Sex trafficking said to spread AIDS

Policies to reduce demand for sex-trafficked women and girls may significantly reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS worldwide, according to a recent Harvard School of Public Health study.

Steps should include better methods of preventing sex trafficking and of protecting its former victims, the study added.

The study, based on research conducted between 1997 and 2005, found that 38 percent of girls and women sex-trafficked from Nepal to neighboring India had HIV, the disease that causes AIDS. India ranks third globally in the number of people who have HIV/AIDS.

“More and more evidence suggests that sex trafficking is affecting a greater number of women and children across the globe,” said Jay Silverman, lead author of the study that was released earlier this month.

“In the region where India is located, the trafficking of individuals into the prostitution industry appears to greatly contribute to the spread of HIV. Yet, amazingly little attention has been given to this issue in the past.”

The researchers discovered that two-thirds of young girls who were trafficked before they turned 15 years old were already HIV positive. Just as horrifying, Mr. Silverman noted, is the fact that one in seven girls was trafficked before her 15th birthday.

Young girls from Nepal often are kidnapped and sold into sex slavery at Indian brothels, Mr. Silverman said in an interview. These females are considered a valuable commodity because clients pay more for young girls than they do for older women who voluntarily work as prostitutes.

But the young girls are extremely vulnerable to contracting HIV and are less likely to receive medical care, Mr. Silverman said. And usually they are unaware they contracted the disease, further contributing to the spread of HIV.

“For those lucky ones who are able to escape the brothels, they often return to poor regions of India or Nepal, where few medical and social services are available to them,” Mr. Silverman said. “Stigmatized, impoverished and often ill, the girls may have little choice but to return to a life of prostitution.”

According to the State Department, more than 800,000 people are trafficked globally each year, 80 percent of them women and young girls. Of those, between 5,000 and 7,000 young girls and women are trafficked between Nepal and India.

Even so, the International Organization for Migration reports that trafficking remains, for the most part, an unreported crime. Each year, the organization provides direct assistance to more than 100,000 trafficking victims.

“But this unfortunately only represents the tip of the iceberg,” according to the migration organization. “Many more victims require protection and assistance and more needs to be done to prevent trafficking.

“It is also crucial for law enforcement agencies to work together to crack down on those who organize and benefit from this crime,” the statement said. “Until this is done, trafficking will continue to thrive because it is so lucrative.”