How does trafficking happen?
Human trafficking is the result of poverty and vulnerability. Across the world in times of crisis, children are seen as either a financial burden or source of income in many cultures. Seventeen-year-old Ma Suu was from a poor family in Myanmar, a small country between India and Thailand. She paid a transporter to help her cross the border in 2001. The same person found her a job as a domestic worker in Thailand. In July of 2002 she was accused of stealing. After refusing to confess to a crime she did not commit, her “owners” severely beat her, set her on fire, and left her for dead in a ditch. Someone found her charred body and transported her to a nearby hospital where she stayed alive only long enough to tell her story. Her “employers,” a Thai air force officer, his wife, and an unnamed accomplice, were not charged until 2004. They were able to put off trial until March of 2007. The officer was convicted of murder, and the wife was given five years for hiring an illegal immigrant (ww
