I know it is done but i don't get why that is enough to control people like in these situations. Why can't the girls not simply go to their embassy in said country and get a new one? That is giving, for example that said pimp does not lock them in an apartment.
Could it be because they would be afraid to be sent home again?
in the movie the pimp tells her if she goes to the police she will get sent home, and his friends would be waiting for her .. they would kill her. perhaps just a threat, but very scary enough to scare the girl into not doing that.
she ran from the police at the end for that reason
Unfortunately, the movie under exaggerated how human trafficking of this type works. In regards to why the girls do not go to the police:
The movies plot of "use fake boyfriend to make girl fall in love and trick her into prostitution" is not how its done. What these crime syndicates do in real life is set up fake work agencies. They promise attractive young women jobs in the service industry (ie maid) in a first world country. They have them go through filling out applications, interviews etc. to make it seem legitimate.
When they get to their location they are forced into prostitution. The crime syndicates have all their personal information including information on family back home. And this is why the girls almost never go to any sort of authorities. They are told that if they try to leave, escape or try anything, their family back home will be murdered. And before you ask, its not an empty threat.
Girls that tried anything had their families murdered back home in the past. This is a multi billion dollar business for criminals and they could care less if they have to murder people to keep their $$$ flowing. Therefore, its very rare that any girls will ever try anything. So its almost impossible for law enforcement to have any real effect in curbing human trafficking from the assistance from the victims.
I heard of different cases and each criminal has probably their own strategy. The one shown in the movie isnt unrealistic.
I strong doubt that murdering people at home is a general strategy because murder usually has high clearance rates unless we talk about the REALLY poor countries.
Its probably a lot more common that for example the women are kept imprisoned and a guard with a gun keeps them from leaving.
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You shall have no other Kates before Kate Winslet.
Yeah I feel this film under-represented the way the traffickers mess with their victims' heads. They beat them, drug them, threaten them and all their loved ones. If you run away I'll kidnap, rape, and kill your little sister, that kind of thing. They starve them. And when they are close to death, they will give them just enough food to get them to think of them as their saviors. After repeated rapes, they will tell them that they are dirty and have done terrible, unforgivable things (as if they CHOSE to be pimped out), and that no one would ever accept them back into their families when they learn what they have done, and that the pimp/trafficker and fellow victims (the other child prostitutes) are the only ones who know the "real" person they are and all they have done and still accepts them. It creates a powerful trauma bond with their trafficker. Sometimes they even come to think of their trafficker as their boyfriend.
Add to that the fact that in most countries--certainly here in the US where I live--we also treat these victims as criminals. We arrest them and charge them with prostitution. We send them to juvenile hall. We put them in group homes. We charge them with drug crimes, when usually they have been drugged by their pimps or maybe they are using drugs/alcohol just to numb the pain. But we treat them like criminals who have made choices. So they don't want to go to the police or authorities.
And of course many of these victims were already in the "system" at some point in their lives anyway and have developed a natural fear of authority figures like cops. They were runaways from foster care, or were in the child welfare system, or place in group home already because of parental neglect or drug abuse, etc.