:49AM PT
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Amanda's points made a lot of sense. What about an underground railway -- helping slaves escape to shelters?

Also, I keep wondering why men can't be educated to find it offensive to purchase sex from a slave. I asked Siddharth Kara about this after a book reading last year and he said it was a difficult approach that had thus far yielded unclear results.

For people who have money and want to do something visible and extravagent: what about purchasing billboards that contribute a public campaign to raise awareness that sexual slavery is intolerable?

I recall a governement poster campaign in Namibia a decade ago. The poster said, "Having sex with a child is illegal and it won't cure AIDs." Social psychologists find over and over again that humans are influenced by what is perceived to be socially acceptable. The Namibia campaign was trying to remind people that sex with children is not socially acceptable.

Have there been attempts to educate people about that purchased sex with coerced victims is illegal and morally wrong?

Posted by Catherine Caldwell-Ha... on 10/12/2009 @ 02:19PM PT
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I too wonder why its so difficult for us americans to teach our young men that mistreating women is wrong and unacceptable and can only conclude that it has a lot to do with our male chauvinistic patriartic society...

Posted by Thomas McHugh on 10/25/2009 @ 03:09PM PT
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Author

Amanda has been a full-time abolitionist for six years. During that time, she has created reports, documentaries and training materials on human trafficking in the United States and around the world.