[ A version of this diary has been cross posted on The European Tribune ]

This is the second of three posts on countries that are important to the oil industry and also recognized as having a significant amount of human trafficking activity.

This effort is an attempt to expand the context of the dialogue in which human trafficking is placed.

When reading many of the posts on the Web about peak oil or the ramifications of the increase in oil prices, I wonder how the subject of human trafficking might be integrated into those discussions. For me there is a connection, albeit indirect.

Human trafficking, irregular migration, prostitution, exploitation of labor exist within the shadows of our society. I perceive the public dialogue on these matters to parallel this.

[ This piece was originally posted on The European Tribune. It has been somewhat modified for posting here on the tradio21 site. ]

Jerome "a Paris" writes about energy, economics, and international geopolitics on the political blog sites The Daily Kos and The European Tribune. Jerome often focuses on issues that affect the oil industry.

Several weeks ago I wrote to Jerome in hopes that he might consider writing about the connection between economies dependent on oil and the human cost in many of the countries that produce oil; particularly, the connection between oil, corruption, international policies, and human trafficking.

This is the first of three entries on this subject.

Paris. July 2003

11:00pm. I meet Anaëlle at an outdoor Middle Eastern café. A mix of Arabic and French intermingle amongst the street sounds and an espresso machine inside. We make our introductions. Sometimes we speak to each other in broken English or broken French, other times it is through a translator.

We discuss the film project on human trafficking that I am working on. Then we discuss journalism and human trafficking -she makes her disdain for journalists clear to me. She asks me where I would like to go tonight and what I would like to see. I tell her anything she is willing to show me.

For the next six hours I receive a tour of the street prostitution scene in Paris.

“The reason why they come is rather simple. They come to Europe because in their own country there is no way to survive.� -Frank Cool. Director, De Ketelpatrouille

The building De Ketelpatrouille used as a temporary shelter was closed by the City of Antwerp in July of 2004. Details of the closing follow this piece.

Antwerp, Belgium. July 2003

The De Ketelpatrouille hospice sits on the second and third floors of a small building nestled amongst the brothels of Antwerp, Belgium. It is part of a network set up to aid Nigerian women working as prostitutes in Antwerp.

The network consists of the local bars where most of the women solicit clients, the University of Antwerp health clinic, the De Ketelpatrouille hospice, and De Ketelpatrouille’s social workers, who are all volunteers.