Airline crew to spot trafficking - Home News, UK - The Independent

Image via WikipediaSource: The IndependentBy Lizzie Robinson

Tuesday, 18 October 2011

The first airline in the UK to train cabin crew to spot and report signs of human trafficking on flights was today hailed a success.

Virgin Atlantic is providing its staff with special training on identifying those who may be engaged in trafficking and their potential victims and how to report them to the authorities before arrival in the UK.

It is the first airline to work with the UK Border Agency on training cabin crew.

Immigration minister Damian Green met Virgin staff who have signed up to the initiative at Heathrow Airport to mark Anti-Slavery Day.

He said: "Its absolutely essential that frontline staff are aware of it and can recognise it so they can warn the UK Border Agency so that we can take effective action against what is a horrible crime.

"It will make us more effective at spotting the first signs of trafficking and it will also act as a deterrent.

"I am delighted that Virgin have blazed a trail on this and I very much hope that other airlines that fly into the UK will follow suit because they can do a huge deal of good."

Around 150 Virgin staff have signed up to the initiative, which involves an electronic learning package to teach cabin crew the signs to look out for during a flight.

Jade Campbell, 33, a Virgin cabin crew member who has completed the training, said: "Its nice to have some background knowledge and to understand something that we are not very familiar with, that's maybe a bit daunting.

"When we are on board we do engage with people so if something doesn't ring right we will now have the confidence to report it.

"It's something we should be looking at as crew and it can only be a positive thing."

PA

Galley Gossip: Flight attendants trained to spot human traffickers at the Super Bowl | Gadling.com

by Heather Poole (RSS feed) on Feb 3rd 2011 at 9:30AM

What do hundreds of flight attendants, thousands of under-age prostitutes and the Super Bowl all have in common? Dallas. On Sunday they're all traveling to Texas. American Airlines, American Eagle, Delta, United, and Qantas hope to help stop human traffickers from pimping out women and children by holding training sessions that will enable flight attendants volunteering their time on the ground to help spot signs of trafficking. According to Texas Attorney General Greg Abbot in an article posted by Reuters, the Super Bowl is one of the biggest human trafficking events in the United States. During the previous two Super Bowls fifty girls were rescued. This year with authorities, child welfare advocates, and the airline industry all collaborating to fight under-age sex crimes, even more lives could be saved.

How did the airlines even come to be involved in human trafficking? It all started with Sandra Fiorini, an American Airlines flight attendant based in Chicago. Because of Fiorini flight attendants now know what to look for and who to call if they see something suspicious on board a flight. This after Fiorini tried to report a situation and no one responded. It involved an eighteen year-old boy on a six-hour flight carrying a newborn infant with its umbilical cord still attached. No wife. Just one bottle of milk and two diapers stuck inside his pocket. In 2007 Fiorini met Deborah Sigmund, founder of the organization Innocents at Risk, and soon they began working together with airline employees to become the first line of defense against human trafficking.




Flight attendants aren't the only ones who can help. There are more frequent fliers now than ever before. Passengers should also be aware of what to look for while traveling.

Warning Signs

1. Someone who doesn't have control over his/her own identification

2. Someone who has few to no possessions.

3. Someone who is not allowed to speak for themselves, or is made to speak through a translator

4. Someone who isn't sure of where he or she lives or is or has no sense of time

5. Someone who avoids eye contact or appears fearful, anxious, tense, depressed, nervous, submissive.

6. Someone who rarely is allowed to come and go independently and may be accompanied by someone who controls their every movement

7. Someone who may be dressed inappropriately regardless of weather conditions.

Number to call

Human Trafficking Hot line 1-888-373-7888.

(Don't wait until it's too late. Put that number in your cell phone now!)

There are more slaves today than any other time in human history. A person can be sold several times a day for many years, opposed to drugs that can only be sold once. Because of this human trafficking is one of the fastest growing crimes in the world, only second behind drug trafficking. It generates 32 billion annually for organized crime. Each year two million women and children become victims. 300,000 children within the United States are being trafficked each year. Most are forced into a life of prostitution and pornography in large urban areas such as Washington DC, New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Florida. If it can happen on my flight, it can happen on yours. Open your eyes. Get involved. Write that number down!

Photo courtesy of The Consumerist

Source: GADING.COM 
Galley Gossip: Flight attendants trained to spot human traffickers at the Super Bowl | Gadling.com

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Southwest Airlines Does Ziltch to Stop Human Trafficking, Says Issue Is Closed | Women's Rights | Change.org

by Alex DiBranco December 09, 2010 01:08 PM (PT) Topics: Violence Against Women, Women in the Workforce

Growing up, my least favorite phrase to hear was "the subject is closed." It usually meant that my parents weren't agreeing to something my young heart felt to be absolutely vital, like a pony. In retrospect, some of these denials might have been valid. But Southwest Airlines treating anti-human trafficking advocates like a bunch of children? Unacceptable.

Over 800 Change.org members have asked that major airlines include training for flight crew on how to spot human trafficking. When transporting people into a life of slavery — many of them girls and women victims of sex trafficking, a.k.a. transportation for repeated rape — traffickers often opt for the speed and convenience of air travel. But if flight attendants know the typical tale-tell signs of trafficking and how to react, they can make sure that pimps never get their human trade off the ground.

Southwest Airlines' response? "I’m writing now to respectfully request your help in discouraging any further emails from the petitioners who support this particular cause on change.org." Would "this particular cause" be ending human trafficking, enslavement of children, repeated rape-for-pay of girls and women, etc.? "Our CEO, Gary Kelly, is still receiving several each day.  Given that we’ve engaged in communication on the subject" -- they said no to training to stop trafficking -- "and are firm in our position, we do consider this particular issue closed." That's right, dig into your bag of patronizing put-downs and tell hundreds of people concerned about trafficking that you've decided out-of-hand that the subject is closed.

As Angela Longerbeam writes on End Human Trafficking, "now they've not only made it clear that the issue of human trafficking is unimportant to their company, it's so unimportant that inbox clutter is a far more pressing issue than their customers' requests for a slavery-free flight." Perhaps Change.org members should let them know that whether or not they think the subject is "closed," slavery will continue to thrive with the aid of their negligence, and we're not going to just sit back while they abdicate responsibility and whine about hearing criticism.

The flight crew training program hundreds are advocating for actually comes from a woman who was herself a flight attendant for 30 years. Nancy Rivard's time as an American Airlines flight attendant inspired her to found Airline Ambassadors International (AAI), which in conjunction with the non-profit Innocents at Risk works to help airlines fight trafficking. They've even gone to the trouble of putting together a handy-dandy training that could that could help flight attendants, like Rivard herself was, to save lives.

All Southwest and the other major airlines need to do to give crews the knowledge they need to thwart traffickers and save innocent men, women, and children is include this program with their regular flight attendant training. It's designed, by someone who know what it's like to be a flight attendant, to slide easily into the standard training. This isn't an arduous request, yet it can put a big dent in modern-day slavery. So why are Southwest and the other major airlines stubbornly unwilling to even discuss, much less taken action against, an issue magnitudes more important than my childhood desire for a pony? With the support of concerned, dedicated opponents of human trafficking, the issue will remain open until the airlines change their policies and implement anti-trafficking training.
Photo credit: Mike Fisher

Alex DiBranco is a Change.org Editor who has worked for the Nation, Political Research Associates, and the Center for American Progress. She is now based in New York City.

Source: change.org

Southwest Airlines Does Ziltch to Stop Human Trafficking, Says Issue Is Closed | Women's Rights | Change.org

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Flight Attendants Are First Line of Defense Against Human Trafficking | USA | English

Elizabeth Lee 05 April 2010

Flight attendants at a large U.S. airline are training other flight attendants to recognize signs of human trafficking on international and domestic flights. The flight attendant leading the program says it's possible to catch traffickers in the act, saving the lives of women and children trapped in the net.
For a moment in time, strangers from around the world come together as travelers.

It's also a moment when American Airlines flight attendant Sandra Fiorini can save a life. "We had an 18-year-old boy and he had a brand new day-old baby, umbilical cord everything was still there, day-old baby. He's going on a six hour flight, no wife. He has two diapers stuck in his pockets and one bottle," she describes.

Fiorini sees scenrios like that on a regular basis when she is on one of her international flights. She says after 39 years on the job, it's not difficult to recognize a suspected case of human trafficking. "Most of us are parents. When you see an instance that's not right and a red flag is raised, especially when there is children involved, you're more in tune with what's happening," she said.

Fiorini had tried to report suspicious activity to the police but they never responded. Two years ago, it all changed when Fiorini met Deborah Sigmund, founder of the organization Innocents At Risk.

"It's enslavement. We're talking about modern day slavery," Sigmund said.

Innocents At Risk provided Fiorini with brochures detailing the signs of human trafficking. There's also a phone number to report a suspected case.

"Before you couldn't call anyone," Fiorini said. "The local authorities would not respond to you. So now when you do call this hotline number, someone does respond."

Law enforcement will be waiting at the gate if a flight attendant reports something suspicious. Innocents At Risk created a video showing why it's important for law enforcement to respond. The organization says women, girls and even boys are being sold into sexual slavery.

"This is happening everywhere in the world, every country in the world," Sigmund said. "And it's happening here in the United States. Its a multi-billion dollar industry."

Meanwhile, Fiorini educates flight attendants around the world, using brochures and bracelets that contain the human trafficking hotline number. "I show my brochure, I tell them what I'm doing, and then I ask them to put the hotline number in the cell phone," she said. "Please pass the brochure onto another flight attendent."

Fiorini and Innocents At Risk have also been mobilizing lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

"We are working with Congress, with Human Rights Commission, and I think that something will come out of that and I'm very optimistic," Sigmund said.

The hope is that brochures like these will eventually end up in the seat back pockets of all flights so passengers will notify the flight attendants if they spot something suspicious.

Fiorini hopes once passengers know what to look for, they won't turn the other way.

Flight Attendants Are First Line of Defense Against Human Trafficking | USA | English

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