Your neighborhood massage parlor could be a front for human trafficking

Sad but true.

Houston isn't the world's capital of human trafficking, but it's a major center. Due to port proximity, interstate access and lack of zoning, the reality exists that untold numbers of modern-day slaves are suffering in the city.

Two TCU professors are studying Houston's regular-looking massage parlors (like those next to major retail stores), which are part of the gray market where legal and illegal industries coexist.

In illicit massage businesses, most trafficking victims are adult women from Southeast and East Asia, said Vanessa Bouché of TCU's political science department.

“They’re told they’re going to be working in a massage business but not always told that they’re going to be engaging in sex acts — oral sex being the most common,” she said. “They are told that if they come to the U.S., their flights and visas will be paid for … and so they don’t have to worry about that. But once they arrive, they’re not paid a fair wage until they pay off their debt, which is often associated with some exorbitant interest rate.”

This is knowledge worth having. Read more in TCU Magazine: https://magazine.tcu.edu/winter-2020/human-trafficking-massage-parlors-texas/