For the past few months, I ran into too many people who are not familiar with what human trafficking is. And even if they are, they think that it only happens somewhere in Thailand or Eastern Europe. Sadly, human trafficking happens in the U.S. just as often as it does in Thailand. If not, it could be worse in the U.S. than Thailand because of its market size and influx of trafficking victims into the U.S. In fact, today’s news report on Oklahoma’s human trafficking victim is a classic example evidencing that human trafficking is happening right around the corner regardless of what state you live in the U.S.
The human trafficking victim speaks up
Though the sex slavery happened 10 years ago, she still was afraid of revealing her identity. She also said that the underground market for human trafficking is big, and it is run by organized crime. Children, teens, and even infants become trafficking victims, and they are involved in organ trafficking, sex trafficking, illegal adoption, and identity theft. She too was smuggled into Las Vegas, New York, California, Florida, and many other states for prostitution. She made multiple attempts to run away from the mob. But, when she got caught, she was brutally punished by the criminals:
ELYRIA — The 15th annual Hispanic Leadership Conference will be Saturday, featuring a Mexican-American human rights activist talking about human trafficking.
Presented by the Coalition of Hispanic/Latino Issues and Progress, the annual celebration will be at the Spitzer Conference Center, Lorain County Community College. Continental breakfast and lunch will be served, and registration is still available by calling Michael Ferrer, conference co-director, at 989-1178.
Enrique Morones, founder and president of Border Angels, is the keynote speaker. He was born in San Diego, Calif., to Mexican parents and has citizenship in both Mexico and the United States.
The Border Angels is a group of volunteers who work to prevent the deaths of people crossing the border from Mexico to the United States.
Crossing the border is just the first step for many journeys, Morones said.
“The border is just the place they cross, it’s not where they stay,” he said. “The demand for workers and drugs takes people far from the borders. The U.S. is the No. 1 consumer of illegal drugs in the world. The demand is the issue, which creates the organized crime. The undocumented workers are victims of criminals who are bringing them here.”
Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray will be the conference’s special guest, and he will join Morones in discussing human trafficking.
Cordray’s office released a report in February showing that one in three Ohio runaways gone for two weeks or longer is at risk of being trafficked for sex. More than 1,000 Ohio children from 12 to 17 years old have been trafficked into the sex trade, according to the report.
Panel discussions will cover human trafficking and critical issues in Latino health. Workshops lasting 55 minutes will offer insights into problems such as identity theft, sexual predators on the Internet, art as a catalyst for change, new laws requiring new birth certificates for people born in Puerto Rico, the 2010 census, how to budget in a recession and a dance workshop on Argentine tango.
A preconference reception will be at the Elyria Holiday Inn at 6:30 tonight, featuring a dance presentation, art exhibit and opportunities to meet conference speakers.
A gala will be Saturday night after the conference at the Lorain Party Center, 2501 Leavitt Road, with dinner, music and dancing.
Sponsors of the conference include State Farm Insurance, The Morning Journal, The Cleveland Clinic, Lorain County Community College, Lorain City Schools and the Community Foundation of Lorain County.
For more information, call 989-1178, or visit www.chiplorain.org.
House Bill 432, Alabama’s first anti-human trafficking legislation, passed in both houses of the Alabama State Legislature merely hours before the 2010 legislative session ended on Thursday, April 22. The bill, which provides extensive protection for victims of labor and sex trade, will add Alabama to the list of 44 states that have strictly criminalized human trafficking under state law, according to the Polaris project.
The passage of the bill will create new human trafficking crimes and penalties, provide mandatory restitution for victims, allow victims to sue their traffickers and provide for asset forfeiture.
Along with the Polaris Project and the DA’s Association, local anti-human trafficking coalition Freedom to Thrive helped draft the bill and said that anti-human trafficking legislation has been a long time coming for Alabama. Supporters of the bill say that a state law will now lead to more prosecutions of what is considered modern-day slavery.
“It’s a huge victory,” Sara Jane Camacho, director of Freedom to Thrive, said. “Having legislation on the books is really the starting point for educating law enforcement and the community about human trafficking.”
After a tangible encounter with child sex slaves in Thailand at age 16, Camacho returned to Birmingham “ticked off” that people were not aware of young children enslaved for labor or sex abroad and in Birmingham, she said. In 2009, Camacho helped form Freedom to Thrive, which was created as a response to the growing prevalence of human trafficking in the southeast and in Birmingham.
According to the Birmingham News, a lawsuit filed in Birmingham federal court in 2009 claims that a Mississippi man paid inadequate wages to two male Guatemalan guest workers for work in Mississippi and Alabama, forced them into debt, confiscated their visas and threatened to report them to immigration officials.
In addition, a federal grand jury in Birmingham indicted a man from Florence, Ala., in December for harboring a female minor in Lauderdale County and forcing her to perform sex acts for payment.
Rescues that punish those they’re meant to save: Cambodia again
More evidence of how police raids to save people are unwanted and counter-productive, this time with statements from UNAIDS and a Cambodian sexworker group. Those suffering under the crackdown are not traffickers and arrested sex workers were not trafficked. The rhetorical move to call completely old-fashioned raids anti-trafficking strategies is orwellian double-speak creating confusion amongst those who don’t know what’s going on.
Cambodia cracks down on the sex industry,
Robert Carmichael, 12 April 2010, Deutsche Welle
. . . In Cambodia, the government recently decided to target the sex industry in a move it thinks will combat the trafficking of women. 60 brothels, karaoke bars and massage parlors have been raided in Phnom Penh and across the country in the past month alone. Some 300 sex workers are thought to have lost their jobs since the crackdown began in early March. . .
Organizations that help sex workers worry it is driving them away from established venues, and limiting their access to sexual health services.
Tony Lisle, the country head of UNAIDS says the crackdown is the latest in a series of similar moves by the authorities in recent years, which do not have very positive effects. ”From the perspective of UNAIDS, the crackdowns create significant difficulties for organizations working in HIV prevention to reach those who are most at risk from HIV infection effectively, particularly sex workers and women working in the entertainment industry.”
Important to separate prostitution and trafficking
Moreover, although the authorities say this drive is part of an anti-trafficking campaign, so far no traffickers have been arrested – only sex workers. Lisle says it is important to separate the issues of prostitution and human trafficking. A survey last year found that no more than 7 percent of sex workers had been trafficked into the trade. “However, they are often the victims of the crackdown,” says Lisle.
Sex workers are losing out
Ly Pisey is a technical assistant at the Women’s Network for Unity, a collective that advocates rights and sexual health for sex workers that holds meetings for sex workers so that they can pass on information on sexual health and rights. She says that “the situation is very difficult” right now and it is hard to access sex workers. ”We are like thieves. If we want to send out a message on safe sex, we have to call some of the sex workers whom we know and who trust us to come to our drop-in centre. Sometimes we meet one and ask them to share the information and tell them to continue to have hope,” she explains.
It seems highly unlikely that the government’s move will fulfill its stated goal of eliminating prostitution – not least since one in three Cambodian men are thought to pay for sex. However, the wave of arrests is certainly driving sex workers underground and away from the assistance they and their clients need. It seems very likely that if the crackdown continues it will result in a higher rate of sexually-transmitted diseases.
