£18,000 in Exchange for Four Teenage Girls...

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The fight against human trafficking is daily challenged by the news of more victims falling prey; children and women are always the most vulnerable parties. No nation is immune; it is happening in my home land of Nigeria, in Atlanta, Georgia, on the streets of India and during "business" meetings in Europe. It is hard to know who is trustworthy as I go about my daily living. I feel like my neighbor next door and the waiter serving my meal could both be intertwined in the selling and buying of innocent people. The end result of money and power makes me cringe.  I am appalled, but the questions that never seem to stop bugging me is "What drive humans to stoop to such levels of evil? How can a woman or man look into the eye of a child and think "A premium meat for sale?" I guess the simple answer I can muster is "The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?" (Jeremiah 17:9)

A few minutes ago, I read the story of a mother and her daughter accused of selling underage girls for sex in the United Kingdom. The pair were exposed when they offered children as young as 13 to former News of the World investigative reporter, Mazher Mahmood. The fee to deliver four teenage girls to a party at the luxury Dorchester Hotel, Park Lane, central London was £18,000. Mahmood was working undercover. The pair, Angela Martin, 46, and her daughter, Natasha Martin, 24, have denied any intention to carry the sale through to completion. They are claiming it was a ruse to swindle money out of Mahmood, who they assumed was a fixer for wealthy Arab men. A "ruse" that included showing him a couple of teenage girls as evidence of what they were capable of providing. 

Whether, the intention was to swindle or to sell children for sex, I hope these women go to jail for a long time. Nothing justifies using children as sex tools or as a ruse for fraud. The bank-load of money made off the backs of helpless children and women is inexcusable. People are making money and a living off trafficking; we cannot afford to turn our ears and backs. The victims could be anyone. There are news stories emerging every day, from the arrest of people involved in a mob-linked sex trafficking ring to the story of Pakistani men in the United Kingdom grooming young girls for sex. I am overwhelmed and saddened. It all needs to stop, and no other way can it be stopped, but through awareness, education, action, international sanction, No-tolerance and a fight to the finish. There are many organizations standing up to fight for freedom for all people regardless of status, race and nationality. I am aware and involved with agencies like A21 Campaign and Making Noise Inc. These are two organizations in a myriad of organizations that recognize the issue and are doing all they can to fight. No action you engage in is too small to raise the profile higher in the international circuit and to create awareness for people without knowledge. 

Children should not be an avenue to satisfy lust. Actually, no one should be enslaved to satisfy lust, greed, evil or selfishness. Not any child, teenager, woman or man. 

Another question: "Who were the teenage girls paraded before Mahmood, and what is being done about their plight?"