Speaking with a Victim of Human Trafficking
Jasmine Laws / Oct 11 / Human Rights
Human trafficking is a worldwide problem that is only spiralling further out of control. More traffickers are seeing that they can make a profit from selling young girls off as sex slaves without consequence, and it is being utilised more and more as a source of income.
Kat Rosenblatt is a victim of human trafficking, and now works to try and raise the awareness that is essential in preventing others from experiencing what she endured.
Kat’s Story
Kat Rosenblatt grew up in Miami, where she was trafficked for the first time. Growing up in an abusive home without a fatherly figure, Kat did not have the luxury of feeling as though she belonged somewhere. Her mother brought her to in Miami when she was 13, where she was preyed upon by a sex trafficking ring.
A young girl called Mary befriended her, and over the course of a month gained her trust, as she was “everything (Kat) thought (she) wanted to be”. With no knowledge of Mary’s hidden role as a recruiter for the traffickers, she believed her when she said a man wanted to be a “fatherly figure” to her. Without being educated on the signs of trafficking, Kat followed Mary to meet the man, who insisted she wore a bridal dress to meet him, where she was captured and trafficked as a sex slave. Being a young, virgin girl, she cost 500 dollars; some girls can be bought for prices as low as 5 dollars.
“I wanted to feel a sense of belonging, a sense of love, a sense of family. But instead, I lost my virginity to rape at 14. They are able to control you because you are young.”
Kat had a “gut instinct that something wasn’t right”, and started to fight for her escape. After managing to escape, she was later caught by the traffickers, drugged, and left to die on the side of the road. Prior to her kidnapping, she had seen the story of Adam Walsh, a young boy who had been killed in the trafficking business, but as a young child she hadn’t believed people were really like that. “It’s not until you meet these people, that you are forced to confront the reality”.
“It helped me have the fire to fight, and I remembered God was fighting for me. I just did not want to die at 13. I did not want that to be my end. I believed that there was a bigger plan for my life.”
After managing to stagger to a payphone she was able to get the help she needed just in time, or she would have not been here today.
The ongoing problem
Traffickers are able to manipulate children, isolate them from their friends and families, and make them feel as though they belong with their abusers. It is an instinctive human behaviour to cling to the feeling of belonging, and this manipulation is what young people need to be made aware of in order to protect themselves from being targeted.
Kat now runs the company ‘There is Hope for Me’, which saves victims from trafficking. She has written the novel ‘Stolen’, and has spent the last 10 years visiting schools to educate children on this issue.
“There are children who need to hear this message, when they cannot fight for themselves. If you see something, you need to say something, because you could be the one to make the difference, as raising awareness is vital. Even now I still feel like I need to belong somewhere. I go back to schools to warn children, but also remind them that, if there is hope for me, then there if hope for you. My story is all of our stories.”
Since her experience as a victim of human trafficking, Kat has made her life’s work helping and preventing children from facing the trauma she went through.
“It is important they see that modern-day slavery still exists. This is an increasing problem as more and more people learn that they can make a lot of quick and easy money this way. It is all about survival.”
The great need for income is only being worsened by the pandemic we are living in; human trafficking is being turned to by desperate people who are trying to make ends meet. In order to counter-act this flourishing exploitative market, children need to be taught how to fight for themselves, and how to challenge the misogynistic ideas that traffickers use to justify this way of life as acceptable. As children don’t understand manipulation, they need to be shown what is right, and what is wrong. What is a threat, and what is not. Through this they will gain understanding, and this is what will protect them.
Hearing this from the voice of a victim brings even more power and reality to the truth of the issue. Without enough people being aware and conscious, there is no way to bring this global problem to an end. Without individuals who are willing to change their mindset, and without youth who are educated enough to protect themselves, this is only an issue which will worsen and become more complex. With more natural disasters occurring from global warming, leaving people vulnerable, trafficking is only going to continue to rise. Prevention and protection are all about awareness, and without awareness there is no opportunity for change to occur. Human trafficking is not a problem that we can pretend isn’t around us, because Kat’s story could have been any one of our stories.