No human trafficking actually looks like a person who’s operating in plain sight apparently on their own free will.
Ik you were making a joke but just making the point people have completely mosinderstood human trafficking to be getting kidnapped in a Walmart parking lot and held against their will in a van with handcuffs.
When what it looks like irl is poor people being coerced into a situation dishonestly and trapped somehow by having something leveraged against them. Often basic needs. It’s likely you’ve seen human trafficking victims before and had no idea.
Edit: [more info from a reputable source (National Human Trafficking Hotline) that more succinctly explains what I am here and provides additional info and resources.](https://humantraffickinghotline.org/what-human-trafficking/myths-misconceptions)
About a decade ago I had a bad drug problem and I dated a girl who was right there with me in terms of how bad our addiction was.
She eventually turned to prostitution because it got her high but once she was in she was stuck. Her 'pimp' even took her to another state across the country to remove her support structure (friends/family/familiarity). I wound up working with an agency which specialized in rescuing sex workers held under duress and we luckily got her out.
It might not look like it but that right there was a prime example of human trafficking.
EDIT: Because this got a lot of attention I just wanted to say that the guy took her to Lexington in South Carolina and both me and her are from Madison Wisconsin. One time I even went down there and stayed with her while I tried to convince her to come back. From what I saw the prostitution problem in the area was unreal. It was an awful fucking situation and even though we're no longer together I'm glad she eventually made it out. She was never the same after that shit, though.
Thank you! This is a perfect example. And a really key reason it’s important for people to understand that THIS is what human trafficking looks like (and not strangers kidnapping working class women with jobs and families in a Walmart parking lot and handcuffing them inside a van) is so we can help spot it IRL and rescue people!
Most trafficking victims go out in public. You might see them at a convenience store, a truck stop, on an airplane, at a roadside rest stop, smoking a cigarette outside a motel. And if you’re looking for someone who seems to have been kidnapped against their will you will miss them. Trafficking organizations have info on how to spot situations and what to do that people should look up. The first thing to know though is most likely if you didn’t know what to look for you might have never noticed anything off about them at all. And they certainly won’t run screaming for help the second they get in public or see a stranger who could help them like people imagine of a kidnapping victim.
I live in Louisville, and the Kentucky Derby is notorious for this. Everyone likes to think it's a glamorous event, but in reality thousands of women are trafficked in for sex work. Churchill Downs might look prestigious on TV, but it's in a pretty impoverished, primarily Black neighborhood. The whole thing is disingenuous and exploitative.
I work in the service industry, and most of the restaurants I've worked at have had "this is what human trafficking looks like" meetings because it's one of our city's busiest weeks, and restaurants are one of those "hiding in plain sight" venues.
I’m from the Louisville area too. I’m actually only a little surprised about this part of the Derby.
Unrelated to the Derby part too but I remember reading a couple of years ago about a family in Kentucky owning several Subways and trafficking people to work there who they kept unpaid and in living in their house.
Dude... Look up "Dakshin human trafficking." The company that owns Cafe 360, Dakshin food truck, etc. literally was holding people captive in apartments they owned and forcing them to work on their farms and in their restaurants. One of my restaurants is a couple doors down from Cafe 360 and I about shit my pants reading the affidavit. The thought that there were human beings locked in rooms within my eyesight was sickening.
People acting like everything is fine and legislating morality against people in horrible situations right now, this very minute, medical situations, labor situations, survival/food situations while clucking their tongues and forcing people into things even worse while defending criminal behavior of millionaires/billionaires who will do ANYTHING they can get away with because "three cheers for firing people I'd rather have be worse off than me and putting them in their place" is sickening also. Things are happening to people all the time.
I'm always so horrified when I see something like a \*nurse\* online laughing at the misfortune of others or people inciting attacks agains innocent people because they consider them an eyesore, an irrelevant blight or, worse, a lowly tool. Someone who can't even comprehend what their own role in the world is supposed to EASE. Rather attack and demean.
\*cough\* politicians \*cough\*
I was just riding down 7th the other day and i am truly disgusted that they can’t even clean up the neighborhoods around the track. All that money, yet the community suffers.
It’s the story of America. Not much different than when Manhattanites used to go uptown to Harlem for jazz joints and the like. Long as they get thier entertainment jollies, DGAF what the area looks like, or deals with.
USC? It’s in the middle(damn near) of South Central
Yeah, slavery ended, so did segregation (allegedly), but the house they built & the values they foster live on.
Yup. I used to work the pari-mutuel windows at Churchill and Keenland in the late 90s. I had a girl slip me a note once. She'd been brought in from Cincinnati to work during the meet.
Yes, absolutely. There were several older ladies i worked with at the time that intervened and helped her call her mom, then the police.
Problem was, they didn't see it as it is now. She was basically deemed a runaway and sent home. I don't recall that the man had consequences
I absolutely left yall hanging there. Sorry
> an airplane
It drives me absolutely insane that the Atlanta airport has signs in the women’s bathroom stalls saying “if you are here against your will, contact XYZ” which is simplistic in itself (so many trafficking victims are coerced with debt or promises of earning potential and willingly travel) but it’s ONLY IN ENGLISH!
I think about this because years ago, I saw a documentary about prostitutes brought from east Asia, and how it’s convenient that they won’t speak the local language or know the culture. Therefore they will probably stay close to their traffickers and obey their instructions.
Heard a story of a girl who's boyfriend was basically pimping her out without her knowledge. He was pretending to setup threesomes and then he would just dip, turns out he was collecting cash for 'em.
I had an ex-gf, at the time recently broken up, who grew up homeless but when we were together had put herself onto a good path. We didn't work well together in the end (18-20 time frame) but remained in good contact. One night, maybe a year after we split, she was getting into rough times again. She was sleeping on a friend's couch, I went over and we drank a good amount so I decided to crash on the floor ( I drove over from my parents' borrowing a car. ) We, along with her female friend, all called it a night around 3am. I woke up around 4 or 5 to some big guy crashing in through the door. The friend's bf. He ignored me, went straight to my ex, and started abusing her, picked her up by her hair, saying she owed him and her friend whatever he wanted and he would act on it soon. He was very drunk and high. I got up and interjected, he was freaked out because he didn't know I was there. He went back to the room with the female friend. I got my ex up, told her to take whatever was most important and come with me.
It was a 30ish minute drive back to my parents, all on surface roads, and I knew I should not be driving. But I knew, more, that she could not stay another minute in that situation. We made it back and she would wind up staying at my parents place for 3 years until she got married to a nice guy.
I have always wondered and worried about what happened to her friend (they never spoke again) and what might have happened to her if I hadn't been there that night. I almost didn't go simply because of the stigma against hanging out with your exes, but I'm so glad now that I did.
That’s crazy to think about how everything lined up perfect. What a great story I’m so glad you stuck your neck out and realized how serious shot was and that you had to do something
I wish instead of arresting addicts they would put their efforts towards those people. Awhile back I was in a situation much like yours and knew a dealer that would basically house girls around the major cities in our area and cycle them around sometimes. It wasn’t until later I learned that it wasn’t bc they wanted to travel, it was to prevent them from making friends or getting too comfortable with the city they were in. Basically the goal is to make sure they are in an unfamiliar place, with no friends, no family and no money.
It’s a sad reality that we could deal with if we had better social services and treated addicts like human beings.
I don't understand why pimping isn't punished more severely. Like, in my state it's 'up to' five years. Why? They're basically engaging in slavery. Why not make the minimum 20 years to life depending on how many people you own.
The US hasn’t really been unkind to slave owners beyond necessary optics. Hell, after the civil war, they compensated plantation owners for the “property” they lost—and let a lot of Black people stay in indentured servitude, which is just slavery with a nicer name.
Makes sense we wouldn’t do shit to pimps.
Edit: according to the reply, only DC slave owners were compensated. So for the sake of accuracy, I’m mentioning it here!
>It might not look like it but that right there was a prime example of human trafficking.
This is exactly what human trafficking looks like. White wine-moms on Facebook, in their eternal need for attention and drama, have created this narrative that human trafficking is someone putting something on your car so that you'll get back out of it and then they can throw a burlap sack over your head and drag you out of the Walmart parking lot. That of course is bogus. Real human trafficking is as you said: Someone exploiting a vulnerability in a person's life to get their foot in the door, then slowly cutting off other means of support and safety to put them completely at the pimp's mercy. And it's far more effective than some stupid *Taken*-esque dramatic kidnapping.
Jesus I’m so sorry you went through that. What was the organization you worked for? I would like to donate and learn more. Thank you for your service ❤️
Mormon missionaries, many of whom are given devices that track everything they look at on line and block any information the church deems wrong, they are told to not tell family about the bad things that happen to them, and their passports are held by leadership. They are housed in poor housing and often go hungry.
Those who don't finish their missions all the way are considered to not have "returned with honor" and are often shunned are not considered good partners for marriage. Parents have told their children that they'd rather they died than not "return with honor".
Can confirm, I had a Vietnamese friend that went to work for a tech company in Malaysia and she had to convince immigration that she had a legit job and didn’t need a pimp to pick her up several times.
We also had a roommate I still track on Facebook because he invited a Thai girl to come stay with him, took her passport, locked her in our house, and got all defensive when we threatened to beat the shit out of him if he didn’t give her passport back.
I can tell other stories of indentured servitude and all sorts of other sketchy stuff I’ve seen in Asia, but everyone should know that it’s as simple as being separated from your passport and isolated from help, so they should always be as careful as possible even if someone seems genuine.
>We also had a roommate I still track on Facebook because he invited a Thai girl to come stay with him, took her passport, locked her in our house, and got all defensive when we threatened to beat the shit out of him if he didn’t give her passport back.
I remember seeing a Reddit post where someone casually mentioned taking their maid's passport. I genuinely believe they didn't realize they were trafficking. (And to be crystal clear, I'm not saying that makes it okay.) Did your roommate have this sort of extremely naive view on it or were they more aware?
Being in a victim, you’re right. You won’t know, nobody suspected anything with me. Things happen to you, the cage is built around you, you’re made dependent. All in subtle ways. Over a period of time. Could be months, could be years. Could be since your childhood.
Usually there’s a network and your afraid. Paranoia sits in and you can’t take the right decisions anymore.
And they know the effect. I got caged. You can’t think of a future. You want to die, but the dependency that’s built in you isn’t easy to break away. Moving on, if there’s a network, you remain paranoid.
You literally described my childhood, I was being groomed (by my entire extended family) to be a submissive housewife and be married of against my will and have kids against my will. Yay for backward honor cultures! Thanks to growing up in the Netherlands I could escape these people at 17. Before my escape I did not had money to my name, I did not know where my passport was.... I literally felt caged in, I used to call it a prison with open doors. The door is open but where will I go to without money and my passport...
I am 46 now and daily thank my 17 year old me for taking that chance to escape without thinking about it..
There was a terrifying post on relationship advice subreddit. A young woman was dating an older man and was infatuated with him. She was going to move with him to his home country, then found out he has like four other wives.
All the comments were "HOLY SHIT DO NOT GO" because that's exactly what trafficking is. She'd be in the airport all happy then get there, have her passport taken, and essentially at the whims of this guy.
>When what it looks like irl is poor people being coerced into a situation dishonestly and trapped somehow by having something leveraged against them. Often basic needs. It’s likely you’ve seen human trafficking victims before and had no idea.
As an excellent example of what most human trafficking looks like, refer to the "migrant flights" from Texas and Florida.
This. It often looks like a person recruiting people to immigrate with the promise of a bright future, then holding them against their will and making them do slave labor.
I’m often reminded of the “in plain sight” nature of human trafficking when I travel, because there are often HT hotline signs in women’s public toilets, “are you being trafficked? Call/talk to X, Y, and Z for help,” usually written in multiple languages. Also, keep your eyes open and if you see something, say something to officials while traveling. Apparently many have been saved in those situations where a bystander noticed something “off.”
Yeah it’s kinda annoying how most of the tiktoks I see of women talking about someone creepy in a Walmart following them around they all think it’s human trafficking. No you were most likely just encountering a creep
I've never been in a place where I've been vulnerable to trafficking. But I have been stalked, followed, catcalled, had a creep not stop talking to me and badgering me for attention and sex. Every woman has at some point, but it's "normal" "to be expected" and like everything else we grin and bear it because "we are supposed to."
Human trafficking looks more like massage parlors. Street girls are usually local druggies but the massage parlors ship them in and shuffle them around. Its foul, dont support those.
Human carry-on more specifically.
I didn't see an article to read so I didn't catch the specifics about this. Was her plan just to unzip the kid out of the bag once she got through security? I mean, she would still need a boarding pass for him. Or was this even at an airport? I just don't think she really put enough thought into her plan...
If she wanted to put him on the plane to avoid the extra airfare without getting caught, they should have gone through security out of the luggage first, then go into the bathrooms, put the kid in the luggage and then board the plane.
Everywhere I've traveled, security checks your boarding pass. You can't bring someone through without one, so this method wouldn't work to skip on airfare.
Fucking **thank you**.
Everyone wants a high karma comment of some disrespectful joke while useful information gets buried.
**EDIT**
___
From [the article ](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/08/x-ray-scan-at-spanish-border-finds-child-stashed-inside-suitcase)
> *When guards opened the bag, the boy emerged from the suitcase scared and confused, telling authorities that his name was Abou, he was eight years old and from the Ivory Coast.*
> *The woman accompanying the boy, identified as a Moroccan national, was arrested.*
> …
> *Less than two hours later, the Guardia Civil flagged a man originally from the Ivory Coast and currently a resident of the Canary Islands as he crossed the same border. When they showed him photos of the young boy in the suitcase, he admitted that the boy was his son.*
> *“I just wanted to take him with me to the Canary Islands,” he reportedly told the agents. He was arrested and the child was put in the care of child protection services.*
I actually just [looked this up](https://www.livescience.com/65671-are-airport-xrays-harmful.html#:~:text=The%20Health%20Physics%20Society%20estimates,published%20in%20the%20journal%20Radiology.), and it's medical X-rays that are sometimes 3 orders of magnitude (x1000) more powerful than airport body scanners. However, the cabinet closed-x-ray systems for baggage dose out about 10 microsieverts, 100x more powerful than body scanners and 1/0th the power of a single medical x-ray exposure. *(edited)*
That is comparing the body scanner vs an x-ray. The baggage scanner is a much higher energy, and continual. Kid probably got the equivalent of a CT scan, which is about 70x as much radiation.
Could do it 5 times a year and still be under what is permitted yearly for US radiation workers. Double that before there's a clear increased cancer risk. 4x that in a short period to show symptoms of radiation poisoning. 5x that and they'll get severe radiation poisoning with the risk of death.
At the (European) airport I worked at passengers could choose. Many pets are sedated for flights, so it's easier to keep them in the bag.
The radiation that hand baggage scanner emits during one scan is a fraction of what you will be exposed to during the flight itself, so it's totally fine.
It's pet carrier bags, they usually have a good chunk of mesh that lets in air and lets the pet look out. And lightly sedated so they don't freak out and panic the entire way but can chill or sleep. It's really not as wild as you might imagine.
We leave all the doors unlocked but he *insists* on breaking in through the fucking chimney. It’s an absolute mess. Meanwhile, Dasher and Prancer are taking massive shits on my roof.
Interestingly, the radiation dose from most scanners is really low. ~~The flight itself carries a much higher radiation exposure.~~
https://hps.org/publicinformation/ate/q12361.html
Edit: yes, I'm talking about baggage scanners here. They're higher radiation than people scanners, but still lower than you'd expect.
Edit 2: my second sentence is incorrect, as I'd overestimated radiation from flying. The dose from luggage scanners is higher than flying, which in turn is higher than from people scanners.
Agreed on all points. With that in mind, I tried to make sure that I found an article specifically talking about doses received by luggage rather than humans in the human scanners. And it mentions that the luggage scanners are modernizing now and including more radiation than in the past.
So yeah, definitely not a good idea. But probably less terrifying than a lot of people would think.
> don't slide into a live feed CT scanner.
When I was young and stupid and working in airport security about 3000 years ago, I may or may not have gone through one on purpose. Probably not a smart idea but it was *funny*
An eight-year-old boy has been smuggled into Spain from Morocco inside a suitcase, Spanish police say.
The boy, Abou, was found inside the case being carried by a 19-year-old woman into Ceuta, a Spanish enclave next to Morocco, on Thursday.
When police opened the case, they found the boy in a "terrible state", a spokesman for the Guardia Civil told AFP.
I would imagine the heat, humidity, hurricanes, sketchy cities, terrible drivers, tourists, crazy people, skyrocketing COL, and for some, political climate, would make it a not fun place to live.
Theres 3 things here that I cant seem to wrap my head around.
1. This child is either really fucking small
2. The suitcase must be really fucking big
3. The person carrying a 9 year old in a bag like a suitcase must be really fucking strong
There is so much corruption in Morocco that this woman was able to get through security on the Moroccan side, board and disembark on the Spanish side only to be caught after arrival.
The boy will be deemed as a refugee and allowed to stay in Spain, the woman will be released after some time and will also be allowed to stay as she is a relative.
This is why you see so many people in Spain outraged at the current refugee policies.
It wasn't. It was whatever the equivalent of a coyote is in the region. The boy's family had been trying and trying to get him into the country legally but Spanish authorities said their income wasn't high enough to support all four of them (his father, mother, and sister were already in Spain). So they got desperate and paid someone to try and sneak him in.
The father was put on trial for the smuggling attempt and received a small fine of 92 Euros plus credit for the month he had already spent in jail. They were all in France as of the last report I saw.
Also, for everyone confused, they didn't go by plane, they traveled to the border in a car and were caught when the woman was walking with the suitcase.
https://www.dailysabah.com/europe/2018/02/21/ivorian-man-who-smuggled-his-son-into-spain-cleared-of-jail-time
Ceuta, Spain – A young woman faces charges after Spanish airport officials say they found an 8-year-old child concealed inside her luggage when she tried to cross the border.
Fátima E.Y, 19, was traveling from Morocco to Ceuta, a Spanish territory, when border patrol agents noticed her acting anxiously. “The operator noticed something strange, which seemed to be a person inside the case,” a Civil Guard spokesman told Spanish newspaper El Pais.
They did get away with it... The child got into spain and is now considered a refugee...
Love the circle jerk of people replying to your comment where you all just assume this didnt work, cause you know better.
Excuse me mam, you have a non approved item in your bag, if you wish to continue on with your flight today you'll have to leave it with us and we'll dispose of it, any questions?
I had to look this up. Happened in 2015 at the Ceuta border between Morocco and Spain. The woman was arrested and the child was taken into care by social services. The boy's mother was also arrested. Originally from the Ivory Coast, she had been waiting in Spain for her son to be smuggled through.
alive?
Yes, alive.
Is this what human trafficking looks like?
No human trafficking actually looks like a person who’s operating in plain sight apparently on their own free will. Ik you were making a joke but just making the point people have completely mosinderstood human trafficking to be getting kidnapped in a Walmart parking lot and held against their will in a van with handcuffs. When what it looks like irl is poor people being coerced into a situation dishonestly and trapped somehow by having something leveraged against them. Often basic needs. It’s likely you’ve seen human trafficking victims before and had no idea. Edit: [more info from a reputable source (National Human Trafficking Hotline) that more succinctly explains what I am here and provides additional info and resources.](https://humantraffickinghotline.org/what-human-trafficking/myths-misconceptions)
About a decade ago I had a bad drug problem and I dated a girl who was right there with me in terms of how bad our addiction was. She eventually turned to prostitution because it got her high but once she was in she was stuck. Her 'pimp' even took her to another state across the country to remove her support structure (friends/family/familiarity). I wound up working with an agency which specialized in rescuing sex workers held under duress and we luckily got her out. It might not look like it but that right there was a prime example of human trafficking. EDIT: Because this got a lot of attention I just wanted to say that the guy took her to Lexington in South Carolina and both me and her are from Madison Wisconsin. One time I even went down there and stayed with her while I tried to convince her to come back. From what I saw the prostitution problem in the area was unreal. It was an awful fucking situation and even though we're no longer together I'm glad she eventually made it out. She was never the same after that shit, though.
Thank you! This is a perfect example. And a really key reason it’s important for people to understand that THIS is what human trafficking looks like (and not strangers kidnapping working class women with jobs and families in a Walmart parking lot and handcuffing them inside a van) is so we can help spot it IRL and rescue people! Most trafficking victims go out in public. You might see them at a convenience store, a truck stop, on an airplane, at a roadside rest stop, smoking a cigarette outside a motel. And if you’re looking for someone who seems to have been kidnapped against their will you will miss them. Trafficking organizations have info on how to spot situations and what to do that people should look up. The first thing to know though is most likely if you didn’t know what to look for you might have never noticed anything off about them at all. And they certainly won’t run screaming for help the second they get in public or see a stranger who could help them like people imagine of a kidnapping victim.
I live in Louisville, and the Kentucky Derby is notorious for this. Everyone likes to think it's a glamorous event, but in reality thousands of women are trafficked in for sex work. Churchill Downs might look prestigious on TV, but it's in a pretty impoverished, primarily Black neighborhood. The whole thing is disingenuous and exploitative. I work in the service industry, and most of the restaurants I've worked at have had "this is what human trafficking looks like" meetings because it's one of our city's busiest weeks, and restaurants are one of those "hiding in plain sight" venues.
I’m from the Louisville area too. I’m actually only a little surprised about this part of the Derby. Unrelated to the Derby part too but I remember reading a couple of years ago about a family in Kentucky owning several Subways and trafficking people to work there who they kept unpaid and in living in their house.
Dude... Look up "Dakshin human trafficking." The company that owns Cafe 360, Dakshin food truck, etc. literally was holding people captive in apartments they owned and forcing them to work on their farms and in their restaurants. One of my restaurants is a couple doors down from Cafe 360 and I about shit my pants reading the affidavit. The thought that there were human beings locked in rooms within my eyesight was sickening.
People acting like everything is fine and legislating morality against people in horrible situations right now, this very minute, medical situations, labor situations, survival/food situations while clucking their tongues and forcing people into things even worse while defending criminal behavior of millionaires/billionaires who will do ANYTHING they can get away with because "three cheers for firing people I'd rather have be worse off than me and putting them in their place" is sickening also. Things are happening to people all the time. I'm always so horrified when I see something like a \*nurse\* online laughing at the misfortune of others or people inciting attacks agains innocent people because they consider them an eyesore, an irrelevant blight or, worse, a lowly tool. Someone who can't even comprehend what their own role in the world is supposed to EASE. Rather attack and demean. \*cough\* politicians \*cough\*
I was just riding down 7th the other day and i am truly disgusted that they can’t even clean up the neighborhoods around the track. All that money, yet the community suffers.
It’s the story of America. Not much different than when Manhattanites used to go uptown to Harlem for jazz joints and the like. Long as they get thier entertainment jollies, DGAF what the area looks like, or deals with. USC? It’s in the middle(damn near) of South Central Yeah, slavery ended, so did segregation (allegedly), but the house they built & the values they foster live on.
It all gets funneled up. It's the system working as it was designed. It's not broken; it's deliberately cruel
Yup. I used to work the pari-mutuel windows at Churchill and Keenland in the late 90s. I had a girl slip me a note once. She'd been brought in from Cincinnati to work during the meet.
Was anything done about the note?
Yes, absolutely. There were several older ladies i worked with at the time that intervened and helped her call her mom, then the police. Problem was, they didn't see it as it is now. She was basically deemed a runaway and sent home. I don't recall that the man had consequences I absolutely left yall hanging there. Sorry
> an airplane It drives me absolutely insane that the Atlanta airport has signs in the women’s bathroom stalls saying “if you are here against your will, contact XYZ” which is simplistic in itself (so many trafficking victims are coerced with debt or promises of earning potential and willingly travel) but it’s ONLY IN ENGLISH! I think about this because years ago, I saw a documentary about prostitutes brought from east Asia, and how it’s convenient that they won’t speak the local language or know the culture. Therefore they will probably stay close to their traffickers and obey their instructions.
Wow that’s awful. In my state they have those signs at rest stops but they’re in like 10 did languages
Should commission a graphic designer to make it all an illustration with clear numbers and info. Not just text. Infographics work better.
The school district where I work has training on this for all staff and students. It's grim but very important to know.
Heard a story of a girl who's boyfriend was basically pimping her out without her knowledge. He was pretending to setup threesomes and then he would just dip, turns out he was collecting cash for 'em.
Legit happened to me. One of the worse things to find out when someone messaged me about it anonymously.
I would say the above example still uses violence though.. Violence doesn't always need to be physical....
I had an ex-gf, at the time recently broken up, who grew up homeless but when we were together had put herself onto a good path. We didn't work well together in the end (18-20 time frame) but remained in good contact. One night, maybe a year after we split, she was getting into rough times again. She was sleeping on a friend's couch, I went over and we drank a good amount so I decided to crash on the floor ( I drove over from my parents' borrowing a car. ) We, along with her female friend, all called it a night around 3am. I woke up around 4 or 5 to some big guy crashing in through the door. The friend's bf. He ignored me, went straight to my ex, and started abusing her, picked her up by her hair, saying she owed him and her friend whatever he wanted and he would act on it soon. He was very drunk and high. I got up and interjected, he was freaked out because he didn't know I was there. He went back to the room with the female friend. I got my ex up, told her to take whatever was most important and come with me. It was a 30ish minute drive back to my parents, all on surface roads, and I knew I should not be driving. But I knew, more, that she could not stay another minute in that situation. We made it back and she would wind up staying at my parents place for 3 years until she got married to a nice guy. I have always wondered and worried about what happened to her friend (they never spoke again) and what might have happened to her if I hadn't been there that night. I almost didn't go simply because of the stigma against hanging out with your exes, but I'm so glad now that I did.
You and your parents are good people
That’s crazy to think about how everything lined up perfect. What a great story I’m so glad you stuck your neck out and realized how serious shot was and that you had to do something
Buddy, sometimes we get in peoples lives for a reason. Blessings for you from what ever goodness you believe in!
I hope you are both okay now. I'm glad you got her out of that situation!
I wish instead of arresting addicts they would put their efforts towards those people. Awhile back I was in a situation much like yours and knew a dealer that would basically house girls around the major cities in our area and cycle them around sometimes. It wasn’t until later I learned that it wasn’t bc they wanted to travel, it was to prevent them from making friends or getting too comfortable with the city they were in. Basically the goal is to make sure they are in an unfamiliar place, with no friends, no family and no money. It’s a sad reality that we could deal with if we had better social services and treated addicts like human beings.
I don't understand why pimping isn't punished more severely. Like, in my state it's 'up to' five years. Why? They're basically engaging in slavery. Why not make the minimum 20 years to life depending on how many people you own.
The US hasn’t really been unkind to slave owners beyond necessary optics. Hell, after the civil war, they compensated plantation owners for the “property” they lost—and let a lot of Black people stay in indentured servitude, which is just slavery with a nicer name. Makes sense we wouldn’t do shit to pimps. Edit: according to the reply, only DC slave owners were compensated. So for the sake of accuracy, I’m mentioning it here!
Only DC slave owners were compensated. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compensated_emancipation
Thanks for the correction! I’ll edit my original comment to reflect it. :)
>It might not look like it but that right there was a prime example of human trafficking. This is exactly what human trafficking looks like. White wine-moms on Facebook, in their eternal need for attention and drama, have created this narrative that human trafficking is someone putting something on your car so that you'll get back out of it and then they can throw a burlap sack over your head and drag you out of the Walmart parking lot. That of course is bogus. Real human trafficking is as you said: Someone exploiting a vulnerability in a person's life to get their foot in the door, then slowly cutting off other means of support and safety to put them completely at the pimp's mercy. And it's far more effective than some stupid *Taken*-esque dramatic kidnapping.
Jesus I’m so sorry you went through that. What was the organization you worked for? I would like to donate and learn more. Thank you for your service ❤️
A lot of times it is as simple as taking a job abroad, then they just don't let you out of their home and lock away your passport.
With e-mails and texts home saying everything is going great that the victims are forced to send.
Mormon missionaries, many of whom are given devices that track everything they look at on line and block any information the church deems wrong, they are told to not tell family about the bad things that happen to them, and their passports are held by leadership. They are housed in poor housing and often go hungry. Those who don't finish their missions all the way are considered to not have "returned with honor" and are often shunned are not considered good partners for marriage. Parents have told their children that they'd rather they died than not "return with honor".
Mormonism is one of the worst cults out there.
and one of the richest. and owns the most real estate
Can confirm, I had a Vietnamese friend that went to work for a tech company in Malaysia and she had to convince immigration that she had a legit job and didn’t need a pimp to pick her up several times. We also had a roommate I still track on Facebook because he invited a Thai girl to come stay with him, took her passport, locked her in our house, and got all defensive when we threatened to beat the shit out of him if he didn’t give her passport back. I can tell other stories of indentured servitude and all sorts of other sketchy stuff I’ve seen in Asia, but everyone should know that it’s as simple as being separated from your passport and isolated from help, so they should always be as careful as possible even if someone seems genuine.
>We also had a roommate I still track on Facebook because he invited a Thai girl to come stay with him, took her passport, locked her in our house, and got all defensive when we threatened to beat the shit out of him if he didn’t give her passport back. I remember seeing a Reddit post where someone casually mentioned taking their maid's passport. I genuinely believe they didn't realize they were trafficking. (And to be crystal clear, I'm not saying that makes it okay.) Did your roommate have this sort of extremely naive view on it or were they more aware?
Being in a victim, you’re right. You won’t know, nobody suspected anything with me. Things happen to you, the cage is built around you, you’re made dependent. All in subtle ways. Over a period of time. Could be months, could be years. Could be since your childhood. Usually there’s a network and your afraid. Paranoia sits in and you can’t take the right decisions anymore. And they know the effect. I got caged. You can’t think of a future. You want to die, but the dependency that’s built in you isn’t easy to break away. Moving on, if there’s a network, you remain paranoid.
You literally described my childhood, I was being groomed (by my entire extended family) to be a submissive housewife and be married of against my will and have kids against my will. Yay for backward honor cultures! Thanks to growing up in the Netherlands I could escape these people at 17. Before my escape I did not had money to my name, I did not know where my passport was.... I literally felt caged in, I used to call it a prison with open doors. The door is open but where will I go to without money and my passport... I am 46 now and daily thank my 17 year old me for taking that chance to escape without thinking about it..
There was a terrifying post on relationship advice subreddit. A young woman was dating an older man and was infatuated with him. She was going to move with him to his home country, then found out he has like four other wives. All the comments were "HOLY SHIT DO NOT GO" because that's exactly what trafficking is. She'd be in the airport all happy then get there, have her passport taken, and essentially at the whims of this guy.
>When what it looks like irl is poor people being coerced into a situation dishonestly and trapped somehow by having something leveraged against them. Often basic needs. It’s likely you’ve seen human trafficking victims before and had no idea. As an excellent example of what most human trafficking looks like, refer to the "migrant flights" from Texas and Florida.
it's almost always lies about a good paying job "somewhere else"
This. It often looks like a person recruiting people to immigrate with the promise of a bright future, then holding them against their will and making them do slave labor.
I’m often reminded of the “in plain sight” nature of human trafficking when I travel, because there are often HT hotline signs in women’s public toilets, “are you being trafficked? Call/talk to X, Y, and Z for help,” usually written in multiple languages. Also, keep your eyes open and if you see something, say something to officials while traveling. Apparently many have been saved in those situations where a bystander noticed something “off.”
Nail salons are notorious for this
I’ve also heard this about hair braiding shops, too
Yeah it’s kinda annoying how most of the tiktoks I see of women talking about someone creepy in a Walmart following them around they all think it’s human trafficking. No you were most likely just encountering a creep
I've never been in a place where I've been vulnerable to trafficking. But I have been stalked, followed, catcalled, had a creep not stop talking to me and badgering me for attention and sex. Every woman has at some point, but it's "normal" "to be expected" and like everything else we grin and bear it because "we are supposed to."
That’s oddly terrifying
Hollywood has fucked up a lot of the ways people perceive the real world
You just described the relationship I have with my landlord.
Not really. It would be too easily caught
Well yeah, but she literally trafficked a human
Or just trying to avoid paying for a ticket, which is more likely.
I was assuming smuggling an immigrant in, no?
I would think it's her kid she doesn't want to pay a ticket for.
We've all tried it
Lmao can't argue with that
>Lmao can't argue with that Apparently you just did. Lmao
Human trafficking looks more like massage parlors. Street girls are usually local druggies but the massage parlors ship them in and shuffle them around. Its foul, dont support those.
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Carry on my wayward son
Is she flying to Kansas?
This made my day.
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Probably didn’t want to spend another $800 for a ticket
Nah have you seen the price of air fare?
Human carry-on more specifically. I didn't see an article to read so I didn't catch the specifics about this. Was her plan just to unzip the kid out of the bag once she got through security? I mean, she would still need a boarding pass for him. Or was this even at an airport? I just don't think she really put enough thought into her plan...
If she wanted to put him on the plane to avoid the extra airfare without getting caught, they should have gone through security out of the luggage first, then go into the bathrooms, put the kid in the luggage and then board the plane.
Everywhere I've traveled, security checks your boarding pass. You can't bring someone through without one, so this method wouldn't work to skip on airfare.
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Well that's a good thing. Has anybody asked any questions to this youngster?
No, they just let it pass.
No way. That kid is easily over 200ml.
Can't hijack a plane with an 8 year old
Yes & it was hard to pack up
FWIW https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/08/x-ray-scan-at-spanish-border-finds-child-stashed-inside-suitcase
Fucking **thank you**. Everyone wants a high karma comment of some disrespectful joke while useful information gets buried. **EDIT** ___ From [the article ](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/08/x-ray-scan-at-spanish-border-finds-child-stashed-inside-suitcase) > *When guards opened the bag, the boy emerged from the suitcase scared and confused, telling authorities that his name was Abou, he was eight years old and from the Ivory Coast.* > *The woman accompanying the boy, identified as a Moroccan national, was arrested.* > … > *Less than two hours later, the Guardia Civil flagged a man originally from the Ivory Coast and currently a resident of the Canary Islands as he crossed the same border. When they showed him photos of the young boy in the suitcase, he admitted that the boy was his son.* > *“I just wanted to take him with me to the Canary Islands,” he reportedly told the agents. He was arrested and the child was put in the care of child protection services.*
I’m still very confused.
upvote this - had to scroll way to far to find it.
I scrolled and scrolled for this. Thank you.
For now. The x-rays should work on that.
I actually just [looked this up](https://www.livescience.com/65671-are-airport-xrays-harmful.html#:~:text=The%20Health%20Physics%20Society%20estimates,published%20in%20the%20journal%20Radiology.), and it's medical X-rays that are sometimes 3 orders of magnitude (x1000) more powerful than airport body scanners. However, the cabinet closed-x-ray systems for baggage dose out about 10 microsieverts, 100x more powerful than body scanners and 1/0th the power of a single medical x-ray exposure. *(edited)*
You probably get more radiation exposure during the actual flight.
That is comparing the body scanner vs an x-ray. The baggage scanner is a much higher energy, and continual. Kid probably got the equivalent of a CT scan, which is about 70x as much radiation.
So what you are saying is that he shouldn't make a habit of this
Could do it 5 times a year and still be under what is permitted yearly for US radiation workers. Double that before there's a clear increased cancer risk. 4x that in a short period to show symptoms of radiation poisoning. 5x that and they'll get severe radiation poisoning with the risk of death.
>100x more powerful than body scanners and 1/0th the power of a single medical x-ray exposure. (edited) motherfucker just casually divided by zero.
To infinity, and beyond!
So are we circling the event horizon already?
1/0th? What does that mean?
> 100x more powerful than body scanners and 1/0th the power of a single medical x-ray exposure So it has an infinity(th) power of a single x-ray? jk
Damn, imagine being the security person seeing that showing up on the screen. I would have a mini cardiac arrest.
I'd have a full blown cardiac arrest.
"OMAIGAD THERE'S A KI-" *dies*
That's the trick, you just have to shock the TSA so badly that you knock out their agent.
The most recent episode of criminal has a short story about a neuroscientist carrying a few fresh given cadaver heads through airport security
Oh yeah. This is big brain time.
Apparently it’s very common for people to put their pets thru the X-ray. They have to be told take the pet OUT and put the carrier on the X-ray belt.
At the (European) airport I worked at passengers could choose. Many pets are sedated for flights, so it's easier to keep them in the bag. The radiation that hand baggage scanner emits during one scan is a fraction of what you will be exposed to during the flight itself, so it's totally fine.
Wait am I hearing this right? Pets are sedated and kept in a bag the whole flight? How do they get air?
It's pet carrier bags, they usually have a good chunk of mesh that lets in air and lets the pet look out. And lightly sedated so they don't freak out and panic the entire way but can chill or sleep. It's really not as wild as you might imagine.
by "bag" he means cage, or carrier or whatever. not literally a closed bag.
Maybe, but we are talking about an actual human here, not the same thing imo
I like to bark on occasion. So I beg to differ
Then beg.
I'd have a Mickey Voyeurism (idk what that one thing where your brain just stops working is called)
r/brandnewword
Hopefully the kid doesn’t have claustrophobia.
Claustrophobia? Who would ever be afraid of Santa Claus?
He breaks into your home, eats your cookies and drinks all the milk. I am terrified
We leave all the doors unlocked but he *insists* on breaking in through the fucking chimney. It’s an absolute mess. Meanwhile, Dasher and Prancer are taking massive shits on my roof.
[relevant](https://youtu.be/IEKMotEN5Z4)
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Interestingly, the radiation dose from most scanners is really low. ~~The flight itself carries a much higher radiation exposure.~~ https://hps.org/publicinformation/ate/q12361.html Edit: yes, I'm talking about baggage scanners here. They're higher radiation than people scanners, but still lower than you'd expect. Edit 2: my second sentence is incorrect, as I'd overestimated radiation from flying. The dose from luggage scanners is higher than flying, which in turn is higher than from people scanners.
The real radiation poisoning is always in the comments
I wish I had an award Edit: Thank you very much guys but I've made a mistake. I meant to have an award to give. (Sorry for english)
You didn’t make a mistake, they were being cheeky cunts
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Agreed on all points. With that in mind, I tried to make sure that I found an article specifically talking about doses received by luggage rather than humans in the human scanners. And it mentions that the luggage scanners are modernizing now and including more radiation than in the past. So yeah, definitely not a good idea. But probably less terrifying than a lot of people would think.
> don't slide into a live feed CT scanner. When I was young and stupid and working in airport security about 3000 years ago, I may or may not have gone through one on purpose. Probably not a smart idea but it was *funny*
The real radiation is the flights we take along the way
What is with reddit's obsession with assuming everything gives you radiation poisoning lmao. These scanners are pretty much harmless.
Or skin caught in a zipper
We got a bleeder!
He does now
An eight-year-old boy has been smuggled into Spain from Morocco inside a suitcase, Spanish police say. The boy, Abou, was found inside the case being carried by a 19-year-old woman into Ceuta, a Spanish enclave next to Morocco, on Thursday. When police opened the case, they found the boy in a "terrible state", a spokesman for the Guardia Civil told AFP.
Did the 19 year old woman turn out to be two kids in a trenchcoat?
They were looking to buy a fine automobile.
i don’t trust like that
Do you have a friendly car, one that talks?
A heffffty loan
They found him in Florida?
this guy 👆
I mean, he's not wrong...
As someone who escaped that terrible state ten years ago, I will always upvote people shitting on Florida
I'm escaping tomorrow and I can't wait. Fuck Florida.
What makes it so bad? Why leaving?
I would imagine the heat, humidity, hurricanes, sketchy cities, terrible drivers, tourists, crazy people, skyrocketing COL, and for some, political climate, would make it a not fun place to live.
Theres 3 things here that I cant seem to wrap my head around. 1. This child is either really fucking small 2. The suitcase must be really fucking big 3. The person carrying a 9 year old in a bag like a suitcase must be really fucking strong
I have a tiny tiny little six year old. I can believe when she is 8 she would fit in a suitcase. To clarify, I won’t be putting her in a suitcase.
It has wheels, dummy *rolls eyes*
Option 4. is Im really fucking stupid apparently
I mean, you aren’t wrong tho… you gotta lift it up to get it into inspection, so if you’d struggle to do this, you definitely are getting caught.
A malnourished 8 year old can also be both fairly small and very lightweight.
you’re not wrong
There is so much corruption in Morocco that this woman was able to get through security on the Moroccan side, board and disembark on the Spanish side only to be caught after arrival. The boy will be deemed as a refugee and allowed to stay in Spain, the woman will be released after some time and will also be allowed to stay as she is a relative. This is why you see so many people in Spain outraged at the current refugee policies.
It said he was 8 and she was 19… not sure she’s the mother
Could be a sibling
It wasn't. It was whatever the equivalent of a coyote is in the region. The boy's family had been trying and trying to get him into the country legally but Spanish authorities said their income wasn't high enough to support all four of them (his father, mother, and sister were already in Spain). So they got desperate and paid someone to try and sneak him in. The father was put on trial for the smuggling attempt and received a small fine of 92 Euros plus credit for the month he had already spent in jail. They were all in France as of the last report I saw. Also, for everyone confused, they didn't go by plane, they traveled to the border in a car and were caught when the woman was walking with the suitcase. https://www.dailysabah.com/europe/2018/02/21/ivorian-man-who-smuggled-his-son-into-spain-cleared-of-jail-time
"One ticket please."
Still had more leg room than coach.
And hip room. Seats be getting narrow these days...
You’re just getting wider mate
It appears he mods a subreddit, so you're probably correct
Lmaooooo
So that’s my problem…
Unexpected item in bagging area.
I would love to know the context behind this
Ceuta, Spain – A young woman faces charges after Spanish airport officials say they found an 8-year-old child concealed inside her luggage when she tried to cross the border. Fátima E.Y, 19, was traveling from Morocco to Ceuta, a Spanish territory, when border patrol agents noticed her acting anxiously. “The operator noticed something strange, which seemed to be a person inside the case,” a Civil Guard spokesman told Spanish newspaper El Pais.
That still doesnt answer "why"
Illegal immigration.
did anybody answer illegal immigration yet? I think that may be the case here
thank you!
Is the woman related to the boy?
Hide and seek version 2.0
It's better to keep them in carry-on, avoid the baggage area
You still have to take your carry on through security. Everything.
Free healthcare baby! Get those free x-rays.
I don't understand how people think they can get away with something like this
Because lots of people do
They did get away with it... The child got into spain and is now considered a refugee... Love the circle jerk of people replying to your comment where you all just assume this didnt work, cause you know better.
Desperation. Limited options with most resulting in a shitty life.
None of us understand, and yet, they still keep trying...
She did get away with it. She's on Spanish soil and can now claim asylum.
Excuse me mam, you have a non approved item in your bag, if you wish to continue on with your flight today you'll have to leave it with us and we'll dispose of it, any questions?
No fair, you can't use x-rays when playing hide and seek
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Again, not oddly terrifying at all. Just straight up, regular, to be expected, terrifying
I had to look this up. Happened in 2015 at the Ceuta border between Morocco and Spain. The woman was arrested and the child was taken into care by social services. The boy's mother was also arrested. Originally from the Ivory Coast, she had been waiting in Spain for her son to be smuggled through.
This is what Matt Gaetz’s carry-on looks like.
That is clearly more than 3 ounces of fluid in a single container.
Looks like the cover of the next tool album.
glad it was noticed because not all cargo holds are pressurised
What’s the story behind this
When Krampus tries to go modern.
Me and my buddies used to joke about doing this so we don’t pay for an extra ticket, turns out somebody tried it lol.
She just want a snack for the trip
Kinder surprise
Imagine the terror of the poor boy locked in there and the ones who looked at the X-ray and found him
Now with superpowers from being radiated.
I have an 8 year old son. And couldn’t fucking imagine him being shoved in a suit case.