Human Trafficing In SOLD, By Patricia Mccormick

HUMAN TRAFFICKING

“Her stepfather sells the 13-year old Lakshimi, born into a small Nepalese village in the Himalaya Mountains, to a glamourous stranger, promising a job in the city to support the extremely poor family. However Lakshimi is trafficked into a brothel in India instead, selling her body to strangers for the price equivalent of a bottle of coca-cola” (Mccormick p.147) It is impossible for her to pay back her debt as the brutal brothel owner cheats Lakshimi of her meager earnings, makes her pay more than she earns for food, a bed and a pillow, so that she can never pay off her debt. Even though the book “SOLD” by Patricia Mccormick is a fictional book, it is based on true stories as they happen any minute all over the world. Lakshimi’s

Depression, anxiety and hostility are symptoms frequently detected among trafficked people in general and trafficked children in particular (ECLT). Trafficked children very commonly have a general feeling of sadness, bringing up even suicidal thoughts (ECLT). Another frequent symptom is the feeling of worthlessness. For trafficked children being bought and sold heavily changes their self-perception. Especially children forced into prostitution describe themselves as “dirty”, lose their sense of self and ultimately their self-identity. Hopelessness is another state describing the overall feeling of trafficked people. Traffickers maintain control by creating an ever changing, unpredictable and unsafe environment, keeping their victims constantly “on the edge” (humantrafficking). Persisting nervousness, concentration problems, sleeping difficulties, irritability, strong outbursts of anger are all symptoms directly related to trafficking experiences (ECLT). For all these reasons, emotional abuse is often even more devastating than physical abuse. Emotional harm takes a much longer time to heal and sometimes never does. Post traumatic stress disorders often prevail when children are no longer in a trafficked situation. “It comes every time I close my eyes.. always in my dreams. I see myself still being taken to clients” (human trafficking). Avoidance and numbing are ways for some children affected, to deal with their traumatizing past. But most children can never forget. “I wish to forget, but this is impossible. This experience will remain an eternal burden (human trafficking). Emotional abuse is also much more difficult for the victim to recognize (International Cap). Innocent children are mentally much less in the position to handle or bear their bitter and abominable experiences. Children are therefore not