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Trafficked by an American Model Agency

Shona River on being trafficked into the American porn industry — and the paperwork loophole that allows it.

Trafficked by an American Model Agency

Shona River sat down with me to describe being trafficked into the American porn industry by the agency LA Direct.

Her experience is not unusual. Non-US models are routinely brought in without the correct permits and, in many accounts, coerced into illegal prostitution by their own agents. Hundreds of people have been affected, and every site distributing the resulting work has profited from it.

The frustrating part is how fixable it is. Enforcing work visas for foreign models would close this overnight. Nobody with the power to do it has chosen to.

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