The 2005 made for TV movie, Human Trafficking – featuring Mira Sorvino (now a United Nations good will ambassador for human trafficking, she appeared in the BBC World Debate on human trafficking last fall) and Donald Sutherland – is a fictional story that follows three young women who become involved in an international sex trafficking ring lead by one Sergei Karpovich. In New York City, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents – including Chief Bill Meehan (Sutherland) and Kate Morozov (Sorvino) – work to oust the trafficking ring. While the story itself is fictionalized, the themes and much of the experiences of the people involved are very real.
Helena, a single mother in Prague, Czech Republic, is attracted to a handsome young man, Peter (this name needs verification) and travels to Vienna, Austria for a weekend with him. Once in Vienna, Peter brings Helena to a staging house where he takes her passport and sells her to Karpovich. Karpovich's accomplices transport Helena and a group of other trafficked women to New York City where they're kept at one of his "houses" and prostituted. Helena is coerced into submission when her captors threaten her young daughter, Ivanka's life, having shown surveillance pictures of Ivanka and her caretaker back in Prague. Helena is eventually rescued when ICE agents, including Morozov, raid one of Karpovich's houses. After ICE secures Ivanka, Helena reluctantly agrees to help Morozov catch Karpovich, by telling her everything she knew about him and agreeing to testify in court. Karpovich coerces an attorney to attempt to have Helena released from police custody (so Karpovich could have her killed). Helena is placed under protective custody, and arrangements are made to bring Ivanka and the caretaker to the U.S. Helena is shot and killed by a sniper monitoring the safe house where she had been placed.
Nadia, a sixteen-year old in Kiev, Ukraine, responds to a modeling agency's offer for international modeling jobs. When she is selected, she runs away from her father and travels with the agency to the United States with other selected young women. Once in New York City, Nadia's passport is taken from her and she is taken with the same group of women as Helena. Nadia repeatedly tries to escape, but is caught and punished each time. She attempts suicide but does not carry it out. Back in Ukraine, her father, Viktor – a former member of the military – learns about the modeling agency and manages to get hired by Karpovich. He works as a low-level trafficker, bringing a young girl into Mexico and later into the U.S. as he searches for Nadia. Eventually he finds Nadia and after Morozov participates in an undercover operation that leads ICE to Karpovich himself and the house where Nadia and Viktor are, Karpovich is killed and the women are rescued.
Annie Grey, a twelve-year old American tourist, is abducted while in Manila, Philippines with her parents. She is taken to a brothel where men from around the world, including the U.S., travel on "sex tourism" trips. Annie and a group of other children are kept in a filthy room when they aren't with clients. As international attention begins to crack down on Manila, searching for Annie, her captors make arrangements to transport the children to the United Arab Emirates (this destination needs verification). They're drugged and concealed in a cargo container behind stacks of rice. One of the brothel owner's accomplices regrets what he helped do to the children and calls in a tip that leads police officials in Manila to the shipyard before the cargo container is shipped. The children, including Annie, are rescued.
There are different ways women are brought into the world of human trafficking, and the cases in this films represents three of these archetypes: - Helena represented one archetype where an attractive young man seduces women, pretending to be a lover, and after getting her to travel away from her home region and relative security, he takes her passport and sells her into a trafficking ring. - Nadia represented another archetype where trafficking rings pose as organizations hiring young women for attractive, well paying jobs abroad, and after transporting them outside of their home region and relative security, they hold them captive and prostitute them or sell them to other trafficking rings. - Annie represented a third archetype, where young women and often children are kidnapped by either traffickers or brothel owners, sometimes as tourists, and sold/exploited.
How close the stories depicted in this film mirror reality is up for argument. There is certainly some aspects that don't seem very realistic. One glaring instance is whether Nadia's father, Viktor, would be able to join Karpovich's organization and find Nadia on the other side of the world. To add insult to injury Viktor also managed to befriend ICE's Morozov; so when Karpovich was ultimately ousted, Viktor wasn't charged with the rest of Karpovich's accomplices.
Taking the "Hollywood" fabrication aspect into consideration – one of the main reasons films such as this cannot be used as primary sources – the film still offers a visual depiction into how devastating is the world of human trafficking.
After watching this film, which I highly recommend or I wouldn't have bothered to feature it, I wonder how many Helenas and Nadias and Annies are out there? How many of them have a father who was in the Russian military and can track his daughter across the globe to rescue her? How many of them have Mira Sorvino to fight for them? How many of them have a movie ending, where they at least get some mention in their death or at best are rescued?
After you take out the Hollywood in a story like this, you catch a glimpse of how vast is the criminal network behind today's human trafficking network.
I would say that it's worse than any of use can imagine.
Helena, a single mother in Prague, Czech Republic, is attracted to a handsome young man, Peter (this name needs verification) and travels to Vienna, Austria for a weekend with him. Once in Vienna, Peter brings Helena to a staging house where he takes her passport and sells her to Karpovich. Karpovich's accomplices transport Helena and a group of other trafficked women to New York City where they're kept at one of his "houses" and prostituted. Helena is coerced into submission when her captors threaten her young daughter, Ivanka's life, having shown surveillance pictures of Ivanka and her caretaker back in Prague. Helena is eventually rescued when ICE agents, including Morozov, raid one of Karpovich's houses. After ICE secures Ivanka, Helena reluctantly agrees to help Morozov catch Karpovich, by telling her everything she knew about him and agreeing to testify in court. Karpovich coerces an attorney to attempt to have Helena released from police custody (so Karpovich could have her killed). Helena is placed under protective custody, and arrangements are made to bring Ivanka and the caretaker to the U.S. Helena is shot and killed by a sniper monitoring the safe house where she had been placed.
Nadia, a sixteen-year old in Kiev, Ukraine, responds to a modeling agency's offer for international modeling jobs. When she is selected, she runs away from her father and travels with the agency to the United States with other selected young women. Once in New York City, Nadia's passport is taken from her and she is taken with the same group of women as Helena. Nadia repeatedly tries to escape, but is caught and punished each time. She attempts suicide but does not carry it out. Back in Ukraine, her father, Viktor – a former member of the military – learns about the modeling agency and manages to get hired by Karpovich. He works as a low-level trafficker, bringing a young girl into Mexico and later into the U.S. as he searches for Nadia. Eventually he finds Nadia and after Morozov participates in an undercover operation that leads ICE to Karpovich himself and the house where Nadia and Viktor are, Karpovich is killed and the women are rescued.
Annie Grey, a twelve-year old American tourist, is abducted while in Manila, Philippines with her parents. She is taken to a brothel where men from around the world, including the U.S., travel on "sex tourism" trips. Annie and a group of other children are kept in a filthy room when they aren't with clients. As international attention begins to crack down on Manila, searching for Annie, her captors make arrangements to transport the children to the United Arab Emirates (this destination needs verification). They're drugged and concealed in a cargo container behind stacks of rice. One of the brothel owner's accomplices regrets what he helped do to the children and calls in a tip that leads police officials in Manila to the shipyard before the cargo container is shipped. The children, including Annie, are rescued.
There are different ways women are brought into the world of human trafficking, and the cases in this films represents three of these archetypes: - Helena represented one archetype where an attractive young man seduces women, pretending to be a lover, and after getting her to travel away from her home region and relative security, he takes her passport and sells her into a trafficking ring. - Nadia represented another archetype where trafficking rings pose as organizations hiring young women for attractive, well paying jobs abroad, and after transporting them outside of their home region and relative security, they hold them captive and prostitute them or sell them to other trafficking rings. - Annie represented a third archetype, where young women and often children are kidnapped by either traffickers or brothel owners, sometimes as tourists, and sold/exploited.
How close the stories depicted in this film mirror reality is up for argument. There is certainly some aspects that don't seem very realistic. One glaring instance is whether Nadia's father, Viktor, would be able to join Karpovich's organization and find Nadia on the other side of the world. To add insult to injury Viktor also managed to befriend ICE's Morozov; so when Karpovich was ultimately ousted, Viktor wasn't charged with the rest of Karpovich's accomplices.
Taking the "Hollywood" fabrication aspect into consideration – one of the main reasons films such as this cannot be used as primary sources – the film still offers a visual depiction into how devastating is the world of human trafficking.
After watching this film, which I highly recommend or I wouldn't have bothered to feature it, I wonder how many Helenas and Nadias and Annies are out there? How many of them have a father who was in the Russian military and can track his daughter across the globe to rescue her? How many of them have Mira Sorvino to fight for them? How many of them have a movie ending, where they at least get some mention in their death or at best are rescued?
After you take out the Hollywood in a story like this, you catch a glimpse of how vast is the criminal network behind today's human trafficking network.
I would say that it's worse than any of use can imagine.