We're OPEN— and Not Just For Manicures

When I go to my favorite nail salon, I look most forward to conversing with the technicians. Having an exceptional love for Asia and its beautiful, hard-working and hospitable people, stories of life in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam or rural provinces of China fascinate me. There have been times, though, that I have visited other nail salons and sensed that something was off— that there was an untold story behind the weary eyes and quiet lips of the technician painting my nails. Just last year, two women who worked at a nail salon that is a mere five minutes from my house were arrested for prostitution. I thought it then and I know it now: not all nail salons and massage businesses are limited to the services stamped on their windows.

Over the past 12 years, Polaris, a key anti-trafficking organization based in Washington D.C., has received over 3,000 reports of sex trafficking in commercial massage businesses, as well as the health and beauty service industry, within the United States. 10% of these cases involved most basically brothels disguised as nail salons. Within the health and beauty industry, nail salons are also recognized most for labor trafficking. (Polaris, 2018) Click here to understand what labor trafficking is, how it works, and who it affects— the statistical realities are staggering and ought not be overlooked.

For a situation to be considered as involving human trafficking, at least one of the following must be present:

• “Force: Violence or the threat of violence.

• Fraud: Deceitful recruitment practices, fraudulent debt accumulation.

• Coercion: Emotional manipulation; document confiscation; threats of law enforcement, deportation, exposure and shaming; consequences to family members.” (Polaris, 2018)

Due to cultural shame, as well as the three factors listed above, victims are much more likely to tell law enforcement about the conditions of their forced labor, but not of their involvement in forced sex. Seems the majority of victims are afraid to speak up out of fear and/or shame, as well linguistic incompetence, it is crucial that more of society is aware of this issue and has knowledge of the signs of human trafficking.

The next time you pass by or go into a nail salon, I encourage you to look for the following signs:

1. Low-paid and/or untrained workers.

2. Service prices drastically below the market-level.

3. Entrances that require being buzzed in or going through a side/back door.

4. A dominance of male customers receiving service and/or being taken into other rooms.

5. Uncleanliness and/or dangerously strong fumes.

6. Any evidence that the female employees are living at the salon or in a trafficker-controlled second apartment/house.

7. New female employees coming through every few weeks.

8. Seemingly greedy business owners who disrespect their workers.

9. The absence of a posted business license.

(McNamara, 2015; Polaris, 2018)

Don’t be afraid to ask questions, speak up, or report any suspicious behavior, as your instincts are not always wrong. Someone’s life could very well continue to be at-risk because of another’s doubt, ignorance, or passivity. Realize, too, that it is likely that you and I enter a nail salon more often than law enforcement does.

While the majority of women who become victims to both labor and sex trafficking in the United States come with the hopes of having financial stability, they oftentimes find themselves in below-average living conditions, without receiving fair wages (if any at all), and having to illegally work “on-call”. There is a common theme of employers or pimps instilling fear-driven submission in their female employees by threatening:

• The safety of their loved ones;

• Their allowance to stay in the United States;

• The possibility of being arrested for prostitution; and

• The imaginary debt that they have accrued and purposefully cannot repay.

The majority of victims within the reports received by Polaris were of Chinese, South Korean, and Southeast Asian women ranging from their mid-20s to mid-60s (NailsMagazine, 2017). Restore NYC has found that 80% of women working in illicit massage businesses have at least one child they are responsible for taking care of, and that 84% of those children are overseas. Most of victims have a very limited understanding of English, which keeps them from going to law enforcement and gives them the sense of being trapped in their circumstances (Polaris, 2018).

In 2017, Polaris discovered that there are over 9,000 illicit massage businesses spread across every state bringing in an estimated revenue of $2.5 billion. While some women may choose to sell sex along with their massage service, there are evidently thousands of women who are doing so because they are victims of sex trafficking.

Polaris has found that it is not uncommon for an illicit massage parlor to be linked to "non-massage venues such as nail salons, restaurants, grocery stores, and dry cleaners" (emphasis mine). With these connections, it is typical for an illicit massage business that is shut down by law enforcement to quickly open back up under a new name or in a new location. Plus, only one out of the 46 states that have laws in place to regulate massage businesses gives the power of regulating to its cities. Illicit massage parlors are intentionally set up so that buyers can deceive themselves and others into believing that they did not know the business involved any other services beyond massages (Polaris, 2018).

With such a cover story, buyers are not given merely enough attention by law enforcement or rightful shaming by media. Who are these buyers? Not who you may assume. In the recent arrests of various Seattle sex buyers, the vocations of the customers included “two bus drivers, six architects, dozens of technology employees, construction workers, two surgeons, a dentist, a nurse, a journalist, a couple of attorneys, an executive with a sports-management company and an aspiring law enforcement officer.” (Green, Seattle Times, 2016) Many have convinced themselves that partaking in this non-violent act helps the woman economically and that she is participating with genuine willingness. The chart below may erase many of your presuppositions, as it did for me, in understanding who the buyers are and aren't.

It is crucial that victims stop being arrested for prostitution in the event of law enforcement stings, and that their traffickers are rightfully prosecuted. Thankfully, the U.S. federal government the Trafficking Victims Protection Act in the year of 2000, which is supposed to do this very thing. This does not mean, though, that buyers are being caught, much less given justice. Even still, buyers ought not be overlooked in any person's fight against human trafficking seems there would not be a supply if it weren't for the demand. Would you please pray with me for those who are victims of labor and/or sex trafficking in our very own cities, as well as for law enforcement and policy makers, traffickers and buyers? Imagine if she were your mother, daughter or sister-- she is at least one of these to someone.

"Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed." Proverbs 31:8

---

Sources

https://polarisproject.org/sites/default/files/Full%20Report%20-%20Human%20Trafficking%20in%20Illicit%20Massage%20Businesses.pdf

https://www.thedenverchannel.com/thenow/how-to-tell-if-your-favorite-nail-salon-is-treating-workers-ethically051815

http://www.nailsmag.com/news/118117/hotline-reports-250-cases-of-sex-and-labor-trafficking-in-nail-salons-since-2007

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/seattle-pd-arrests-155-men-in-massage-parlor-sting-operation/