Human trafficking is a horrible industry that steals men and women and turns them into modern-day slaves, forcing them to work off debts that can never be repaid because of insane interest rates meant to keep them bound to traffickers. Sex trafficking is even worse because it involves stealing women and girls and selling them, either by selling them individually to people for each “transaction” or selling them once to a buyer.
Trafficking happens all over the world, even in the most “civilized” nations, but it impacts developing countries the most because people are living in extreme poverty and find themselves in these predicaments more often. According to the International Labour Organization, there are an estimated 20.9 million victims of human trafficking globally, with 68 percent of them trapped in forced labor, 26 percent being children, and 55 percent being women and girls.
For Ross Kemp, who is a soap opera actor turned investigative journalist, shying away from intense interviews or tough subjects has never been his style. When he discovered that he would be able to interview a known human trafficker, dubbed “Mr. Kahn,” Kemp knew that he had to do it, however painful it may be. Although it was clear that this would definitely be a tough interview, Kemp expressed shock and in the end can be seen shedding tears in response to this response:
Kemp: “So you do kill girls. Do you have any idea how many?”
Kahn: “We don’t count them. About four or five hundred.”
Kemp has Kahn clarify that he is serious when he says he has killed so many young girls, and even asks why he would share that information with Kemp. Kahn says that he will continue to kill girls if he has problems with them, which earlier he detailed as not being able to sell them, or when they try to run away.
At the time of the interview, Kemp states that Kahn has over 75 men working for him and was being investigated for 25 offenses, though he had never been tried for his crimes. When he asked how long Kahn had been working as a trafficker and how many girls he had trafficked, he said,
“I’ve been trafficking for seven years…. I have trafficked three or four thousand, maybe more.”
Kemp also stated that Kahn acts as a trap for the girls, sometimes offering to marry them and then stealing them away from their family, never to return. He said that despite the rumors, he has never once returned a girl to her family and that if she is not sold then she is killed.
The interview is emotional and horrifying, something which Kemp, the translator, and the rest of the crew express after dismissing Kahn. Watch the interview yourself below.
