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Human Trafficking Awareness in Birmingham, Alabama | Administration for Children and Families

Human Trafficking Awareness in Birmingham, Alabama | Administration for Children and Families:

Child Sex Trafficking Victims Get Second Chance from Congress | Change.org News

by Amanda Kloer · March 18, 2011


Last year, the Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act of 2011 -- which would help alleviate the shelter crisis for sex trafficked kids in the U.S. -- was days away from becoming law. Unfortunately, the legislation was blocked at the last minute by Alabama Senator Jeffrey Sessions, after Concerned Women for America wrote a letter to Congress saying kids who have been raped and forced into prostitution should be arrested. Now, the Victims Support Act and the thousands of children it will help have another chance ... until March 30.

The Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act would provide critical resources for the over 100,000 children sex trafficked in the U.S. every year. Child sex trafficking victims experience violent trauma, manipulation, and are often arrested and detained in juvenile detention. They need safe places like shelters to recover from that abuse. But there are only a handful of shelter beds in the whole country for child sex trafficking victims. Right now, there aren't enough aftercare facilities to serve even 1% of the estimated victims of child sex trafficking in the U.S. The lack of shelter for child trafficking victims is truly a national crisis.

Last year, the legislation unanimously passed the Senate, but when it arrived in the House, it languished in the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime until two days before the end of the session. Before it was returned, however, the House removed two Senate amendments added by Senator Sessions. As the bill no longer contained his amendments, Sessions refused to let the bill go to a final vote, which almost surely would have resulted in its passage. For awhile, anti-trafficking advocates wondered if the bill could be revived.

Fortunately, it has been, and now is being presented to Congress again. This time, anti-trafficking organization Polaris Project and thousands of other activists are refusing to let the Victims Support Act die for good. They're organizing grassroots supporters to get in touch with key members of Congress and advocate for the Victims Support Act to become law.

You can join them by signing this petition and making sure Congress knows there is broad support for providing shelter to child sex trafficking victims. Or, find out more at Polaris Project's Action Center.

Photo credit: Alyssa A. Miller

Amanda Kloer is a Change.org Editor and has been a full-time abolitionist in several capacities for seven years. Follow her on Twitter @endhumantraffic

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Source: news.change.org
Child Sex Trafficking Victims Get Second Chance from Congress | Change.org News

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Shelter opens for victims of human trafficking | News | Birmingham News

Submitted by Melynda Sides, Fox 6 Community Web Producer

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2:23 pm

Alabama’s first emergency shelter for sexually exploited women is now open and volunteers are searching the streets of Birmingham for young girls and women who are victims of human trafficking and/or prostitution.

Tajuan McCarty is the executive director for The WellHouse, Inc., a new transitional facility specifically designed to assist women who answer “yes” to any of the following questions:

• Have you prostituted yourself for drugs or money?
• Have you been forced to prostitute yourself by a pimp for drugs or money?
• Are you a victim of human trafficking?

“There is a huge link between human trafficking and the prostitution problem in Birmingham,” McCarty said. “We want to provide these women a place to go for treatment.”

TWI provides for the women’s immediate needs, such as shelter, food, clothing and spiritual guidance. The shelter is a Christ-centered agency and the only faith-based one in the southeast, McCarty said. Long-term, the shelter will provide life skills classes and GED preparation among other services.

The shelter is partnering with several local nonprofit organizations to offer the women who live there services including substance-abuse treatment, job training and development and detoxification.

One of TWI’s partners is the Pell City-based organization White Horse Air Support, which has offered free airplane transportation to victims who may need to relocate within the U.S. for security reasons. McCarty said victims of human trafficking from other parts of the nation could potentially be flown in to TWI if their nearest emergency shelters become overcrowded. Eventually, the shelter could expand to reach out to victims who have been trafficked in other parts of the globe.

“My prayer is that we’ll have a large enough housing facility that we could take in ladies from other countries,” McCarty said.

The WellHouse, Inc. currently has six beds with plans to expand as donations come in. The word about the new shelter has spread through word of mouth, churches, and other outreach agencies.

“We’ve been inundated with people wanting to volunteer,” McCarty said. The shelter will train volunteers in a workshop Sunday, March 6 at 6 p.m. at 300 24th Street South in Birmingham. “You don’t have to sign up for it, just show up,” she added.

The WellHouse, Inc. keeps up with its volunteers and supporters through a Facebook page and has a website (www.thewellhouseinc.org) that is currently under construction. To find out more, volunteer or donate, call 1-800-991-0948 or send an email to info@thewellhouseinc.org.

Source: birmingham.myfoxal.com
Shelter opens for victims of human trafficking | News | Birmingham News

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Eastern Missouri man pleads guilty in alleged human-trafficking scheme - KansasCity.com

Image via Wikipedia

By MARK MORRIS

The Kansas City Star

Related:

• Read The Star's award-winning series "A New Slavery: Human Trafficking in America"

A St. Charles, Mo., man pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday to racketeering conspiracy and foreign labor contracting fraud for his role in an alleged human trafficking scheme.

Andrew Cole, 55, admitted that he lied to workers he recruited in the Dominican Republic, telling them that their pay would be better than it turned out to be. He also acknowledged knowing that other members of the scheme would threaten those workers with deportation if they complained.

In May 2009, prosecutors indicted 12 men in the alleged scheme, which purportedly brought more than 1,000 foreign workers to the Kansas City area.

Some worked in local hotels, as promised, but others were shipped as far away as Alabama and Wyoming to work at different jobs in violation of their guest worker visas.

Cole was the fifth defendant to plead guilty. Of those remaining, two defendants are expected to change their pleas soon, leaving two to face trial in October. Three defendants fled the country.

To reach Mark Morris, call 816-234-4310 or send e-mail to mmorris@kcstar.com.

Posted on Wed, Aug. 18, 2010 10:30 PM

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/08/18/2159856/man-pleads-guilty-in-alleged-trafficking.html#ixzz0xMmVj9z6


Eastern Missouri man pleads guilty in alleged human-trafficking scheme - KansasCity.com

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Modern-day Slavery

Image via Wikipedia

Human trafficking could be curtailed in Alabama thanks to new state law

By Christina Crowe

write the author

June 10, 2010

Human trafficking: the phrase brings to mind brothels, massage parlors, prostitutes, and pimps, but it encompasses much more, including forced labor in factories or fields. In nearly record time, one local woman, Sara Jane Camacho, and her many supporters recently helped put new legislation on Alabama's books, taking our state off the list of a very few that had no human trafficking laws.

During the final day of the state legislative session on April 22, both houses of the Alabama state legislature passed House Bill 432, which makes engaging in an act of human trafficking or subjecting someone to indentured servitude a Class A felony punishable by 10 years to life in prison. It also makes obstructing an investigation into human trafficking a Class A felony, and adds 10 years to the sentence if the victim is a minor, according to Rep. Jack Williams (R-Vestavia Hills), who sponsored the bill. "The bill opens the door for federal and state assistance for victims of trafficking, and also provides a mechanism for victims, when there's been a conviction, to be able to bring a civil action against the person convicted," Williams says. "It also provides for training of law enforcement officials throughout the state." Prior to this legislation, Alabama has had to rely on federal authorities for the investigation and prosecution of human trafficking.

Williams says he first became interested in the issue in Alabama in 2006, after reading a news article about the disbanding of a trafficking ring in Marshall County, where a group of Latina women had been brought into the country and "were basically enslaved in a mobile home," Williams says. "Not four or five days later I read a story about a family in New York that U.S. marshals had busted who had two 13- to 14-year-old kids living in their home as indentured servants. I started wondering how this stuff goes on. I called and asked what laws we have in the state related to trafficking or indentured servitude, and found out we don't have any."

A year prior, in 2005, Camacho visited Thailand on a mission trip for her college, Samford University. While there, she was shocked by what she saw: "Western and European men in broad daylight with really young women," she recalls. "I'd heard about it, but it's different when you see it firsthand. I came back a different person."

When Camacho begin talking to her peers and her professors about the issue, "I got a bunch of scrunched eyebrows," she says. Undeterred, Camacho began researching the issue as it pertains to Alabama and the Southeast. "I showed documentaries on campus, and started doing my own research on how big a problem it is domestically." She contacted coalition heads in different states and made trips to Atlanta to learn about the problem and prevalence of sexual exploitation of minors there. "Atlanta is one of the biggest human trafficking hubs in the nation," she says. "They have huge strip club and sex entertainment industries." From those trips, Camacho learned that the route by which the girls are trafficked often "goes straight through Birmingham, with people flying into Atlanta and driving through Birmingham down to Louisiana—Baton Rouge is a huge hub for trafficking, and New Orleans, too."

Camacho points out that domestic minor trafficking may be the Birmingham area's biggest human trafficking problem, with child runaways being coerced into performing sexual acts for older men. "Ultimately it's about financial aid," she says. "These kids run away for a reason, and they don't take lots of money with them when they go. Then someone finds them who promises to take care of them and that's how they get sucked in. If they don't have any support at home it seems like a better option."

There are recent examples of violations in the state. A 25-year-old Louisiana man was arrested on charges of sex trafficking of minors and transporting his minor victims in interstate commerce for the purposes of prostitution. Dmarcus Antwain Ward allegedly transported two minors to Birmingham and back to Atlanta on separate occasions, causing both juveniles to engage in prostitution in both cities, according to the FBI. A lawsuit filed in Birmingham federal court in 2009 claims that a Mississippi man paid inadequate wages to two male Guatemalan guest workers for work in Mississippi and Alabama, forced them into debt, confiscated their visas, and threatened to report them to immigration officials as being in the country illegally. And in December of 2009, a federal grand jury in Birmingham indicted a Florence man for harboring a female minor in Lauderdale County and forcing her to perform sex acts for payment.

According to Williams, his first attempt to introduce a more basic version of the current human trafficking bill in 2008 was met with confusion. "When I first introduced this legislation, people were like, 'why are you doing this, does this happen in Alabama?'" In October of 2009, he says, Camacho called him. "She asked me why I had introduced the bill, and I said because human trafficking is wrong and there were no state laws against it."

By this point, Camacho had founded a nonprofit group tasked with aiding victims of human trafficking in the state. "She said, 'we like what your bill does but there is so much more it could do to be more comprehensive,'" Williams recalls. He and Camacho met later that month, with representatives from the Polaris Project—a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that monitors state and federal human trafficking laws and advocates for better policy—to assist in drafting the bill. "We were able to take from 43 other states the best of what they're doing and put it in our legislation," Williams says. "We would not have a bill this good if it were not for Sara."

According to Dana Gillis, FBI special agent in the Civil Rights Unit, with this legislation the state may be preventing a major human trafficking problem before it grows out of hand.

In January Joyce Vance, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, met with community leaders and service providers that cater to victims of human trafficking to talk about the need to address the issue proactively, before it gets a foothold in the state. "The major concern we see is an increased threat that could come into the region based on a thriving sex trade in the state of Georgia and up through the Florida Panhandle," Gillis says.

"Historically there have been issues regarding human trafficking related to the agricultural labor trades," he continues. "We've seen an influx of individuals from Guatemala and Honduras in Decatur; Albertville and the Huntsville area have individuals involved in the agricultural industry and poultry plants." Gillis points out that many of the victims of this type of human trafficking are illegal immigrants, which makes dealing with victims more complicated. "We work closely with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Service. We have to balance law enforcement with the risk of further victimizing people who have come into the country illegally. They become trapped. Our job is to try to stop the traffickers, and as far as consequences against illegals—that's a very difficult question for us to balance."

On May 16 and 17, state FBI representatives took part in a conference in conjunction with the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, looking at human trafficking as an issue of modern-day slavery. On June 9 and 10, the FBI is hosting a conference to provide training relative to recognizing the signs of human trafficking.

The new legislation has increased the resources available to Camacho and her supporters, but their work is far from complete. In 2009, Camacho formed Freedom to Thrive (FTT), a nonprofit coalition comprised of law enforcement, social-service providers, and individuals committed to eliminating human trafficking in the greater Birmingham area. There is one shelter in the state that can accommodate minor human trafficking victims, Camacho says, and a few in Atlanta, "but long-term care is needed. It would be wonderful to have bed space and trained staff." FTT welcomes volunteers, and Camacho emphasizes that awareness is a big part of the organization's work. It is suspected that social workers and employees with the state's Department of Human Resources, for example, come into contact with human trafficking victims more often than they realize. Part of FTT's aims is to train those individuals, as well as local law enforcement, prosecutors, and the average citizen, to recognize the crime. "It's shocking to me how unaware the general public is of this problem," Camacho states. "People need to keep an eye on their own communities." &

Human Trafficking Resources:

• Freedom to Thrive: www.freedomtothrive.org.
• National Trafficking Hotline: (888) 373-7888.
• Polaris Project: www.polarisproject.org.
• Local Spanish-language victims' hotline, available 24 hours (human trafficking, family violence, sexual assault, and rape): 877-298-3220.
• JustUs, a local nonprofit comprised of young people working to stop human trafficking: www.justustoday.org.
• The FBI's Human Trafficking Division: www.tinyurl.com/kmz2y3.

Modern-day Slavery

The Human Trafficking Project: Anti-Trafficking Legislation 2010

HUMAN TRAFFICKING PROJECT

Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Anti-Trafficking Legislation 2010

As many state legislative sessions come to a close, it is useful to take stock of anti-trafficking legislation that has passed this year. A number of states have passed bills that address different aspects of trafficking or that take creative approaches to combating trafficking.

Alabama and Vermont both passed laws making trafficking in persons a state crime for the first time. While this is exciting progress, several states still do not have laws criminalizing trafficking, such as West Virginia and South Dakota.

Other states that already had anti-trafficking legislation moved forward on efforts to increase penalties for traffickers. Maryland legislation that passed this session will increase penalties for traffickers, and create penalties for people that knowingly benefit from trafficking.

Beyond criminal provisions, some states passed legislation that will help people report potential cases and help victims connect with services. Maryland and Oregon both passed bills that will mandate or encourage certain establishments to post the human trafficking hotline number for the National Human Trafficking Resource Center. In Maryland, hotels that have been the location of arrests for prostitution, solicitation of a minor, and/or human trafficking will have to post the number; in Oregon, establishments that sell alcohol will be provided with free materials with the hotline number. Washington state also passed legislation that will allow for the hotline number to be posted in rest stops in the state.

Following New York's example, Connecticut and Washington also have become leaders in addressing commercial sexual exploitation of children/sex trafficking of minors through so-called Safe Harbor Legislation. Such laws aim to divert minor victims of sex trafficking, who in the past may have been arrested for prostitution and treated like criminals, from the criminal justice system. Instead, minors will be directed towards service for trafficking victims/survivors. Other states, such as Illinois, are considering similar legislation.

While this session has seen the passage of a number of important pieces of anti-trafficking legislation, much remains to be done, and constituents play a vital role in pushing legislators to take action. Please encourage your representatives to address trafficking in your state.
Posted by JenniferKK at 7:03 PM
Labels: Anti-human trafficking effort, CSEC, Government Action, Legal Issues, Legislation, United States

The Human Trafficking Project: Anti-Trafficking Legislation 2010

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