We Americans believe in the sacredness and dignity of human life. The values of liberty and justice are upheld for all. How then can we ignore the fact that modern slavery and human trafficking have been experiencing a resurgence in recent years?
Trafficking in persons is the coerced use of anyone — women, children or men — as a form of commerce, as slave labor and extreme forms of sexual exploitation. In our communities victims may be hidden in plain sight: restaurant dishwasher, kids selling cheap trinkets, farm workers, health and elder care givers, domestic services, and hair and nail salons.
Human trafficking disproportionately impacts the poor and marginalized, particularly women and children, kidnapped or ensnared with false promises of a job, education or a better life. Lured by traffickers, vulnerable runaway girls, most of them between the ages of 11 and 14, are sexually exploited and physically abused.
Malika Saada Saar, co-founder of the Rebecca Project for Human Rights, in a recent NPR interview stated, “The Internet has fueled an uptick in the trafficking of children, especially here in the U.S. The venue of Craigslist, is really evolving as almost a virtual slave market. ... Entities like Craigslist allow children to be bought and sold over the Internet.” On Sept. 5, The Daily Telegram reported 17 state attorneys had demanded that “the list’s” adult services section be shut down. It was replaced with a black and white “censored” logo. But that is not the end of the trafficking. It can be ordered from the same site under other titles. Girl children are still for sale!
In June 2010, the U.S. State Department released its 10th annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report. It estimates that 12.3 million adults and children throughout the world are currently held in modern-day slavery of forced labor and prostitution. The annual profit for traffickers is $32 billion. In spite of these staggering numbers, there were only 4,166 successful prosecutions of human traffickers in 2009.
For the first time, the TIP report includes United States in its ranking, based on the same standards used to judge other countries. Luis CdeBaca, director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons states, “in our first TIP report, we cited the U.S. only as a destination or transit country, oblivious to the reality that we, too, are a source for people held in servitude.” Ours is really a source, transit and destination country for women, children and men who are subjected to forced labor, debt bondage and unwilling prostitution.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton states, “The United States takes its first ever ranking not as a reprieve but as a responsibility to strengthen global efforts against modern slavery, including those within America. Human rights abuse is universal, and no one should claim immunity from its reach or from the responsibility to confront it.” She added, “This report (TIP) sends a clear message to all our countrymen and women: Human trafficking is not someone else’s problem. Involuntary servitude is not something we can ignore, or hope doesn’t exist in our community.”
Modern slavery is being addressed in our own state. The Michigan Human Trafficking Task Force includes more than 70 representatives from federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, university law school faculty members, U.S. attorneys, victim service providers and community members. Lenawee County is represented by our city and state police, Zonta International and the Adrian Dominican Sisters.
The purpose of the Task Force is: 1) to facilitate collaborative effort to prevent trafficking of persons within the state of Michigan; 2) to pursue prosecution of perpetrators and 3) to protect and rehabilitate victims of any kind of trafficking.
Task force members are advocating for legislation against human trafficking in Michigan. Our state has international borders, a large immigrant population and access to major interstate highways. These factors increase the likelihood that both international and local markets are operative.
The Adrian Dominican Sisters have formed a committee of Sisters and their coworkers to provide education within their membership and for the general public about this lucrative, horrific crime which so severely damages victims and insults the dignity of humanity as a whole. Several events are being planned by the committee. The need for action is urgent. The truth is: Trafficking in persons is not someone else’s problem. It is ours.
Sister Mary J. Beaubien of Adrian is a member of the The Adrian Dominican Sisters’ committee on human trafficking.
Sister Mary J. Beaubien: Fight U.S. human trafficking - Adrian, MI - The Daily Telegram
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