Hollywood's Sex-Slave Crusade

Emma Thompson teams up with Michael Bloomberg to shine the spotlight on human trafficking. Plus, Beyoncé, Daryl Hannah, and other stars who are speaking out about Hollywood’s hottest cause.

Emma Thompson used to walk by a nondescript massage parlor on her way to the Underground stop near her London home. She never thought twice about the establishment—until, rehearsing for her part in the 2003 film Imagining Argentina, she met with celebrated British human rights activist Helen Bamber, a psychotherapist who has worked with torture victims since 1945, when she traveled to Bergen-Belsen to help rehabilitate Holocaust survivors.

Sex Slavery Is a Hot Issue for Celebrity Philanthropists. Click Image Below to View Our Gallery of Stars Who Fight Human Trafficking

Standing on Greenwich Village’s Washington Place, where she and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveiled an art installation Tuesday meant to simulate the abuse experienced by trafficked women, the Oscar-winning actress became animated—even visibly angry—when speaking about the Moldovan massage parlor worker, whom she has now met. After the parlor was raided by police, the woman was jailed and then deported to Moldova by the British government. Desperately poor, traumatized, and shunned by her family, she returned to the U.K. illegally and resumed work as a prostitute. It was years before she sought help, finally winning political asylum and later finding work at a London law firm.

“I want you to understand,” Emma Thompson says, “this is a hidden crime, and the most hidden thing about is the condition of the victim after the fact.”

Thompson raised her voice for emphasis. “I was furious,” she recalls, practically shaking. “Victims end up losing their voice twice: once when they are tortured, and again when nobody wants to hear about it. She was invisible, just behind the glass. When I found out, I wanted to rip the place apart.”

Policy changes, Thompson says, would make it easier for trafficking victims to get help—police, for example, could be trained to recognize that many sex workers have been forced into prostitution. She is irate that in London, a dedicated human trafficking division of the police force is at risk of being folded back into the vice squad, because of budget cuts.

Stateside, the Justice Department says New York City’s John F. Kennedy Airport is a trafficking hub, with thousands of women, most of them from Latin America and Asia, trafficked to the region each year. At the art installation Tuesday, Bloomberg announced a $2 million public campaign, called “It’s Happening Here,” to raise awareness of the problem. Ads will appear on subways and buses this spring, encouraging New Yorkers to call 911 if they meet an individual whom they believe to be enslaved. In addition, the city is training staff at Family Justice Centers in the outer boroughs, as well as emergency room workers, to recognize signs of trafficking. Bloomberg said his message to victims was, “We will not deport you, we will not punish you, we will help you.”

The art exhibition in Greenwich Village, called “Journey,” includes seven shipping containers. Inside each container, an artist has represented a scene from a trafficked woman’s life, beginning with her kidnapping from her home country. One container re-creates the room in which a sex slave worked—dingy, stinking, and with prices for various sex acts posted on the wall.