Mariana van Zeller, “Trafficked: Underworlds” S5 (NatGeo) airs 7.19
With the fifth season premiere of her investigative series “Trafficked: Underworlds with Mariana van Zeller” on NatGeo Saturday night, van Zeller understands her show’s appeal.
“There is a general curiosity about what happens behind closed doors,” she said in a video interview from “My aunt’s house in Portugal. I don’t think most people know this, but almost 38% of the global economy are these Black and Gray markets. What economists call ‘The Hidden Third.’
“They have an enormous impact on our daily lives, whether we’re talking about gun trafficking, immigration or fraud and scams, which are growing tremendously.
“We have organizations devoted to every up and down aspect of the legal economy. Yet we know close to nothing about these illegal economies” which are not taxed and operate minus any government oversight. “That’s one reason why the series is so successful.”
S5 begins with an eye-opening look at the smuggling of brides from Vietnam to China, with all its international complications. Van Zeller, 49, shows this is a surprising consequence of China’s now-discarded One Child per family rule. Because sons are valued in China, often female pregnancies were aborted. That means today far too many Chinese men in their 20s and 30s are without available marriageable women.
This story began when van Zeller saw, “Videos of these kidnappings — sometimes in raw daylight in crowded markets where women were literally taken out of the streets, kidnapped and trafficked to China.”
It wasn’t easy to get the story – or even get into Vietnam. “It took us almost a year to get a visa to go to Vietnam as journalists. Once in Vietnam, we were given a government minder who was with us at all times. Also, someone from law enforcement.
“So every move in the country, every question we asked, we were being watched and listened to. Our phones were monitored.
“This trafficking ranges across Southeast Asia but mainly from Vietnam, a much poorer neighboring country.
“Sometimes there are cases in which the families themselves sell the teenage girls. In other cases, black market operators, human traffickers, go looking for girls they can kidnap and sell.”
The season’s final episode is, fittingly for the 50th anniversary of “Jaws,” about sharks.
“Sharks are being decimated around the world,” she learned. “The biggest reason is because of the value of their fins which are used in traditional Chinese soups, mainly in China at weddings and specific luxury business meetings.
“It’s been banned for United States consumption for several years but I knew sharks are still being killed for their fins today.”
With hidden cameras, “We went to a restaurant in New York where they still serve it even though it’s against the law. The meal we were offered cost over $1,000. The second dish we were offered? Shark fin soup.”