Published on Saturday, Oct 1, 2011 at 12:12 am | Last updated on Saturday, Oct 1, 2011 at 12:12 am
AUBURN — Local leaders, including police, health-care professionals and churchgoers, have a big role to play in attacking the international slave trade, according to speakers at an Auburn Hall conference Friday.
"In a large, rural state like Maine with international borders, we rely on local communities to keep your eyes open," said Arian Giantris, of Catholic Charities Maine. "Don't be vigilantes and see trafficking everywhere. I don't honestly believe it is everywhere, but it is here — and at a higher level than we've been able to report on."
More than 100 police, health-care workers, social service agency staff and church representatives attended the Not Here-ME conference, sponsored by Auburn police, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maine, Bates College, local hospitals and several Twin Cities churches.
The crimes of human trafficking and modern-day slavery are an odd contradiction, said U.S. District Attorney Thomas Delahanty II. On one hand, people know it's happening. On the other, it's virtually invisible and difficult for the law to define.
"It's actually a series of crimes against the person," Delahanty said. "It takes many forms. In Maine, you won't find it listed among the most frequently reported crimes because it takes so many different forms. It is not easily recognized and severely under reported."
Friday's agenda included presentations by Delahanty, a panel of law enforcement and social-service officials and a presentation by Harvard researchers on the impact of human trafficking on health care and what doctors and nurses can do about it.
The conference will continue Saturday with events at Auburn Hall and Festival Plaza.
Speaker Minh Dang, a former victim of sexual slavery, will present a talk on healing at 2 p.m. at Auburn Hall. Dang will discuss her experiences as a slave at 6:30 p.m. at East Auburn Baptist Church, 560 Park Ave.
Dang was scheduled to give her presentation Friday, but her flight into the Portland Jetport was delayed.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Leah Foley, of the Massachusetts district, detailed her experience prosecuting a group of pimps and prostitution traffickers with ties to Maine. Dozens of underage girls — many still attending high school — were lured into prostitution with promises of money and security. Their personal papers and belongings were confiscated, the girls were raped, beaten and brainwashed until they were arrested or managed to escape.
"They had all turned to these guys as comfort, and they looked to these other girls as family from that point on," Foley said. "I don't think they liked each other, but I think they depended on each other to make it through."
One girl, a 13-year-old from southern Maine, tried to escape but was bound and beaten by the other girls while their keepers watched, laughing. She went back to work for her pimp until she was arrested.
"She told them her entire story, so the state police had this four-page report," Foley said. "Somehow, she got lost in the system for two years."
The case was finally settled in 2009 with all five defendants convicted after four years of investigation and hearings. In the end, the case depended on local police taking notes and filing reports on the criminals' activities, even if those reports never led to specific convictions.
"I think if we make more of a focus to mine information we have, down the road the information can be saved and a prosecution can succeed," Foley said. "You know, counselors in high schools can help. I think it takes the collaborative effort of lots of agencies — nonprofits, victims' services, police officers, everyone — to realize this is worthy of targeting resources."
Giantris, of Catholic Charities Maine, urged churchgoers to keep an eye out for new people in their pews.
"You can encounter people that the only thing they're allowed to do is go to church," she said. "Everything else, their movements are limited. That might be the only chance they'd get to encounter someone from the community. If they don't know their address or their environment or even a sense of where they are, sometimes those are red flags."
It was the first human-trafficking conference in Maine, and it's long overdue, said attendee Jacqueline Zimowski of Bath, an anti-slavery activist. Zimowski operates No Human Trafficking, an anti-slavery foundation.
"Maine has a huge, porous border with Canada, Interstate 95 and more coastline than California," she said. "So people can be brought in in just about any way they want."
Chief Phil Crowell of the Auburn Police Department, right, listens during a panel presentation at a conference on human trafficking at Auburn Hall on Friday. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal
The Rev. Doug Taylor, left, of Lewiston listens during a panel presentation at the conference on human trafficking at Auburn Hall on Friday. Taylor is the director of the Jesus Party, an inner-city kids' ministry on Bates Street. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal
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