Rice calls for eradication of human trafficking 'scourge' - San Jose Mercury News

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By Rob Dennis Oakland Tribune   Posted: 01/21/2011 09:03:53 PM PST Updated: 01/21/2011 10:41:42 PM PST FREMONT -- Human trafficking is a problem that threatens national security and must be eradicated, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday night at a conference tackling the issue. "This is a terrible scourge, this human trafficking that goes on in our country and in our world," she said. "It is modern slavery, it is no less. The fact is it's brutal and it's horrific and it's widespread. "... It is a great moral cause for our age to end this scourge and it is within our reach to do so." Rice, who served as President George W. Bush's national security adviser and secretary of state, said human trafficking tends to "come as a package" with other "transnational scourges" such as arms trafficking, drugs and terrorism. Dealing with it is "a matter of national security, not just a matter of compassion," she said. More than 30 local and international organizations battling human trafficking are attending Freedom Summit 2011 this weekend at Harbor Light Church. The event brings together concerned citizens, faith-based organizations, law enforcement agencies and local and global nonprofits to raise awareness about Bay Area human-trafficking issues. About 1,700 people had registered Friday night, organizers said. "We're here not just to discuss, but to find ways to act," Rice said. The State Department estimates that between 600,000 and 800,000 people are illegally moved across international borders every year, and about 17,500 people are trafficked into the United States, Rice said. California, with its major ports and large population, is a hub for both international and domestic traffickers. "This is a problem of enormous proportions and something has to be done," Rice said. "How can it be that in the 21st century human beings are sold into slavery? How can it be that we have not eradicated this?" The event began amid news that a three-county prostitution ring -- which may have involved the trafficking of dozens of immigrant Asian women -- was broken up Thursday after a yearlong investigation. Sex slaves often are forced into massage parlors, underground brothels or even vans, whose whereabouts are advertised online, according to the Fremont-based nonprofit group California Against Slavery. The nonprofit is working to get an initiative on the 2012 ballot that would lengthen jail sentences for convicted traffickers from as little as three years in prison to as much as life behind bars. "This is a practice that is hidden from view," Rice said. "There are no visible slave-trading docks, there are no public auctions of human beings. "... Those were the images that called men and women of conscience in the 19th century to action. Those are the images that are in the shadows in modern slavery." The Freedom Summit will continue from 8:30 a.m. to 6:45 p.m. Saturday with an expo, panel discussions and a concert by singer/songwriter Sara Groves. The church is at 4760 Thornton Ave. For more information, go to http://freedom-summit.org. Contact Rob Dennis at 510-353-7010. Source: Oakline Tribune

FREMONT -- Human trafficking is a problem that threatens national security and must be eradicated, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday night at a conference tackling the issue.

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