Trafficking-Research Shows Trafficking Victims’ Symptoms Resemble Torture
Author: Womens UN Report Network
Date: June 26, 2006
Trafficked women’s symptoms akin to torture victims’
Wednesday, June 28, 2006; Posted: 11:04 a.m. EDT (15:04 GMT)
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
LONDON, England (Reuters) — Women and girls
trafficked for forced sexual or domestic work suffer post-traumatic stress on a
par with torture victims, researchers said on Wednesday.
In one of the first studies of health problems of women who have been
trafficked, they found 95 percent had been physically or sexually abused and
nearly 40 percent had suicidal thoughts.
“This research shows that women who have been trafficked into sex work emerge
with very severe pain and injuries and they show psychological health problems
that appear to be similar to those documented among victims of torture,” said Dr
Cathy Zimmerman, the author of the report published by the London School of
Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
The International Labor Organization estimates that at least 2.5 million
people around the world are in forced labour at any given time.
Zimmerman, a researcher in public health policy, said because of its
underground nature it was difficult to get precise numbers.
“This is an international trade that is happening in virtually every corner
of the world,” she said in an interview.
“The majority believe they are getting a job doing something like
waitressing, being a nanny or working in a bar. Most of them are tricked into
the situation.”
Zimmerman and her team studied 207 women from 14 countries who had been
released after being trafficked.
The women, aged 15-45 years old, were being treated in seven countries by aid
agencies. Most were between 21-25 years old and 12 percent were under 18.
The vast majority of the women with children were single mothers. Sixty
percent experienced some form of violence before being trafficked, and 56
percent reported symptoms suggestive of post traumatic stress disorder.
Headaches, fatigue, dizzy spells, back pain, memory problems, anxiety and
depression were common.
“If you can image a situation of confinement and abuse and systematic rape
over a periods of months or a year it is not surprising that people are coming
out with symptoms that might be at similar levels to those persons who are
tortured,” said Zimmerman.
She added that women needed professional health and support services
immediately after they were freed and in the long
term.
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