The connection of these Brazilian and foreign recruiters to established networks in the receiving countries of the trafficked women and adolescents itself evidences a transnational connection (Media/PESTRAF, 2002:62). Finally, reports suggest that these networks are technologically sophisticated, facilitating the rapid exchange of information and the management and control over recruitment, transportation, lodging, and control over those they traffick. With this, they can quickly set-up and dismantle their operations with the complicity of other "actors" or players that are "above any suspicion". They are also very sophisticated users of the media for marketing trafficked women and children (or the pornography created through their exploitation.)
A Typology of Trafficking Networks
Different trafficking networks have been identified both at the
domestic and international levels. They can be roughly subdivided into
a number of different categories based upon their principle methods of
recruitment (e.g. how they recruit; how they deceive the
women/adolescents, etc.) and/or by how they market the subject of
trafficking (e.g. marriage brokers; tour agents, etc.).
While this division provides some insights, these typologies of networks are not
absolute, with individual networks often interacting with or sharing
features with networks categorized under a different typology. The
types of network and examples of the statements taken during the field
research are provided below:
(a) Entertainment network:
shopping malls, nightclubs, bars,
restaurants, motels, beach tents, fast-food restaurants, show-houses,
samba gatherings, brothels, massage parlors.
Trafficking financed by nightclubs, bar owners and other
"entertainment" sources constitute the most common type of trafficking
network. Typical of these are those described by the Rondônia
research team. According to statements provided by their informants,
nightclub owners finance the girls' interstate trips, their maintenance in
the destination city, and provide them with alcohol and drugs, as well
as their first clients.
The recruited girls are bonded to them until their
debts for transportation and survival are paid off. However, rules
change from one nightclub owner to another. Some nightclubs place the
girls in a restrained environment, literally locking them up in the
nightclub. Others allow the girls to go out, under constant vigilance, as
long as they come back on a daily basis and pay for their day's work.
They are subjected to physical threats, and were relatively defenseless
since they are under 18 and unfamiliar with the city. (Rondônia Report)
Reports from other areas are similar:
"... Two sisters stated that more than 40 women from Para are
working as prostitutes in Suriname.... Both ... were invited by their
cousin, Raimunda, to work in Suriname, where she lives. Raimunda
offered them R$ 200,000 to have their passports issued in Belém.
Upon arrival, they were taken to "Diamond" nightclub ... where they
would have to pay US$100 a day for lodging.
They discovered the place was a brothel that held shows with more than 100 women from
several countries. The women were beaten and even raped in the
club. ‘We were desperate and extremely hungry... our cousin told us
we would have to stay in the club until our debts were paid off, and
we should not try to escape, because they would hunt us and probably
kill us! (Newspaper Diario do Para, 5/19//00 "Mulheres denunciam
carcere e prostituicao" - Women denounce incarceration and
prostitution). (Para Report)
"...in July 2000, the Federal Police destroyed in the cities of
Boa Vista and Iracema , a syndicate of traffickers working in
bars and restaurants, where young girls (between the ages of
16 and 17) from Amazonas were taken with the promise of
employment and good salaries. In the city of Iracema (680 km
from Manaus), the girls were kept locked up, assaulted and
forced to have sexual intercourse with truck drivers and gold
miners, sometimes in exchange for two daily meals. They
worked at "Malocao Zanz-s BAR" and were only able to
escape after a truck driver took them to the Civil Police of Boa
Asta. The girls were subjected to torture and death threats...
and had their documents taken away to avoid escape..." (North
Region Report)