Report Reveals Sex Trafficking at “Massage Parlors” Is a Major Problem in the U.S.

We see them everywhere, but probably don’t think about them all that much: massage parlors in strip malls and along roadsides that have covered-over windows and offer really cheap massages. For most of us, they don’t look like particularly inviting destinations for a spa day, which is just as well, as that’s likely not their primary purpose. Thousands of these across the U.S. are hubs for human trafficking and prostitution.

An organization called Polaris, which is devoted to ending human trafficking and modern-day slavery worldwide, recently released a new report on their study of more than 32,000 reported human trafficking cases last year. They discovered that illegal massage parlors are the second-largest form of human trafficking in the U.S. after escort services. As reported by Buzzfeed, “more than 9,000 salons are currently open for business across the U.S., with locations in every state.”

These salons accounted for 2,949 cases of sex trafficking reported in 2017, and they are generally taking advantage of immigrant women, usually from China or South Korea, who speak little or no English and are held hostage in these “businesses” so as to be able to provide for their children. Most of these women are lured by ads on websites and increasingly on apps like WeChat and KakaoTalk.

These ads promise women everything from taking care of their visas, to transportation and housing, as well as dangling the possibility of making more than $4,000 a month. To someone who is desperate, all of these things seem like pros. The major con, of course, being that their employers can hold their papers hostage, forcing women to stay so that they have access to their own documents. They’re also charging ridiculously low rates for their “massages,” and so these women are not making a living wage, and as they don’t generally speak the language, they have very few options on where else to go. So, what they thought was an opportunity turns out to be a form of slavery.

Rochelle Keyhan, the Polaris report’s lead author, explains that knowing that these places exist and taking action against them are two different things. “These networks are very adaptable,” she says. “They are finding these women in these apps and promising them better lives and steady wages in different languages, and that’s really difficult to detect and crack down on.”

Even worse, 1,300 victims interviewed by the Polaris study mentioned that many of those exploiting women were women themselves, former workers who “moved up the ranks” and opened up their own salons. “Women are trafficking women, which is a distinct aspect of this sex-trafficking industry,” Keyhan explains. “They share the same language and background, and so there’s this natural trust there, and then they exploit them.”

So, who patronizes these places? According to the study, it’s mostly white men (which adds a layer of racism to the proceedings, as the women are usually Asian or Latina, and are advertised as such) frequenting the establishments on their lunch breaks or after work. Buzzfeed reports that:

In the US, men find the illegal establishments by perusing sites like Craigslist, Yelp, Backpage.com, and the most popular, Rubmaps.com, where customers can post reviews of the women and services. Rubmaps gets an estimated 325,000 unique visitors per month and catalogs more than 7,200 open and active illicit massage businesses across the country.

Keyhan explained that the reviews on those sites that blatantly review the “happy endings” (a horrible term that works to diminish what’s really going on) and what the women did or didn’t do for them sexually, being open at weird times, nude modeling or lingerie photos in their advertising, covered windows, buzzers, abnormally cheap prices, and being cash-only are clear red flags that a massage parlor is illegal and being used to force women into sexual acts.

“It’s one of those things you walk past every day and you might notice, but you keep going,” Keyhan says. “We want people to stop and do something about it.”

To find out more about Polaris’ work, or to see how you can help aid in the fight against sex trafficking immigrant women, check out their website.

(via Buzzfeed, image: Shutterstock)

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