Human trafficking is the use of force, coercion, or threats to make someone do some action. In most cases, the “action” victims are forced to perform is physical labor; physical labor in bad conditions, long hours, and little-to-no pay. Disturbingly, a significant percentage of human trafficking victims are sex workers. The Polaris Project website reports a horrifying statistic; 25 percent of human trafficking victims are children (“The Facts”). Most people would probably assume that they would recognize a human trafficking victim when they saw them, but the reality is much more complicated. Human trafficking victims are everywhere, but they aren’t walking around in thick, heavy, physical chains. The chains that bound human trafficking victims are psychological; threatening, deceptive, urging, evil-meaning words from traffickers.
Human trafficking is an epidemic. It’s reach and influence is much bigger than most people can even comprehend, and advocates against human trafficking have scarcely even scratched the surface of the issue. The government has several programs that fight against human trafficking, but they done little in a huge industry. I chose the topic of human trafficking due to the lack of an effective solution. I want to raise awareness for the issue, and influence those with power to join the fight again human trafficking. I would be lying if I said that this was my only reason for doing my blog on human trafficking. Human trafficking is cruel and inhumane to the highest degree. Victims are slaves; slaves forced to do backbreaking, dehumanizing work. Many victims look free to the outsider (they are not wearing chains!), but are completely helpless. I want people in positions of power to take action and see what human trafficking really is; a dehumanizing, inhumane worldwide epidemic.
Works Cited: “The Facts.” Polaris, 9 Nov. 2018, polarisproject.org/human-trafficking/facts.Works Cited:
Human trafficking is an overwhelmingly huge epidemic. With 40.3 million victims worldwide, it is easy to feel like there is no possible way to do anything to help solve the problem of human trafficking (“The Facts”). In a way, this is correct; human trafficking will never be completely solved. There are just too many victims and traffickers for the problem to be completely solved, but people can do something. The idea of curbing human trafficking is a daunting one, but the enormous size of the epidemic shouldn’t stop someone from trying to make a difference. There are several things regular people and government officials can do to impact the human trafficking epidemic; here are a few.
One way to curb human trafficking would be to strengthen the security at airports and other human trafficking hubs and hotspots. Bus stops and airports are very important to human traffickers, as they are used to transport their victims from place to place quickly. With this being said, Georgia is home to the busiest airport in the world, the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (Parker). This airport is one of the main reasons why Atlanta is one of the biggest human trafficking hotspots in the United States. Once victims leave a bus stop or airport, they are often never seen again, becoming nearly impossible to rescue or even trace (Pylidis). The best way to deal this problem is increased airport security. A higher minimum number for airport security officers would guarantee that every airport has more security than they have now. With increased airport security, human trafficking victims could be saved before they completely disappear.
Another way anyone could help curb the human trafficking epidemic is to learn how to identify a human trafficking victim. As the numbers prove, human trafficking victims are everywhere. The tragic fact is that people see victims all the time in everyday life, but don’t know that they are victims. Rose Pylidis states that identifying victims is not as difficult as many people think it is, and simply “paying attention to anything out of the ordinary” could save a human trafficking victim from a life of forced slavery. She continues to list several ways people who frequently travel can identify victims in an airport. She advises frequent travelers observe what people are wearing; human trafficking victims are often dressed strangely. Victims are often wearing clothes that don’t properly fit, or clothes that appear ragged and low-quality. In addition to wearing low-quality clothing, victims are often dressed differently from their traffickers who they travel with (Pylidis). Unsurprisingly, victims may have bruises and look malnourished, as many traffickers are physically abusive.
A victim may also have strange tattoos, as some traffickers like to brand their victims as a way of asserting dominance over their victim (Pylidis). Another way to identify a victim is to look for a trafficker. Oftentimes, the trafficker is travelling right beside their victim, and the trafficker shares no resemblance to their victims (Pylidis). Two people travelling who don’t seem to be related or even friends can be a serious red flag; watch these people closely. If you suspect someone may be a human trafficking victim, approaching them and personally talking to them is a great way to gather more information. When talking to a victim, they often seem uncomfortable, and speak as if they are reading from a script (Pylidis). It is common for traffickers to “coach their victims to say certain things to avoid suspicion” (Pylidis). It is also common for victims to withhold important information, like where they are from and where they are going (Pylidis). This is information that a trafficker wants to keep a secret. Sometimes, when a victim is questioned they will divert the conversation to their trafficker, who is more than likely prepared to tell a convincing lie to hide the identity of themselves and their victim. This is a lot of information, but it is all very important. Knowing how to spot and identify a human trafficking victim can save them from a life of pain and misery.
Another group that can have a significant impact on identifying human trafficking victims is nurses. Nurses that work with children can be essential in identifying child human trafficking victims. Patricia Normandin writes that “Emergency nurses can pull the threads of child human trafficking by empowering themselves with education.” In her article on human trafficking among children, she details several ways emergency nurses can identify child victims. Most of the identifying factors Normandin lists in her article are very similar or identical to the ones Pylidis lists in her article on human trafficking, detailed earlier in this post.
Normandin advises nurses to examine children and their guardians if they suspect human trafficking. She warns that if the child and guardian in question do not appear related, the guardian could potentially be a trafficker (Normandin). Questioning a child suspected to be a human trafficking victim can also be essential to identifying the child as a human trafficking victim. If a child cannot answer basic questions like what day or time it is, or cannot give their home address, they could be a trafficking victim (Normandin). Something else to watch out for; children avoiding questions related to their physical injuries. Normandin writes that if a child is avoiding questions related to their physical injuries it could be a sign that they are being trafficked (Normandin). All of this information can be used to identify child human trafficking victims, saving them from living a life of pain and abuse. If they can learn the identifying signs, nurses can make a real difference, identifying and saving the most vulnerable and helpless human trafficking victims before it’s too late.
A key step that needs to be made in order to more effectively solve the human trafficking problem is increased research of the topic. In Blog Post #4, I referenced Kiss and Zimmerman’s article “Human trafficking and labor exploitation: Toward identifying, implementing, and evaluating effective responses,” which details how we know very little about human trafficking. In the article, they report that research on human trafficking prevention “is still in the early stages” (Kiss and Zimmerman). This quote shows us that the status quo regarding research on human trafficking prevention needs to change, as the evidence is insufficient for proposing an effective solution. If the government is going to make any real progress in finding a solution to the human trafficking epidemic, they need to focus their attention and resources on extensive research of the issue. The government can’t begin to try to solve a problem they still know very little about.
In order to save more victims and catch more traffickers, the government needs to do more. As of right now, the government is doing a terrible job at curbing human trafficking, as proved by an article published by the Department of Homeland Security’s official website. The article explains how it took four government agencies, a Task Force, and “multiple state/local law enforcement agencies” 15 months to catch a measly 29 traffickers and identify even fewer victims (“ICE arrests 29 people…”). These numbers are extremely low, especially when compared to the total number of human trafficking victims. In order for the government to be more effective, they need to heighten their focus on the human trafficking epidemic. They need to make their existing programs and agencies more effective via increased funding and manpower. The status quo can change, but it can’t happen without the government’s support and involvement.
The road to finding an effective solution to the human trafficking epidemic is a long, hard, complicated one. There are several steps that need to be taken in order to really make a difference, and some of those steps cannot be taken without the government’s assistance. Of course, most people do not have powerful government jobs, but most of us know how to write, and even more of us can speak. We, the free people of the United States, need to take a stand for human trafficking victims by spreading awareness of the issue. We can do this by writing blogs, writing the government, and simply telling friends and family about the epidemic. Human trafficking is a huge issue, and most people have no idea of how big it really is. Let’s make a difference by being a voice for people who can’t speak. Together, we can fight to end the human trafficking epidemic, one word at a time.
Normandin, P. A. (2017). Child Human Trafficking: JEN JEN. Journal of Emergency Nursing, ee, Pull, Cut the Threads of Abuse: 43(6), 588-590. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jen.2017.07.014
The purpose of my four blog posts has been to make you, the reader, aware of just how horrible and widespread human trafficking is around the world. In the first post, I wrote from the perspective of a human trafficking survivor in an attempt to make the reader see things from the perspective of a victim. In the second post, I detailed the physical and psychological damage human trafficking can have victims. In the third post, I zeroed-in on the largest branch of human trafficking; forced labor. In the final post, I attempted to showcase the inefficiency of the government’s solution to human trafficking. In every post, I told stories about human trafficking victims. The first was fictional, but the next three were all too real. The stories of the victims in my second and third posts gave the reader a glimpse into how complicated human trafficking is; how it’s almost impossible to see unless someone is looking very hard. The story in the fourth post should be one of the most disturbing. Posted by an official government website, the article was meant to be positive and even celebratory. In reality, the article showcased the government’s extremely inefficient effect on the human trafficking epidemic.
What’s the point of all this doom and gloom; all of these harsh statistics and heartbreaking stories? I want you, the reader, to take action. I want every person reading these blog posts to see just how horrible human trafficking really is. I want people in power and government officials to realize that human trafficking is an epidemic; something that can’t be ignored. I want people to advocate for change; to spread awareness of how horrible and widespread human trafficking is around the world. Millions of victims are suffering right now, and most people are completely unaware. I want people how have a voice to scream for victims who can’t speak. Washington needs to take action, and we need to do everything we can to influence that action.
Human trafficking is a huge epidemic. The most recent study has revealed that there are 40.3 million human trafficking victims worldwide (“The Facts”). These numbers grow larger and larger with every passing year. These numbers will not shrink unless many powerful people really care to make a difference and take action. Human trafficking is not just a huge epedemic; it’s also an extremely harmful, scarring one. Human trafficking victims are subject to scores of diffirent physcial and mental damages, some of which the victim is never cured. Worse still, a very large number of human trafficking victims are children. According to the Polaris Project website, “25 percent of human trafficking victims are children” (“The Facts”). That’s ten million children who slaves to forced labor and sex work. These children are more susceptible to long-lasting damage from trauma, as their brains are not yet fully developed. Childhood trauma is often the worst kind; unforgettable, scarring, and life-changing. As horrible as all of this is, the U.S. government has done very little to curb human trafficking. Human trafficking is a huge epidemic, and people are not solving the problem.
Law enforcement has done very, very little in respect to identifying human trafficking victims around the world. In 2012, it was estimated that there were 21 million human trafficking victims worldwide (Thrupkaew 00:09:47). Out of these 21 million victims, law enforcement only identified 500,000 (Thrupkaew 00:09:47). That’s half of a million, out of 21 million. To illustrate how small that number (500,000) really is in the grand scale of things, Noy Thrupkaew compares the population of Los Angeles to the population of the world (00:09:47) In this comparison, the population of Los Angeles represents the number of identified human trafficking victims, while the world population represents the number of unidentified human trafficking victims. This comparison accurately illustrates how insanely huge and horrible the gap between identified and unidenified human trafficking victims is. In her Ted Talk, Thrupkaew becomes visibly angry while making this comparison, and her anger seems genuine. To make things even worse, the number of human trafficking victims has nearly doubled since 2012. It logically follows that the gap between identified victims has grown as well, and that it will continue to grow until the government and people in power treat human trafficking as the terrible epedemic that it is and take action.
The official website of Homeland Security published a deceptive article on October 10th, 2015. The article’s title is undoubtedly supposed to be positive; something the government wants to celebrate. The article’s full title is as follows: “ICE arrests 29 people in 8 states on human trafficking charges, identifies 15 potentiol victims, following multistate undercover investigation.” This sounds pretty good for an article title. Just by reading the title, one could assume that the government is doing a pretty good job at curbing human trafficking (“they busted 29 traffickers!”), but the devil is in the details. ICE stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an official government agency under U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Under them is the HSI, which stands for Homeland Security Investigations. HSI is responsible for the arrests, but they didn’t do the investigation and arrests alone. They were assisted by “the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Joint Task Force – Investigations (JTF-I) , ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Federal Emergency Management Administration, and multiple state/local law enforcement agencies (“ICE arrests 29 people…”). This is ridiculous. It took four official government agencies, one Task Force, and “multiple state/local law enforcement agencies” to arrest only 29 human traffickers. Worse yet, 38 people were charged on human trafficking charges; nine of them got away and are still at large. Still, 29 caught traffickers is better than none, right? Absolutely, but how long did it take to catch them? One would think that with four government agencies, an official Task Force, and multiple law enforcement agencies, it couldn’t have taken much time. I would guess a couple of weeks; maybe a month or two. In reality, it took 15 months. It took more than a year for all of these professional government and law enforcement officials and workers to capture 29 traffickers. Even worse, they only found 15 “potential” victims. 15 out of 40 million, in one year and three months. This article written to make the government look effective actually proves the opposite; that the government’s solution to human trafficking is extremely ineffecient.
Right now, the goverment knows very little about human trafficking. A scholarly article written in 2019 by Ligia Kiss and Cathy Zimmerman points out how the government doesn’t have the answer to the human trafficking epidemic, and is not even very close to finding a solution. They write that “there has been little engagement with modern slavery as a health concern by goverment health departments” (Kiss and Zimmerman). This simple sentence says a lot about the government’s attitude toward human trafficking. It shows the reader how the goverment doesn’t view human trafficking as a real, horrible, devestating, worldwide epidemic. They continue to write that “human trafficking and modern slavery should be treated as a global health concern” (Kiss and Zimmerman). This quote once again illustrates how human trafficking is often swept under the rug by the U.S. goverment and most people; it is not being treated with the seriousness it deserves. Near the end of their article, Kiss and Zimmerman state that research on human trafficking prevention “is still in the early stages” (“Human trafficking…”). The government and researchers need to take the initiative to try to really break down and understand human trafficking, as it is extremely complex and complicated.
Every statistic, story, and article quoted and detailed in this blog post tell the same story; that the government is not doing a sufficient job dealing with human trafficking, and that things needs to change. Right now, human trafficking is destroying the lives of millions of helpless victims; young, old, male, and female. Adults and children alike around the world are being treated as tools for work or objects for pleasure. The government and people in power need to wake up and realize that millions of people they can’t see or recognize are suffering without hope. For the sake of humanity, the status quo needs to change, and people in power need to take the first steps.
When most people think about human trafficking, they think of sex trafficking. They think about prostitution and sex slaves. I was no exception; when I picked the topic of human trafficking, I thought I would be doing research on and writing about sex trafficking. In reality, sex trafficking is a relatively small part of a huge epidemic. In her Ted Talk on human trafficking, Noy Thrupkaew reports that 68% of human trafficking is forced labor exploitation (00:05:35). Most people never see it, but forced labor exploitation is a huge industry, and goods and services that most people use and employ every day are a product of it (Thrupkaew, 00:05:35 – 00:05:50). This includes industries like construction, domestic work, and agricultural work. These industries are extremely important for society and everyday life. They are essential for shelter, care, and food, yet a huge number of the people working in these industries are being underpaid and abused. Forced labor exploitation is a huge epidemic, with a massive number of victims that are being completed ignored by most people.
Forced labor is, by a huge percentage, the largest branch of human trafficking. Sixty-eight percent of human trafficking victims are slaves to forced labor exploitation, while ten percent are victims of state-imposed labor (Thrupkaew, 00:05:35). This means that seventy-eight percent of human trafficking victims are slaves to forced labor. Since the total number of human trafficking victims is over forty million, there are over thirty million forced labor victims. This is nearly three times the entire population of Georgia, the eighth most populous state in the U.S. Numbers this large are hard to fully comprehend, and ignoring them would be downright reprehensible. Tens of millions of people are suffering; doing backbreaking word for little to no pay, and most people and government authorities don’t even think about them. The numbers don’t lie; forced labor trafficking is an enormous epidemic, and people in power need to do something.
Now, what is forced labor trafficking, exactly? Noy Thrupkaew defines it as “the use of fraud, force, or coercion to compel another person’s labor” (00:06:02). By this accurate definition, labor traffickers are really modern-day slave owners. They are not as conspicuous as the slave owners of the 1980s, as slavery is (obviously) illegal. Most labor traffickers are employers, contractors, and recruiters, but there are others (“Labor Trafficking”). This simply means that human traffickers come in many different shades, labels, and appearances. These traffickers use various methods of coercion to do their duty work, including but not limited to; lies, threats, debt bondage, and violence (“Labor Trafficking”). One common lie that many labor traffickers use to gain control of their victims is the false promise is that the victim is going to have a good, comfortable, high-paying job (“Labor Trafficking”) The victims fall for their trafficker’s lies, and are trapped working in some horrible workplace in terrible conditions for little to no pay before they even know it. There are many vulnerabilities that can lead a victim to forced labor trafficking. Some of the most significant are “a lack of strong labor protections”, isolation, immigration status, poverty, and recruitment debt, but there are others (“Labor Trafficking”). Human trafficking, and forced labor trafficking, are anything but simple. The traffickers come in countless shapes and sizes, and their victims’ situations and stories are no less complicated.
One of the most susceptible and vulnerable groups who are targeted by human traffickers are immigrants. Immigrants usually come to America in the hope of finding opportunities that are more favorable than those available to them in their home countries. Unfortunately, many of these immigrants are ignorant of what good and humane working conditions look like, and are desperate to escape their current situation in their home country. This desperation and hope of a better job in America sometimes clouds their judgement, making them an easy target for human traffickers. A documentary by CNBC highlights some of the problems immigrants face in the forced labor epidemic. An ambassador of the U.S. Trafficking Office explains that legal immigrants are often overlooked by the U.S. Immigration Services (“Crime Inc.”) Due to the immigrants’ legal status, authorities assume that there is nothing wrong and that the legal immigrants are simply going to their well-paying, humane, legal jobs (“Crime Inc.”). In a cruel twist of reality, law-abiding, legal immigrants are more susceptible to be forced labor victims than illegal immigrants.
To illustrate the complexities of forced labor victims, I would like to provide a real life example. This example comes from the same CNBC documentary cited above, and tells the story of an Indian man named Jagdish Prajapati. Prajapati (like hundreds of thousands of like-minded immigrants) wanted to get a job in America to make a better life for his wife, kids, and himself (“Crime Inc.”). He heard about a job at a place called the John Pickle Company in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and applied. He and fifty other Idian men left their home country to have a well-paying, stable job at the Pickle Company, or so they thought. When they arrived, the Agency confiscated their passports (“Crime Inc.”). All fifty-one Indian immigrants were forced to work in terrible conditions for extremely low pay. They were promised private apartments with internet by the Company, but were forced to all live under one roof. In the words of Prajapati: “It was a horror (“Crime Inc.”).”
Prajapati’s horrible, heartbreaking story gives us a real, vivid picture of what some human trafficking slaves’ lives look like. Bleak, dark, depressing, and hopeless. Most immigrants go to America in the hope of living a better life. Imagine the pain they must feel when they find their life in America is just as bleak as their previous situation, or even worse. Prajapati is not alone in his horrible situation; forced labor slaves are everywhere. Many of them are responsible for much of the food we buy at our local grocery stores; many are responsible for building shelters; all of them are suffering. People in power need to take notice of the tens of millions of forced labor victims suffering in silence. We need to be a voice for people who can’t speak; enslaved, weak, hopeless people choking on their tears.
Works Cited:
“Human Trafficking: Crime Inc.—The Underground Economy.” Films Media Group, 2011, fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=96309&xtid=47318. Accessed 4 Sept. 2019.
As horrible as it is to say, a large percentage of human trafficking victims are children. The Polaris Project is a large non-government organization that fights against human trafficking. A horrifying statistic can be found on the official Polaris Project website: “25 percent of human trafficking victims are children” (“The Facts”). The next question one might ask is, just how many people are slaves to human trafficking today? According to the Polaris Project website; 40.3 million (“The Facts”). This number is huge; the population of California, the most populous state in the US, is 39 million. The number of people enslaved to human trafficking and traffickers exceeds the entire population of California, and one fourth of those slaves are children. These children are put into forced labor and forced sex work. Their freedoms and futures are stripped away and smashed into millions of pieces. The psychological damage human trafficking inflicts upon victims has an even larger impact on children. Human trafficking does tremendous damage to victims (mentally and physically), and their situations are much more complicated than most people comprehend.
The effects human trafficking has on victims are varied, and depends on the specific situation the victim was involved in. Many traffickers are physically violent, and their victims live in fear of being harmed and physically abused by their slave masters. Human trafficking victims are subject to many different shades of mental damage, including anxiety, trauma, insecurity, and long-lasting fear (“Impact of Human Trafficking”). With this being said, it should not be surprising that high levels of PTSD are reported among human trafficking victims (“Impact of Human Trafficking”). The worst case scenario for victims? Human trafficking can, and has, lead to suicide for many victims.
With all of this being said, children are more susceptible to long-lasting mental and physical damage if harmed in their childhood because their bodies and brains are still developing. This means that the damage human trafficking inflicts upon adult victims is even more severe and traumatic for children. Once again, one in four human trafficking victims are children (“The Facts”). This sobering statistic shines a light on how horrible human trafficking really is, and the extent and significance of its impact on victims. A large number of human trafficking victims are sex slaves; 4.5 million in 2012 alone (“What Are the Statistics…”). In 2012, nearly half of these sexually exploited victims were children (“What Are the Statistics…”). The numbers have grown substantially since then, and the number of sexually exploited child victims has more than likely doubled. Victims of the sex trafficking industry have several additional damages and problems they are forced to deal with, and one of the worst (and most unjust) is ostracization. Sex trafficking victims are often looked down upon and treated less-than by family members and friends (“What Are the Statistics…”). This is really terrible and unjust because true victims don’t have a choice; they are psychologically (and sometimes physically) manipulated by their trafficker to do things they would never do under normal, healthy circumstances.
Fatima and Magdalena
To illustrate the complexity of a being a human trafficking victim, I am going to give some real life examples of children who were trafficked. One human trafficking victim’s story can be used to represent many victims, even though every story is different. I would like to tell the story of a girl identified as Fatima. Fatima was urged by her aunt and uncle to go to the United States with them, and promised that they would “send her to school in exchange for taking care of their infant son” (Gozdziak 12). Fatima’s mother and father stayed with her in the United States for several months after she accepted her uncle’s offer. Eventually they left, and Fatima’s aunt and uncle began to abuse her. Fatima was tricked into forced labor, and her uncle threatened “to report [her] to the authorities” if she did not do his wishes the way he demanded (Gozdziak 12). Another real life instance of human trafficking I would like to use as an example is the story of a girl simply known as Magdalena. Magdalena found a job when she was only thirteen at a local restaurant in Mexico, as many of the other young teenage girls in her town did (Gozdziak 15). A few months later she met Jorge. Jorge was in his twenties, and convinced Magdalena that he wanted to marry her. “Magdalena liked him and believed he would marry her” (Gozdziak 15). Jorge eventually persuaded Magdalena to move to the United States and work with his sisters. Magdalena obliged, not knowing that Jorge’s sisters operated a brothel. Even while Magdalena began to be sexually abused, Jorge continued to call her and convince her that he would visit her soon.
Both of these stories show the complexities of human trafficking victims and the varied, surprising possible identities of traffickers. Magdalena was deceived and tricked into trafficking by a man she thought she loved, and Fatima was abused by her own relatives. In both of these real-life cases, the victims seem capable of escape. They are not bound by physical chains, so why don’t they just run away as soon as they can? Magdalena and Fatima were tricked and coerced by words; words of supposed love and words of fear. As their stories show us, human trafficking victims are bound by something much more complicated than physical restraints. They are emotionally manipulated and driven by fear. In the United States, slaves are all around us; we just can’t see their chains.
Works Cited:
Goździak Elżbieta M. Trafficked Children and Youth in the United States: Reimagining Survivors. Rutgers University Press, 2016.
“Impact of Human Trafficking.” Human Trafficking Search, 2019, humantraffickingsearch.org/impact/.
“The Facts.” Polaris, 9 Nov. 2018, polarisproject.org/human-trafficking/facts
“What Are the Statistics on Human Trafficking of Children?” Ark of Hope for Children, 2012, arkofhopeforchildren.org/child-trafficking/child-trafficking-statistics.
My name is John, and I am a human trafficking survivor. I was working for this guy named Edgar. He was a big, intimidating guy. Everybody hated him… by they were scared to say it. The warehouse had this… feeling of fear in the air all the time. One of my friends was really fed up with the low pay and bad conditions and everything, and he spoke badly about Edgar behind his back like all the time. One day, I think somebody told Edgar. I think it was like two days he was missing, but it felt longer to me. The first time I saw him after he disappeared he was different. He talked a lot more quietly than before and his face was all bruised and… he never really complained about Edgar again.
When did you start working for Edgar?
I was like… nine or ten. I don’t remember super well. I know that I was like a kid when I started.
How did you get into your, um, situation in the first place?
Yeah. There was this cool kid at school. He was like a few years older than me and my friends but we all kinda looked up to him. He looked tough and everybody knew that he had a knife on him… and that was about it. He was like barely ever at school. I never talked to him, but one day he walked up to me in the hallway and told me that I could get a job. I was kinda freaked out that he talked to me, but I also really wanted the job. School sucked, and making money sounded cool, so working with this guy seemed like a good idea. In like a week I had a job.
How did this… job impact you and your school life?
School wasn’t even like a thing once I started working. The work days were crazy long and I was so freaking tired after working every day I didn’t have any time for school work or anything. I eventually just dropped out. The job practically killed me. The work was really hard and dangerous. People passed out from exhaustion and heat stroke and stuff like that all the time.
Why didn’t you just quit?
You can’t. I mean… I guess I thought about it a few times, but everybody knew that you couldn’t just leave. Nobody ever just left, and I think something bad would happen if we tried to leave.
What exactly would happen if someone left?
I don’t know… I guess we were just really scared of Edgar and his guys. I remember this one guy who said he was going to quit and find a better job. He didn’t turn up the next day, or the day after, or the day after that. It was like two weeks later when one of my work buddies told me what happened. I don’t know if it was true but… sorry.
What happened to him?
I don’t… feel good right now. Can we please stop the interview? I don’t want to do this anymore.
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