Heather, where can we find this production? Is it only on Frontline or is it posted somewhere?

Thanks for bringing attention to this very important issue.

This is not what this article in the Chronicile said just last summer:

"In addition to the San Francisco probe, a second investigation netted an unknown number of arrests in Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Anaheim and elsewhere, authorities said."

"Law enforcement authorities and those who counsel women rescued from sexual slavery say the sex trade smuggles 18,000 to 20,000 undocumented sex workers into the United States each year. Typically, sex slave victims pay tens of thousands of dollars to get here, only to be forced into prostitution to pay off their debts. In some cases, the girls or women have been kidnapped from their home countries."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/07/01/BAmassage01.DTL

> The notion of being sold into sexual slavery is little

> more than a punch line here in the States

This is hardly just a European problem. Anyone who lives on the east side of Fairfax Ave in West Hollywood can tell you about the goings on of the Russian mob and how they rent out apartments for the purpose of a brothel which they can close up quickly. The building my mother lives in has an apartment which has a money collector at the front door from when it was used as a brothel, the manager keeps it there as a reminder of the building's history and the women who were killed there. Eastern Europe and Russia are fucked up and they're spreading their filth onto our shores.

Very good article, and I'm looking forward to seeing that Frontline show. I'm in Australia, and one of our free-to-air networks carries selected episodes of Frontline.

The same network also recently ran the 10-part Belgian TV miniseries, Matrioshki, about the sex trafficking/prostitution biz in Europe, which I'd also recommend, if you can find it. It's in English, Flemish, Russian, and probably other languages as well. When I saw it here, all the foreign language material was subtitled in English. It's excellent, heartbreaking stuff.

See http://www.flanders-image.com/index.php?col=/product&doc=693&title=Matrioshki

The show is on PBS on Tuesday, Feb 7th - check local listings. Here's the web site: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/slaves/

Even though I love your regular snarky TV column, I reallly appreciate being alerted to a show like this one. Human trafficking is a terrible problem - much more widespread thoroughout the developing world, particularly in areas that were formerly behind the Iron Curtain, than most people imagine - and it is good to know that a show as respected as Frontline is doing an expose on the problem. When I was staying in Hawaii last summer I heard a radio report on this very issue, and it was heartrending - I'd had no idea such things went on in 21st century Europe (and elsewhere).

I'd actually love to see more of this sort of thing from you. It's easy to forget that a medium made toothless and pudgy through shows like "Dancing With the Stars" can pack a decent punch every now and then.

(Well, I'd appreciate more of this sort of alert, and also more Deadwood-speak. I laughed for weeks over that gem.)

Thanks again,

Excellent article by ms Havrilevsky - would have been even better should she have demanded more of quality European television on more subjects than this very urgent one

Every time I visit the US I am appalled at the poor international choice on television -cable included

let alone the appalling standards of the network news.

I know of no more isolated citizens than those of the USA.

Chaumont

This article is compelling, shocking and important BUT because it focusses almost exclusively on one story in one country it doesn't begin to create awareness about the massive scale of this appalling problem.

First these girls are coming from many diferent countries and going to many 'recipient' destinations. Most of the Eastern European countries are sources and the gangs which control this business are also mainly from those countries also, with Albania crimjinal groups being notably vicious exploers. The bait is usually being the offer of a legitimate job with a salary far higher than at home. The destinations include such 'civilised' countries as Italy, England and many more. While law-enforcement agencies in some countries do try to deal with this problem they are hampered by the closed circles of these foreign Mafias and their innate misconception, based on 'traditional' prostitution, that it is a victimless crime.

I am a veteran of eight years in the armed forces, who now lives with my Russian wife (we met while studying in Boston) in Moscow (because it seems like the freer of the two countries right now).

I cannot tell you how angry I became when I read ToshiroTzu's comment on this article:

"Eastern Europe and Russia are fucked up and they're spreading their filth onto our shores."

What he fells to grasp is that before we pushed the Soviet Union into falling and then aided the chaos and separation in the 90's - there was none of this in Eastern Europe or Russia. The "filth" - prostitution, poverty, homelessness, drug and aids epidemics, crime, and capitalism-run-amok - these are our own filth - the hallmarks of our "vaunted society and culture" - spread to Eastern Europe and Russia like a disease and now washing back up onto our shores. If Eastern Europe and Russia are "fucked up" right now (and Russia at the very least is much better now than it was in the 90's!) - than surely we are at least partially responsible for that situation...after all - we've been covered in this filth for decades...And Eastern European and Russian women are hardly the only ones being sold into slavery around the world - as Americans, we need to look no further than our own shores. What a great role model to the world we are - Now everyone is becoming more like us.

As mp says, this is a worldwide problem that gets little press. From Ms. Havrilesky's description of this Frontline program, it is ony scratching the surface. Becuase of AIDS, young girls are kidnapped, stolen, sold by relatives or friends to work in the trade. Virgin girls are highly desirable. Often the only way out is death by AIDS. They are forced to work without condoms, raped. beaten, tortured. And that is just the beginning...

This is an absolutely unthinkable encroachment of human rights, and for what? It is so sad that men have such low regard for women and such high regard for their "needs". It is basically condoned rape in many instances.

Nicholas Kristoff has written some good op-ed pieces for the New York Times.

Please learn more about this terrible, terrible subject and give, if you can, to organizations that are trying to battle it. Contact your congressmen and tell them that laws against trafficking in humans need to be resolved and a stronger stance needs to be taken against countries that turn a blind eye to this practice.