NJ Coalition Against Human Trafficking | Human Trafficking Awareness Day:
Showing posts with label New Jersey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Jersey. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
Saturday, June 21, 2014
Recruiting Lawyers to Help Trafficking Survivors | Kevin M. Ryan
Source Kevin M. Ryan
Huffington Post
With the passage of New Jersey's exemplary new law to fight human trafficking, state officials expect great growth in the need for lawyers to represent survivors. So Assistant Attorney General Tracy Thompson joined with the head of a survivors advocacy group to train more than two dozen attorneys recently. They were interested in serving as pro bono (free) lawyers to victims of sex or labor trafficking, and they were there to learn about what legal services they might need to provide.
Continue:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-m-ryan/survivors-of-trafficking_b_5494918.html
Related articles
Huffington Post
With the passage of New Jersey's exemplary new law to fight human trafficking, state officials expect great growth in the need for lawyers to represent survivors. So Assistant Attorney General Tracy Thompson joined with the head of a survivors advocacy group to train more than two dozen attorneys recently. They were interested in serving as pro bono (free) lawyers to victims of sex or labor trafficking, and they were there to learn about what legal services they might need to provide.
Continue:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-m-ryan/survivors-of-trafficking_b_5494918.html
Related articles
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Sex Trafficking A Big Concern Ahead Of Super Bowl In New Jersey
Source: Huffington Post New York
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — Law enforcement agents in New Jersey have redoubled efforts to fight what they worry could be one of the biggest menaces to come with next month's Super Bowl: sex trafficking.
Continue here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/06/sex-trafficking-super-bowl-new-jersey_n_4549064.html
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — Law enforcement agents in New Jersey have redoubled efforts to fight what they worry could be one of the biggest menaces to come with next month's Super Bowl: sex trafficking.
Continue here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/06/sex-trafficking-super-bowl-new-jersey_n_4549064.html
Monday, July 22, 2013
Human trafficking quietly destroying lives | StarNewsOnline.com
Source: StarNewsOnline
"When Tennessee Highway Patrol Officer Jonathan Scott pulled over a car for speeding last year on Interstate
40, he realized the four women inside were involved in something more nefarious than just driving too fast."
Continue with the article by
Brian Freskos
http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20130721/ARTICLES/130719558
Brian.Freskos@StarNewsOnline.com
"When Tennessee Highway Patrol Officer Jonathan Scott pulled over a car for speeding last year on Interstate
40, he realized the four women inside were involved in something more nefarious than just driving too fast."
Victims often feel stuck in what experts describe as an invisible cage
While advocates hail how all 50 states now expressly criminalize human trafficking, many point to the fact that few culprits have been charged under those laws as evidence that police need more training. Illustration by Photos.com
Continue with the article by
Brian Freskos
http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20130721/ARTICLES/130719558
Brian.Freskos@StarNewsOnline.com
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Human trafficking: Corporate America enlists in the global fight - CSMonitor.com
Travel companies, airlines, and other parts of corporate America are starting to provide training programs to help employees recognize human trafficking. Will heightened awareness help detect more trafficking cases?
An Airline Ambassadors International poster raises awareness on the issue of human trafficking, which enslaves up to 27 million adults and children worldwide.
Courtesy of Airline Ambassadors International
By David Karas, Contributor / July 13, 2011 WashingtonPatty McPeak had no inkling that her new training on how to spot human trafficking would be put to use so quickly.
Traveling from the Dominican Republic back to the United States after a humanitarian mission, Ms. McPeak was in the airport boarding area when a man and a little girl sitting nearby drew her attention. The man seemed to know little about his young companion, according to testimony McPeak submitted to Congress last July, and he became nervous as she struck up a conversation and asked questions.The girl, who was about 4, started to speak, but the man whisked her off to the restroom. When they returned, the child appeared unconscious. McPeak, suspecting she had been drugged, alerted flight personnel. Authorities later confirmed that the man had been apprehended for human trafficking.
That incident, from October 2009, was one of the first fruits of a nascent effort to train people in the private sector – especially employees of airlines and hotels – to detect human trafficking. The involvement of corporations and nonprofit groups, such as Airline Ambassadors International (AAI), is still at an early stage, but already it is proving to be a valuable addition to the government and law-enforcement fight against the modern-day version of an age-old scourge.
"The government can't do it all by any stretch of the imagination – there needs to be that effort to get more buy-in from corporate America," says Rep. Chris Smith (R) of New Jersey, who wrote the landmark antitrafficking law in the US, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. Public-private partnerships, he says, will be key to the next decade of action against the international slave trade of today.
Because trafficking victims are often moved from place to place, those in the travel industry are among the most likely to come into contact with them. That recognition led AAI, a group of workers from every aspect of the airline industry who provides humanitarian support for people in need worldwide, to enlist in 2009 in the fight against human trafficking. McPeak, who at that time was AAI's board chairman, received her training through the organization.
More corporations, too, are joining the battle.
Carlson, an international travel and hospitality company with 1,000 locations in 150 countries, has developed a training program for its employees and has established procedures to follow when a worker spots something suspicious, says vice president Deborah Cundy. The firm, she says, has created "a virtual army of eyes and ears."
Carlson was the first North American travel company to sign a "code of conduct" drafted in 1998 by the ECPAT (End Child Prostitution and Trafficking) International Network, a collaborative of nongovernmental organizations and individuals. The code challenges signers to provide training to employees and take a strong stance against trafficking.
Delta Airlines and Hilton Hotels recently became the fourth and fifth US-based signers, signaling an uptick in those joining the fight, says Ms. Cundy. "At some point, we do hope that it becomes normal business practice," she says.Employees trained to spot telltale signs of a trafficking victim are often advised to look for evidence of malnourishment, scripted or inconsistent stories, signs of physical abuse, and fear. Traffickers are often unable to answer even basic questions about those they are "escorting" and may prevent them from speaking to others.
AAI founder and president Nancy Rivard learned in June of another incident in which special training paid off. In that case, the trained individuals identified two children on a flight who appeared to be distraught and whose accounts of where they were going conflicted with what their escorts said. Authorities who subsequently investigated the incident uncovered a trafficking ring in Boston – and rescued 82 children.
"There are many, many stories every month," says Ms. Rivard. "Our goal is to provide training at airports across the country."
It was standing room only at AAI's largest training to date, held at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in January, she says. The program takes roughly 90 minutes, and participants receive wallet cards describing signs of traffickers and victims. The session is geared mainly toward heightening awareness.
Lack of awareness among Americans is one of the most challenging aspects of the fight against human trafficking, says Representative Smith, who chairs the House subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights. Organized crime, street gangs, and pimps are increasingly engaged in international sex trafficking, an "extremely lucrative undertaking" that can net a trafficker $200,000 per victim, he said June 13 at a subcommittee hearing.
Prosecutions in the US of alleged human traffickers jumped between 2009 and 2010, according to an annual State Department report, released June 27. Perhaps less heartening, the number of convictions dropped, along with the number of identified victims, it found. In the US, victims are often trafficked from other countries, though some are runaway juveniles or children abducted domestically, the report said.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton noted the importance of strategic partnerships in battling trafficking, which she said enslaves as many as 27 million adults and children worldwide.
"Government should work more closely with the private sector," she said. "The decade of delivery is upon us."
Corporate participation, especially in the travel industry, is vital, says Carol Smolenski, executive director of ECPAT USA. The child prostitution trade has touched many airlines, hotels, and other enterprises, she says. "It has happened at every brand, because it's everywhere."
Source: CSMonitor.com
Monday, December 13, 2010
Lawyer says N.J. human trafficking case involves culture norms not understood in America | NJ.com
Published: Wednesday, December 08, 2010, 1:30 PM Updated: Wednesday, December 08, 2010, 1:30 PM
The bedroom at 169 South Clinton Street where some of the victims, who were smuggled and forced to work in hair salons, lived. Both sides focused on the cultural nuances of the case; the defense arguing the woman was a benevolent mother figure who helped young girls escape a life of poverty; the prosecution accusing her of using the threat of African voodoo curses to keep the girls subjugated.
The case highlighted a legal strategy that experts say immigrants' defense lawyers are using increasingly in the U.S.: the argument that a defendant's actions reflect his cultural upbringing, rather than criminal intent.
"We derive meaning from action, and that meaning is very culturally laden," said Susan Bryant, a law professor at the City University of New York who provides cross-cultural training to lawyers and judges. "If you look out the window and you see someone with an umbrella, you may assume it's raining. In China, it could just as easily mean the sun is out."
Bryant said demand for cross-cultural training among legal professionals has steadily increased over the past decade.
Bukie Adetula represented the Togolese immigrant, Akouavi Kpade Afolabi, who was convicted of human trafficking and visa fraud charges at her 2009 federal trial in Newark. Prosecutors alleged Afolabi brought at least 20 girls between the ages of 10 and 19 from West African nations on fraudulent visas to New Jersey, effectively enslaving them and forcing them to work in African hair braiding salons for no pay.
Adetula argued that what prosecutors called clear-cut signs of modern slavery were considered protective measures in African culture: restricting telephone access, holding the girls' passports, and forbidding them from going out of the house unaccompanied.
"America is supposed to be a country made up of so many different cultures, so, yes, make the laws, and enforce the laws," Adetula said. "Do not make different sets of laws for different people, but look to the interpretations of acts, before you say: 'Oh, it's an offensive act, it's against the law, it amounts to human slavery."
Adetula, a Nigerian native who has been practicing law in New Jersey for more than two decades, is one of many lawyers — often immigrants themselves — who bridge the divide between their clients' cultural or religious backgrounds and the American legal system.
Raymond Wong, a lawyer in New York City's Chinatown neighborhood who has a large Asian immigrant client base, said his challenge is often twofold: explaining a client's cultural customs to Americans, while persuading foreign-born clients who prefer resolving disputes through negotiation to use the U.S. court system.
"There's a serious a lack of legal professionals in China, so all the problems are resolved by friends, relatives, people that you know," Wong said. "To them, going to court is a scary thing, getting arrested by cops is a scary thing, confrontation with authorities is a scary thing."
Defense attorney Tony Serra gained national prominence for his use of cultural defenses in two separate California cases in the 1990s where American Indians were accused of fatally shooting law enforcement officers. Serra's cultural defense tactics included using expert witnesses on American Indian culture to argue the alleged perpetrators were victims of longstanding anti-Indian racial prejudice, historical tragedies, and a deeply rooted fear of authorities. Serra's defense in the 1990 retrial of Patrick "Hooty" Croy, a Siskiyou County Indian accused of killing a Yreka, Calif., policeman, proved persuasive enough for a San Francisco jury to free Croy after 11 years on San Quentin's death row.
Prosecutors at the time derided the strategy — as critics of "culture defenses" do today — arguing that historical accounts are irrelevant to modern-day criminal cases, and a person's cultural background is no excuse for lawbreaking.
"We don't want to water down our rule of law," said Kent Scheidegger, the legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, who argues that cultural defenses, in most cases, shouldn't be considered mitigating factors.
"There are some cultures where fathers kill their daughters because they get involved with a man," Scheidegger said. "That would not be exonerating at all in my view — that's a crime and it should be punished as a crime — and punished the same as anyone else who commits that crime."
Lawyers like Adetula emphasize that factoring in someone's cultural upbringing can help juries and judges determine the degree of an offense or the severity of punishment; they say it is not meant to excuse criminal acts.
"There are aspects of American culture that may not be acceptable in other parts of the world also, and we hear stories of Americans hiking in other countries and they get arrested, or taking pictures at places where it's offensive in other countries, and getting arrested," Adetula said. "It's not a one-sided thing."
Source: nj.com
Lawyer says N.J. human trafficking case involves culture norms not understood in America | NJ.com
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Focus on Slavery in Rockville Forum - Rockville, MD Patch
Forehand pledges to push anti-trafficking legislation
View full sizeSen. Jennie M. Forehand (D-Dist. 17) of Rockville, shown here in a file photo from Primary Election Night in September, said she plans to introduce legislation in the General Assembly to allow the seizure of assets from human traffickers. Credit Sean Sedam
Sen. Jennie M. Forehand said last week that she plans to ratchet up pressure against the modern day slave trade by introducing legislation to allow law enforcement to seize assets of human traffickers just as they do with drug traffickers.
Debbie Dwyer, a federal prosecutor and chairwoman of the City of Rockville's Human Rights Commission, said she supports Forehand's proposal.
"I am pleased to see local emphasis being placed on traffickers," Dwyer said. "It is very important for people who have eyes in the community to know that we can help federal authorities fight this."
The Human Rights Commission helped to put a local spotlight on the issues of human rights and the slave trade, sponsoring a forum on Thursday at VisArts at Rockville Town Square.
The forum was held in conjunction with the 62nd anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 and Human Rights Day 2010, which will be observed on Friday.
There may be as many as 27 million adults and children living in slavery worldwide, according to groups like
Free the Slaves, whose Lee McClure presented during the forum.
Many slaves are used in the sex trade. Others work as cheap or even unpaid labor, toiling as domestic workers in the homes of the wealthy in the United States and in other industrialized nations or as field hands and factory workers in poor and developing countries.
Forehand (D-Dist. 17) of Rockville has been active in slavery issues since 2004.
She was the lead sponsor of the 2007 legislation that defined human trafficking in Maryland and made it a crime. Earlier this year, she successfully sponsored a bill that increases misdemeanor penalties for trafficking to felonies and allows the state to go after peripheral players, such as van drivers who deliver victims.
While groups like the nonprofit Free the Slaves estimate that there are some 27 million slaves worldwide, the U.S. State Department uses a lower estimate of 12.3 million people, with at least 56 percent of them female.
The problem is that there is no way to document the number accurately as it is such a hidden crime, said McClure, Free the Slaves' outreach and research coordinator. The Congressional Research Service estimates that as many as 17,500 people are trafficked in the United States annually.
Free the Slaves partners with similar organizations in several overseas countries, working with indigenous peoples who understand the language and the culture. Their goal is to make local economies stronger so that slavery is no longer attractive.
They are also working with international companies to create awareness of the human supply chain and to build local businesses that don't use slave labor.
Stephanie Gonzalez, a case manager with Ayuda, a nonprofit that works to protect the rights of immigrants in the Washington, DC area said 89 percent of her caseload involves labor trafficking.
Most slaves are nannies or domestic servants for international organizations, diplomats, or government officials, often held in virtual bondage, where they are forced to work extremely long hours under often brutal conditions for little or no pay.
Gonzalez stressed the importance of community awareness of the problem. The signs to look for are:
The center's hotline is 1-888-3737-888.
Community awareness can help impact global changes, she said.
Debbie Dwyer, a federal prosecutor and chairwoman of the City of Rockville's Human Rights Commission, said she supports Forehand's proposal.
"I am pleased to see local emphasis being placed on traffickers," Dwyer said. "It is very important for people who have eyes in the community to know that we can help federal authorities fight this."
The Human Rights Commission helped to put a local spotlight on the issues of human rights and the slave trade, sponsoring a forum on Thursday at VisArts at Rockville Town Square.
The forum was held in conjunction with the 62nd anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 and Human Rights Day 2010, which will be observed on Friday.
There may be as many as 27 million adults and children living in slavery worldwide, according to groups like
Free the Slaves, whose Lee McClure presented during the forum.
Many slaves are used in the sex trade. Others work as cheap or even unpaid labor, toiling as domestic workers in the homes of the wealthy in the United States and in other industrialized nations or as field hands and factory workers in poor and developing countries.
Forehand (D-Dist. 17) of Rockville has been active in slavery issues since 2004.
She was the lead sponsor of the 2007 legislation that defined human trafficking in Maryland and made it a crime. Earlier this year, she successfully sponsored a bill that increases misdemeanor penalties for trafficking to felonies and allows the state to go after peripheral players, such as van drivers who deliver victims.
While groups like the nonprofit Free the Slaves estimate that there are some 27 million slaves worldwide, the U.S. State Department uses a lower estimate of 12.3 million people, with at least 56 percent of them female.
The problem is that there is no way to document the number accurately as it is such a hidden crime, said McClure, Free the Slaves' outreach and research coordinator. The Congressional Research Service estimates that as many as 17,500 people are trafficked in the United States annually.
Free the Slaves partners with similar organizations in several overseas countries, working with indigenous peoples who understand the language and the culture. Their goal is to make local economies stronger so that slavery is no longer attractive.
They are also working with international companies to create awareness of the human supply chain and to build local businesses that don't use slave labor.
Stephanie Gonzalez, a case manager with Ayuda, a nonprofit that works to protect the rights of immigrants in the Washington, DC area said 89 percent of her caseload involves labor trafficking.
Most slaves are nannies or domestic servants for international organizations, diplomats, or government officials, often held in virtual bondage, where they are forced to work extremely long hours under often brutal conditions for little or no pay.
Gonzalez stressed the importance of community awareness of the problem. The signs to look for are:
- A person has no control of their passport or other official documentation.
- They have no control of money.
- They are unable to leave a job.
- They are in debt to their employer.
- They are they allowed to go anywhere alone.
- They are unable to talk to anyone outside of work.
The center's hotline is 1-888-3737-888.
Community awareness can help impact global changes, she said.
Source: Rockville Patch
Focus on Slavery in Rockville Forum - Rockville, MD Patch
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Held as slaves, now free - CNN.com
December 3, 2010 3:43 p.m. EST
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Zena and Nicole were sent from West Africa to the U.S. with promise of an education
- They and others ended up working as slaves in hair braiding salons in New Jersey
- They spoke out for the first time about their ordeal to CNN
- "American Slaves: Hiding in Plain Sight" airs tonight on AC360° at 10 ET on CNN
Nicole's journey started in 2002, when she was barely 12, in her small village in western Ghana. She and about 20 other girls were held in plain sight, but always under the watchful eyes of their captors.
"It was like being trapped, like being in a cage," said "Nicole," now 19. CNN agreed not to use her real name.
"I always have to behave, behave, behave, behave. No freedom at all."
The girls' families sent them to the United States after being assured they would receive a better education.
But once they arrived, they were forced to work in hair braiding shops across the Newark area -- just a short drive from New York City, right in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty.
The girls, who are now young women, have never spoken publicly before, until now.
"It was horrible," said Zena Amevor, who was 15 when she was brought over from Togo. "Sometimes there was not enough food for us to eat. ... It was like a prison. I was just stuck there. ... It was horrible."
For the first time, the former slaves provided details about their horrifying odyssey and an intimate view into the world of human trafficking and contemporary slavery.
"Jacqueline" was 13 when her family sent her to the United States, not knowing that a woman she called "auntie" was a human trafficker. It was unclear if the woman was a blood relative.
"My dad ... worked hard so I could go to school, so when my auntie came and told my family that I could go to a school in the U.S. ... they trusted her," she said. "Everyone was happy about it."
The girls worked in the salons right out in the open, in front of customers. They were on their feet all day, sometimes for more than 12 hours, weaving intricate and elaborate hair braids, seven days a week.
This went on for more than five years.
"We stood there all day, just braiding," Jacqueline said. "If they want really small braids, you stay there sometimes until 2 a.m. ... That's every day."
At times, they were forced to braid the hair of American teenagers no older than they were -- girls who were free and had no idea the people braiding their hair were slaves.
"I wished I could go with them," Nicole said. "Most of the time, I'd end up just breaking down later crying ... because when I see teenagers going around, going to the movies and just being a teen ... I just couldn't understand why my life has to be this way ... "
In one of the many ironies in the case, the customers whose hair was braided by the slave girls were mostly African-American women, many of whom could have been descendants of slaves brought to America generations ago.
Slavery through trafficking continues widely today in the United States, though often undetected, according to law enforcement officials.
Nicole, Zena, Jacqueline and the other girls were held in groups in several houses around Newark and East Orange, New Jersey. The girls were brought to the United States at different times between 2002 and 2007, according to court documents. As the group grew, the traffickers ran out of places to put them and had to rent more living quarters.
The homes were always in the middle of residential areas with manicured lawns and nice houses, often near churches, schools and community buildings.
"I think it's hard for people to believe that in 2010, we have people who actually put people in slavery," said Paul Fishman, the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, whose office successfully prosecuted the case. "It's the most fundamental and intolerable violation of human rights."
When I [saw] teenagers going around, going to the movies and just being a teen ... I just couldn't understand why my life has to be this way ...
--"Nicole," human trafficking victim
--"Nicole," human trafficking victim
The traffickers convicted in this case were a mother, father and son who also came from West Africa, according to court documents and law enforcement officials.
Nicole, Zena and Jacqueline described living in fear shortly after they arrived in the United States, forced to work by day at the hair salons and sleeping in groups on the floor at night.
"When I got here ... I asked her if I was going to school, and she said there was no school," Jacqueline said, referring to her auntie, the trafficking ringleader.
"I said, 'I'm not going to school?' [and] she said, 'no' ... and that was her decision and she wasn't going to change it."
The captors controlled the girls by beating them, withholding food, keeping them separated from anyone else and, at times, through sexual abuse, according to court documents.
The young women who spoke to CNN described years of cruelty, physical abuse, beatings with wood or metal objects, extreme isolation and sleeping on mattresses on floors in filthy conditions. Even their phone calls back to their families were monitored by their captors.
"I always thought of running [away], but I know nobody," Zena said. "I don't know where to go, didn't have [any] friends, nobody to talk to, so it was kind of hard. ... I had nowhere to go to."
Five years after the girls began arriving, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents received a tip and began extensive surveillance on the houses where the girls were kept.
After months of surveillance, the ICE agents raided the houses in 2007. Inside, they found the girls and mattresses on the floor. The traffickers had hidden bags of cash and the girls' passports.
Peter Edge, who led the team of agents, said none of the girls' customers ever called officials to help.
"Hundreds of people came into these salons, they probably witnessed things out of the ordinary," said Edge, special agent in charge of ICE's Homeland Security Investigations in Newark.
"These girls were shielded from the outside world, virtually hidden in plain sight ... from everything else that was around them."
Edge and the girls said several customers asked about the girls' ages, and the girls -- following the orders of their captors -- lied and said they were 18.
"I wish one of my customers ... would have gone to police," Nicole said. "I wish they would have helped me."
In the 2007 raid, the ICE agents found a notebook the girls used to track the tips they received, but couldn't keep, at the hair salon. Ironically, on the cover of the notebook was a picture of the Statue of Liberty.
More than two years later, Akouavi Afolabi; her husband, Lassissi Afolabi; and their son, Dereck Hounakey, were convicted of running the trafficking ring. Akouavi Afolabi was the ringleader, while her husband and son were accomplices, according to court documents.
In September of this year, a Newark court sentenced Akouavi Afolabi to 27 years in prison, while her husband received 24 years and their son received 4½ years.
The girls had to testify against the Afolabis in court.
It's so profitable that we are seeing some drug traffickers get out of drug trafficking and into human trafficking.
--Bridgette Carr, law professor and trafficking expert
--Bridgette Carr, law professor and trafficking expert
Court records show the Afolabis knew many of the families whose girls they lured away to become their slaves. They had an elaborate scheme to lure the girls: Mrs. Afolabi would approach families of young girls in Ghana and Togo, where she had connections, and tell the families she would give the girls an education in the United States. They then used fraudulent visa papers to sneak the girls into the country.
Experts say the main reason for most modern-day human trafficking is money.
"Human trafficking is extremely profitable," said Bridgette Carr, a law professor and a national expert on human trafficking.
The customers at the hair braiding salon where Zena and Nicole were forced to work would sometimes pay as much as $200 to $400 for elaborate braiding that would take many hours to complete.
The traffickers took every penny made by the girls, both in tips and payments for their hair braiding. They made about $4 million, according to court documents.
"It's so profitable that we are seeing some drug traffickers get out of drug trafficking and into human trafficking," said Carr, who teaches law at the University of Michigan Law School in Ann Arbor.
Carr heads a clinic that is helping Nicole and many of the other girls move ahead with their lives.
"Sadly, the work of our clinic is necessary in every community in America," she said. "Human trafficking, also known as modern-day slavery, exists in big cities, in small towns, in rural areas with no towns, exists in restaurants, in hair salons, in hotels and in farmwork.
"Almost every industry you can think of, there is an opportunity there for someone to be exploited. This is everywhere in the U.S."
Today, Nicole, Zena, Jacqueline and the other girls are trying to move on with their lives. Several are in high school, and one has recently been accepted into college.
Most of the girls have not been able to return home to see their families in West Africa. When asked why she agreed to finally talk out about such a painful chapter of her life, Nicole said she wanted to raise awareness about what other young girls may be going through.
"I want to tell people that slavery exists," she said. "It's huge, and it's really happening here."
Held as slaves, now free - CNN.com
Friday, December 3, 2010
8 Ways To Fight Slavery This Hanukkah | End Human Trafficking | Change.org
December 02, 2010 11:00 AM (PT)
Hanukkah is a celebration of light and hope. Yet around the world, millions of people still live in the darkness and despair of human trafficking. This Hanukkah, you can shed light on the issue of human trafficking and bring hope to those who suffer in slavery around the world. And you don't even have to leave the house to do it.
Here are eight ideas for how you fight slavery from your living room or across your table over the course of your Hanukkah celebration:
1. Support Jewish Women International, a long-time advocate for fighting human trafficking, domestic violence, and other related crimes. You can take action to support their legislative initiatives here.
2. Free Sara Kruzan. Sara was a child trafficking victim who at the age of 16 was sentenced to life without parole for killing the man who raped and enslaved her since she was 13. She has petitioned Governor Schwarzenegger for clemency and is supported by tens of thousands of people, including faith leaders from several traditions.
3. Join the movement to buy better gifts. Check out the 2010 Change.org Holiday Gift Guide for gift ideas that benefit human trafficking survivors and other groups. Or, make this a Fair Trade Hanukkah with Fair Trade gelt that helps end child slavery in the cocoa industry.
4. Host a community event. Follow in the footsteps of an inspiring interfaith organization in New Jersey that hosted a community festival to inspire people to join the fight against human trafficking. Engage members of your synagogue in a discussion about how you as a community can address this issue.
5. Volunteer at an anti-trafficking organization near you. This time of year, many organizations need extra help to manage donations or assist survivors with special needs. Check out this list as a good starting point for groups to work with.
6. Push for better legislation. Congress is on the verge of passing the Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act, which would provide critical services for child trafficking victims in the U.S. Take a minute and sign the petition to pass it.
7. Make your meals local. You can avoid supporting slavery and exploitation in the U.S. agricultural industry by making your Hanukkah meals from as many local ingredients as possible. Want to do more? Ask grocery giant Kroger to commit to fair food.
8. Support the American Jewish World Service's efforts in Haiti, where child trafficking is rampant. And then check out the hilarious video below.
There are dozens of ways you can light the way for human trafficking victims this Hanukkah, and these are just eight suggestions. Together, we have the power to use holidays to end human trafficking and to give all people living in and at risk for modern-day slavery a brighter future.
Photo credit: juliejigsaw
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
Source: End Hyman Trafficking
Monday, November 29, 2010
Interfaith Group Tackles Trafficking in New Jersey | End Human Trafficking | Change.org
November 28, 2010 03:30 AM (PT)
Two Methodists, a Hindu, a Catholic, and an Episcopalian walk into a bar ... In Ridgewood, New Jersey, that's not the beginning of a bad joke. Instead, it's the beginning of a local movement to end human trafficking and a number of related global problems. And it's what happens when five women have the audacity to plan an epic event to engage their community in fighting human trafficking.
The event was the brainchild of Susanne Ziskis and four other women who make up Evening Dialogue, an inter-faith spiritual growth and discipline group. While the diverse group usually focuses on sharing their faith traditions and embracing common values like gratitude and forgiveness, they took a brief departure from their normal agenda at Ziskis's suggestion by reading Nicholas Kristof's human trafficking book Half the Sky. After delving into and discussing the stories in the book, the group felt simultaneously overwhelmed by tragedy and determined to respond.
So they began to plan the event that eventually blossomed into Ridgewood Cares: A Festival of Opportunities. They networked around their community, calling both local and international organizations, and even printing ads for the event on paper place mats at the town's most popular restaurant. They picked a day in November to host what would be a trade show for nonprofits, complete with a film festival, interactive dance performances, and a Fair Trade cafe.
According to Ziskis, the women knew that Ridgewood Cares was a success before the event was even held. And it's true the enthusiasm for fighting human trafficking in the town was infectious leading up to the big day. For example, a photographer from the local paper covering the event planning process learned Polaris Project's greatest need was clean underwear for women rescued from sex trafficking. She showed up at the festival with two giant Rubbermaid tubs of underwear she'd collected for the organization. The preparation also re-invigorated another local anti-trafficking group that had gone dormant in the previous year.
But that didn't give the ladies of Evening Dialogue an excuse to slack off. Ridgewood Cares ultimately inspired 63 organizations, 150 participants, and around 400 attendees spend a beautiful fall day fighting human trafficking and related issues. The mantra of the day was to celebrate efforts to fight trafficking and connect people and organizations in a dynamic, meaningful way. Attendees had the opportunity to meet representatives from organizations and hear speakers, donate to projects and programs, volunteer with local organizations, and share their passion with like-minded people. As one participant said early in the morning, "This day hasn't even begun and it's already a success. Just to be here, to see all these people, and to be able to interact with them ... is incredible."
Evening Dialogue started with a small idea — to do something concrete to address the human trafficking they read about — and it grew to be pretty big. Now, two other counties in New Jersey have approached Zizkis and asked how they can duplicate Ridgewood Cares in their area. And they've received a number of requests to make the Ridgewood event an annual one. If you're interested in learning more about Ridgewood Cares or planning a similar event in your area, check out their Facebook page.
Ridgewood Cares was successful on a number of levels, but it's greatest accomplishment might be the simple fact that one day in November, five women of different faiths made a mutual commitment to changing the world that reverberated through their community. As an added bonus, two other women — a Buddhist and a Unitarian — became interested in Evening Dialogue and are now considering joining. The women are looking forward to the group's growth and continued diversity. But first, they're refocusing on their next spiritual discipline ... Sabbath rest.
GOT A TIP FOR US? Is there a story or campaign in your area that we'd want to know about? E-mail us at humantraffickingtips@change.org
Photo credit: Ridgewood Cares (with permission)
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
Interfaith Group Tackles Trafficking in New Jersey | End Human Trafficking | Change.org
Sunday, October 3, 2010
New Jersey is crossroads in sordid work of human trafficking... | crime courts, crime courts news, international, arts entertainment, other international news, immigration, other immigration news, national crime, state, other state news from NorthJersey.com
The Record
WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT
The leader of a ring that lured women and girls from Togo to work for no pay braiding hair in Newark and East Orange will spend 27 years in prison.
A Jersey City pimp got 18 years for using drugs and violence to control sex slaves in brothels and on the street.
A "promoter" is serving five years for using threats to their families back home to get Russian women to dance nude for up to 10 hours a day in strip clubs, and pay him $1,200 a week to do it.
A Union City bodega owner is serving four years for sending as much as $1 million earned by smuggled prostitutes back to Mexico.
Those sentences and many more are the result of a crackdown by authorities, empowered by a 10-year-old federal law, on the traffic in human beings for unpaid labor and sex that is taking place daily in New Jersey.
"This is a very high priority for the Department of Justice generally and for us in particular," said U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman.
North Jersey is a crossroads for most of the types of human-trafficking networks that are active in the United States, experts say. The region’s transportation network, the presence of organized crime and corruption, and pockets of deep poverty, high wealth and diverse immigrant communities all make the region prime territory for traffickers.
"It is quite prevalent," said Asha Vaghela, a deputy state attorney general in Trenton who leads the state’s anti-trafficking task force. "The positioning of the tri-state airports in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia make it a place that’s really ripe for cultivating victims of trafficking."
A non-profit group that runs a national trafficking hot line added a Newark office to its other two, in Tokyo and Washington, D.C., after seeing several cases of women being routed from New Jersey "up and down the East Coast" to work at sex parties and strip clubs.
"Once we understood the landscape of different trafficking networks, we realized the New York/ New Jersey metropolitan area was a central hub," said Bradley Myles, executive director of Polaris Project.
The maximum penalty under federal law for trafficking is life in prison, and the definition of the crime is broader than many people may think. To begin with, someone does not have to be transported to be "trafficked."
Under the law, anyone who sells a minor for sex is a trafficker. So is anyone who uses force, fraud, deception or coercion to get an adult to prostitute herself or perform labor.
"Citizens and legal residents can be trafficked," said Vaghela. "It turns on being forced into an action through physical force or threats or other forms of coercion, including document withholding and lack of wages."
Customers share blame
Sex trafficking relies on customers who do not care if the person gyrating on stage or answering an online personal ad is coerced. Indeed, one crusader on the issue said the sex trade would not be able to operate without trafficking victims.
"You can almost take that to the bank," said Rep. Chris Smith, R-Mercer, sponsor of a landmark anti-trafficking law in 2000 and several subsequent updates. "Based on the evidence, it is true, there are women who are commingled with women who might say they’re doing it on their own. And that’s everywhere. I hate it. It’s a commoditization, like a supply issue."
Myles said the "staggering demand" from men for commercial sex far outweighs the number of women willingly working in the sex trade.
"That demand drives a need for more trafficked women," he said.
In New Jersey, the effort against sex trafficking has led to arrests of many pimps in urban areas, and two cases are scheduled for sentencing next month.
Kasiem Brown, 36, of Newark pleaded guilty in June to trafficking a minor and selling guns as part of a prostitution business that operated in Elizabeth, Irvington, Newark and Atlantic City. He would bring girls to strip clubs, sex parties in private homes, and various "tracks," or locations known for prostitution activity.
He faces up to 20 years in the federal prison system, which has no parole.
Javon Gordon, 28, of Atlantic City, who is also known as "Teflon," pleaded guilty in August to transporting two minors across state lines for prostitution. He admitted that three minors he recruited solicited sex on the street, in casinos and on the Internet.
He faces a maximum life sentence.
Big events a draw
Vaghela said authorities have found there’s an increase in trafficking whenever there are events that draw a large number of men, such as a major sporting event.
"We do know when there are events in Atlantic City, victims are brought in from other states," she said.
Myles said there are four different types of sex trafficking rings operating on the East Coast, and they all have a presence in North Jersey. Asian and Latino rings cater exclusively to those ethnic groups in communities where there is a large enough population. And a broader clientele is served by domestic pimps offering American women, and by Eastern European rings, often allied with organized crime, offering victims duped into coming to the United States by promise of a better life.
A major indictment against a Gambino crime family crew in April included a trafficking count for shipping underage girls across state lines for prostitution.
Rasheed Davis, the purported pimp in the recent case involving Lawrence Taylor, is facing federal charges of sex trafficking of a 16-year-old girl; the former Giants linebacker was charged with rape and hiring an underage prostitute, among other offenses.
Labor trafficking takes many forms in the region, including the hair-braiding case in Newark and East Orange and wealthy families using unpaid immigrant maids or nannies, Myles said. Vaghela said that nationwide, there have been cases of Asian immigrants brought into the country and forced to work in Chinese restaurants.
Both said farm labor is rife with trafficking victims, especially on farms where growers contract with one person to supervise pickers and don't ask questions about the workers.
Celebrities step in
Under the latest version of the federal anti-trafficking law, a business owner who looks the other way while someone else hires trafficking victims to work for him, such as a strip club owner who hires dancers through "talent agents," can be criminally liable.
Celebrities such as Demi Moore, Susan Sarandon and Julia Ormand have tried to use their fame to raise awareness and money for the fight against trafficking, both in media appearances and testimony at hearings on Capitol Hill.
Authorities said that while it may look as though victims could easily run away, the traffickers have many ways to exert control, including warning the victims that police will be more brutal or will send them back to their native country.
"With younger victims, there are trauma issues, and a huge embarrassment factor," Fishman said.
Smith said the law he sponsored in 2000 provides for special immigration visas.
"A woman or anyone who is trafficked, they can get asylum here," Smith said. "And we also protect their families, because where the traffickers can exert incredible influence on the woman in the brothels is by saying, ‘I know where your little sister is in Russia.’ "
A joint effort
The latest front in Congress against sex trafficking has brought Smith and other religious conservatives in Congress together with some liberal Democrats.
The Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act of 2010 (HR-5575) would provide federal money for shelters and also urge states to change the way criminal laws treat child prostitutes.
"According to the FBI, too many people believe that child prostitution is a victimless crime and the children involved are willing participants. That kind of thinking is wrong. These children are victims," said Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, at a House subcommittee hearing last month.
A former teenage prostitute now running a shelter for victims provided a firsthand example.
"I was 13 years old when I fell in love for the first time – he turned out to be a pimp. I was gang-raped, psychologically manipulated, sold for sex and beaten," said Tina Frundt, founder and director of Courtney’s House.
She said arrest and a year in detention spared her "the daily rapes and beatings," but she was branded a delinquent and had no "counseling or treatment for the trauma."
It’s an uphill climb to change public perception, but Smith relishes the fight. He boasts of the time he was pushing an anti-trafficking resolution in 1999 as chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe and hard-line Russian nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky angrily confronted him.
"He said, ‘You hate Russians.’ I said, ‘No.’ I looked him in the eye and said, ‘Why do you want Russian women being raped in New York City?’ And that stopped him," Smith said.
E-mail: jackson@northjersey.com. Blog: northjersey.com/herbjackson
The leader of a ring that lured women and girls from Togo to work for no pay braiding hair in Newark and East Orange will spend 27 years in prison.
MICHAEL KARAS/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
A Jersey City pimp got 18 years for using drugs and violence to control sex slaves in brothels and on the street.
A "promoter" is serving five years for using threats to their families back home to get Russian women to dance nude for up to 10 hours a day in strip clubs, and pay him $1,200 a week to do it.
A Union City bodega owner is serving four years for sending as much as $1 million earned by smuggled prostitutes back to Mexico.
Those sentences and many more are the result of a crackdown by authorities, empowered by a 10-year-old federal law, on the traffic in human beings for unpaid labor and sex that is taking place daily in New Jersey.
By the numbers
* 1 million children each year estimated trafficked for labor and sex globally — UNICEF
* 571 convictions in domestic sex trafficking cases since June 2003 — FBI Innocence Lost project
* 247 T-visas issued in 2008 for victims of human trafficking — State Department
* 77 federal convictions in 27 sex and 13 labor trafficking cases in 2008 — Justice Department
* 9.3 years was average prison sentence in 2008 cases — Justice Department
More information
To report tips, seek help or request information, including training in how to spot victims:
* State hot line: 877-986-7534
* National hot line: 888-373-7888
U. ROBERTO ROMANO/FREE THE SLAVES
Tina Frundt, a onetime victim of sex trafficking, preparing her team for outreach work.
"This is a very high priority for the Department of Justice generally and for us in particular," said U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman.
North Jersey is a crossroads for most of the types of human-trafficking networks that are active in the United States, experts say. The region’s transportation network, the presence of organized crime and corruption, and pockets of deep poverty, high wealth and diverse immigrant communities all make the region prime territory for traffickers.
"It is quite prevalent," said Asha Vaghela, a deputy state attorney general in Trenton who leads the state’s anti-trafficking task force. "The positioning of the tri-state airports in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia make it a place that’s really ripe for cultivating victims of trafficking."
A non-profit group that runs a national trafficking hot line added a Newark office to its other two, in Tokyo and Washington, D.C., after seeing several cases of women being routed from New Jersey "up and down the East Coast" to work at sex parties and strip clubs.
"Once we understood the landscape of different trafficking networks, we realized the New York/ New Jersey metropolitan area was a central hub," said Bradley Myles, executive director of Polaris Project.
The maximum penalty under federal law for trafficking is life in prison, and the definition of the crime is broader than many people may think. To begin with, someone does not have to be transported to be "trafficked."
Under the law, anyone who sells a minor for sex is a trafficker. So is anyone who uses force, fraud, deception or coercion to get an adult to prostitute herself or perform labor.
"Citizens and legal residents can be trafficked," said Vaghela. "It turns on being forced into an action through physical force or threats or other forms of coercion, including document withholding and lack of wages."
Customers share blame
Sex trafficking relies on customers who do not care if the person gyrating on stage or answering an online personal ad is coerced. Indeed, one crusader on the issue said the sex trade would not be able to operate without trafficking victims.
"You can almost take that to the bank," said Rep. Chris Smith, R-Mercer, sponsor of a landmark anti-trafficking law in 2000 and several subsequent updates. "Based on the evidence, it is true, there are women who are commingled with women who might say they’re doing it on their own. And that’s everywhere. I hate it. It’s a commoditization, like a supply issue."
Myles said the "staggering demand" from men for commercial sex far outweighs the number of women willingly working in the sex trade.
"That demand drives a need for more trafficked women," he said.
In New Jersey, the effort against sex trafficking has led to arrests of many pimps in urban areas, and two cases are scheduled for sentencing next month.
Kasiem Brown, 36, of Newark pleaded guilty in June to trafficking a minor and selling guns as part of a prostitution business that operated in Elizabeth, Irvington, Newark and Atlantic City. He would bring girls to strip clubs, sex parties in private homes, and various "tracks," or locations known for prostitution activity.
He faces up to 20 years in the federal prison system, which has no parole.
Javon Gordon, 28, of Atlantic City, who is also known as "Teflon," pleaded guilty in August to transporting two minors across state lines for prostitution. He admitted that three minors he recruited solicited sex on the street, in casinos and on the Internet.
He faces a maximum life sentence.
Big events a draw
Vaghela said authorities have found there’s an increase in trafficking whenever there are events that draw a large number of men, such as a major sporting event.
"We do know when there are events in Atlantic City, victims are brought in from other states," she said.
Myles said there are four different types of sex trafficking rings operating on the East Coast, and they all have a presence in North Jersey. Asian and Latino rings cater exclusively to those ethnic groups in communities where there is a large enough population. And a broader clientele is served by domestic pimps offering American women, and by Eastern European rings, often allied with organized crime, offering victims duped into coming to the United States by promise of a better life.
A major indictment against a Gambino crime family crew in April included a trafficking count for shipping underage girls across state lines for prostitution.
Rasheed Davis, the purported pimp in the recent case involving Lawrence Taylor, is facing federal charges of sex trafficking of a 16-year-old girl; the former Giants linebacker was charged with rape and hiring an underage prostitute, among other offenses.
Labor trafficking takes many forms in the region, including the hair-braiding case in Newark and East Orange and wealthy families using unpaid immigrant maids or nannies, Myles said. Vaghela said that nationwide, there have been cases of Asian immigrants brought into the country and forced to work in Chinese restaurants.
Both said farm labor is rife with trafficking victims, especially on farms where growers contract with one person to supervise pickers and don't ask questions about the workers.
Celebrities step in
Under the latest version of the federal anti-trafficking law, a business owner who looks the other way while someone else hires trafficking victims to work for him, such as a strip club owner who hires dancers through "talent agents," can be criminally liable.
Celebrities such as Demi Moore, Susan Sarandon and Julia Ormand have tried to use their fame to raise awareness and money for the fight against trafficking, both in media appearances and testimony at hearings on Capitol Hill.
Authorities said that while it may look as though victims could easily run away, the traffickers have many ways to exert control, including warning the victims that police will be more brutal or will send them back to their native country.
"With younger victims, there are trauma issues, and a huge embarrassment factor," Fishman said.
Smith said the law he sponsored in 2000 provides for special immigration visas.
"A woman or anyone who is trafficked, they can get asylum here," Smith said. "And we also protect their families, because where the traffickers can exert incredible influence on the woman in the brothels is by saying, ‘I know where your little sister is in Russia.’ "
A joint effort
The latest front in Congress against sex trafficking has brought Smith and other religious conservatives in Congress together with some liberal Democrats.
The Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act of 2010 (HR-5575) would provide federal money for shelters and also urge states to change the way criminal laws treat child prostitutes.
"According to the FBI, too many people believe that child prostitution is a victimless crime and the children involved are willing participants. That kind of thinking is wrong. These children are victims," said Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, at a House subcommittee hearing last month.
A former teenage prostitute now running a shelter for victims provided a firsthand example.
"I was 13 years old when I fell in love for the first time – he turned out to be a pimp. I was gang-raped, psychologically manipulated, sold for sex and beaten," said Tina Frundt, founder and director of Courtney’s House.
She said arrest and a year in detention spared her "the daily rapes and beatings," but she was branded a delinquent and had no "counseling or treatment for the trauma."
It’s an uphill climb to change public perception, but Smith relishes the fight. He boasts of the time he was pushing an anti-trafficking resolution in 1999 as chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe and hard-line Russian nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky angrily confronted him.
"He said, ‘You hate Russians.’ I said, ‘No.’ I looked him in the eye and said, ‘Why do you want Russian women being raped in New York City?’ And that stopped him," Smith said.
E-mail: jackson@northjersey.com. Blog: northjersey.com/herbjackson
New Jersey is crossroads in sordid work of human trafficking... | crime courts, crime courts news, international, arts entertainment, other international news, immigration, other immigration news, national crime, state, other state news from NorthJersey.comSource: North Jersey.com
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