Trafficking Monitor is a blog I created and curate. It offers posts highlighting the multifaceted nature of human trafficking and forced/indentured labour. I draw on a diversity of sources for my posts. You are invited to recommend materials for posting.
WASHINGTON - When you hear the term sex trafficking, it typically brings to mind images of young girls in Asia, or some other faraway place. But it happens right here in our area as well.
VIDEO
A 19-year-old woman we'll call Alana is trying to string her life back together.
"I was in the honors program," she said, "3.5 (GPA) and above."
But it all fell apart. Alana, from a very broken family, met her first pimp in Illinois.
"He told me, 'I could really appreciate you," she recalled, "and I felt like this was the way for me to escape."
When that went sour, she found a new pimp on Craigslist. He was in College Park.
"Like, he cared about me," Alana said. "I'm like, 'Oh, he bought me something to eat and he got me somewhere safe. He sent me money.'"
The pimp paid for her bus ticket to D.C. and she started working for him out of hotels in Anne Arundel County, meeting customers through Craigslist.
"Guys were coming to the room and I was working for him," Alana said, who said the johns paid $100 to $150 for 30 minutes and $200 for a whole hour.
It could be dangerous, like one john who threatened her.
"I said, 'I really want you to leave,'" Alana recalled. "He snatched the phone back, and told me he had guns and knives in his backpack."
Alana says she could not see a way out "because (she) was all the way out here, with no family, no money."
Experts say traffickers use that financial and psychological dependence to control the girls -- along with drugs and alcohol.
"And next thing they know, it's like brick after brick and suddenly they're stuck behind this wall of exploitation," said Andrea Powell, the director of Fair Fund, a non-profit group that works with girls like Alana.
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On the Web
» Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force
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Powell says D.C. found 35 teen victims of commercial sexual exploitation last year, which is just the tip of the iceberg.
"Most of the young people we've gotten to know, this isn't something they just up and decided to do," said U.S. Attorney for Maryland Rod Rosenstein. "It's an absolute act of desperation."
Rosenstein says the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force was formed to combat the problem.
Accused traffickers are prosecuted under federal laws, which are tougher than state laws. And law enforcement says it's important to recognize young girls as victims, instead of criminals.
"We don't want to take these 14-, 15-, 16-year-old girls and lock them up in jail," Rosenstein said. "It's not going to create the relationship that we want to develop with them so they'll work with us in prosecuting perpetrators of the trafficking violations."
Alana eventually broke free from prostitution. She has a job now and is considering going back to school.
But she wants the world to know: "If you see girls outside late at night and you're wondering why are they outside and why are they dressed like that, sometimes it's not they're own choice, it's not their own fault," she said.
And to others like herself, she says: "Girls looking for love -- guys are not the way to find love," Alana said. "Love yourself before somebody else can love you."
There's a move to outlaw both sex and labor trafficking in the District. Council member Phil Mendelson has introduced a law that would prosecute both traffickers and people who buy sex. It would also provide victim assistance. The D.C. Council is expected to take up the bill in February.
The International Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons states: Human trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons by the threat or use of kidnapping, force, fraud, deception or coercion, or by the giving or receiving of unlawful payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, and for the purpose of sexual exploitation or forced labor.
The Dayton Human Trafficking Accords
WHEREAS,
WE can end human trafficking and slavery, but only if we solemnly commit ourselves to that common purpose.
We must confront the global scourge of trafficking and slavery beginning in our own local communities.
We as individuals and all institutions of society have a moral responsibility to end trafficking and free slaves from their captivity.
NOW THEREFORE,
WE undertake a solemn commitment, beginning now, to end the scourge of trafficking and slavery
And to take immediate action in our communities to
Stir society’s conscience to action against trafficking and slavery
Rescue and restore victims of trafficking and slavery
Identify and punish traffickers and slavers
Promote legislation and public policies to eradicate trafficking and slavery
Address the social, cultural and economic causes of trafficking and slavery
Guilt is a poor motivator for fighting slavery and sex trafficking. What my sister calls 'active hope' is much better.
Davita Maharaj, guest blogger
Last week President Obama launched a nationwide human trafficking awareness campaign, proclaiming this month National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month.
Leading up to this month, my sister, Marissa, and I began e-mailing back and forth about the injustice of slavery and human trafficking. “I can’t help feel guilty — guilty of ignorance, lack of action, or the privilege and freedom into which we were born,” she wrote.
I understood her sentiments. The summer after my sophomore year of college, I was volunteering at a school for slum children in Bangalore, India.
Shortly after my arrival, I discovered that I was living next door to a brothel.
My housemate and I decided to invite some of the girls over for dinner, hoping to hear their stories, but our invitation was turned down. We soon learned that the girls were not allowed to leave the premises for more than five minutes. Any errands lasting longer could result in a severe beating, or worse.
It seemed that all I could do was report the brothel to uninterested authorities.
Like Marissa, I felt guilty and defeated in the face of injustice.
Reportssuggest that globally, there are more people living as slaves today than at any other time in history.
Unlike willful prostitution, modern-day slavery means having no control over your body. Your life is at someone else’s command. You cannot control where you are taken or how many men will rape you per day. You cannot control whether or not you get free time, food or sleep, and whether you get to live or die. And there’s often no escape.
India, the world’s largest democracy, has the largest number of bonded slaves. At least 100 million people are involved in human trafficking in India, according to Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta (May 2009).
That’s roughly a third of the population of the United States.
But India is not the only place where human trafficking is a problem. Modern-day slavery is a multi-billion dollar enterprise, and the underground slave trade has flourished in one of the richest nations of the world: the United States.
Annually, between 14,500 and 17,500 slaves are trafficked into the U.S. alone, according to the Department of Justice. “These numbers do not reflect the estimated 100,000 minors that are trafficked within U.S. borders into prostitution, or the uncounted individuals that never receive services or law enforcement intervention,” the Dalit Freedom Network reports.
Who answers for these minors? Who answers for the 1.2 million (approximately 40 percent) of India’s prostitutes who are children? Each of them is fearfully and wonderfully made and was knit together in his or her mother’s womb.
“While guilt is a strong motivator, hope is more powerful. Active hope sets justice and love in motion because it contains a vision for something greater than the present,” my sister Marissa wrote.
Active hope. One way that I fight human trafficking today is by sponsoring a girl in India through World Vision. By helping to provide Megana with an education, I’m ensuring that there’s one less girl joining the line in the red-light district.
National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month is not important to me just because I once lived near a brothel. And it’s not just my issue because I'm a woman. Human trafficking is everyone’s issue. If you believe in the equal dignity and respect of all people, it’s your issue, too.
No one needs to feel defeated in the face of injustice. As more organizations and individuals choose to get involved, hope is spreading.
The Dalit Freedom Network works to set up programs, schools, and child sponsorships for India’s poorest; they represent Indian slaves internationally in Washington, D.C. and at the United Nations. International Justice Mission (IJM) provides the victims of slavery and sex trafficking with rescue and aftercare, prosecutes perpetrators, and promotes functioning public justice systems.
A recent surge of Christian recording artists voicing passion for the human rights include Phillip LaRue, who is working on a compilation CD on human trafficking in India. He writes on his MySpace page, “I believe fighting child prostitution has become my life long cause and passion . . . Whether I am on stage singing or just living life I want to devote my talents into growing awareness. . .” Heather Clark has spent the last three years recording an album on human trafficking and other human rights issues, with a traveling dance production to raise funds and awareness.
And five years ago, Natalie Grant, the 2006 Female Vocalist of the Year for the Gospel Music Association, founded the Home Foundation, which provides after-care homes and medicine for children and women coming out of prostitution. (For the estimated 100,000 trafficked victims identified in the United States per year, there are currently only 100 beds.) The Home Foundation’s college internship program sets up opportunities to spend summers fighting human trafficking while based in Mumbai, Moldova, or Nashville.
Whether you are a college student, a stay-at-home mom, a working professional, a recording artist, or somewhere in between, you can respond with “active hope” to make a difference this month:
* Pray for both the victims and the perpetrators of trafficking and slavery.
* Read IJM President Gary Haugen’s book Good News about Injustice.
* Donate money to a charity that fights human trafficking and slavery.
* Resist spending habits that inadvertently fuel slavery or trafficking.
* Write to U.S. government officials in support of the Child Protection Compact Act.
* Sponsor a child to help keep him or her in school instead of being trafficked/enslaved.
How else do you suggest we work to fight trafficking and slavery this month? Do you know of any artists, nonprofit organizations, churches, or other efforts dedicated to fighting human trafficking and slavery? I would love to hear.
Davita Maharaj is a Fellow at the Trinity Forum Academy in Royal Oak, Maryland, and is pursuing a master's degree in international human rights law at Oxford University. The top photo is of a Nepalese mother searching for her daughter, a victim of human trafficking, in Mumbai, India (U.S. State Department). The bottom photo is of a Bangladeshi 16-year-old holding a picture of herself before she was sold into sex trafficking.
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Posted by Sarah Pulliam Bailey on January 21, 2010 10:13 AM
Comments
Thank you for real, practical actions that we can all take to make a tiny difference in the fight against human trafficking and slavery.
Posted By: Robyn | January 21, 2010 11:39 AM
Maybe the gov will give you funds to be able to move but brothel does not mean harassment. tell others that you should have relationship with a person not sexual relations. My dad goes after my girlfriend when i am in the hospital or gone. So does gangs. Offiacials refuse to get 4 officials and put them under aresst. Officials refuse!!! So no girlfriend for moralists.Also young sons trying to be offcer.ace and run after her.Church likes partys. Obama wife and Bushs wife those areas and say no.Fed told 7 times!!! thank you. Rev12 :9. Col3:11 kjv. Psa99:9outside pray. Faith in Lord Gods ideas!!
Posted By: Yashweh in Ind | January 21, 2010 11:46 AM
This is so, so sad. I can't even imagine. The statistics are staggering. IJM is a great organization for raising awareness.
Posted By: Anna | January 21, 2010 3:26 PM
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Davita, for speaking up! I pray that those who read this will raise their voices, too, for those who cannot speak for themselves.
Posted By: Lucca | January 21, 2010 4:09 PM
"Resist spending habits that inadvertently fuel slavery or trafficking." What does this mean to average people living in the United States?
Posted By: DianneA | January 21, 2010 6:49 PM
Thank you for this post. The National HOTLINE for victim support services in the US (including reporting possible cases) is 888.3737.888
Our website www.stopslavery2010.com highlights ACTIONS people are taking to bring awareness to this problem, rescue to the victims and prosecution to the scum that we politely call human traffickers. Below are the ACCORDS, which are the marching orders for "good people" seeking change.
peace,
phil
888.206.3264
The Dayton Human Trafficking Accords
WHEREAS,
WE can end human trafficking and slavery, but only if we solemnly commit ourselves to that common purpose.
We must confront the global scourge of trafficking and slavery beginning in our own local communities.
We as individuals and all institutions of society have a moral responsibility to end trafficking and free slaves from their captivity.
NOW THEREFORE,
WE undertake a solemn commitment, beginning now, to end the scourge of trafficking and slavery
And to take immediate action in our communities to
Stir society’s conscience to action against trafficking and slavery
Rescue and restore victims of trafficking and slavery
Identify and punish traffickers and slavers
Promote legislation and public policies to eradicate trafficking and slavery
Address the social, cultural and economic causes of trafficking and slavery
So that
We will end human trafficking in our time
Posted By: DAYTON HUMAN TRAFFICKING ACCORDS | January 21, 2010 10:38 PM
Hi DianneA, thanks for your question. By "Resist spending habits that inadvertently fuel slavery or trafficking," I mean that we should fight against the kind of consumerism that helps keep slavery a well-oiled machine. Buying "fair trade" products -- such as clothes, food, and coffee -- is one indirect way that we can contain the use of slaves, sweat shops, etc. Another indirect way to fight the trafficking industry is to take a stand against sex-related consumerism, such as speaking up against pornography. (Whenever someone "consumes" pornography, a strip show, adult books/videos, or prostitutes, the sex industry is fed. In turn, the growth of the sex industry fuels the need for more human slaves.)
Video from NBC-2
[TRAFFICKING MONITOR: Click on URL at end of this article to view the video.]
BONITA SPRINGS — An undercover prostitution sting in Bonita Springs has resulted in the arrest of two people on human trafficking charges.
A man and woman are accused of making two other women prostitute themselves in exchange for rent and transportation fees, according to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office.
Naomi L. Vasquez, also known as Naomi Jackson and who’s booking sheet states her last name is Velasquez, 31, a transient from Fort Myers, was charged with three counts each of forced labor or services by human trafficking and receiving financial benefit from those acts, according to Lee County Sheriff’s Office records. Bond was denied.
Her co-defendant, Derrick M. Ned, 33, who has multiple aliases and lists addresses in LaBelle and Lehigh Acres, faces the same counts in addition to warrants for fleeing and eluding a law enforcement officer and driving while license was suspended. He was denied bond on the two warrants. His arrest report shows federal charges are pending and that he is a flight risk and not to be bonded out of jail.
Both are U.S. citizens, records show.
Reports about the sting and subsequent arrests released Wednesday provided limited details.
According to Sheriff’s Office reports:
On Jan. 13 undercover deputies were conducting a prostitution sting and arranged to meet two women in Bonita Springs. The women agreed to exchange of sex for money, and were taken into custody.
One of the women told deputies “that she was not engaging in prostitution voluntarily but was being made to do so by another.”
Four months earlier, a friend introduced herself to an unnamed man who said his wife, Vasquez, operated a business. She agreed to work as an escort. Eventually she was told she would have to prostitute herself to repay some money. After awhile, she had attempted to leave but was threatened. Her family also was threatened and she was not allowed to keep any of the money.
The other woman told deputies she too was introduced by a friend to the man about a month earlier and offered employment as escort. She agreed, but was eventually required to prostitute herself. An unidentified person told her the money was for rent and transportation.
A man “reminded all of the girls that worked for him that he was to be feared.”
Vasquez would arrange the dates and wake them up in the middle of the night to meet clients. Hotel rooms paid for by Ned and Vasquez were for the criminal acts, and not to provide shelter for either of the two women.
The investigation remains active and further information about the two women would not be released Wednesday, said John Sheehan, a Sheriff’s Office spokesman. He would say only they were adults.
Twenty percent of the nation's 17,000 human trafficking victims each year come through Texas, and Attorney General Greg Abbott said today the state should take the lead in collaboration among agencies to fight the scourge of modern-day slavery. "It's a serious threat that demands a unified front," Abbott said after kicking off the inaugural meeting of the Human Trafficking Prevention Task Force at the Capitol.
The task force, created through HB4009 during the 2009 legislative session, is supposed to help diverse local, state and federal agencies that deal with human trafficking victims and perpetrators to work together to address the problem. Abbott said part of the problem with human trafficking is first, identifying what the crime is, and second, identifying victims who are often mistaken for criminals.
Human trafficking, he said, is often confused with human smuggling. Although the two can be related, the crimes are different. Human smuggling involves someone who pays another person because they want help coming into the United States. Human trafficking is a crime that involves a person, often women and children who are not necessarily undocumented immigrants, being forced by another person to work, many times in the sex trade, against their will.
The task force will help not only track down and prosecute criminals who subject their victims to forced labor and sex for money, but will also help provide assistance to victims. Abbott said about 80 percent of trafficking victims are women, and about half are children.
"We must achieve a higher level of collaboration and coordination," Abbott said.
LANSING – In a move to end a form of modern-day slavery, the Michigan House Representatives today passed a plan sponsored by House Democrats to crack down on human trafficking in Michigan. This horrific crime victimizes thousands of people from around the world every year and is a growing problem in Michigan and across the country.
“This disgusting crime primarily targets women and children, and it must be stopped,” said State Representative Dudley Spade (D-Tipton), lead sponsor of the plan. “Our plan will go after those who bankroll these kidnappers by cutting their funding off at the source and giving us a way to provide restitution for the victims of this vile act.”
In addition to strengthening existing laws, the plan will:
* Add human trafficking to the list of offenses that qualify for prosecution under Michigan’s racketeering statute so prosecutors can go after the individuals involved, as well as those who support them and fund their activities.
* Allow any assets and property used in human trafficking to be seized and sold, with the proceeds being used for further trafficking enforcement.
* Provide for restitution for the victims.
“These criminals must not be allowed to profit off the suffering of another human being,” said State Representative Vicki Barnett (D-Farmington Hills), who sponsored a bill in the package. “Thousands of children are trafficked each year – many into hunger and extreme poverty. It’s time to end this abhorrent crime and bring these despicable people to justice.”
The Midwest has been identified as an area of increased human trafficking, with Toledo, Ohio, serving as a major recruiting hub for the sex trade due to its location and proximity to major highways. In 2007, a Farmington Hills couple were found guilty of bringing a 14-year-old girl from their native Cameroon and forcing her into service as their unpaid maid. The man and woman were sentenced to 17 and five years of prison, respectively.
“Michigan has seen a major rise in this crime recently, and we must make certain our laws are strong enough to combat this evil,” said State Representative Shanelle Jackson (D-Detroit). “No man, woman or child should have to experience the horrors of this unspeakable crime.”
An estimated 800,000 men, women and children are trafficked across international borders each year, according to statistics compiled by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Of these victims, 80 percent are female and 50 percent are children. Most of these victims are forced into the commercial sex trade.[1] In addition, 14,500 to 17,500 foreign nationals are trafficked into the United States each year.[2]
“This plan is about cracking down on these criminals and giving victims a chance to rebuild their lives,” said State Representative Lee Gonzales (D-Flint Twp.) “By providing victims with restitution from the funds and property that seized from these criminals, we can help them turn the page on this incredibly traumatic experience and begin the healing process.”
“It is absolutely unacceptable that our current laws do not give our law enforcement officers and prosecutors the tools they need to go after the perpetrators of these appalling crimes,” said State Representative Richard LeBlanc (D-Westland). “Our plan will empower local and state authorities to take on these criminals and protect the thousands of innocent people enslaved by them. We’re taking serious action today to not only stop and punish the individuals involved in the day-to-day operation of a human trafficking ring, but to dismantle the entire organization.”
By Niki King • nking@courier-journal.com • January 20, 2010
Amy Turner, 27, of Polo Fields, was riding through the red light district of Calcutta, India, two years ago when a young girl tried to hand her a baby through the window of a taxi cab. Translating, the driver said the girl was pleading for her to take the baby and give it a better life.
“That was the moment I realized I had to do something,” Turner said.
Last year, Turner began a locally based effort called RescYou to help women and children who have been victims of human trafficking in India. So far, she's raised $2,000 through the sale of T-shirts specially designed for the cause. The money will sponsor children born in brothels to go to school.
“We want to provide them with education so they can come back and rebuild their communities,” Turner said.
RescYou is made up of Turner, two friends and five board members. Turner is putting an application together for a 501(C) 3 status so the group can become an official nonprofit organization.
T-shirt sales are just the beginning, group members say. They want to create other ways to raise money and awareness for an issue they care deeply about. The group's mission statement is “turning off the lights in the red light districts around the world.”
The U.S. State Department's 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report, citing United Nations figures, estimated there were nearly 1.4 million victims of “commercial sexual servitude” worldwide.
Turner, a graduate student in art therapy at the University of Louisville, has seen the problem firsthand.
In 2008, she went on her first trip to India with Faceless International, a nonprofit group that organizes trips for people to learn about social justice issues. Turner was one of 25 who visited smaller villages and the larger cities of Visakhapatnam and Kurnool. While there, they met missionaries and others who were working on issues such as poverty, HIV/AIDS and human trafficking.
In the summer of 2009, she returned and spent six weeks at the Destiny Center in Calcutta, where women rescued from the sex industry live while they receive job training and independent living skills. She also spent time at another shelter for children of sex workers in the heart of the city's red light district, where Turner said there are thousands of girls working, some young as 9 years old.
She learned the vast majority of women and children had been sold into prostitution by poverty-stricken families or stolen from their homes. The women make little to no money and are punished severely by their pimps and brothel owners if they try to escape, Turner said. She said organized crime lords are often involved, and the police are often complacent.
When she got home, she contacted Abigail Stoutimore of New Hampshire and Kris Byerly of Florida, two participants from the Faceless International trip, and asked them to help her start RescYou.
“How could I resist?” Byerly said. “Once you've seen what real poverty, what real anguish, looks like, it changes you.”
Byerly, a graphic artist, designed a T-shirt logo, a woman's face that appears to be disappearing. Spend Yourself, an apparel company in Middletown that sells T-shirts to raise money for selected nonprofits, produced and sold the shirt. They've sold 100 for about $20 each. Turner said she's giving the money to the shelter in Calcutta, which will use it to sponsor children's education. She said it will pay for about seven children to go to school for a year.
The group is planning a return to India in October. They'll visit the shelter and re-establish contact with the missionaries and others they've met. They are now brainstorming ways to expand their mission.
“I feel personally responsible. I've met someone who had been trafficked. I know their name,” she said. “If I can help in some shape or form, then RescYou has accomplished what it set out to do,” she said.
Reporter Niki King can be reached at (502) 582-4248.
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