Psychological isolation rather than locks mainly keeps trafficked women enslaved.

Evidence

“There are some nasty clubs where women are locked in, but mostly women don’t leave because they are scared,” Veronica, a twenty-four-year-old Russian, told one reporter. A club owner in Songtan agreed, saying, “Some of the women are locked up. If a fire breaks out, they can’t escape. But the main method of coercing them is psychological. They know no one. They have no money. The only way they can get money is by prostituting themselves.” Reydelus Conferido, the labor attaché at the Philippine embassy, says he tries to explain to people, “If you take somebody far from home, under certain conditions, you can get them to do whatever you want … It could happen to anybody.” — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 513

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The club owner’s account that psychological coercion — isolation, poverty, no legal standing — is the main mechanism of control is a profound reframing of how slavery-like conditions persist without physical locks.