We hear much about child sex trafficking in the news, for example that it is “the fastest-growing organized crime and the third-largest criminal enterprise in the world” (FBI, 2011, citing the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, accessed July 19, 2010), but for obvious reasons we rarely hear from confessed child sex traffickers themselves.
British investigative journalist Ross Kemp traveled to India in 2013, where he interviewed a human trafficker for his television show Extreme World. Kemp was tormented by the experience; called it one of his “most hellish moments.”
Kemp (narrating): “After keeping us waiting for an hour, Mr. Khan emerges from the forest, and hee isn’t quite what I was expecting. He started his career as the bait in a honeytrap, convincing young girls that he would marry them, and then quickly selling them off once he’d gotten them into the cities. He now has over 75 traffickers working for him, and is currently being investigated for over 25 different offenses, but he has never been tried for any of his crimes.”
Kemp (questions go to interpreter, who then poses them to Khan): “I want to find out how many girls he’s trafficked in the time that he’s been a trafficker and how long has he actually been a trafficker.”
Khan: “I’ve been trafficking for seven years.”
Kemp: “How many?”
Khan: “I have trafficked three or four thousand, maybe more”
Kemp: “What would you look for to make the decision to traffic a particular person?”
Khan: “We go to poor communities, often Muslim or tribal, and look for real beauties. The girls are auctioned, and go up to the highest bidder.”
Kemp: “How much does a girl go for when she’s sold at auction?”
Khan: “A million taka (£8500 pounds) was the most I got.”
Kemp: “We have been told by more than one source that you traffic girls as young as nine years old. Is that true?”
Khan: “Nine isn’t true but I have sold girls of twelve.”
Kemp: “If there’s enough human cry created because they’ve gone missing, some girls return to the community, is that true?”
Khan: “No.”
Kemp: “Okay, well we’ve been told that the reason you don’t bring girls back is that you kill them. Is that true?”
Khan: “If the girls try to run away, or if there’s any trouble, then the girls are killed and buried.”
Kemp: “So you are saying that you do kill them, that they are killed.”
Khan: “If our bribed police can’t handle it, it goes to the CID, then we kill the girls.”
Kemp: “So you kill girls. Do you have any idea how many?”
Khan: “We don’t count them. About four or five hundred.”
Kemp: “So he’s saying that he’s responsible for the death of at least 400 young girls.”
Kemp: “There are people who are wondering why you would admit to me that you have been involved in, or have sanctioned the death of 400 young girls. Why would you tell me this and why would you tell the truth? Are you telling me the truth?”
Khan: “I’m telling you the truth.”
Kemp: “So will you carry on killing young girls to save your own skin?”
Khan: “If I’m having problems I’ll have to carry on killing.”
Kemp: “Get him out of my sight, I’ll kill him.”Interpeter: (says something inaudible)
Kemp: “As you can tell, we are both completely shocked, as I think are the crew. Um, we really have seen and heard some things, witnessed some things in the time we’ve been doing these films, but, we have it on reliable source, from more than one reliable source, that this man is what he says he is.”
Interpreter: (Crying)
Kemp: “The shock has gone through everyone here. That someone could cold-bloodedly kill young girls to save his own skin, and says, it’s either them or me, and that he’s prepared to carry on killing. One of the most shocking things I’ve ever witnessed, and I’m sick. “
President Trump has issued two Presidential Proclamations and one Executive Order relating to child sexual abuse and trafficking since taking office in January 2017.
- Enforcing Federal Law with Respect to Transnational Criminal Organizations and Preventing International Trafficking, February 9, 2017
- President Donald J. Trump Proclaims April 2017 as National Child Abuse Prevention Month
- President Donald J. Trump Proclaims April 2017 as National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month
Since 2000, three Federal laws have been enacted to combat human trafficking. These include the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (2000, reauthorized 2003, 2005, 2008 and 2013), which was intended as an integrated response; the The Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act of 2014, which focuses on the foster care system; and the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act (2015), which focuses on services for victims.
2017 Diary - Dannielle Blumenthal 
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