Hidden in Plain View: Researchers Offer Startling Glimpse of Atlanta's Black Pre-Teen Girls Lured into $32B Sex Trafficking Industry - Atlanta Black Star:
Showing posts with label Atlanta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Atlanta. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
Sunday, July 19, 2015
Selling Atlanta's children: What has and hasn't changed - CNN.com
"The image sticks in my mind: A female defendant is escorted into the courtroom with shackles around her ankles, making it difficult to walk... . She was 10."
Read HERE
Selling Atlanta's children: What has and hasn't changed - CNN.com:
Friday, July 26, 2013
Small Atlanta tea shop rescues girls from poverty in India | Fox News
Source: Fox News
Continue here to learn about one woman's effort to help a group of young Indian girls who were forced out of their orphanage on reaching its age limit. Her name is Katrell Christie.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/07/24/small-atlanta-tea-shop-rescues-girls-from-poverty-in-india/
By Avery Crow
"For many young women in India, everyday life is a constant struggle. Each year, millions of children are sold into the sex trafficking industry for as little as $17. Some shelters and rescue organizations are successful in bringing the girls back home, but fail to provide the resources necessary to keep them from falling back into the malicious trap of human trafficking."
Continue here to learn about one woman's effort to help a group of young Indian girls who were forced out of their orphanage on reaching its age limit. Her name is Katrell Christie.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/07/24/small-atlanta-tea-shop-rescues-girls-from-poverty-in-india/
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Justice under law for sex-trafficking victims is still beyond reach | WNN – Women News Network
http://womennewsnetwork.net/2013/01/10/justice-under-law-sex-trafficking/
Source: WNN – Women News Network
Source: WNN – Women News Network
Kelly Matheson – WNN Justice
A map from the WomenStats Project shows the countries and regions where women and girls are currently being trafficked. Image: WSP
(WNN/WITNESS) Atlanta, GEORGIA, U.S.: Sexual slavery is now happening inall six United Nations Regional Groups as human traffickers target women and girls. Most from poverty, broken homes and abuse. Because of this they are more vulnerable to manipulation and exploitation by traffickers. This first hand story by Kelly Matheson comes with an important video produced by ‘stop human trafficking’ advocates ECPAT-USA with the online human rights video documentary community site called WITNESS:
While at the convening of the U.S. Human Rights Network last December I did a pre-release screening of a new documentary co-produced by ECPAT-USA and WITNESS. The video, “What I Have Been Through is Not Who I Am,” tells the story of Katrina, a formerly sexually exploited teen who was arrested, when she should have been protected. No one in this small audience could believe that, in the U.S., we jail children who are bought and sold for sex, rationalizing that prison will protect them from their traffickers. Admittedly, when I first heard about this back in August of 2010, I did not believe it either. But we do do this.
In thinking about this reality for exploited children, I asked myself, if I am raped should I be imprisoned to protect me from my rapist? If my domestic partner physically abuses me in my own home, should I be imprisoned to protect me from my domestic partner? The answer is black and white. It’s no. And it’s this very contradiction in laws across the U.S. that the film Not Who I Am addresses and which our partner, ECPAT-USA is working to change.
In the documentary, Katrina, tells the story of being lured into the sex industry while still a teen, and the abuse she suffered from a trafficker who keep her in that life. Her compelling and emotional story takes us from Atlanta to New York City and to Atlanta again, from desperation to recovery and success. Her story illustrates the failure of the criminal justice system to help these youth and call on our state legislatures to stand up and make justice a reality for our country’s exploited children.
Here is Katrina’s story, a story that mirrors that of thousands of young girls and boys in every corner of my country:
_______________________________________________
“What I Have Been Through is Not Who I Am” is a documentary exploring “the life” through the eyes of one of child prostitution’s many victims. Experts and legislators way in on what is being done to ensure that prostituted children are not treated as criminals as well as what obstacles still need to be overcome. This heart wrenching documentary is an informative look at the hidden world of commercial sexual exploitation of children and what government, law enforcement, and non-profits are doing to combat it. The trailer (3 mins) is available here: http://youtu.be/j4l7vSUhkew. This video is co-produced by ECPAT-USA and WITNESS.
(Video) Uploaded on Dec 6, 2011 (to youtube)
From http://www.witness.org & http://ecpatusa.org/ | "What I Have Been Through is Not Who I Am" is a documentary exploring "the life" through the eyes of one of child prostitution's many victims. Experts and legislators way in on what is being done to ensure that prostituted children are not treated as criminals as well as what obstacles still need to be overcome. This heart wrenching documentary is an informative look at the hidden world of commercial sexual exploitation of children and what government, law enforcement, and non-profits are doing to combat it.
You can watch the full length film (21 mins) on our partner ECPAT-USA's channel here: http://youtu.be/BmmRTjoL3R0
You can watch the full length film (21 mins) on our partner ECPAT-USA's channel here: http://youtu.be/BmmRTjoL3R0
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Thursday, September 6, 2012
Go-go dancer sentenced for prostituting teens | www.ajc.com
Go-go dancer sentenced for prostituting teens | www.ajc.com
Thursday, Sept. 6, 2012
By David Ibata
Thursday, Sept. 6, 2012
By David Ibata
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A former Atlanta go-go dancer was sentenced Wednesday to 80 years in prison and the rest of his life on probation after his conviction in Douglas County for trafficking in victims as young as 15 years old for prostitution, authorities said.
Steven Donald Lemery was found guilty Aug. 24 of six counts of human trafficking, two counts of aggravated child molestation, and enticing a child for indecent purposes and pandering by compulsion.
Wednesday, Superior Court Judge David T. Emerson sentenced Lemery to what prosecutors described as a life sentence. The 37-year-old defendant will not be eligible for parole for 50 years, according to Assistant District Attorney Rachel Ackley.
Two of Lemery’s victims were 15 years old at the time of the offenses, and a third was 18, Ackley told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in a phone interview. One of the 15-year-olds and the 18-year-old were brought across state lines by Lemery and forced into prostitution.
“There was testimony how victims were held in the house, not allowed to leave, given drugs and alcohol, and just subjected to all kinds of terrible sex acts,” Ackley said. “One of the victims testified at trial by being forced to prostitute and while being held at a client’s house, he was held down and burned as they attempted to rape them.”
In March, Lemery’s former roommate and co-defendant Christopher Lynch was sentenced to 30 years — 14 years to be served in prison — after he pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual exploitation of a child, pimping a victim under the age of 18 and pandering by compulsion.
Lemery danced under the name Steven Lang at B.J. Rooster’s on Cheshire Bridge Road. Lynch was a drag show personality better known to local audiences as Pasha Nicole. The suspects lived in a home off Chapel Hill Road in Douglasville.
Lemery was targeted by investigators in January 2011 after a victim from Alabama alerted authorities.
Lynch initially took credit in news interviews for aiding the investigation against Lemery, but was himself incriminated when a minor victim saw him on TV news and identified him to authorities.
Douglas Sheriff’s deputies identified victims in Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina in a trafficking scheme that allegedly had been going on for two to three years.
— Staff writer Christian Boone contributed to this article.
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Tuesday, November 15, 2011
New hotline number created for reporting sex trafficking | Nooga.com
http://www.nooga.com/20684_new-hotline-number-created-for-reporting-sex-trafficking/
Sunday, November 13, 2011 9:19 am EST
The qualities that make Tennessee a desirable location for businesses—proximity to large cities and a network of interstate roads—are the same factors that draw the people whose business is human sex trafficking.
Sunday, November 13, 2011 9:19 am EST
The qualities that make Tennessee a desirable location for businesses—proximity to large cities and a network of interstate roads—are the same factors that draw the people whose business is human sex trafficking.
| Tennessee Human Trafficking Resource Center Hotline 1-855-55-TNHTH or 1-855-558-4684 |
A recently released report by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation showed that human trafficking and sex slavery is more common in Tennessee than authorities have believed, TBI director Mark Gwyn. The city's geographical position to Atlanta and the large number of interstates that cross the state are conducive to a traveling business, the study says.
"In Tennessee, 85 percent of the (99) counties reported at least one instance of human sex trafficking in the last 24 months," Gwyn said during the launch of a publicity campaign for a new hotline number for victims. "Over 70 percent of those cases were minors."
The number of cases reported in Hamilton County were between 26 to 50 cases in that period, according to the study, a fact that surprised Chattanooga Police Chief Bobby Dodd.
"The study took us by surprise," Dodd said. "We're concerned that this is happening here but it's not being reported to us."
The Women's Fund of Greater Chattanooga coordinated a coalition of local organizations that provide services for victims to join in getting the word out about the 24-hour, seven-days a week hotline, mandated by the state legislature in 2010 as part of an effort to combat human trafficking.
"Human trafficking, including the trafficking of underage girls for sex, is modern day slavery and it is growing not just around the world but in our own communities," said Lorie Street Mallchok, chairman of the Women's Fund. "This new hotline may be the beginning of a way out for young girls - but only if they, and well meaning people they may come in contact with, know about it."
Special-Agent-In Charge Margie Quin of the Nashville TBI office said many people do not believe it happens in their communities. Some may think of it only happens in foreign countries but Georgia state investigators recently rescued a 16-year-old girl who became ensnared in a sex trafficking ring after she ran away from her Nashville home a year ago, she said.
"She was just 15 when she left home," Quin said. "We found her in Georgia and the GBI set up a sting and took her into custody."
By the time they found her, she had been forced to work as a prostitute in Nashville, Chattanooga and Atlanta, Quin said. TBI found her being advertized for sale on the internet.
"Traffickers start out 'grooming,' them, or romancing them," Quin said. "They buy them clothes, pretend to be their boyfriends. Some of (the traffickers) are gorilla pimps, the ones who beat them and mistreat them. This girl said that is the kind of pimp she had in Chattanooga."
Other partners in the effort calling attention to the hotline number were state Sen. Bo Watson, R-Chattanooga, and Sandra Hollett, executive director for the Partnership for Families, Children and Adults.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Corporations Can Fight Human Trafficking, Say Business Leaders | Business | Epoch Times
Source: Epoch Times
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Human trafficking is globalization's worst secret, yet global businesses have the power to end it.
ATLANTA—Not only is slavery still here, globalization has increased it, according to a group of business leaders. Human trafficking is globalization’s worst secret, yet global businesses have the power to end it, was the consensus. David Arkless, president of Corporate and Government Affairs for Manpower, is devoted to abolishing human trafficking. He developed what he thinks are practical anti-slavery tools for businesses.
“I’ve been with Manpower 25 years—only meant to stay for six months,” he said, with a twinkle in his eye. About seven or eight years ago the company rebranded, and asked its customers what they thought the company stood for, he said. Despite its size and stability, with a presence in 90 countries over 60 years, its customers said Manpower did not really stand for anything globally.
To Arkless, it stands for, “Giving everyone the opportunity for safe work, paid work, decent work. What’s the opposite?” Slavery.
His company focused on what it stands for on three global issues, he said. They are trafficked people, refugee communities, and the quarter of a billion displaced people that work outside of their countries of origin.
To prevent abuse of workers, companies should check their supply chains, to make sure no bonded workers, trafficked people, or abused workers are part of it. Business travelers should sign a pledge not to hire prostitutes.
Arkless was instrumental in developing the Athens Ethical Principles in 2006. The seven principles require a company to “Explicitly demonstrate the position of zero tolerance toward trafficking in human beings,” to raise awareness of trafficking in order to prevent it, to encourage governments to make and enforce laws about it, and to “Ensure that our personnel fully comply with our anti-trafficking policy,” among other things.
He felt pleased with the AEP and assumed all participants would rush to sign on. He said, “I naively thought this would be great,” but only three of 1,000 were willing to promise. Some were afraid if they signed a pledge they might be vulnerable to lawsuits from their own employees or workers in their supply chains.
“Then I started to think smart.” He looked at the environmental movement, “how they got a high level of awareness.” He approached shareholders, ethical fund management groups, activist groups, and global trade unions. The motto was, “Safe work for everyone.”
Then he went back to the companies. At first 20 signed the pledge, then 14,000, but “I want 14 million,” Arkless said.
Once there was momentum, he began to think of enforcement; a “global police force” was needed. How could that be practical? Partner companies including Nike and Microsoft developed online training to raise awareness. Employees would become internal advocates. They would be the police.
“The best police force in the world is employees,” said Arkless. “They blow whistles. They say, ‘We are not doing that in Colombia.’”
He hit a roadblock. Manpower said “Are you mad?”
To demonstrate his sanity, he studied the effect of having employees “engaged in a cause they believe in.” He said each time an experienced person leaves a company, it costs one year in lost salary to replace and train a new person. He measured a group of employees in Sweden who were raising money for women refugees and doing anti-trafficking programs and advocacy. He found attrition was halved for those employees.
Arkless calculated cutting attrition by 42 percent saved $1.7 million. If it were multiplied for the whole company, it would save tens of millions. So encouraging employees to work on the three global issues went from “not just a good humanitarian thing but more profitable,” he said, twinkling again.
Arkless began a three-year tenure as vice president of the International Confederation of Private Employment Agencies (Ciett) on Oct. 2. One of his goals for Ciett during his tenure will be to, “Focus the industry on efforts to eradicate the use of human beings as commodities, especially concentrating on the crime of human trafficking,” according to a statement.
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Monday, July 11, 2011
Regaining trust, a session at a time - TODAY News - TODAY.com
"I remember one particular young woman," recalled the caseworker who works with victims of sexual trafficking. "She was brutally beaten; her skull was cracked open. She was forced to go out and work (as a prostitute) two weeks after that.
"However, she only told us about the incident a year later. That's when she could finally talk about it."
The caseworker, who requested that her name withheld, works at Tapestri, an organization in Atlanta that helps victims of sexual trafficking regain their lives after the unspeakable horrors of sexual trafficking and slavery.
"Human beings first start from a place of trust," said Allen Keller, director of the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture.
"That has been hard-wired since we were born. For these victims, that has been turned on its head," Keller added. "So even if they are now physically free, they are psychologically imprisoned."
Another caseworker at Tapestri, whose name is also being withheld, recounted how she had to gain the trust of a woman who had been enslaved for 10 years until she was able to escape a trafficker.
Story: Potent weapon to stem sex slavery often left unused"They spend what feels like their whole life listening to the trafficker - 'Do not trust immigration, do not trust, do not trust' - and then we say, 'I'm here to help you,' and they have the 10 years in the back of their head and they look at you like, 'Sure.' They worry they will be prosecuted."
The caseworkers at Tapestri explained that many of the victims they have treated did not even know they were coming into the United States illegally."The trafficker makes them believe he has the documents," said one of the caseworkers. "Once they are here, he tells them that they are illegal and says, 'If you don't want me to beat you or report you, you have to work as a prostitute.'"
Actions, not just words
How do professionals at nonprofits and immigration agencies persuade victims who have been stripped of trust to trust again?
"What makes them gain trust is action," said one of the Tapestri caseworkers. "Taking them to the doctor, helping them get clothing, counseling, English-as-a-second-language classes - whatever their immediate needs are, we help them."
Taking care of a trafficking victim's immediate physical needs is very important for their mental healing, said Keller, whose program has helped victims of torture from around the world.
"A trafficking victim who has been repeatedly raped or beaten may have real physical pain. Any time they have physical pain, even if it is not related, it triggers fear and terror, sadness and humiliation," he said.
After a trafficking victim's physical needs are addressed, immigration authorities and caseworkers then work at an even harder task - gently persuading these women to talk of their captivity. This is important for two reasons: It helps the victims, most of them undocumented, secure legal status, and it helps authorities prosecute a trafficking ring.
Story: Qualifications for a T-visaTaking that step is tough, said Keller, whose program trains asylum officers in effective interviewing skills.
"I've treated many individuals who were tortured in other countries. They still have profound fears and terrors, but at least their torturers are far away," he said. "For victims of sexual trafficking in the U.S., their traffickers are here and the victims are under their control."
'He was lying to you'
Alia El-Sawi is a victim assistance specialist for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations, in the Atlanta area. She recalls how she has persuaded sex trafficking victims that much of what they have been told is simply not true.
"With some of the recent Latino trafficking victims, traffickers have used the romancing tactic," El-Sawi said. "We talk to the women about how the trafficker deceived them, was unfaithful, lied to them and forced them into heinous acts. Many of these victims then come to the realization that it's OK to be angry."
Another tactic traffickers use is the fear of immigration authorities.
"We had one young lady who had really been brainwashed by her trafficker," El-Sawi said. "He had told her U.S. immigration authorities would put her in jail and not feed her, as well as punish her and use cruelty. Once the victim saw we had taken her to the doctor and given her food and clothing, she started to trust us after a few interviews."
Caseworkers also appeal to the victims by reminding them that the traffickers are still plying their trade and that other girls and women are in danger.
"In one case, a young lady and her sister were lured into forced prostitution. The traffickers threatened to get other family members. So we homed in on how much justice she would be bringing to those other girls who could not escape," El-Sawi said.
But just as important, victim specialists spend time persuading these women that it was not their fault.
"We stress this happens in all communities across the board. We take away the piece of shame and we tell them it is not their fault, it's universal, and there are horrible people with very manipulative sides," El-Sawi said.
How long does it take for a young woman to trust the caseworkers and immigration specialists? Sometimes it takes only one or two interviews.
But El-Sawi recalled the case of a young Asian woman who was extremely reluctant to talk. "It took almost half a year before she could trust us to help her. That was one of the hardest cases," she said.
Caseworkers also say the best way to help regain the victims' trust is to tell them stories of former victims, women who received help.
"It's easier to relate to personal stories and not just facts," said one of the Tapestri caseworkers in Atlanta.
Can't undo it, but can move on
"There's nothing one can do to undo the horrible things, but there is a lot we must do for individuals to get on with their lives," said Keller, who is also on the New York City mayor's Human Exploitation Working Group, whose goal is to promote appropriate services for survivors of trafficking through public/private partnerships.
"Healing doesn't mean erasing what happened, but it is gratifying to see individuals who were so brutalized be able to heal physically, socially and emotionally and gain meaningful trust in the system," he said.
In Atlanta, the two caseworkers recounted how they still talk regularly to the trafficking victims they helped heal years earlier.
"I have clients who call me two or three times a week," said one caseworker. "They will call to chat, ask for advice for themselves or their friends. They are still in a strange country."Keller said there are challenges for caseworkers who work with trafficking victims, because "we live in a brutal world where things like trafficking and torture are all too common. When you are working with these victims, you have to watch for secondary trauma."
But he said he was constantly amazed by the resilience of the human spirit.
"Frankly, that's why I find the work gratifying. … I know with appropriate support individuals can be helped."
Although former trafficking victims and caseworkers first met under terrible circumstances, many things do heal over time.
"Yes, we get the baby calls," said a caseworker, smiling.
Source: TODAY News - TODAY.com
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Sex trafficking bill passes House | ajc.com
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Georgia House took aim at those who prostitute children on Wednesday, overwhelmingly agreeing to make it easier to go after pimps and others who exploit minors for sex.
House Bill 200 also would significantly increase the penalties for the crime of human trafficking and sexual servitude, bringing them in line with those for drug trafficking.
It passed the House with bipartisan support, 168-1. The lone dissenter, Rep. Bobby Franklin, R-Marietta, said he objected only because of constitutional questions about how many features the bill contained. He said he did not oppose the bill's goals.
House members applauded themselves after the vote.
“Passage of this bill sends a strong message: ‘Not in our Georgia,' ” said Majority Whip Ed Lindsey, the bill’s sponsor.
The approval comes just a year after legislators let a bill designed to help children trapped as sexual slaves die over concerns it would legalize prostitution for children under 16 by treating them as victims instead of criminals. Georgia’s age of consent is 16.
This year’s measure would still treat sex slaves as victims by offering them a way to come forward to help law enforcement agencies go after their traffickers.
The proposal also would expand coercion to include, in addition to physical force, causing or threatening financial harm and employing drug use as leverage. It also would prohibit defense by blood relation -- such as if a father “sold” a daughter -- and the victim’s past sexual history without review by a judge.
Offenders would face up to 20 years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines for victims between ages 16 and 18 For those victims under 16, offenders would face up to 30 years in prison and fines up to $100,000. The state could also seize any assets used for or bought with proceeds of the crime.
Lindsey, a Republican from Atlanta, fashioned the bill with help from Democrats and, among others, Attorney General Sam Olens, the Georgia Commission on Family Violence and the Juvenile Justice Fund.
The fund has worked for at least three years to tackle the issue of underage prostitution, noting that more than 28,000 men in Georgia have sex with prostituted adolescent girls every year.
Nonprofit groups and prosecutors were instrumental in including a provision in the bill that would require law enforcement agencies to receive training on the issue, including how to interact with victims.
Officials estimate hundreds if not thousands of children and others are being held as sex slaves in Atlanta, which has one of the worst reputations for the crime in the country.
“Right now there are hundreds of girls in Atlanta and across the metro region who are in hotel rooms, waiting to be purchased by men on the Internet for sexual purposes,” said Rep. Buzz Brockway, R-Lawrenceville. “That’s who this bill is for.”
Source: ajc.comSex our trafficking bill passes House | ajc.com
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Bill targets sex trafficking in Georgia | ajc.com
By April Hunt
Special to the AJC Atlanta police arrest a suspected "john"
during a crackdown on prostitution last fall.
House Bill 200 is designed to help law enforcement and prosecutors go after people who traffic in people, especially minors, for sexual servitude, said its sponsor, House Majority Whip Edward Lindsey.
Bill targets sex trafficking in Georgia | ajc.com
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A bipartisan group of lawmakers has proposed a law to tackle human trafficking and underage prostitution in Georgia.
during a crackdown on prostitution last fall.
House Bill 200 is designed to help law enforcement and prosecutors go after people who traffic in people, especially minors, for sexual servitude, said its sponsor, House Majority Whip Edward Lindsey.
Members of both parties fashioned the bill, with the support of Attorney General Sam Olens, the Georgia Commission on Family Violence and prosecutors.
The proposal increases penalties for the crime to those similar to drug trafficking, with offenders facing up to 20 years in prison for human trafficking and 50 years in prison for trafficking in minors.
The bill also treats those in sexual servitude as victims, not criminals, by offering them recovery under the state crime victims fund and an affirmative defense when coming forward.
“Human trafficking for sexual servitude is one of the most serious criminal problems facing our state,” said Lindsey, R-Atlanta. “[The bill is] designed to make it easier to go after this crime and treat the victims with compassion and give an avenue to get out of the trap that was laid for them.”
Source: ajcBill targets sex trafficking in Georgia | ajc.com
Monday, January 24, 2011
Feds: Atlanta emerging as a human trafficking hub
By KATE BRUMBACK
The Associated PressThursday, January 20, 2011; 3:03 PM
ATLANTA -- Federal authorities are highlighting Atlanta's emergence as a hub in human trafficking along the East Coast as they try to raise awareness about the problem and generate tips from the public.
Brock Nicholson of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for Georgia and the Carolinas says human trafficking has been increasing in the Atlanta area and the crimes are often hard to uncover because many victims won't come forward.
Nicholson said victims often fear beatings from traffickers or arrest and deportation by authorities if they try to escape. He stressed that authorities will not punish or deport victims.
Nicholson said two troubling new trends are that victims are getting younger, some as young as 14, and traffickers are increasingly using violence to control victims.
Feds: Atlanta emerging as a human trafficking hub
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Friday, January 21, 2011
Nation & World | Feds: Atlanta emerging as a human trafficking hub | Seattle Times Newspaper
Federal authorities are highlighting Atlanta's emergence as a hub in human trafficking along the East Coast as they try to raise awareness about the problem and generate tips from the public.
Associated Press
ATLANTA —
Source: seattletimes.nwsource.comFederal authorities are highlighting Atlanta's emergence as a hub in human trafficking along the East Coast as they try to raise awareness about the problem and generate tips from the public.
Brock Nicholson of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for Georgia and the Carolinas says human trafficking has been increasing in the Atlanta area and the crimes are often hard to uncover because many victims won't come forward.
Nicholson said victims often fear beatings from traffickers or arrest and deportation by authorities if they try to escape. He stressed that authorities will not punish or deport victims.
Nicholson said two troubling new trends are that victims are getting younger, some as young as 14, and traffickers are increasingly using violence to control victims.
Nation & World | Feds: Atlanta emerging as a human trafficking hub | Seattle Times Newspaper
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Online sex ads complicate crackdowns on teen trafficking - CNN.com
By Steve Turnham and Amber Lyon, CNN Special Investigations Unit
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
September 15, 2010 9:52 a.m. EDT
Underage sex for sale on internet
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- "Nobody knows what the real numbers are," advocate says
- Online sites filling vacuum left by Craigslist's withdrawal
- The internet led to a "wholesale transformation" of prostitution, DA says
(CNN) -- Behind every adult service ad on the internet is a story.
Sometimes it's a story of a grown woman who has chosen prostitution as a path to a better life. More often, it's a story of a woman being forced to sell her body by a pimp.
And then there are the children, and the mothers that miss them.
"They told me to look on Craigslist and it almost blew my mind," the mother of one missing 12-year-old told CNN. "She was there with a wig on. She was there in a purple negligee.
"She's a normal 12-year-old -- Hannah Montana, the Jonas Brothers, they're her favorite," the mother said. "She's always screaming and hollering and singing. She's a great young lady."
The same day the woman spoke to CNN, her daughter was rescued by police at a seedy hotel near Washington where she was being sold for sex. And she's not alone.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's website contains thousands of posters of missing children. Many are girls, classified as "endangered runaways," and the center says more than fifty of them have been pushed into the sex trade. But that's just a snapshot, a tiny indicator of the true scale of the problem.
"Nobody knows what the real numbers are," said Ernie Allen, the NCMEC's chief executive. "I'm also confident that the internet has changed the dynamic of this whole problem. We're finding an astounding number of kids being sold for sex on the internet."
Allen said the best source of information on the number of underage girls being trafficked online are websites themselves. While online classified giant Craigslist shut down its "adult services" pages in early September, other sites like Backpage.com are filling the vacuum left behind, he said. And while there are clues in the way the ads are written, only a small fraction of them get referred to law enforcement or organizations like the NCMEC.
Backpage.com told CNN that it promptly responds to law enforcement inquiries, and says the site includes links to help users notify the NCMEC if they identify potential abuses.
Craigslist argues it has had a vigorous approach to vetting adult services ads. It says that in the 15 months before closing the adult services section altogether, it rejected 700,000 ads because they violated the website's rules, including advertising prostitution and ads "indicative of an underage person." Craigslist says ads are reported to NCMEC "when our manual reviewers see anything falling within NCMEC Cybertipline reporting guidelines."
But Allen said his organization, which is the nation's primary reporting agency for missing kids, received just 132 referrals from Craigslist over that same 15-month period.
"The small number of reports makes it difficult to get a sense of the true scope of the problem," Allen said. "We've seen lots of ads where there is obviously a young person in the ad. Now is she 18 or 17? Is she 22 or 12?"
Craigslist has done more than any other website with an adult services section to try to combat the problem of underage sex trafficking. It has cooperated with the FBI by providing evidence against pimps and required phone and credit card verification, so ads left a paper trail for the police to follow.
"Our frustration is that we've said to them if the person in the photo looks young, report it. If there's language in the ad that suggests that there may be the use of young people for prostitution, report it," Allen said. "It's eliminated the graphic pornography in the ads, it's eliminated blatant nudity. What it has not done is put a significant dent in the problem with child prostitution and child trafficking and that was the goal."
The other problem facing NCMEC and police departments across America is that the internet has changed the business of prostitution. Craigslist's decision to shut down adult services -- which followed pressure from the attorneys general in nearly 20 states -- will do little to alter that fundamental fact.
In Atlanta, Georgia, one of the country's busiest prostitution markets due to its position as a highway and air travel hub, police and prosecutors witnessed the effect of the internet on the business of prostitution firsthand.
Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard told CNN that eight years ago, law enforcement began a serious crackdown on the pimps that control most underage victims, until the pimps vanished.
"At that time, we saw a number of underage girls standing on street corners, and they were usually standing there because a pimp had placed them there," Howard said. "After we started our crackdown, we began to notice that the numbers became fewer and fewer, and we were wondering, 'What's going on?'
"What we found is that there was a wholesale transformation from young girls standing on the streets to those same young girls being sold through Craigslist and other internet vendors," Howard said. "That has put us in a terrible position, because much of the illegal sex activity now goes on almost undetected by the police. The numbers we believe remain the same, but what has happened is that they are now out of sight."
A Georgia advocacy group called "A Future Not A Past" commissioned a research firm to survey men who admit to buying sex over the internet, and the results were staggering. Based on interviews with more than 200 men, the research study projected that 7,200 men a month were buying sex from adolescent girls in Georgia alone.
"It just took my breath away," said Kaffie McCullough, the group's director. "The buyers are able to go on computers in the privacy of their own house or home or apartment or hotel room, and just dial up and have the girl come to them. So you don't have to have the more unsafe part of driving in neighborhoods that aren't maybe your best neighborhoods."
Allen, McCullough and others believe the best way to combat the problem of online underage sex trafficking isn't through better screening tools, but through fear. As long as pimps and the men who buy girls for sex feel protected by the anonymity of the web, the trade will continue.
"Our goal in this from the beginning has been to dramatically increase the risk and eliminate the profitability because this is the treatment of children as commodities for sex sale, this is 21st-century slavery," Allen said. "It would be progress if pressure on this end had the effect of moving this problem back onto the streets."
That is a measure of how dangerous and widespread online trafficking of underage sex has become -- that the group leading the campaign to protect children would prefer to see the problem back on the streets.
"It's an outrageous thing to say, but one of our goals is to move these operators into some other illicit enterprise -- to get them out of the trafficking of human beings and into some other illegal business," Allen said.
Online sex ads complicate crackdowns on teen trafficking - CNN.comFriday, June 11, 2010
Modern-day Slavery
Image via WikipediaHuman trafficking could be curtailed in Alabama thanks to new state law
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."
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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
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