This website also contains video documentaries. --M.H.
"Sex slaves, human trafficking ... in America?
One young woman shares the story of how she escaped from forced labor.
http:// http://www.msnbc.msn .com/id/22083762/
By Grace Kahng
TODAYShow.com contributor
updated 2:53 p.m. ET Dec. 3, 2007
In spring of 2004, Katya (not her real name), like thousands of other foreign exchange university students, was looking forward to the summer job placement that she and a friend had received in Virginia Beach, Va. When she and her friend Lena arrived at Dulles Airport after a long flight from Ukraine, they were relieved to be met by fellow countrymen who spoke Russian.
The two men, Alex Maksimenko and Michael Aronov, were holding signs with the girls’ names and greeted them by taking their bags and luggage. Charming and reassuring, Aronov informed the girls that they had been reassigned to a job in Detroit where they would waitress and perfect their English language skills.
The men drove Katya and Lena to the Greyhound bus station and gave them tickets to Detroit. Confused and exhausted, the girls had no reason to question the change of plans.
“When we got to the hotel in Detroit, everything changed,” says Katya. “They closed the door and sat us down on the couch, took our passports and papers and said, ‘You owe us big money for bringing you here.’ They gave us strip clothes and told us that we were going to be working at a strip club called Cheetahs.”
Shocked and scared, the two women were subjected to physical, mental and sexual abuse over the next year as they were forced to work 12-hour shifts stripping for local Detroit men’s clubs. According to immigration customs agent Angus Lowe, the men controlled the women through intimidation with guns and threats to hurt family members back home.
Katya and her friend are two of the estimated 17,000 young women and girls annually who are forced to work in the sex industry in the U.S. by organized criminals. “Chicago, Houston, St. Paul, Minnesota, these crimes are happening in every community in America big and small,” says Marcie Forman, director of investigations for ICE (Immigration Customs Enforcement). “We’re talking about money here. Millions of dollars, and these people don’t think about these women as human beings. They think of them as dollars and cents,” Forman says.
In February 2005, after months of planning and finally confiding in a customer from the strip club, the two girls escaped and were brought to the FBI and ICE. Their escape resulted in the arrest of Alex Maksimenko and Michael Aronov, both of whom pleaded guilty and are serving time in federal prison for their crimes.
Even though her captors are in prison, Katya says she will never live without fear. Maksimenko’s father — who was also convicted of forced labor and illegal trafficking — continues to live openly in Ukraine as a fugitive from authorities."
For more information about this story, please email info@santokiproductions.com
Sex slaves in America
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Sex slaves in America
by MaggieH » Thu Dec 06, 2007 6:34 pm
"The assumption that "most women are innately heterosexual'' stands as a theoretical and political stumbling block for many women. It remains a tenable assumption, partly because lesbian existence has been written out of history or catalogued under disease;. . . partly because to acknowledge that for women heterosexuality may not be a "preference" at all but something that has had to be imposed, managed, organized, propagandized and maintained by force is an immense step to take if you consider yourself freely and "innately" heterosexual. Yet the failure to examine heterosexuality as an institution is like failing to admit that the economic system called capitalism or the caste system of racism is maintained by a variety of forces, including both physical violence and false consciousness. . ."
-- Adrienne Rich, in Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence: http://www.terry.uga.edu/~dawndba/4500compulsoryhet.htm
“The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.” ~ Alice Walker
-- Adrienne Rich, in Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence: http://www.terry.uga.edu/~dawndba/4500compulsoryhet.htm
“The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.” ~ Alice Walker
- MaggieH
- antiporn star
- Posts: 1817
- Joined: Tue Apr 03, 2007 9:36 am
by MaggieH » Thu Dec 06, 2007 6:48 pm
This website also contains video documentaries. --M.H.
"MSNBC Undercover: Sex Slaves in America
NBC's Meredith Viera examines human trafficking and prostitution in the U.S.
http:// http://www.msnbc.msn .com/id/22056066/
Transcript (Page 1)
updated 4:38 p.m. ET Dec. 1, 2007
MSNBC Undercover: Sex Slaves in America premiered Monday, December 3 at 11 PM ET/PT.
It's a story that begins in the ruins of the shattered Soviet empire.
Sophia: I saw 10 girls. They just pushed me into this room and closed the door. They made all of us take our clothes off and took us out naked.
tragic but all too familiar tale. Young women in eastern Europe chasing dreams of a better life. But lured instead into sexual slavery.
Sophia: These half-drunk men are examining me, and I realize my life depends on them.
Enticed by fake ads and phony employment agencies, with slick brokers promising good jobs with decent salaries.
Man on hidden camera: Salary starts from $200 a month.
A single mother we'll call Sophia left her son in Ukraine for a housekeeping job in the Czech Republic. Her enslavement was immediate.
Sophia: I never left this building after I got there. I was locked in one room the whole time, then I'd go to the bar. Then one client would pick me up, and I'd have to service him. And then I'd go back to the bar and then to the room.
Sophia says she was forced to have sex with up to 11 men a day. Her friend Natasha was sent to a neighboring brothel, owned by the village police chief.
Natasha: The brothel is on the highway, there were nine of us. We had to dance half naked in the window all the time. If we sat down, we would get fined. It's impossible to run away. There is nothing except highways and brothels. There are 25 brothels in this tiny village. There are no taxis, only one bus, and they don’t let anybody out.
These roadside brothels on an isolated country road near the Czech and German border are just a small part of a world wide marketplace. Young and attractive women from eastern Europe and Asia forced to work in the capitols of Europe, and the Middle East. It's a vast global crime and if you thought that the United States was not involved, think again.
Marcy Foreman: San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, St. Paul, Minnesota, McAllen, Texas, it's, it's happened in, in almost every major community you, you can think of.
It happened in Detroit, and it happened to a woman we'll call Katya.
Katya: I was watching a lot of TV shows about human trafficking, and I could never believe that can happen to me. And when I get in this situation, I believe, and this can happen anytime.
2 years ago a 20-year-old university student signed up with a friend to study English abroad in a program that involved waitressing in Virginia Beach, but the girls would never reach Virginia. And they wouldn't be waitresses.
Bridgette Carr: They were met at the airport by Michail Aronov and Alex Maksimenko, the traffickers. And they were told that, you know what? Plans have changed. You're going to be going to Detroit. You need to get on this bus. So, they were nervous, but they thought, this is the plan, maybe my job is now in Detroit. They didn't even know where Detroit was. They didn't speak much of the language. When they got to Detroit, as Katya says, everything changed.
After a grueling 15 hour bus ride to Detroit, the men brought them to a hotel and asked them for their passports and money. Then they gave the girls the true and terrible terms of their employment.
Katya: They said, "You guys, because we brought you here, you should give us $12,000 each for everything, and then for paperwork, you're gonna give us $25,000," which for me was iYou guys got to work for us and give, give us money for three months."
Katya: They brought us clothes. It was strip clothes and shoes. And they say, you guys gonna work at the club named Cheetah. And you guys gonna work Monday to Saturday, double-shift, 2:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M.
For Katya, a year of terror and abuse was about to begin.
Katya: Every morning, we wake up at 12:00. We have one hour to put our makeup, to eat breakfast and be ready for them because they was waiting for us in the car outside of our apartment every single day. We would go to work, work 12 hours a day there. And, and the end of the shift, 2:00 in the morning, they was waiting for us outside of the club in the car. We will sit in the car and give the money back. They drove us back to our apartment. Sometimes they rape us there. Emotionally, physically, they could do anything with us. That was every single day in my life for one year.
The two students were kept under lock and key and constant surveillance. The traffickers maintained control with intimidation and a campaign of terror.
Katya: I was threatened every single day. When we go, go into work, in the car, he was telling us, you're gonna have to make 1,000 a day. If you're not making this money, we'll find a way when you can make this money. That was really scary too. He was telling us that he can sell us to any country, to any person any time.
Bridgette Carr: I know of women who have been bought for $300, $400, $500. Once I started looking into the issue and realizing that I wanted to be an advocate for victims of human trafficking, it seemed like I couldn't turn around without trafficking hitting me in the face
Katya: Almost every girl who I knew was sexually abused, raped. It wasn't in front of me, but it was another room where I could hear. I could actually see after the girl was talking about that.
Bridgette Carr: Alex and Michail had keys to the apartment. And they treated both the apartment and the individuals inside it as their own property. Alex would walk in and tell some of the women, let's go. It's time to get in the shower, which meant, he was going to rape them. And you couldn't say no. And even if you did say no, he would still force you to do it. He would force you whenever he wanted, for some women, multiple times per week, every week, every month, sometimes spanning over years of time.
Michael Rataj: Do I believe that some of them had sex against their will? I don't believe any of the girls had sex against their will.
Michael Rataj Is Alex Maksimenko's lawyer and he admits…
Michael Rataj: They were laundering money. They did take a lion's share of the money that the girls made in the bars. They did hide it from the government. They did bring the girls here without the proper immigration papers. And of course the girls were forced to work in these bars. But in terms of them being bought and sold for like a cow or pig, you know, or a chattel, ok, or the allegation that they were routinely sexually abused, just did not happen.
Katya: The girl who was living with me, she was, I saw her body was, (stammers) um, violence. You could see the, um, how do you call, scratch and bites. It was scary to look at it. I was thinking, I'm gonna be next if I will say something. I'm just gonna stay as quiet as I can, go through it, for a next day, for a better future.
Later Federal Agents would question Alex Maksimenko’s about the women he controlled. When asked about the rape accusations, Maksimenko’s said it was his right. After all, he claimed to be their boss."
... Transcript continues on Pages 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 after this page 1 ( http://www. msnbc.msn .com/id/22056066/ ) or you can watch the video documentaries on this website. --M.H.
"MSNBC Undercover: Sex Slaves in America
NBC's Meredith Viera examines human trafficking and prostitution in the U.S.
http:// http://www.msnbc.msn .com/id/22056066/
Transcript (Page 1)
updated 4:38 p.m. ET Dec. 1, 2007
MSNBC Undercover: Sex Slaves in America premiered Monday, December 3 at 11 PM ET/PT.
It's a story that begins in the ruins of the shattered Soviet empire.
Sophia: I saw 10 girls. They just pushed me into this room and closed the door. They made all of us take our clothes off and took us out naked.
tragic but all too familiar tale. Young women in eastern Europe chasing dreams of a better life. But lured instead into sexual slavery.
Sophia: These half-drunk men are examining me, and I realize my life depends on them.
Enticed by fake ads and phony employment agencies, with slick brokers promising good jobs with decent salaries.
Man on hidden camera: Salary starts from $200 a month.
A single mother we'll call Sophia left her son in Ukraine for a housekeeping job in the Czech Republic. Her enslavement was immediate.
Sophia: I never left this building after I got there. I was locked in one room the whole time, then I'd go to the bar. Then one client would pick me up, and I'd have to service him. And then I'd go back to the bar and then to the room.
Sophia says she was forced to have sex with up to 11 men a day. Her friend Natasha was sent to a neighboring brothel, owned by the village police chief.
Natasha: The brothel is on the highway, there were nine of us. We had to dance half naked in the window all the time. If we sat down, we would get fined. It's impossible to run away. There is nothing except highways and brothels. There are 25 brothels in this tiny village. There are no taxis, only one bus, and they don’t let anybody out.
These roadside brothels on an isolated country road near the Czech and German border are just a small part of a world wide marketplace. Young and attractive women from eastern Europe and Asia forced to work in the capitols of Europe, and the Middle East. It's a vast global crime and if you thought that the United States was not involved, think again.
Marcy Foreman: San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, St. Paul, Minnesota, McAllen, Texas, it's, it's happened in, in almost every major community you, you can think of.
It happened in Detroit, and it happened to a woman we'll call Katya.
Katya: I was watching a lot of TV shows about human trafficking, and I could never believe that can happen to me. And when I get in this situation, I believe, and this can happen anytime.
2 years ago a 20-year-old university student signed up with a friend to study English abroad in a program that involved waitressing in Virginia Beach, but the girls would never reach Virginia. And they wouldn't be waitresses.
Bridgette Carr: They were met at the airport by Michail Aronov and Alex Maksimenko, the traffickers. And they were told that, you know what? Plans have changed. You're going to be going to Detroit. You need to get on this bus. So, they were nervous, but they thought, this is the plan, maybe my job is now in Detroit. They didn't even know where Detroit was. They didn't speak much of the language. When they got to Detroit, as Katya says, everything changed.
After a grueling 15 hour bus ride to Detroit, the men brought them to a hotel and asked them for their passports and money. Then they gave the girls the true and terrible terms of their employment.
Katya: They said, "You guys, because we brought you here, you should give us $12,000 each for everything, and then for paperwork, you're gonna give us $25,000," which for me was iYou guys got to work for us and give, give us money for three months."
Katya: They brought us clothes. It was strip clothes and shoes. And they say, you guys gonna work at the club named Cheetah. And you guys gonna work Monday to Saturday, double-shift, 2:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M.
For Katya, a year of terror and abuse was about to begin.
Katya: Every morning, we wake up at 12:00. We have one hour to put our makeup, to eat breakfast and be ready for them because they was waiting for us in the car outside of our apartment every single day. We would go to work, work 12 hours a day there. And, and the end of the shift, 2:00 in the morning, they was waiting for us outside of the club in the car. We will sit in the car and give the money back. They drove us back to our apartment. Sometimes they rape us there. Emotionally, physically, they could do anything with us. That was every single day in my life for one year.
The two students were kept under lock and key and constant surveillance. The traffickers maintained control with intimidation and a campaign of terror.
Katya: I was threatened every single day. When we go, go into work, in the car, he was telling us, you're gonna have to make 1,000 a day. If you're not making this money, we'll find a way when you can make this money. That was really scary too. He was telling us that he can sell us to any country, to any person any time.
Bridgette Carr: I know of women who have been bought for $300, $400, $500. Once I started looking into the issue and realizing that I wanted to be an advocate for victims of human trafficking, it seemed like I couldn't turn around without trafficking hitting me in the face
Katya: Almost every girl who I knew was sexually abused, raped. It wasn't in front of me, but it was another room where I could hear. I could actually see after the girl was talking about that.
Bridgette Carr: Alex and Michail had keys to the apartment. And they treated both the apartment and the individuals inside it as their own property. Alex would walk in and tell some of the women, let's go. It's time to get in the shower, which meant, he was going to rape them. And you couldn't say no. And even if you did say no, he would still force you to do it. He would force you whenever he wanted, for some women, multiple times per week, every week, every month, sometimes spanning over years of time.
Michael Rataj: Do I believe that some of them had sex against their will? I don't believe any of the girls had sex against their will.
Michael Rataj Is Alex Maksimenko's lawyer and he admits…
Michael Rataj: They were laundering money. They did take a lion's share of the money that the girls made in the bars. They did hide it from the government. They did bring the girls here without the proper immigration papers. And of course the girls were forced to work in these bars. But in terms of them being bought and sold for like a cow or pig, you know, or a chattel, ok, or the allegation that they were routinely sexually abused, just did not happen.
Katya: The girl who was living with me, she was, I saw her body was, (stammers) um, violence. You could see the, um, how do you call, scratch and bites. It was scary to look at it. I was thinking, I'm gonna be next if I will say something. I'm just gonna stay as quiet as I can, go through it, for a next day, for a better future.
Later Federal Agents would question Alex Maksimenko’s about the women he controlled. When asked about the rape accusations, Maksimenko’s said it was his right. After all, he claimed to be their boss."
... Transcript continues on Pages 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 after this page 1 ( http://www. msnbc.msn .com/id/22056066/ ) or you can watch the video documentaries on this website. --M.H.
"The assumption that "most women are innately heterosexual'' stands as a theoretical and political stumbling block for many women. It remains a tenable assumption, partly because lesbian existence has been written out of history or catalogued under disease;. . . partly because to acknowledge that for women heterosexuality may not be a "preference" at all but something that has had to be imposed, managed, organized, propagandized and maintained by force is an immense step to take if you consider yourself freely and "innately" heterosexual. Yet the failure to examine heterosexuality as an institution is like failing to admit that the economic system called capitalism or the caste system of racism is maintained by a variety of forces, including both physical violence and false consciousness. . ."
-- Adrienne Rich, in Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence: http://www.terry.uga.edu/~dawndba/4500compulsoryhet.htm
“The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.” ~ Alice Walker
-- Adrienne Rich, in Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence: http://www.terry.uga.edu/~dawndba/4500compulsoryhet.htm
“The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.” ~ Alice Walker
- MaggieH
- antiporn star
- Posts: 1817
- Joined: Tue Apr 03, 2007 9:36 am
by bluecoat28 » Thu Dec 06, 2007 7:54 pm
Michael Rataj: Do I believe that some of them had sex against their will? I don't believe any of the girls had sex against their will. Michael Rataj Is Alex Maksimenko's lawyer…
Why would someone defend a rapist?
- bluecoat28
- antiporn star
- Posts: 1108
- Joined: Thu May 31, 2007 7:35 am
by Moonlight » Sat Dec 08, 2007 2:59 pm
bluecoat28 wrote:Michael Rataj: Do I believe that some of them had sex against their will? I don't believe any of the girls had sex against their will. Michael Rataj Is Alex Maksimenko's lawyer…
Why would someone defend a rapist?
because they've learned to care more about money than about human beings.
"Early on, I made a very conscious decision that women were never going to find themselves on the wrong end of my venom...I'm deeply committed to calling out male violence at its source and that source, in this world, is men. They are the perpetrators of violence, the upholders of the system, the ones who benefit from the degredation and oppression of women around the globe." --B.B.
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by elfeminista » Sat Dec 08, 2007 4:58 pm
Monlight wrote:
"bluecoat28 wrote:
Quote:
Michael Rataj: Do I believe that some of them had sex against their will? I don't believe any of the girls had sex against their will. Michael Rataj Is Alex Maksimenko's lawyer…
Why would someone defend a rapist?
because they've learned to care more about money than about human beings."
And also because many, many men don't look at Women as human beings, including lawyers.
"You don't wound a snake, you kill it"~Soujurner Truth.
"bluecoat28 wrote:
Quote:
Michael Rataj: Do I believe that some of them had sex against their will? I don't believe any of the girls had sex against their will. Michael Rataj Is Alex Maksimenko's lawyer…
Why would someone defend a rapist?
because they've learned to care more about money than about human beings."
And also because many, many men don't look at Women as human beings, including lawyers.
"You don't wound a snake, you kill it"~Soujurner Truth.
"I was analyzing a phenomenon I am seeing on the internet-- a proliferation of blogs in which the blogger identifies as a radical feminist, but does not seem to embrace the distinctives of radical feminism as we understand the term in the United States.And you know, I think it's okay if they do that, but I also think it's important to say what I said because otherwise (1) herstoric radical feminism gets erased; (2) people new to feminism never hear what herstoric radical feminism really was or is."~ Heart
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by oneangrygirl » Tue Dec 11, 2007 12:16 pm
could be a public defender. everyone is guaranteed a lawyer, no matter what..that's the constitution for ya.
I guess some slavery feels like freedom.
-Wembley Fraggle
-Wembley Fraggle
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