Millions of women and children worldwide are abducted every year and trafficked for sexual exploitation and forced labor. They are abducted, deceived with promises of work in the United States or sold off by their poverty-stricken families.
"Human Trafficking," a two-night mini-series due to air on Lifetime on Oct. 24 and 25, is a moving portrayal of these despicable acts.
Academy award winner Mira Sorvino ("Mighty Aphrodite") plays New York City detective Kate Morozov who is hell-bent on cracking the case of a billion-dollar sex trafficking ring. Donald Sutherland ("Cold Mountain") plays a highly experienced customs agent who teams up with Sorvino to bring down the ring.
Heading the ring is Sergei Karpovich, played by Robert Carlyle ("Angela's Ashes"), who plays a big shot entrepreneur using a legit modeling agency to cover up the scandal.
The series follows the lives of women from different walks of life being pulled into the dirty, underground business. The "johns" that pay to have sex with these children are doctors, lawyers, fathers and grandfathers. They take these trips with the intent of having sexual encounters with minors.
Helena, a 21-year-old cocktail waitress and mother, meets the man of her dreams and is whisked away to Vienna. The storybook romance is halted when she arrives and is severely beaten and forced into sexual slavery.
Nadia is a 16-year-old high school student that lives in a tiny apartment with her widowed dad. She thinks she is going to make it big after being selected in an international model search.
But Nadia soon finds out after getting on a bus to the airport that the only modeling she will be doing is for dirty old men in New York City.
Annie and Jasmine were the two youngest girls to be exploited. Annie is in the Philippines on vacation with her parents when traffickers snatch her in the marketplace. Jasmine's poor father sells her to a trafficker in order to support the family.
The traffickers use threats to keep the older girls like Helena and Nadia from running away. For fear that her three-year-old daughter may be harmed, Helena does everything she is asked. Nadia's only saving grace is the friendship that has flourished between her and Helena.
Annie and Jasmine are hot commodities because they are virgins, for whom traffickers will pay large sums of money. Despite the language barrier between Annie and Jasmine they find comfort with one another in their dungeon-like habitat.
These traffickers seem to prey on young women that are unhappy in their current situation and whisk them off to a life of sexual slavery. Such a show may force viewers to reevaluate the liberties and comforts in their own life.
The acting performances of the young girls were authentic, portraying the lives of child prostitutes as if the actors had experienced it firsthand.
The sad truth about the series is that human trafficking is a widespread business. As stated in the mini-series, approximately one million people are trafficked every year across international borders. Next to weapons and drugs, the most profitable business is human trafficking.
Those are some frightening facts.
Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Messina, from the RMBERS' Instagram page
