The Anti-Slavery Project

Human Trafficking in God’s World

2011-06-24T07:05:00.000-07:00

Justin Holcomb

Pastor, Author
Genesis 3 records the terrible day when humanity fell into sin and shalom was violated. This was a moment of cosmic treason, when Adam and Eve violated their relationship with God by rebelling against His command and fell into the severe ignobility we all experience. The entrance of sin wrecked the order and goodness of God's world; it was the disintegration of peace. Sin inverted love for God, which in turn became idolatry, and inverted love for neighbor, which became exploitation of others.
One clear way this exploitation of others takes place is human trafficking. Trafficking is modern-day slavery and is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world. It is the recruitment, transportation, harboring, or taking of people by means of threat, force, coercion, abduction, fraud, or deception for the purpose of exploiting them. The United Nations estimates that 2.5 million people are trafficked annually. It deprives people of their human rights and freedoms, it is a global health risk, and it fuels organized crime.

Victims of trafficking are forced or coerced into labor or sexual exploitation. Labor trafficking ranges from domestic servitude and small-scale labor operations to large-scale operations such as farms, sweatshops, and major multinational corporations. Sex trafficking is one of the most profitable forms of trafficking and involves any form of sexual exploitation, such as prostitution, pornography, bride trafficking, and the commercial sexual abuse of children.
The United States is a destination country for international trafficking: foreign women and children are transported into the United States for purposes of sexual and labor exploitation. The State Department estimates that approximately eighteen thousand foreign nationals are trafficked annually into the United States. Victims are brought to the United States from Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Africa. Most women and children brought to the United States find themselves forced to work in massage parlors, commercial or residential brothels, escort services, and strip clubs.
Sex trafficking also happens to United States citizens residing within United States borders. An estimated three hundred thousand American children are at risk for trafficking into the sex industry annually. Traffickers coerce women and children to enter the commercial sex industry through a variety of recruitment techniques in strip clubs, street-based prostitution, and escort services.

Domestic sex traffickers particularly target vulnerable young girls, such as runaway, homeless, and fostercare children. In the United States, the average age of entry into prostitution is thirteen. One reason many girls working in prostitution enter the trade in their early teens has to do with the age at which many were victims of incest. The average age of incest is twelve. Incest and other forms of abuse often drive children to run away from home, making them vulnerable to the slick tactics of sex traffickers.

The pimp seduces a recruit with the lure of love, protection, wealth, designer clothes, fancy cars, and exclusive nightclubs. Pimps move from city to city looking for children and young women who are easy prey: alone, desperate, and alienated. Once a pimp moves a victim from her hometown into a strange city, the pimp can easily force her to work as a prostitute. Thousands of children and women are victimized in this way every year.

Human trafficking is a sin against the victim and a sin against God. Evil is anti-creation, anti-life, and the force that seeks to oppose, deface, and destroy God, His good world, and His image bearers. Simply put, when someone defaces a human being — God's image bearer — it is ultimately an attack against God Himself.
Sexual violence is one of the most frequent and disturbing symbols of sin in the Bible. It is a complete distortion of relationship, a mockery and devastation of God's intent in making us for relationships with Himself and others. By referring to sexual violence, God, through the biblical authors, communicates that sin has progressed so far that sex, an expression of union, peace, and love, is now used as a tool for violence.

Far from being a peripheral issue in the Bible, exploitation is mentioned frequently throughout Scripture, is depicted as sin against God and neighbor, and symbolizes how badly sin has corrupted God's good creation. The victim's experience of trafficking is not ignored by God or minimized by the Bible, and it is not outside of the scope of healing and hope found in redemption. God's response to evil and violence is redemption, renewal, and re-creation because of the gospel of Christ. And that should be the church's response.

Evil and violence are not the final word. They are not capable of creating or ultimately defining reality. That is only God's prerogative. However, evil and violence can pervert, distort, and destroy. They are parasitic on the original good of God's creation. In this way, evil serves as the backdrop on the stage where God's redemption shines with greater brilliance and pronounced drama. What evil uses to destroy, God uses to expose, excise, and then heal.

Dr. Justin Holcomb is a pastor at Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington, and director of The Resurgence. He is author, along with his wife, Lindsey, of Rid of My Disgrace: Hope and Healing for Victims of Sexual Assault.

Original article

Video Game's 'Capture the Babe' Mode Has Players Slapping Women - FoxNews.com

2011-03-26T06:51:00.000-07:00

This story came out this morning on FoxNews.com. A new game, Duke Nukem Forever, developed for XBox by Gearbox Studios who bought the rights to the game last year, requires players to abduct women and give them a slap if the woman resists or freaks out. It implies, very strongly, that "Duke" receives oral sex from twins in school uniforms!

As an advocate for women's and children's right, I cannot, I repeat CAN NOT, sit back and let this go! Please read the article below (click on the link). Anti-Slavery Project will be taking action against everyone involved in allowing this if it is released in June as the article suggests.

Video Game's 'Capture the Babe' Mode Has Players Slapping Women - FoxNews.com

No where on God's green earth is something like this "OK!"

2011-01-14T08:45:00.000-08:00

Serving Child Victims of Sex Trafficking

January 19, 2011—Join an Online Discussion

On January 19, 2011, at 2 p.m. (eastern time), the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) will present a Web Forum discussion with Mollie Ring on best practices for serving child victims of sex trafficking. Ms. Ring is the Director of Anti-Trafficking Programs at the Standing Against Global Exploitation (SAGE) Project, a nonprofit organization working to end the commercial sexual exploitation of children and adults. She coordinates direct services for domestic minor and international victims of human trafficking and leads outreach, training, and public education efforts. She also oversees technical assistance initiatives for local, regional, and national partners. Prior to joining SAGE in 2008, Ms. Ring served as a consultant to the United Nations Children’s Fund’s Evaluation Office and the United Nations Development Programme.

Visit the OVC Web Forum now to submit questions for Ms. Ring and return on January 19 at 2 p.m. (eastern time) for the live discussion. Learn how to participate beforehand so you are ready for the discussion.

A Woman. A Prostitute. A Slave

2010-12-28T07:43:00.000-08:00

Originally published November 27, 2010 by Nicholas D. Kristof in the New York Times

Americans tend to associate “modern slavery” with illiterate girls in India or Cambodia. Yet there I was the other day, interviewing a college graduate who says she spent three years terrorized by pimps in a brothel in Midtown Manhattan.

Those who think that commercial sex in this country is invariably voluntary — and especially men who pay for sex — should listen to her story. The men buying her services all mistakenly assumed that she was working of her own volition, she says.

Yumi Li (a nickname) grew up in a Korean area of northeastern China. After university, she became an accountant, but, restless and ambitious, she yearned to go abroad.

So she accepted an offer from a female jobs agent to be smuggled to New York and take up a job using her accounting skills and paying $5,000 a month. Yumi’s relatives had to sign documents pledging their homes as collateral if she did not pay back the $50,000 smugglers’ fee from her earnings.

Yumi set off for America with a fake South Korean passport. On arrival in New York, however, Yumi was ordered to work in a brothel.

“When they first mentioned prostitution, I thought I would go crazy,” Yumi told me. “I was thinking, ‘how can this happen to someone like me who is college-educated?’ ” Her voice trailed off, and she added: “I wanted to die.”

She says that the four men who ran the smuggling operation — all Chinese or South Koreans — took her into their office on 36th Street in Midtown Manhattan. They beat her with their fists (but did not hit her in the face, for that might damage her commercial value), gang-raped her and videotaped her naked in humiliating poses. For extra intimidation, they held a gun to her head.

If she continued to resist working as a prostitute, she says they told her, the video would be sent to her relatives and acquaintances back home. Relatives would be told that Yumi was a prostitute, and several of them would lose their homes as well.

Yumi caved. For the next three years, she says, she was one of about 20 Asian prostitutes working out of the office on 36th Street. Some of them worked voluntarily, she says, but others were forced and received no share in the money.

Yumi played her role robotically. On one occasion, Yumi was arrested for prostitution, and she says the police asked her if she had been trafficked.

“I said no,” she recalled. “I was really afraid that if I hinted that I was a victim, the gang would send the video to my family." . . .

No one has a clear idea of the scale of the problem, and estimates vary hugely. Some think the problem is getting worse; others believe that Internet services reduce the role of pimps and lead to commercial sex that is more consensual. What is clear is that forced prostitution should be a national scandal. Just this month, authorities indicted 29 people, mostly people of Somali origin from the Minneapolis area, on charges of running a human trafficking ring that allegedly sold many girls into prostitution — one at the age of 12.

There are no silver bullets, but the critical step is for the police and prosecutors to focus more on customers (to reduce demand) and, above all, on pimps. Prostitutes tend to be arrested because they are easy to catch, while pimping is a far harder crime to prosecute. That’s one reason thugs become pimps: It’s hugely profitable and carries less risk than selling drugs or stealing cars. But that can change as state and federal authorities target traffickers rather than their victims. . .

Read the full article here.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Nicholas Kristof rightly points out the common misconception that human trafficking occurs only outside the U.S. borders. Awareness of the global nature of human trafficking merits great emphasis in the fight for abolition. The stories told by countless survivors demonstrates the strength of the human spirit and creates new impetus for addressing the demand side of this profitable trade.

The Human Trafficking Project: A Woman. A Prostitute. A Slave

SlaveFree

2010-11-11T14:03:00.000-08:00

Check out this SlaveFree interactive map. Make your voice heard against human trafficking!

SlaveFree

John Walsh Goes Undercover on America's Most Wanted

2010-11-11T06:06:00.000-08:00

Watch this video!

John Walsh Goes Undercover on America's Most Wanted

The Human Trafficking Project: Shop to Stop Slavery

2010-11-11T04:02:00.000-08:00

Press Release:

Shop to Stop Slavery Releases 2010 Ethical Christmas & Holiday Gift Guide Learning how to be a socially conscious shopper this holiday season has just been made easier by Shop to Stop Slavery.

Jacksonville, FL, November 8, 2010 — ShoptoStopSlavery.com, a new concept website devoted to raising awareness about human trafficking, has released its very own, unique 2010 Ethical Christmas & Holiday Gift Guide. The premier edition of the guide aims to help shoppers make ethical choices in the gifts they offer this holiday season.

Many of the products purchased in the Western Hemisphere are produced by slaves or exploited groups of people. Robin Rossmanith, founder of Shop to Stop Slavery, states “It is a shame that the items that bring joy to our children, friends and family members are created in a manner that brings suffering to others.”

Consumers who are concerned about making socially conscious shopping choices can make a difference by purchasing items with the “fair trade certified” label or those shown to be made ethically. Through such purchases, they are supporting manufacturers and brands that are committed to not exploiting others. Luckily there are many options available for fairly made product purchases. However, sometimes consumers have to spend hours researching to find the right gift.

The 2010 Ethical Christmas & Holiday Gift Guide is a compilation of almost 100 US based stores that carry fair trade and/or ethically made products. The guide includes links to stores for easy access by the viewer. The Ethical Christmas & Holiday Gift Guide will make socially conscious shopping easier for the consumer. The gift guide can be viewed at www.ShopToStopSlavery.com/Gift-Guide and is also available for download.

The 2010 Ethical Christmas & Holiday Gift Guide was created by Robin Rossmanith, founder of http://www.shoptostopslavery.com. Robin has a background in retail sales, as well as extensive knowledge of human trafficking. After discovering that 27 million people worldwide are living in slavery and a shocking number of them were right here in the United States, Robin Rossmanith, a Jacksonville, Florida mother of 3 school age children, committed herself to becoming an activist for the cause. Robin became the co-chair of the Northeast Florida Human Trafficking Task Force, in 2010, leading individuals and agencies in a community wide effort to prevent human trafficking, rescue and restore victims and prosecute traffickers.

Also in 2010, Robin began ShoptoStopSlavery.com, a website dedicated to informing consumers about products made with forced labor and providing opportunities for consumers to purchase slave free goods. Shop to Stop Slavery seeks to engage everyone in the efforts to end human trafficking. “Even the seemingly little things, like the Christmas gifts you buy, can make a big impact towards ending the exploitation of those people worldwide who are most risk.”

For additional information, contact Robin at 1-904-838-5339 or online atwww.ShoptoStopSlavery.com.

ShoptoStopSlavery.com is a blog created by anti-human trafficking activist Robin Rossmanith, outlining ways to increase awareness and help eliminate modern day slavery. As the co-chairperson of an anti-human trafficking task force, she has become intimately aware of the risks posed by these types of crimes.

To get a copy of the 2010 Ethical Christmas & Holiday Gift Guide, go to www.ShoptoStopSlavery.com.

Source: The Human Trafficking Project: Shop to Stop Slavery

The new slaves: Children forced to work as farm labourers - Home News, UK - The Independent

2010-10-26T04:41:00.000-07:00

Seven Romanian children – some as young as nine – were found being forced to work as farm labourers in near-freezing conditions in Worcester last week, The Independent on Sunday has learned.

The children were among 50 Romanian workers discovered picking spring onions in a field in the Kempsey area of Worcester by the Gangmaster's Licensing Authority (GLA). The seven children, aged between nine and 15, were being made to work from 7.30 in the morning until dusk, dressed in thin summer clothes, as temperatures dropped close to zero.

Wellington boots that looked suitable for a five-year-old were also found in the field, suggesting even younger children had worked there. Investigators for the GLA say it is the first time they have come across such young children working in fields in the UK.

They were brought to the field in the back of a box van, with no food or water for the day. Six of the children have been taken into local authority care. Some were working alongside parents, but others appeared to have been brought to the farm on their own.

The workers said they were not sure how much they would be paid, but intelligence suggests that a household of up to 40 people would get no more than £100 a week for the job. The GLA, West Mercia Police and the UK Border Agency are still investigating and plan to arrest at least one unlicensed gangmaster this week.

Paul Whitehouse, chairman of the GLA, said: "In 2007 we celebrated the 200th anniversary of the end of the slave trade, but in 2010 we've got people working in appalling conditions who, while not actually being slaves, are very close to it."

The actress Juliet Stevenson is one of many leading figures supporting the IoS's campaign for an end to modern slavery and human trafficking, describing them as "the worst manifestation of human cruelty".

The actress said: "If it doesn't concern people that someone can be hijacked, kidnapped and manipulated away from their homes and families into horrendous situations that are at best hardship and at worst physical and mental brutality, then what does concern people?"

Stevenson said victims of trafficking who managed to escape their tormenters in Britain often have to go through a second ordeal at the hands of immigration authorities. "If you're not discovered you have to endure ongoing hell, but if you are discovered and thrown into an increasingly ruthless and unjust asylum system then you're also damned."

"Human trafficking represents just about the worst manifestation of human cruelty. If you're talking about the 'great' in Great Britain, let's look at having some moral leadership."

The Government faces calls from a growing number of high-profile campaigners to sign up to the EU directive on human trafficking, which would make it easier to prosecute traffickers and protect victims. Caroline Lucas MP, leader of the Green Party, and Yvette Cooper MP, Shadow Foreign Secretary and Minister for Women, have joined those demanding that the Government opt into EU trafficking legislation. There were signs that the Government feels compelled to respond to pressure to sign up to the directive. Simon Hughes MP, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, said last night: "Signing up to the EU directive has not been ruled out; it is under consideration by the Government."

The GLA is still waiting to hear the size of the cuts it can expect following the Comprehensive Spending Review. The authority is funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which faces budget cuts of 29 per cent.

Voices for change

"It's appalling that, in the 21st century, slavery still exists. That's why the Government must back Europe-wide action against trafficking. By pandering to anti-European prejudices in some parts of the Conservative Party, ministers are putting the safety of thousands of women and children at risk."

Yvette Cooper MP, Shadow Foreign Secretary and Women's Minister

"It seems a no-brainer. I oppose modern slavery like I oppose ancient slavery. Where's the argument? It's like saying 'should we care if someone is killed'."

Joan Bakewell, Broadcaster

"It's definitely a hidden problem because we think of slavery as being abolished. When I hear about modern slavery I tend to think of the Arab princes that bring their own staff and treat them abominably."

Alexei Sayle, Comedian, actor and author

"Wilberforce described slavery as 'a disgrace and a dishonour to this country', and I'd say exactly the same about the coalition's decision to opt out of the EU directive on human trafficking. I've signed this petition on behalf of the Green Party because Greens will always be on the side of people who are vulnerable, oppressed or abused."

Caroline Lucas MP, Leader, Green Party

"I'm astonished that we are so limp in this business. We know it's going on but we don't do anything about it. It's a moral principle. If we go back to Wilberforce, all the moral arguments against slavery were established then and we shouldn't go back on them by neglect."

Brian Sewell, Art critic

"For too long sex slavery and other forms of trafficking have been brushed under the carpet. The Archbishop of Canterbury said sex trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery and it is vital it becomes a public policy issue. The Independent on Sunday's campaign is vital in raising the profile of this issue. It's a shame that David Cameron and William Hague's Euro-scepticism is preventing the UK signing up to the EU directive to protect these people, but I also feel the police should name and shame the people who create the demand."

Denis MacShane, Rotherham MP and former Europe minister

"It's important because it's the thin end of the wedge. So many people rely on the minimum wage so if that's being eroded it can affect a lot of people."

Barry Cryer, Writer and comedian

Interviews by Joe Rowley

The new slaves: Children forced to work as farm labourers - Home News, UK - The Independent

Call Response

2010-10-22T09:16:00.000-07:00

We’ve accomplished another milestone in the fight against modern day slavery. Thanks to our fellow abolitionists we have successfully raised $7,500 forProject: AK-47.

The children that Project: AK-47 rescues spend an average of seven years in the military as children. They work to provide them with needs like shelter, food, clothing, education and LOVE.

The money that YOU have helped raised is going towards one of the aftercare projects that Project: AK-47 has in Burma. Burma is home to over 75,000 child soldiers, which is the largest concentration of child soldiers in the world. Long-standing civil war, ethnic conflicts, and drug trafficking are subjecting children to adult wars. Meet some of the faces of the ones you’re helping:

Now meet the faces of the ones doing the helping thru Project: AK-47:

(First Row: Alyxius, Jared, Jeremy, Analee; Second Row: Tyler, Reena, Marcus, Rebecca)

We can’t fight this fight alone. Thanks to you, Project: AK-47 has resources to continue their efforts to rehabiliate child soldiers.

Want to get involved? You can. We have two new projects that need your help.

Free for Life International helps to prevent and rescue girls who have been trafficked across the Indo-Nepal border.

Love146 provides aftercare solutions for children with safe housing, therapy, nutrition, medical care, education, and a home full of love and care.

Both of these organizations are calling and asking for you to help. Will you respond?

Donate today:
Free for Life International – http://www.callandresponse.com/free_slaves.php
Love146 – http://www.callandresponse.com/rehab_victims.php

Call Response

Criminal Justice Online: Georgia Man Sentenced to 20 Years for Distributing Child Pornography

2010-10-22T09:14:00.000-07:00

RICHMOND,VA—Galen E. Vanord, 53, of Millen, Ga., was sentenced today to 20 years in prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release, for distributing child pornography.

Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; and Michael F. A. Morehart, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Richmond Field Office, made the announcement after sentencing by United States District Judge Henry E. Hudson. Vanord pled guilty on June 1, 2010.

According to court documents, Vanord was identified by law enforcement officers during an undercover investigation of individuals trading images of child pornography over the Internet. Vanord, a truck driver, traveled around the country and used his computer at truck stops. Law enforcement in Richmond downloaded 600 images of child pornography and one video from Vanord. In the course of their investigation, agents seized Vanord’s computer and hard drive, on which they found more than 14,000 images of child pornography. Most of these images were images of babies and toddlers. After hearing evidence at today’s sentencing, the court applied an additional sentencing enhancement for a pattern of sexual exploitation of a minor, based on images of a minor that were found on Vanord’s computer.

This case was investigated by the FBI’s Richmond Field Office. Assistant United States Attorney Jessica Aber Brumberg prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/vae. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov or onhttp://pacer.uspci.uscourts.gov/.

Criminal Justice Online: Georgia Man Sentenced to 20 Years for Distributing Child Pornography

The Human Trafficking Project: Exhibit: Invisble: Slavery Today

2010-10-22T09:11:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month, the Freedom Center in Cincinnati, OH opened an exhibit examining modern-day slavery. "What we hope to do, at very least, is raise awareness that this exists," said Paul Bernish, the Freedom Center executive in charge of its contemporary slavery exhibit and programs, believed to be the first such position in the American museum field said in an article by Mark Curnutte. "Secondly, we want to offer people things they can do to become engaging to ending these forms of slavery."

According to their website,the "design and "feel" of Invisible is that of a dingy warehouse in an unfamiliar city, filled with wood, metal and plastic containers -- shipping cartons for human beings. Through a variety of techinques and media, including videos, sounds and touch-screen prsentations, Invisible offers a comprehensive examination of slavery in the modern world through the life experiences of five individuals who were caught up in one of the five most common forms of exploitation: forced labor, bonded indenture, child slavery, sex trafficking and domestic servitude. The exhibition explores the causes of slavery, the economic forces that have contributed to its growth, and the response of government, the justice system and the general public to this scourge. . .

"But Invisible is not just a grim walk through degradation and mistreatment. A major concluding section is devoted to antislavery activities underway around the world, especially by the Freedom Center's partners in the exhibition: Free the Slaves, Goodweave,International Justice Mission and Polaris Project. Visitors are also asked to make a personal commitment to be 21st Century Abolitionists in the cause of freedom."

Click here to learn more about the Freedom Center and for information about the Invisible exhibit. Click here to view photos from the exhibit.

The Human Trafficking Project: Exhibit: Invisble: Slavery Today

Source: Human Trafficking Project

FoxNews.com - EXCLUSIVE: Facebook's Filters Fall Short in Blocking Pedophiles

2010-10-21T18:08:00.000-07:00

Child Predators on Facebook! Beware!

FoxNews.com - EXCLUSIVE: Facebook's Filters Fall Short in Blocking Pedophiles

Three Chicago Men Charged in Child Prostitution Probe

2010-09-10T04:28:00.001-07:00

Two Chicago men were arrested earlier today while a third man remains at-large, culminating a two-year joint federal/state investigation into a child prostitution ring that was centered on Chicago’s west side. The arrests were announced today by Robert D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Jody P. Weis, Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department (CPD), who were joined in making this announcement by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois and Anita Alvarez, Cook County State’s Attorney.

DATQUNN SAWYER, age 31, of Chicago, was arrested early this morning, without incident, by FBI special agents and detectives from the CPD, Vice Control Section and Special Investigations Unit, in the 5300 block of West Potomac. SAWYER was charged in a criminal complaint filed earlier this week in U.S. District Court in Chicago with one count of sexual trafficking of minors and sexual trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion, in interstate commerce, which is a felony offense.

Two other men, WAYMOND ORR, age 30, and KEVIN SHARP, age 51, both of Chicago, were also charged in connection with this investigation. Both men were charged in Cook County Circuit Court with one count each of pandering, which is a class 4 felony. SHARP was arrested this morning, without incident, while ORR remains at-large and is now the subject of a nationwide manhunt.

According to the federal complaint, SAWYER is charged with having operated a child prostitution ring from his residence and his mother’s residence, both of which are located on Chicago’s west side. The complaint alleges that SAWYER ran this operation from at least March of 2009 through August of this year. During that time, he is believed to have recruited as many as nine minor females between the ages of 13 and 17 who, at SAWYER’s behest, engaged in sexual acts for money. The complaint further alleges that SAWYER would “brand” his prostitutes with a tattoo and used violence and threats of violence to enforce his rules and regulations.

SAWYER is believed to have advertised his business through the Internet, making extensive use of Craigslist and similar online media, charging anywhere from $150 to as much as $350 for sexual services. SAWYER is alleged to have kept all of the proceeds from the sexual encounters, providing his prostitutes with only minimal subsistence. SAWYER also served as a driver for his prostitutes, shuttling them from location to location for sexual encounters, which usually took place at Chicago area motels or the customer’s residence.

When not responding to online bookings, SAWYER is also alleged to have forced his prostitutes to “work the track”, a term used to refer to girls walking the streets or standing on street corners to solicit customers for sex acts for money. Numerous locations in Chicago were used for this purpose, as well as locations on or around Cicero Avenue.

According to state prosecutors, SHARP and ORR worked for SAWYER as drivers and enforcers, transporting his girls to locations on the street and monitoring their activity to ensure they were not pocketing money they earned from their sexual encounters. It is also alleged that on occasion, SHARP or ORR would chauffer SAWYER to locations around the city so he could supervise his prostitutes.

In announcing the filing of the charges announced today, States Attorney Alvarez said the arrests signal an ongoing commitment between her office and law enforcement at both the federal and state level to combat the sex trafficking of minors. Said Ms. Alvarez “These defendants are alleged to have maintained control over vulnerable girls through violence and intimidation. Through our efforts, there are at least nine girls who are no longer being forced to engage in the horrific trade of sex trafficking.”

SAWYER appeared before Magistrate Judge Susan E. Cox, earlier yesterday, at which time he was formally charged. SAWYER was ordered held without bond, pending his next scheduled court appearance. If convicted of the charge filed against him, SAWYER faces a possible sentence of up to life in prison. SHARP is scheduled to appear in Central Bond Court tomorrow.

The female victims of this sex trafficking operation have been provided with counseling and related assistance by the FBI, Cook County State’s Attorney’s office and private social services providers.

The public is reminded that a complaint is not evidence of guilt and that all defendants in a criminal case are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Copies of the federal criminal complaint filed in this case are available from the Chicago FBI’s press office at (312) 829-1199. Copies of the state criminal complaint are available from the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office at (312) 603-3423.

Source: Criminal Justice Online

Gawker.com Tries to Increase Sex Trafficking

2010-09-09T05:09:00.000-07:00

by Amanda Kloer

When Craigslist voluntarily blocked their adult services section, the pimps, johns, and traffickers who had been using the site to buy and sell children and victims of human trafficking were, for the first time in ages, briefly lost about where to continue advertising for rape. Lucky for them, Gawker.com stepped in with a helpful guide on how to continue profiting from the sexual exploitation of children. And by sharing their guide to buying sex online with their nearly 20 million readers, Gawker is practically guaranteed to be facilitating more child rape.

Like Craigslist, the sex-for-sale websites Gawker is promoting are a mixed bag of men, women, and transgender individuals voluntarily engaged in prostitution; adults who have been forced or coerced into prostitution; and children. The latter two categories are victims of human trafficking, and online classified ads like Craigslist and the websites in Gawker's guide have played an increasingly large role in facilitating their repeated rape for profit. The demand for commercial sex, which when it outstrips willing suppliers causes human trafficking, is a complex and nuanced phenomenon. It's affected by the price and availability of commercial sex, social norms and laws around buying sex, and potential buyers' ethical views. Craigslist's adult services section and similar sites have provided a space where buying sex is easy, normalized, and anonymous, effectively increasing the demand without increasing the supply. Hence, the human trafficking on online classified sites like Craigslist.

If Craigslist (or any other online classifieds site) wasn't a website, but an abandoned warehouse at the edge of town where children as young as 11 were being bought and sold for sex by dozens of men a night, no one would argue that warehouse's closing impinged upon "freedom of speech." No one would claim, as Danah Boyd on the Huffington Post recently did, that the child sex warehouse should continue to operate since "a one-stop-shop is more helpful for law enforcement." And if the pimps and traffickers were locked out of it one night, no one would publish a guide directing them to other abandoned warehouses they can turn into child sex factories. A website and a warehouse may not be exactly the same, but with this guide Gawker is standing on a virtual street corner directing would-be child traffickers and abusers to new meeting points. And the saddest part is that they really don't seem to understand that's what they're doing.

Gawker and many tech blogs are trying to cast Craigslist's voluntary blocking of their adult services section as forced "censorship" of the site. They're trying to make this a conversation about freedom of speech, not sexual exploitation. They're trying to paint Craigslist as a poor scapegoat, whose only sin was to be the largest and most famous of many websites who exploit children (which they were). It's not true. The campaign to ask Craigslist to stop facilitating the exploitation of human trafficking victims on their site was just one small part of a larger plan anti-trafficking groups are implementing to fight the trade in humans. And Change.org has been running a similar campaign against Backpage.com -- prior to Craigslist's voluntary block. Without Craigslist's adult services section operating, there will now be one less website increasing demand for commercial sex and one less place for child rapists to find victims on the Internet.

Unless, of course, Gawker continues to try and fill that void.

Photo credit: katayun

Not Forsaken: Reaching Sex Slaves in Mid-America

2010-08-26T04:49:00.000-07:00

By Charlene Israel
CBN News Reporter

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Kristy Childs of Kansas City, Mo. has painful memories of her childhood.

"I was born in a smaller town in Missouri and left home, started running away. Very abusive stepfather," she told CBN News.

That abuse forced Childs to leave home when she was only 12 years old. She started working on the streets.

"I started hitchhiking and my prostitution started there with the truck drivers," she explained. "I was doing what I had to do to survive."

After 24 years of drugs and the street life, Childs wanted out. But she knew breaking away from pimps and drug pushers would be risky. Her freedom came in an unexpected way.

"I went to abort my son twice and couldn't go through with it," Childs recalled. "I was threatening miscarriage. I was bleeding and I thought 'Thank you, God. This is my answer. I'm not going to have to have an abortion because I had had abortions - many of them - and was made to have several abortions."

"Ended up going to Truman Medical Center at the emergency room where they were going to do a DNC, but before they did that they wanted to see if there was a heart beat," she continued. "The moment I heard my son's heartbeat, God just spoke into my spirit and told me 'I'm going to bring you out. Have your baby and I'm going to bring you out.'"

Raising Awareness

Today, Childs works to rescue other women and girls who are trapped in the commercial sex trade through her organization Veronica's Voice. It is named for a friend of Childs who was killed on the streets.

"A lot of them are scared," she said. "Some come through the support system; some have bad attitudes. I deal with it all across the board. They're dealing with post traumatic stress. They're full of anger because they're full of pain. And we work with that."

Each year more than 4,000 American children fall victim to commercial sexual exploitation in Missouri. Nearly 1,700 are victimized in the Kansas City metropolitan area.

Carrie Rossetti is with the Kansas City Coalition Against Human Trafficking, a group of organizations, including many faith-based programs. The coalition helps to raise awareness about the sex trafficking issue, provides outreach to rescued victims, and offers prayer support.

"We have learned that, hey, guess what? It's not just here, here, here, there. It's actually right in front of us in our communities, happening right now," Rossetti explained.

Rossetti told CBN News that Kansas City's easy access to highways and the large amount of commercial trade the pass through the state make it a hub for traffickers.

"So Kansas City, Mo., Kansas City, Kan. and Overland Park, Kan. are a great place to do international and national trade and not just in the trade of commercial products, but also in the trade of human beings," she said.

People You'd Least Suspect

Rosetti said most people would be surprised to discover who the sex traffickers really are.

"It is not just the sleezy people we think on the streets that this is happening. Traffickers can be doctors, and have been doctors, lawyers, dentists, social workers, teachers. There's really no end to the person that would be a candidate, so to speak, to be a trafficker."

Like Childs, many of the girls working in the sex trafficking industry come from abusive homes.

"They're coming from the foster care system. They are coming to us as runaways, children with no places to go. Children who have been victimized - sexual molestation, abuse, neglect," Rosetti explained.

Experts say the majority of the girls rescued from the streets will need long term recovery.

Exposing a Toxic Culture

Ministries in the Kansas City area are stepping up to answer the call.

"I got to be part of a two-some who provided chaplaincy services for one victim who wanted somebody to pray with after she got brought in," said Wendy Andrews, who serves on the leadership team for The Kansas City Boiler Room.

"There's a holistic approach that needs to be provided for these clients who come in on these cases," Andrews explained. "And I think that it's absolutely essential that a spiritual component of ministry or healing in the Holy Spirit is going to be necessary for their full recovery and health."

Exodus Cry is an international anti-trafficking organization committed to ending human trafficking and modern day slavery, They are headquartered in Kansas City, Mo., and recently opened a shelter for rescued victims of human trafficking.

The group is also working on a documentary that exposes the undercurrent of injustice beneath the surface of sex tourism. Benjamin Nolot, the group's founder, explained why they made the film.

"The issue of human trafficking is just exploding," he said. "Part of our goal in the documentary is to expose the toxic culture that we live in."

"We don't just want to say, 'Hey, look. Isn't this awful?'" Nolot continued. "We want to ask questions to get people thinking and really bring abut a grassroots movement, a purity revolution where we would literally raise up a 'see-no-evil' generation, a generation that says I don't want to see it."

One of the Lucky Ones

Meanwhile, Childs admits she is one of the lucky ones. She is working hard to help others break free from a life of sex trafficking.

"The girls that are making it out," she says, "They are miracles in every way."

Human traffickers supply nail-salon workers

2010-08-19T09:18:00.000-07:00

By Alan Johnson
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

What is described as a multimillion-dollar human-trafficking scheme is operating out of nail salons in Ohio, with immigrants from Southeast Asia - many of them illegal - being forced to work as "indentured servants" in exchange for passage to the U.S.

Kevin L. Miller, executive director of the Ohio Board of Cosmetology, said he expects "indictments and arrests" statewide in the next 60 days or so. State and local law-enforcement agencies, the FBI, Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement are investigating, he said.

The legal problems involve human trafficking, illegal immigration, identify theft, fraudulent license testing and potential national security threats, said Miller, who added that he could not provide specifics because of the ongoing investigation.

The matter came up at yesterday's meeting of the Ohio Trafficking in Persons Study Commission, convened by Attorney General Richard Cordray.

"It's a huge concern in most jurisdictions around the state of Ohio," Cordray said.

The cosmetology board annually licenses 145,000 people who work in nail shops, hair salons and tanning parlors.

"We're talking just in the state of Ohio about thousands of people who have fraudulently got their licenses," Miller said.

He told the commission that immigrants from Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries, often brought illegally to the U.S. for a price, are given "laundered" false identities, including fake high-school diplomas, driver's licenses, immigration papers and other documents.

The employee then becomes an "indentured servant," working for the employer for two years for little or sometimes no money to pay off their debt. Often, the employees are required to live on the premises. The agency documented one case where 16 licensees lived at the same address.

Neither Miller nor Cordray commented specifically about homeland security issues. However, in his report to the commission, Miller referred by means of background to Najibullah Zazi, an al-Qaida operative who plotted to blow up New York subway stations using chemicals found in nail polish remover and hair dye.

The problem of illegal immigrants working in nail salons has cropped up in the past in Ohio and nationwide, but little has been done.

"It's easy to hide in plain sight," Miller said. "If they can get a driver's license, an address, a place where they went to school, they're all set."

The human-trafficking commission also discussed the need for more training for Ohio law-enforcement agencies. A majority of agencies which responded to a 2009 survey doubted their ability to recognize signs of human and labor trafficking; all wanted more training.

Lt. Matt Warren, head of the State Highway Patrol's criminal intelligence unit and a member of the human-trafficking panel, cited two cases in 2009 when training paid off in rescuing underage girls who were likely to become trafficking victims.

He said a trooper stopped an Idaho trucker for speeding near Athens last year and was suspicious about the 17-year-old girl in the passenger seat. Trained to recognize the signs of human trafficking, the trooper began asking questions and found the trucker was a sex offender who met the mentally challenged teenager online, picked her up in Marion and was transporting her when he was stopped for the traffic violation.

Similarly, a seemingly routine stop rescued a 17-year-old Detroit girl who was being trafficked at truck stops in the Lima and Dayton areas.

Source

15 Men Arrested in Undercover Child Sex Sting in Florida

2010-08-16T15:33:00.000-07:00

By Diane Macedo
Published August 16, 2010| FoxNews.com

Fifteen men allegedly looking to have sex with underage girls were arrested in an undercover sting in Florida over the weekend, law enforcement authorities said.

The suspects were arrested between Thursday and Sunday and charged with traveling to meet a minor for sex or related crimes, during an extensive undercover operation conducted by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, along with state and federal officials.

Police said 12 of the 15 suspects responded to ads authorities posted on Craigslist that shared the common theme “mom or dad seeking guidance for my daughter” for girls between 10 and 14 years old. The other three used chat rooms.

After the suspects answered the ads, they engaged undercover detectives in emails, instant messages and telephone calls, during which time the detectives told the suspects to come to an undercover location in Polk County, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said.

“These men expressed specific desires to prey upon who they believed were innocent children,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said in a press conference Monday.

One of the suspects, Brandon Cashen, 31, asked a detective if she had a daughter younger than the one advertised, and when she said she had an 8-year-old, expressed a desire to have sex with the younger daughter, the sheriff's office said.

“Some of the men even sent pornographic images of themselves to the detectives and made very specific requests about what they wanted these children to do to them,” Judd said.

When the suspects arrived at the undercover location, they were met not by children wearing lingerie, but by undercover agents in vests, who placed the men under arrest.

"It's still a shock to me …when we have a predator show up with condoms in one hand and candy bars in the other hand," Judd said at a press conference Monday afternoon.

Judd said one of the agents was shocked to discover that a suspect, 33-year-old Tommy Dupre, had been his son's former baseball coach.

"This gentleman coached youth sports baseball in Lakeland. Our undercover sergeant recognized him because he coached his son 8-10 years of age," Judd said.

The suspects range in age from 18 to 67. Six of the suspects, including Cashen, are married, and one has six children of his own and one on the way, Judd said.

Cashen’s wife was shocked to hear the news of her husband’s arrest, Judd said, and told police, “He can rot in hell before I bond him out of jail.”

The wife of Kevin Scott, 35, had similar sentiments, telling police, “I never want to see him again, I don’t want my children see him again, I hope he rots in jail for life.”

Judd said the oldest suspect, Donald Knuckles, said he'd waited his entire life for the opportunity to have sex with a 14-year-old girl and her mother.

Another, Gregory Alan Archambault II, 32, "bragged that when he was 16 he had sex with an 8-year-old girl, and when he was 21 he had sex with a 12-year-old girl," Judd said.

Authorities are now investigating "to see if we can determine when they may have victimized other children along the way … to make sure we charge them with everything we can charge them with," Judd said.

Members of the Tenth Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office, State Attorney Jerry Hill, Attorney General Bill McCollum’s Office, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office, the Lakeland Police Department and the Plant City Police Department also contributed to the operation.

Source

A story of modern slavery in Utah

2010-08-16T04:47:00.000-07:00

By Lee Davidson
Deseret News

SALT LAKE CITY — Chan, a short man but strong from a lifetime of labor in rice fields, tells how he blundered into a trap when he left Thailand to work abroad. In fact, the U.S. government officially calls him, in diplomatic parlance, a victim of "human trafficking."

Chan is more blunt. "We were slaves," he says about himself and scores of fellow Thai workers.

He says their employer controlled their movement. If they failed to work long and hard, the employer could ensure that their families back home would lose everything. Housing lacked enough heat in freezing winters and air conditioning in scorching summers. They repeatedly went hungry and even trapped wild birds to subsist.

That did not occur in Sudan, Burma or some other infamous Third World slavery abyss.

It happened in Utah — from 2005 to 2007 for a group of workers from Thailand who eventually managed to get help, freedom and a new life in America.

With their experiences as a starting base, the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating what could become the largest human trafficking case in U.S. history.

At the center of scrutiny is Global Horizons, a Los Angeles-based company that recruited people in Thailand for farm work in the United States. It eventually placed some of them with two Utah companies: Circle Four pig farms in Milford and at Delta Eggs chicken farms in Delta.

Chan, Bon, Tin and Rong — all pseudonyms because they and their lawyer fear extended families in Thailand could be targeted because they are talking to the press — look like Americans now.

The skinny men wear polo shirts or T-shirts, blue jeans and sneakers. Their haircuts are American-style. They grin as they talk about America and its opportunities, sounding like politicians on the Fourth of July. One of their T-shirts even says "American Tradition" and has an eagle on it. Tin just came from a job interview in the land of opportunity.

They share their stories while seated around a polished conference table at Utah Legal Services, a nonprofit that gives legal aid to the poor. They say that agency and attorney Alex McBean rescued them and won them "T visas" from the Department of Homeland Security as victims of human trafficking. Those visas allow them to stay in America and seek permanent residency.

The four tell how they were conned into what sounded like a good deal to work in America, only to land in modern slavery in Utah. They became victims of human trafficking even though each had worked abroad previously without problems on farms and in factories in such countries as Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore and Israel.

(parts removed)

The workers say they arrived legally in America at different times in 2004 and 2005 with H-2A visas for agricultural work. Such visas are good only as long as workers remain with the employer that obtained them, which in this case was Global Horizons. If workers tried to leave Global, they would lose their legal status.

Workers were sent to farms nationwide and at first were not in Utah (where their slavery story later would worsen and then end).

(parts removed)

Chan added, "They did not allow us to go outside and get to know anyone. And they did not allow outsiders to come into the premises. It made it hard for us to live in that confinement." They didn't have a lot of time to socialize anyway, working 10 hours a day, six days a week — not counting long commute times.

While no guards kept them in their trailers, workers say that Global Horizons supervisors constantly warned that if they broke the rules, they would be sent home — and their families would be ruined.

(parts removed)

The Thais in Utah may be just the tip of the iceberg of human trafficking. Between 2001 and 2008, the Justice Department convicted 515 people on human trafficking charges. Last year, it convicted another 47.

The federal government last year issued 313 "T visas" to foreigners considered victims of human trafficking in America and another 273 visas to members of their families. Also, 299 potential victim-witnesses were granted continued presence in the country while awaiting final visa decisions.

A report this summer by the State Department acknowledged to the world that America has a problem with human trafficking, "specifically forced labor, debt bondage and forced prostitution."

It describes some problems much the same way as do the Thai workers in Utah.

"In some human trafficking cases, workers are victims of fraudulent recruitment practices and have incurred large debts for promised employment in the United States, which makes them susceptible to debt bondage and involuntary servitude," the report said.

It adds, "Trafficking cases also involve passport confiscation, nonpayment or limited payment of wages, restriction of movement, isolation from the community, and physical and sexual abuse as a means of keeping victims in compelled service."

See the entire article here.

Kudos to Avon for being socially responsible!

2010-07-17T13:32:00.000-07:00

Avon mark. Launches the Brand’s First Fair Trade Body Collection

New York, NY (July 14, 2010) --- Avon's mark. the beauty brand that celebrates remarkable young women who are making their mark in the world, will introduce the mark. Fair Trade Body Collection in August 2010. The Fair Trade ingredients in the products are certified by TransFair USA, the primary third-party certifier of Fair Trade products in the United States.

The collection features Fair Trade Certified™ ingredients from countries across the globe, making the products not only good for the body, but also good for every body. The four beauty products are all priced at 14 dollars and below. With this new body care line, mark. is leading the charge to bring Fair Trade beauty products to the U.S. market.

The mark. Fair Trade Body Collection consists of four body care products including a cleanser, body lotion, body cream and body balm. These body-loving products contain naturally derived ingredients to soothe, hydrate, comfort and care for skin while protecting with anti-oxidants. Their formulas incorporate the world’s highest-quality Fair Trade Certified™ ingredients sourced from countries across the globe such as Vanilla from India, Cocoa butter from Peru, and Chamomile from Egypt. All products are fragrance free, allergy tested, and appropriate for all skin types.

The Fair Trade system empowers farming families around the world to lift themselves out of poverty by investing in their farms and communities, protecting the environment, and helping them develop the business skills necessary to compete in the global marketplace. “Fair Trade certification enables consumers to contribute to a better world with their dollars, simply by looking for the Fair Trade Certified label on the products they buy,” says Maya Spaull, Senior Manager, New Category Development, TransFair USA. “mark.’s new Fair Trade products will empower women to make their purchases matter because it guarantees fair prices to farmers and social justice for the workers who harvest the Fair Trade ingredients.”

“Beyond being an on-trend beauty and fashion boutique brand, mark.'s mission is one of social responsibility and empowerment, and that is what the Fair Trade Body Collection is all about,” says Claudia Poccia, Global President, mark.. "Our mark. Reps have high ideals and are always looking for new ways to make a positive difference. We couldn't pass up the opportunity that would allow us to improve the lives of people around the world while meeting the body care needs of mark. girls' like never before through the use of Fair Trade Certified ingredients."

The mark. Fair Trade Body Collection will be available through mark.’s 50,000 plus Representatives, Avon Representatives, online at www.meetmark.com and the shop tab on the “mark. girl” Facebook Page.

About mark.

mark. is the on-trend beauty and fashion boutique brand that celebrates young women making their mark in their own way, on their own terms. mark. offers an expertly edited collection of edgy, customizable and affordable fashion and beauty products for trendy, young women, and it is the number two trend brand in the world, catering to young women who are digital natives and who choose to socially connect with friends via text and online communities, like Facebook and Twitter.

About TransFair USA

TransFair USA, a nonprofit organization, is the leading third-party certifier of Fair Trade products in the United States. TransFair USA audits and certifies transactions between U.S. companies and their international suppliers to guarantee that the farmers and workers producing Fair Trade Certified goods were paid fair prices and wages. TransFair USA educates consumers, brings new manufacturers and retailers into the Fair Trade system, and provides farmers with tools, training and resources to thrive as international businesspeople. Visit www.transfairusa.org for more information.

Contact:
Erin Wolf, Kaplow / 212.221.1713
Kimberly Waite, mark. / 212.282.8196

Source

There's no human trafficking in my community, right?

2010-07-17T13:14:00.000-07:00

This is just one of many misconceptions associated with the problem of human trafficking. Several weeks ago, The New York Times reported that eight people were indicted in Brooklyn, NY on charges that include sex trafficking or promoting prostitution of women and girls as young as 15 years of age. So it is happening here under our noses; a simple Google search reveals similar activities all around the country, not just in our biggest city.

In fact, estimates put the number of American kids under the age of 18 who are victimized by child prostitution at anywhere from 100,000 to 300,000. This is not just prostitution – it’s human trafficking on a grand scale… domestic minor sex trafficking to be exact.

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof nailed it in a recent column when he wrote: “Human trafficking tends to get ignored because it is an indelicate, sordid topic, with troubled victims who don’t make great poster children for family values. Indeed, many of the victims are rebellious teenage girls — often runaways — who have been in trouble with their parents and the law, and at times they think they love their pimps.”

Our domestic problems mirror global problems. After drug dealing, the “trafficking of humans” is tied with arms dealing as the second largest criminal industry in the world, with an estimated 17,000 trafficked people arriving on our shores every year.

And it’s all too easy for all of us to just turn our heads away from the problem.

A valuable first step in dealing with human trafficking is dealing with the myths associated with human trafficking.

■Victims of trafficking are all foreign born. Not true. Since 2006, the “Innocence Lost National Initiative,” collaboration between the FBI, the Justice Department’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, has rescued 900 U.S. children trafficked into prostitution.
■Human trafficking is just another term for the sex trafficking. Not true. According to a recent report from the US Department of State, three-quarters of identified foreign adult trafficking victims were trafficked for forced labor.
■Existing laws are enough to address the problem of human trafficking. They aren’t. Given the state of existing laws and resources to combat trafficking globally, it is estimated that only one person is convicted of trafficking for every 800 trafficking victims. Part of the reason for a lack of complete data on human trafficking can be attributed to a lack of anti-trafficking legislation and/or legislation that is narrow in scope.
■If trafficked individuals were truly victims they would just walk away. That’s hard to do. Traffickers use threats of violence to trap their victims and often convince them that seeking help from local law enforcement will result in incarceration.
Generating awareness of the problem of human trafficking and educating the public on how it can be prevented has been an important initiative for various Junior Leagues around the country for the past several years. Only recently has the issue become a topic of interest in the media and state politicians on how to solve this growing problem in their communities.

Welcome to the fight.

Source

Call to Action: Support Critical Legislation to Protect Victims and End Sex Trafficking in the US

2010-07-16T12:03:00.000-07:00

Please join us in supporting two critical federal human trafficking bills:

“Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act of 2010” (H.R.5575)

"The Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act of 2009" (S.2925)

What the Bills Will Do:

These bipartisan bills will help provide holistic, multidisciplinary approaches to bring law enforcement, non-profits and agencies together to combat the commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking of children in the US. Block grants will fund collaborative programs in up to six regionally diverse areas across the U.S. Each grant will help increase victim services while increasing law enforcement resources to investigate and prosecute traffickers. Outreach and awareness efforts are also supported. The bill also makes improvements to the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) system which can better track homeless and runaway youth who are extremely vulnerable to commercial sexual exploitation.

What You Can Do:

Please see the two attached documents (from Polaris Project) on how to contact your representatives and advocate for each bill. Sample messages are included in the documents.

HR5755SexTraffickingBillAdvocacy.pdf

S2925SexTraffickingBillAdvocacy.pdf

Over 50 Haitians Found Enslaved in Florida's Farms

2010-07-09T05:56:00.001-07:00

While there has been much discussion of the increased human trafficking in Haiti following the earthquake, 2010 is by no means the beginning of slavery for Haitian people. This week, court documents were unsealed which indicate over 50 Haitian nationals were trafficked to the U.S. and forced into farm work in 2008. And what the traffickers did to keep their slaves hidden from prying eyes was extraordinary, if not uncommon in modern-day slavery.

Three Haitian nationals, one of whom had been a long-time farm worker in the South Florida area, were accused of trafficking dozens of their countrymen into the U.S. to force them into farm labor. Back in Haiti, the workers were offered lucrative jobs with the U.S. guest worker program (which, incidentally, has been often criticized for its frequent use in human trafficking). The visas were false, though. Once in the U.S., workers' travel documents were confiscated, effectively confining them to their work sites. They suffered from poor food and sanitation conditions, and were made to work in fields so recently sprayed with chemicals that some of them left with permanent scars. One of the female workers even reported being raped on the job.

When the farms where the workers were enslaved were inspected by federal agents, the traffickers forced the men and women to put on drumming and dancing shows for the inspectors, threatening that anyone who didn't look happy would be deported to Haiti. They also hid workers at a nearby Walmart to fool inspectors as to the number of people working on the farm and how much they were being paid. During the rare times inspectors were able to communicate with the workers, one of the traffickers acted as interpreter, claiming that the federal inspectors gave them permission to withhold food from the workers. Eventually, however, the inspectors and local law enforcement were able to identify the horrible and dangerous working conditions, and arrested those responsible. But for too long, Haitian slaves remained hidden in plain view.

One of the most interesting elements of this case is the lengths traffickers will go to to hide their crime from the authorities. This is one of the major reason human trafficking is so hard to identify. In this case, the exploiters employed smart and creative techniques to hide their abuse from inspectors. Forcing the workers to smile and perform is especially effective, because who would suspect someone is a slave if he's smiling and playing the drums? And despite the abuses in the U.S., deportation back to Haiti was a very real threat to these workers, and when their only way to communicate with people who might help them is through their exploiter's interpretation, well, you can imagine how hopeless that must feel. The deception in this case may sound extraordinary, but these are not uncommon steps for traffickers to take to protect the financial investment in their slaves.

The Haitian workers are now getting services, including rape crisis counseling, from a number of South Florida agencies. And the three men who brought them to the U.S. face charges of forced labor and fraud.

Photo credit: treessftf

Source

New Alabama Law

2010-07-09T05:44:00.000-07:00

Human trafficking is now a felony in Alabama since the state passed its first law addressing the issue June 25 and began being enforced July 1.

The law defines a victim of human trafficking as anyone who is put through sexual servitude, labor servitude or involuntary servitude.

Polaris Project is an anti-human trafficking organization proclaiming the mission of a world without slavery. According to the organization’s website, human trafficking is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world.

Polaris Project’s Policy Council Consult, Kristen Fortin, said the organization’s hotline has received 54 calls from people in Alabama since December 2007, with 13 referencing potential human trafficking situations within the state.

“It’s very difficult to come by statistics,” Fortin said.

She explained the only statistics they have are those based on calls that have been made, as human trafficking is a hidden crime.

State Rep. Jack Williams said there are no statistics relating to the occurrence of human trafficking in Alabama because, until recently, it was not a state crime.

Fortin said a lot of legislators don’t realize human trafficking is an issue in their state, which is why some states don’t have laws against it. But anyone can be subject to trafficking.

“It’s basically anyone who is vulnerable,” Fortis said, providing examples of potential victims such as children, runaways and immigrants.

Williams provided an example of how an illegal immigrant could get caught up in human trafficking: Someone may offer them a way to get to America and ensure they have a job. So that person is brought in illegally and forced into servitude through threats of turning them in or of harming their family.

Alabama’s new law is the most comprehensive anti-human trafficking law in the country.

According to the law, in the first degree, human trafficking will be considered a Class A felony, punishable by 10 years to life in prison. In the second degree, it will be a Class B felony, punishable by 10 to 20 years in prison.

The law continues by listing the various fines anyone violating the law will be subject to. Some of the fines include mandatory restitution to the victim, costs of medical and psychological treatment, costs of the investigation and whichever is greater: minimum wage for the trafficking victim’s labor or the gross value of the victim’s servitude.

The law also states victims may bring civil action in state courts, potentially being awarded actual damages, punitive damages and appropriate forms of relief.

“We were very closely involved with the legislation that passed,” Fortin said.

However, she continued by saying she would have liked to see raising awareness of the issue and informing people of what to do when they are involved in or aware of human trafficking incorporated into the law.

The easiest way to view Alabama’s anti-trafficking bill in its entirety is to do a Google search for “Alabama HB 432.”

To report a tip on human trafficking, contact the Polaris Project National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888.

Read more: The Auburn Plainsman - Human Trafficking Becomes a Felony in Alabama

Source

Confronting Child Sex Tourism

2010-07-08T04:57:00.000-07:00

7/7/2010 – Child sex tourism is an urgent child rights issue throughout the world, but especially in Southeast Asia, as recent arrests in Thailand have demonstrated.

Despite the efforts of many governments to enact legislation that prohibits their citizens from engaging in child prostitution abroad, many children continue to suffer sexual abuse by locals, visitors and ex-pats.

For instance, the US created the Protect Act in 2003, which doles out a possible 30-year prison stay to an US citizen engaging in sexual acts with anyone under 18 years old abroad. In Canada too, engaging in any sexual act concerning children is illegal. However, a high-profile Russian pianist was apprehended and charged with raping a 14-year old boy in Thailand today. Mikhail Pletnev could face up to 20 years in prison and 40,000 baht in fines. And less than two weeks ago, a 90-year old Australian man, Karl Kraus, was apprehended by police for the sexual abuse—including child pornography—of four Thai girls (aged 5 to 12).

Thailand is a source, transit and destination country according to the US Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report. Thai girls may be trafficked to other Southeast Asia countries, South Africa, Europe, North America and Australia. Those coming into Thailand may originate from East Asia, Russia and Eurasian countries. Not all, but many, girls are trafficked by international networks of organized crime. Thailand’s 1997 Prevention and Suppression of Trafficking in Women and Children Act makes the sexual exploitation of children a crime punishable by 5-20 years imprisonment for exploiting children under 15 years old in addition to financial penalties.

In nearby Cambodia, 30, 000 children suffer from commercial sexual exploitation. Children as young as 5 years old are used as sex slaves. As in Thailand, they are magnets for child sex tourism, which is illegal in the country. In 2004, it was estimated that roughly a third of all prostitutes in Cambodia were children.

In the entire Mekong region of Southeast Asia, roughly 35% of all sex workers are between 12 and 17 years old.

Worldwide, more than 2 million children are victimized by the commercial sex industry. They have been sold by family members to pay debts or earn some extra cash, kidnapped, or otherwise coerced into the sex trade. These children are a high-risk group for sexually-transmitted diseases. More often than not, they face destitution in addition to prostitution, rejected by or estranged from their families and communities.

Child prostitution is only one aspect of the global child rights challenge of child trafficking. Girls may also be trafficked for mail-order-brides and domestic help. Both girls and boys may be trafficked for labour, sexual exploitation and work in the drug industry. Those interested in child protection might consult the 2009 “Training Manual to Fight Trafficking in Children” produced by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and UNICEF.

Source

Documentary Screening

2010-07-06T09:47:00.000-07:00

The Anti-Slavery Project is hosting a screening of the documentary DEMAND. by Shared Hope International. We will also have a presentation on what human trafficking is and what we are doing to combat it.

If you know someone in south Georgia or north Florida, please forward this to them!

July 29th, 6pm, at CrossPointe Church on Northside Drive and Patterson. Admission is free!

This is for adults and mature teens only!

Protest Craigslist

2010-06-29T09:27:00.000-07:00

Join us on Thursday, July 8, 2010 to protest Craigslist at their San Francisco Headquarters!

Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) in partnership with Prostitution Research and Education (PRE) and other co-sponsors will be holding a protest in front of Craigslist Headquarters in San Francisco to bring attention to Craigslist’s facilitation of and profiting from sex trafficking. “Craigslist continues to cynically profit by functioning as an online pimp,” says Norma Ramos, Executive Director of CATW. “Craigslist is the new stroll where pimps traffic, johns buy and Craigslist profits,” says Melissa Farley, Executive Director, PRE.

Craigslist is projected to realize a 22% increase in revenue -- an estimated $36 million in 2010 -- largely attributable to its functioning as a virtual red light district for pimps/traffickers and johns. Craigslist displays a reckless disregard for human rights by increasingly becoming a part of the sex industry. Craigslist could act to create a sex trafficking free internet by no longer hosting prostitution ads and thereby setting an industry standard.

We invite you to join CATW, PRE and other co-sponsors at our protest to hold Craigslist accountable for facilitating and profiting from the rank exploitation of others.

When: Thursday, July 8, 2010
Where: Craigslist Headquarters at 1381 9th Avenue (between Judah and Irving Streets), San Francisco, CA 94122
Time: 12:00 – 2:00PM

Craigslist Protest Cosponsors:
Equality Now
Breaking Free
Men Stopping Violence
Dayton Human Trafficking Accords
UNANIMA International
The Temple Committee Against Human Trafficking
The Barnaba Institute
Global Centurion
NOW-NYC
The Rebecca Project for Human Rights
Stop Porn Culture
Media Watch
Would you like to be listed as a sponsor of this event?

* Please help get the word out by sharing or e-mailing this notice to your contact list

ASP Screening

2010-06-24T05:51:00.001-07:00

The Anti-Slavery Project is hosting a human trafficking screening on July 29th, 6pm, at CrossPointe Church in Valdosta, GA. If you know someone in south Georgia or north Florida who would like to attend, please pass on the info to them.

Let's keep the movement going!

The Anti-Slavery Project

2010-06-08T05:55:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a while. There are some great things happening with the Anti-Slavery Project. I'm please to say that the "blog" has now become an anti-trafficking abolishtionist group. We have several people who have joined who have a passion for eradicating slavery in our own backyards, in our state, nationally, and globally. I'm excited to see the things we can accomplish together!

Shortly, we will have a website as well as this blog. I hope you will continue to follow and that you will spread the word.

Blessings!

Trafficking issue too close for comfort

2010-04-20T05:28:00.000-07:00

Human trafficking has been a global issue for many years. Children in third world countries are coerced into bondage and forced to perform manual labor as well as various forms of sexual slavery for their owner’s personal monetary gains.

However, what is not as well-known is the presence of these practices not only within the borders of our nation, but also within the borders of our state.
Mark Elam, the executive director of Oklahomans Against Trafficking of Humans, gave an emotional presentation in Willard Hall on Wednesday evening.

OATH is a non-profit organization based in Oklahoma that actively takes part in fighting human bondage within the state.

The goal of this presentation was simple: to raise awareness of the issue that receives little to no public recognition in Oklahoma.

John Foubert, a professor in the department of educational studies at OSU, put the event together with the help of OSU graduate student Sasha Carter. Foubert said he plans to hold a similar presentation on the topic every semester.

“There has been a dramatic rise in victims of sexual trafficking, and it’s flying under the radar,” Foubert said. “Awareness is the key, and it is extremely important to start a first step in the right direction.”
Many of these horrific practices are taking place not too far from the place we call home. In his speech, Elam said there was a case in Edmond where 10 12-year-old boys were servicing grown men for $1,000 each.

“Human trafficking is the No. 1 crime in the United States right now,” Elam said. “It is the most profitable and is the fastest-growing crime within our borders.”

The locality of this issue was greatly stressed during the presentation, noting that OATH has run more than 100 cases in the Oklahoma City area, at least one in every county in Oklahoma as well as two in Stillwater – and that’s just the cases that have been reported.

According to the statistics given in the presentation, 200,000 children are sexually exploited every year, and a child is reported missing every 20 seconds in the U.S. Furthermore, the Department of Justice reported in 2003 the largest number of human trafficking survivors are found in California, New York, Texas and Oklahoma.

Recently on campus, the International Justice Mission put on a display titled “Loose Change to Loosen Chains.” Many students walked around populated areas of campus wearing chains around their bodies asking for donations.

“We are using these donations to help fund investigations and to help in any way that we can and every chance we get,” IJM Secretary Angela Colwell said. “This topic is in its awareness stage and that’s exactly what we are trying to promote.”

The people of OATH and IJM are asking the same thing: for people to get involved. For more information, go to www.oathcoalition.org or speak with an IJM member on campus.

Source

Human Trafficking in Atlanta

2010-04-11T13:24:00.001-07:00

2010-04-11T13:19:00.000-07:00

Man busted for trafficking wife

2010-03-19T05:07:00.000-07:00

By Michael Sheridan
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Thursday, March 18th 2010, 3:43 PM

A Minnesota man has been busted in Chicago for pimping out his wife via craigslist — and allegedly threatened to hurt their 3-year-old daughter if she didn't obey.

Clinton Danner, 32, was charged with pandering after he traveled to the Windy City in order to allegedly punish his wife for failing to keep her sexual appointments, which authorities claim he arranged.

"He told her in a phone call that he was very disappointed in the amount of money she had collected during the weekend," the Cook County sheriff's office said in a statement, "and was personally driving up to get her so he could express that disappointment."

Danner allegedly used craigslist to book clients in eight different states, including New York, Florida and Georgia, as well as Washington, D.C.

He would travel with her and their 3-year-old girl, living in a minivan, while the woman engaged in sex for money, officials said.

Danner began pimping his wife, whose name has not been released, when she became pregnant four years ago, said Assistant Cook County State's Attorney Erin Antonietti.

"He met his wife when he was 27 and she was 17 while he was her church youth counselor," Antonietti told the court during Danner's bond hearing on Wednesday.

"She became pregnant with his child and he continued to pimp her out while she was pregnant."

Authorities claim he forced her to have sex with strangers in Minnesota, but in the past six months expanded his business nationwide, flying her to different locations for rendezvous with men.

The woman had attempted to flee but feared for her child's safety.

"The victim indicated said Danner regularly threatened he would take the child away from her or harm the child if she did not comply with his demands that she prostitute herself on his behalf," said a sheriff's office statement.

"As part of his efforts, Danner never allowed the woman to be left alone with the child."

Danner's wife eventually reached out to the Polaris Project, an organization that combats human trafficking, which led her to the Department of Women's Justice Services, part of the sheriff's department.

"The victim was initially apprehensive about working with DWJS staff and spent the weekend carrying out some of her husband's orders," the sheriff's office statement said. "But during that time, she agreed to work with DWJS."

When Danner arrived in Chicago on Sunday, he was arrested. The child was with him, and both she and her mother are now together, authorities said.

Danner, who has prior convictions for lottery fraud, narcotics and burglary, is being held on $150,000 bail.

original article from MyDailyNews.com

Massage Parlors in Macon

2010-03-17T05:31:00.000-07:00

The Outdoor Advertising Association of Georgia

Meanwhile, the fight over billboards continues. The Outdoor Advertising Association of Georgia, which represents 65 percent of billboards statewide, points its members to a voluntary code of ethics that opposes ads that are false, misleading, in poor taste, sexually explicit or overly suggestive, said Executive Director Conner Poe. The group hopes to tighten the state’s standards for obscenities, and praised state Sen. Cecil Staton, a Macon Republican, for trying to crack down on massage parlors.

One provision of Staton’s bill would make it a felony on the third offense to offer massages or advertising massages without being a licensed massage therapist. Violators could be fined $25,000 and spend one to five years in jail.

Some of Macon’s massage parlors have removed the name “massage” from their advertising and names, but remnants exist. Four Seasons Sauna lists massages on business cards and its menu of offerings.iuseyhrw Soft Hands Massage & Spa is changing its name to one involving tanning, but keeps a Web site, phone listing and a billboard listing the old name.

MG ALERT is still targeting billboards from CBS Outdoor, Olympus Outdoor Advertising and InSite Media.

Olympus doesn’t think the removal of inoffensive billboard advertisements would end prostitution and human trafficking, Marketing Director Renata McCreary said in a statement.

“While Olympus does not condone illegal activities, as long as these businesses are still operating, we have to assume they are legal and have the right to advertise,” she wrote. “If the businesses are operating illegally, it is up to the authorities to shut them down.”

The governments of Macon and Bibb County are both considering stricter business regulations for massage parlors.

Efforts elsewhere have eliminated many of the businesses.

McCreary said Olympus will continue to monitor the situation.

InSite Media President Glenn Flutie said last week he hadn’t heard of MG ALERT’s efforts, but said, “If there’s human trafficking, we want nothing to do with that.”

The company’s lawyer, Marlyn Friend, later said the company also was “against the exploitation of minors (and others) in sexual activity.”

He refused to comment on the controversy or say whether the company would no longer accept massage-parlor ads.

Source

Local Woman Helps Daughter Heal, Works To Toughen Sex Trafficking Laws

2010-03-12T06:38:00.000-08:00

For terrifying 8 days, Vicki Zito had no idea where her daughter was; if she was dead or alive.
"People are coming to Sacramento for the purpose of having sex with children. Do they know what they're doing? Of course they do," Zito said.

At 17 her daughter was held captive by a human trafficker and sold over Craig's List for sex. The FBI finally found her at a Motel 6 in Fremont.

"In the eyes of the law, justice has been served. In eyes of a mother of a victim..." Zito finishes the thought be shaking her head 'no.'

That's why she's behind a push to make human trafficking a more serious crime. In California right now, the man who kept her daughter captive would only face 4 to 8 years in prison. That would become a possible life sentence. And, under the new law, the money he made would be used to help victims of trafficking.

Because what we all want to hear right now is the happiest possible ending to a horrible story.

"We are doing the best we can. She is doing the best she can to try to recover and move on with this. Is she okay? I wish I could say she's okay. Because emotionally she's not okay. And as her mom, I will never be okay until I can say my child's okay," Zito said.

Copyright © 2010, KTXL-TV

What's a Prostitute got to do with it?

2010-03-08T04:48:00.000-08:00

Everyone has heard of prostitutes. According to the Refdesk.com dictionary, a prostitute is:

1. a woman who engages in sexual intercourse for money
2. a man who engages in such activity, esp in homosexual practices
3. a person who offers his talent or work for unworthy purposes

We see "prostitutes" in any number of situations: on the street soliciting would-be buyers, in the strip clubs offering a little extra for a lot extra, in the massage parlors where a buyer can get a "special" massage.

Now, according to Refdesk, the term "victim" is:

1. a person or thing that suffers harm, death, etc., from another or from some adverse act, circumstance, etc. victims of tyranny
2. a person who is tricked or swindled; dupe
3. a living person or animal sacrificed in a religious rite

How many women do you know who actually chose the life of a prostitute. Granted, there are some. But the majority of women and girls out there selling their bodies for money are NOT prostitutes - they are victims!

From the earliest days of any rudimentary society, women have been the "weaker" sex. They have been dominated by men, forced to live in men's shadows, at the mercy of the rules of society that men created for their own entertainment and well-being.

And in the year 2010, it is still happening!

Women have come a long way since those medeival days. But, just how far exactly? The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s shot equal rights for women to the forefront of mainstream society's mind. On the surface, everything looks great, wonderful. We may even have a woman for president in a few years.

But, what about those prostitutes? The ones society thinks of as dirty, soiled, disease-infested. What about her? Do you think if she'd had a choice she would have chosen that life? Would you? Do you think if she'd been offered a way out of her abused childhood, if someone had taken a positive interest in her, that she would have succumbed to the life of a prostitute? We can't really say for sure. But most likely, not.

Most of the prostitutes you see could have had a better life, which, under our US Constitution, is our man-made right. But so many of them have been suppressed and oppressed by the whims of men and women who have nothing but hate, greed, and evil in their hearts. And yet, the majority of our modern-day society just looks the other way - or even takes an active role in these womens' and childrens' suffering.

In my humble opinion, a prostitute is a person (man or woman) who sells their body for money of their own free will!

A prostituted victim is a person (man or woman or child) who sells their body for money under threat of violence from another (a pimp).

It's time this modern-day, educated society we must STOP thinking of prostitutes as willing - most are victims.

It's our time to take back what we've lost! Take back what they've lost!

It's YOUR time to take a stand against evil and atrosities that are committed against the weaker sex and children.

Get angry!

Don't stand for it!

Get involved!

Expect Not-So-Great Things in Kohl's Supply Chain

2010-03-06T06:10:00.001-08:00

In reading this article - I will boycott Kohl's until they make a significant difference in their supply chain!

Dear Kohl’s,

Over the last several years, I have fallen in love with you. In 2009, particularly, the clothes, shoes, and other home items I purchased -- armed with sales info and in-store coupons -- cemented my adoration. Add to the fantastic selection of products your charitable work, specifically in the form of Kohl’s Cares for Kids, through which the niftiest books are sold to benefit health and education programs in the U.S., and you have yourself a fan. Check Facebook: It’s true.

But then I read about your induction into the Sweatshop Hall of Shame. The International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) placed you on the 2010 roster for inaction regarding unsafe labor conditions at your Turkish linen supplier, Menderes Tekstil. Four people died at this factory. Who knows what other atrocities are going on there daily? You certainly don’t, because, in spite of efforts by the ILRF and other groups to reach out and assist with a review and cleanup of labor practices at Menderes Tesktil, you haven’t done a thing.

Incidentally, I discovered this information approximately two weeks after purchasing bed sheets in your online store. I was not pleased. The sheets are “dirty” in my mind, and needless to say, I have trouble sleeping on them at night.

A company that claims to care about customers and kids, while supporting dangerous factory conditions for the workers -– the people -– in its supply chain, is inconsistent, at best. At worst, it is exploitive, irresponsible and weak for looking the other way. You tell us to “expect great things,” Kohl’s, and I really do. Tackle the situation at Menderes Tekstil and show consumers you care about a cleaner supply chain.

Most sincerely,

Angela Longerbeam

Join me in telling Kohl’s CEO Kevin Mansell to combine forces with ILRF in reviewing, addressing and ultimately eliminating unsafe, unfair conditions for workers at Menderes Teskstil.
Photo credit: hattiesburgmemory

Sexual enslavement case: Church trip to Alabama and Georgia may have saved Guatamalan girl

2010-03-06T05:58:00.000-08:00

By Press-Register staff

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- A church trip to Alabama and Georgia in which a teen Guatemalan girl befriended an adult woman may have saved the teen from a tortured life of rape, beatings, field work and pornographic films across the South.

The News-Press of Fort Myers reports that 46-year-old Francisco Franciso Domingo of Immokalee, Fla., has been arrested and more arrests are possible in what prosecutors described as an horrific case of human trafficking and enslavement.

"It's an ongoing investigation, and we have many, many other leads to run down,"
Douglas Molloy, chief assistant U.S. attorney, said in the News-Press report. "Unfortunately, sexual slavery and indentured servitude are right in our neighborhoods and the fields adjacent to our neighborhoods."

Authorities said the break in the case came when a woman at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Immokalee befriended the girl and Domingo agreed to let the girl join the girl on a 4-day church trip to Alabama and Georgia.

When they returned to Immokalee, the girl told her friend she didn't want to go back to Domingo's house, confided she thought she might be pregnant and then began speaking to law enforcement officers. It was then she gave officers a memory card she managed to slip out of camera when she was left alone in a room that had been made into a makeshift pornography studio.

Mobile Modern-Day Slavery Museum Opens in Florida

2010-03-03T05:06:00.001-08:00

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) has come up with a creative and cost-effective way to educate Floridians that real slavery is still happening in their state -- a mobile educational museum dedicated to the topic. The free exhibition will tour the state, teaching about historical and current slavery and forced labor in the state's vast agricultural industry. But unlike a traditional museum, this one will actually offer solutions and actions Floridians can take to end slavery in their state.

Farm workers in Florida, most of whom are migrants, experience varying levels of exploitation in their industry, ranging from low wages and poor conditions to outright slavery. And when I say slavery, I mean slavery -- work for no pay under the threat of violence with the inability to leave.

Slavery in Florida is not limited to a few isolated incidences or a few "bad apple" companies. As leading modern-day slavery expert Kevin Bales put it, "There has never been a day in the history of Florida agriculture without some amount of slavery tainting the food grown there. That food leaves the hands of slaves and ends up in the meals we eat with our families."

One of the crops which has received the most attention for using slave labor is tomatoes. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers has been working for years to get companies to create zero-tolerance policies against buying tomatoes from companies that use slave labor and to improve wages and conditions for tomato pickers. Thus far, they've been successful in getting Whole Foods, Subway, McDonald’s, Burger King, and Yum! Brands, among others, to sign on. Currently, CIW is pushing Florida-based supermarket chain Publix to ban slave-grown tomatoes from their stores.

The new mobile modern-day slavery museum will be one tool they use to inspire consumers to demand action from Publix and other companies. It will also showcase the harshness of modern-day slavery; the museum is a cargo truck similar to that in which two workers were enslaved in. Family members locked those workers in truck when they were not working, and forced them to pay $5 to bathe. However, the only bathing facilities provided was a garden hose in the backyard. Workers in Florida have also faced beatings, threats of deportation, and sexual assault during their captivity.

You can check out a schedule of the museum's stops here. The tour will end with a march to Publix headquarters in Lakeland, Florida, to demand fair wages and a zero tolerance policy for slavery from the company.

article at End Human Trafficking

Photo credit: willsfca

Police Stop Three Human Trafficking Operations

2010-03-03T05:01:00.000-08:00

Montgomery County Police arrested 6 people involved in various human trafficking businesses that generated thousands of dollars across the D.C. area.

Police said 34 year-old Rodney Hubert, of New York, used three female associates to get a 15-year old girl to commit sex acts. The victim reportedly thought she was going on a modeling photo shoot. Instead, Hubert advertised the girl on Craigslist for prostitution, police said.

The women transported her from New York City to a Comfort Inn hotel in Silver Spring, Md., but police were able to track the group down with the help of some alert hotel employees.

"They saw a lot of foot traffic going in and out of one particular room," said detective Sgt. Ken Penrod.

Arrests Made in Human Trafficking
WATCH
Arrests Made in Human Trafficking
The three women and Hubert were arrested on several charges including human trafficking of a juvenile for prostitution, sexual abuse of a minor and second-degree child abuse.

On Feb. 24 police arrested 24-year-old Deangelo Bynum, of northeast Washington. Court documents show that Bynum used Facebook to try and recruit at least one minor for prostitution. Police said he communicated with the recruit through the social networking Web site, but when he traveled to meet her, the minor actually was an undercover Montgomery County detective, and Bynum is now behind bars.

Montgomery County detectives' last arrest came on Friday, when they nabbed 31-year-old Arash Koraganie Ghulam Abbas, of Germantown.

He is charged with multiple counts of human trafficking for running an Internet escort service that police said was really used for prostitution.

"He is the master of Internet escort sites," said Penrod.

Abbas is allegedly the son of an Afghan government official. Police said he also used Craigslist.

"With the blatant advertisement of prostitution, tou are just a fish in a barrel for us," said Penrod.

All of the suspects face a maximum of 10 years in jail for the human trafficking charges. If the charges involve minors, it goes up to 25 years in jail.

By ARLENE BORENSTEIN

2010-02-22T06:01:00.000-08:00

The Results are In: Sex Trafficking at the Superbowl

2010-02-21T15:33:00.000-08:00

by Amanda Kloer

categories: Child Prostitution, Pimping

Published February 17, 2010 @ 04:00PM PT

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about the incredible outreach efforts which took place in Miami to find child trafficking victims who were brought in and sold for sex during the Superbowl. This week, I checked in with Brad Dennis, Director of Search Operations for the KlaasKids Foundation, to see what the outreach team he was leading found. And the results are in! So far, their efforts have led to at least one arrest of a Hawaiian man who was importing kids to be sold in prostitution during the Superbowl. But more importantly, they may have prevented more children from being recruited by pimps.

The over 160 outreach workers who participated in the effort came away with little doubt that children were being sold for sex during the Superbowl. Throughout the four days of outreach, 23 direct contacts were made with potential commercial sexual exploitation victims. Local law enforcement personnel commented about the increase in numbers of potential victims, more than would usually be found in Miami at that time. There was also a significant increase in online advertisements such as Backpage.com and Craigslist.org. With all signs pointing to sex trafficking of children, the outreach team were able to find and pass on nine leads on potential child trafficking situations to law enforcement, for follow-up after the big game.

The greatest successes of the outreach, however, were the direct interventions and increased awareness of the issue. Six missing children were recovered during the outreach sweeps. Workers also directly intervened in four potentially dangerous situations, removing five girls from potential recruitment or exploitation by pimps. The other success story was the increase in awareness of child sex trafficking for local groups, law enforcement, faith-based organizations and through the media. If Miami during the Superbowl seemed like fruitful hunting ground for pimps looking to sell children into prostitution, they soon found out they were very wrong.

So sex trafficking of children does exist around the Superbowl, and local police commented that it seemed to be more prolific than usual during the big game. But without similar outreach efforts in Miami at other times, it's hard to state definitively that child sex trafficking increases around major sporting events like the Superbowl. The experience of KlaasKids Foundation and the outreach team in Miami certainly indicates a need for more research in this area.

If your home town is hosting a major sporting event and you're concerned that child sex trafficking might be coming into town with all the fans and vendors, there is something you can do. According to Brad Dennis, first become aware of the issue. Second, partner with organizations willing to train and deploy volunteers in an effort to educate and intervene on behalf of child sex trafficking victims. You can help prevent children from being exploited around major sporting events and help the anti-trafficking world better understand this phenomenon.

Thanks to Brad Dennis, KlaasKids Foundation, and the rest of the outreach team for all their hard work in Miami.

Baton Rouge - Human Trafficking

2010-02-21T14:59:00.000-08:00

By Cheryl Mercedes - bio email

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - According to Shared Hope International, Baton Rouge is among the top 10 cities in the U.S. for human trafficking. In 2006, the group estimated there were 100 victims of domestic sex trafficking in the Baton Rouge-New Orleans area under 18 years old. That same year, the Baton Rouge shelter, Youth Oasis, reported 57% of its visitors were victims of sexual abuse. Records by the Office of Community show 35 confirmed cases in Louisiana where a parent was directly involved of the prostitution of their child.

When most people think of human trafficking, they think of foreigners who are promised a better life but then sold into sex slavery. However, trafficking has many faces and one woman who is now in her 40s shared her story of abuse. Donna Frank has a steady job and a good group of friends to support her, but she wasn't always this person. She grew up in a small town in Canada and what she thought was a normal childhood was actually far from it. She said she was sexually abused by her father and he allowed others to abuse her as well.

"For the first time in my life, I realized, something bigger than my pain existed," Frank said. "I don't remember not being abused. I was just almost incapacitated by fear. My next door neighbor, we didn't have intercourse, but he would touch me or he would have me touch him. My father told me it was part of growing up. One day when I was 3, 4, or 5, I was laying on the carpet, trying to color inside the lines and my dad came and got me and took me upstairs."

Frank noted she still cannot stand the smell or sight of crayons. Before the interview, she was asked if she wanted her identity hidden. Frank stated she needed her identity protected 35 years ago when she was a victim, but she isn't a victim anymore. Although Frank doesn't classify her ordeal as human trafficking, Katherine Green, a member of an organization called Trafficking Hope, said Frank's story is similar to that of too many young people.

"There is no quick fix," said Green. "It's just being there for the victim and letting them know we're here. We're talking about children in South Downs, in elementary schools. You're looking at children who are 9 and 10 years old being bought and sold."

Human trafficking is a modern day crime that doesn't discriminate on the basis of race, gender or age. Trafficking Hope reaches out to victims on street corners, at truck stops and in strip clubs. Social networking sites and cell phones serve as tools of human trafficking. Green explained how it could start with something as simple as a boy recording an intimate moment with his girlfriend.

"If you don't have sex with anybody I tell you to, over this weekend, then this video is going to be out there for everyone to see," Green stated as an example.

U.S. Attorney David Dugas said he was shocked at how common human trafficking is. His office is working with Louisiana organizations to try to put a stop to sex crimes. He said stopping these types of crimes will take understanding and sensitivity from law enforcement officers who often come in contact with its victims on the streets.

"One of the things we've been stressing with law enforcement in training is to understand what is their situation and look beyond the obvious," he explained.

Trafficking Hope believes housing is key in helping victims transform their lives. It tries to help the young victims, but its resources are limited. Green noted there are only 44 beds in the U.S. for victims of sexual trafficking and those victims must be under the age of 18 to qualify for assistance. None of the beds are in Baton Rouge.

Frank now acts as a role model for other victims. She said she has helped women regain their lives while working at a home in St. Louis for victims. She believes once a community unites in the fight against human trafficking, the predators will begin to back down. She added every person can do something to stop human trafficking in Baton Rouge.

For more on how you can help Trafficking Hope reach its goals, call 1-888-373-7888.

Copyright 2010 WAFB. All rights reserved.

GEMS - Service Providers by State

2010-02-17T05:38:00.000-08:00

Need information on volunteering to help combat human trafficking and sexual exploitation?

SOURCE: http://www.gems-girls.org/why/for-survivors/service-providers-by-state

Collaboration with organizations at the local, national and global level is a core part of GEMS programming structure. If you are a victim or survivor, or someone who wishes to volunteer with a local organization, please explore this list of organizations doing wonderful work around the country. To add your organization to the following list of services providers please contact us.

Arizona

Catholic Charities DIGNITY House
Phoenix, AZ
24-Hour Intake Line: 602.486.4973 or 602.434.1100
Phone: 602.224.5457
Website: http://www.catholiccharitiesaz.org/dignity.aspx

California

Afterhours Ministry
Los Angeles, CA
Phone: 213.399.0057
213.361.7763
Website: http://www.afterhoursministry.com

Children of the Night
Los Angeles, CA
Hotline: 1.800.551.1300
Phone: 818.908.4474
Website: http://www.childrenofthenight.org/home.html

Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST)
Los Angeles, CA
Phone: 213.365.1906
Email: info@castla.org
Website: http://www.castla.org

George P. Scotlan Youth and Family Center
(Sexually Exploited Minors Program)
Oakland, CA
Phone: 510.832.4546
Website: http://www.acgov.org/icpc/sem/scotlan.htm

Motivating, Inspiring, Supporting, and Serving Sexually Exploited Youth (MISSEY, Inc)
Oakland, CA
Phone: 510.267.8840
Email: info@missey.org
Website: http://www.misssey.org

Bilateral Safety Corridor Commission (BSCC)
San Diego, CA
Hotline: 619.666.2757
Phone: 619. 336.0770
Website: http://www.bsccoalition.org

San Diego Youth and Community Services (SDYCS)
San Diego, CA
Hotline: 619.325.3527
866.752.2327
866.PLACE2STAY
Phone: 619.221.8600
Website: http://www.sdycs.org

Center for Young Women’s Development (CYWD)
San Francisco, CA
Intake Line: 415.703.8800
Phone: 415.703.8800
Website: http://www.cywd.org

Standing Against Global Exploitation (SAGE)
San Francisco, CA
Intake Line for Youth Services (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm): 415.358.2727
Intake Line for Youth Services (After hours/ Weekends): 415.595.5403
Phone: 415.905.5050
Email: info@sagesf.org
Website: http://www.sagesf.org

Voices for Justice
Ventura, CA
Phone: 888.702.7273
Website: http://www.vfjnw.org

Colorado

Polaris Project
Denver, CO
Hotline: 888.229.3339
Phone: 720.227.0542
Website: http://www.polarisproject.org

Prax(us)
Denver, CO
Phone: 303.974.2942
Website: http://www.praxus.org

Connecticut

Paul and Lisa Program
Westbrook, CT
Hotine: 800.518.2238
Phone: 860.767.7660
Email: contact@paulandlisa.org
Website: http://www.paulandlisa.org

District of Columbia

Polaris Project
Washington, DC
Hotline: 888.229.3339
Phone: 202.745.1008
Website: http://www.polarisproject.org

Restoration Ministries
Washington, DC
Email: info@restorationministriesdc.org
Website: http://www.restorationministriesdc.org

Florida

Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking (FCAHT)
Statewide
Toll Free Number: 888.630.3350
Intake Line: 866.446.5600
Naples: 239.390.3350
239.947.2452
Jacksonville: 904.384.0961
Tampa: 727.446.4177 ext 115
Shalimar: 850.651.2593
Miami: 305.547.1557
Orlando: 321.848.2202
Website: http://www.stophumantrafficking.org

Kristi House
Miami, FL
Phone: 305.547.6800
Website: http://www.kristihouse.org

Georgia

Center to End Adolescent Sexual Exploitation (CEASE)
Atlanta, GA
Intake Line: 404.224.4415 (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm)
Phone: 404.224.4415
Website: http://www.juvenilejusticefund.org/programs/cease/index.aspx

Juvenile Jutice Fund
Atlanta, GA
Phone: 404.224.4415
Email: info@juvenilejusticefund.org
Website: http://www.juvenilejusticefund.org

Illinois

Chicago Coalition for the Homeless – Prostitution Alternatives Roundtable (PART)
Chicago, IL
Phone: 312.435.4548
Email: info@chicagohomeless.org
Website: http://www.chicagohomeless.org

The Salvation Army Partnership to Rescue Minors from Sexual Exploitation (PROMISE)
Chicago, IL
Emergency Hotline: 877.606.3158
Website: http://www.sapromise.org

Young Women’s Empowerment Project
Chicago, IL
Phone: 773.728.0127
Website: http://www.youarepriceless.org

Kansas

Veronica’s Voice
Kansas City, KA and servicing Missouri
24 Hour Crisis Hotline: 816.728.0004
Phone Number: 816.483.7101
Website: http://www.veronicasvoice.org

Maryland

You Are Never Alone (YANA)
Baltimore, MD
Hotline: 410.905.5839
Phone: 410.566.7973
Email: yanainc@earthlink.net
Website: http://www.yanaplace.com

Massachusetts

Reaching Out to Chelsea Adolescents (ROCA)
Chelsea, MA
Phone: 617.889.5210
Website: http://www.rocainc.org

Home for Little Wonderers
Boston, MA
Phone: 888.HOME.321
617.267.3700
Website: http://www.thehome.org

Roxbury Youthworks – A Way Back (AWB)
Boston, MA
Phone: 617.445.5500
Website: http://www.roxburyyouthworks.org

Teen Prostitution Prevention Project of the Children’s Advocacy Center
Boston, MA
Phone: 617.779.2146
Website: http://www.mass.gov/dasuffolk/cac.html

Michigan

Alternatives for Girls
Detroit, MI
Crisis Line: 888.AFG.3919
Phone: 313.361.4000
Website: http://www.alternativesforgirls.org

Minnesota

Adults Saving Kids
Minneapolis, MN
Phone: 612.872.0684
Website: http://www.adultssavingkids.org

Family & Children’s Service – Prostitution to Independence, Dignity, and Equality (PRIDE)
Minneapolis, MN
24-Hour Crisis Line: 888.PRIDE.99 or 888.774.3399
Crisis Line: 612.728.2062
Phone: 612.339.9101
Email: pride@fcsmn.org
Website: Click here for PRIDE’s Website

Breaking Free
St. Paul, MN
Phone: 651.645.6557
Email: breakingfree@breakingfree.net
Website: http://www.breakingfree.net

Missouri

Veronica’s Voice
Kansas City, KA and servicing Missouri
24 Hour Crisis Hotline: 816.728.0004
Phone Number: 816.483.7101
Website: http://www.veronicasvoice.org

Nevada

Anti Trafficking League Against Slavery (ATLAS) Task Force
Crimes Against Youth & Family Bureau – Las Vegas Metro Police Dept
Las Vegas, NV
Phone: 702.828.0237

Network for Emergency Trafficking Services – Salvation Army, Family Services
Las Vegas, NV
Phone: 702.649.8240

Westcare
Las Vegas, NV
Crisis Line: 702.385.3332
Phone: 702.385.2020
Safe Place Hotline: 866.827.3723
Hotline for Youth Services: 702.385.3332
Website: http://www.westcare.com/slnevada.jsp

New Jersey

Polaris Project NJ
Newark, NJ
Hotline: 888.229.3339
Phone: 973.624.5454
Website: http://www.polarisproject.org

New York

Girls Educational and Mentoring Services (GEMS)
New York, NY
Phone: 212.926.8089
Email: info@gems-girls.org
Website: http://www.gems-girls.org

Ohio

Second Chance
Toledo, OH
Crisis Line: 888.897.3232
Phone: 419.244.6050
Website: http://www.secondchancetoledo.org

Wake Up Youth
Toledo, OH
24-Hour Crisis Line: 419.870.4402
Phone: 419.244.8911
Website: http://www.wakeupyouthinc.com

Oklahoma

The Salvation Army
Oklahoma City, OK
Phone: 405.246.1100
Website: http://www.salvationarmyokcac.org

Oregon

Sexual Assault Resource Center (SARC)
Portland, Oregon
Hotline: 503-604-5311
Website: http://www.sarcoregon.org

Texas

Letot Center/Catholic Charities of Dallas
Dallas, Texas
Letot Center Phone: 214.357.9818
Catholic Charities Phone: 214.520.6590
Letot Website: Click here for Website
Catholic Charities Website: http://www.catholiccharitiesdallas.org

Virginia

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC)
Alexandria, VA
Hotline: 800.THE.LOST / 800.843.5678
Phone: 723.274.3900
Website: http://www.missingkids.com

Washington

New Horizon Ministries
Seattle, WA
Hotline: 206.795.1056
Phone: 206.374.0866
Email: info@nhmin.org
Website: http://www.nhmin.org

Of Liquor and Stickers: Oregon Moves to Fight Sex Trafficking

2010-02-16T05:49:00.000-08:00

A short while ago, an especially dark secret of Portland, OR, was revealed: the city has a human trafficking problem. However, on Feb. 11, the state’s House took its first step in the right direction by unanimously approving a bill that will mark the start of Oregon’s fight against sex trafficking. House Bill 3623 permits distribution of human-trafficking awareness stickers by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission to 11,000 businesses throughout the state.

Let’s recap for a moment why Portland, in particular, has such a significant human trafficking problem. Key word: location. Two major interstates and two rivers provide a prime spot for any business. Add in certain key ingredients, such as a legalized sex industry, weak laws and enforcement efforts, as well as a significant homeless and seasonal farm-worker population and voilà: a city has itself a fairly tasteless recipe for widespread sex trafficking.

Under Oregon’s new bill, a nonprofit organization will supply the stickers, which feature a human trafficking helpline number, to statewide business that sell liquor. The stickers will be mailed with license-renewal letters that the businesses receive regardless -– meaning, this effort will require no extra cost from the state. Pretty smart, Oregon, pretty smart.

While Portland has a long way to go in tackling forced prostitution, this new state legislation is a positive and significant step in the right direction. Lawmakers have clearly acknowledged the issue and shown that they are willing to address it. To which we can only say, bravo. And, carry on.

article here

Photo credit: Darin Barry

In Our Own Backyard - Atlanta

2010-02-15T06:52:00.000-08:00

Suspect arrested on child pornography charges

2010-02-14T15:00:00.000-08:00

VALDOSTA — A Lowndes County man was arrested Thursday on charges of alleged possession of child pornography.

A search warrant was issued at 3423 Skipper Bridge Road Thursday morning as a result of an investigation conducted by the Southern Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office and the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, said Lowndes County Sheriff Chris Prine. The DA’s office was assisted by the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office and Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

“While executing the search warrant, numerous computer-related items and various other data-storage devices were seized,” Prine said.

Evidence collected from the home led to the arrest of the resident, 68-year-old William S. Buchanan, charged with one count of sexual exploitation of children, Prine said.Buchanan is being held in Lowndes County Jail. This arrest comes one month after a coordinated statewide raid on child pornography, which led to Lowndes County sheriff’s deputies arresting William Michael Bennett, 17, on a charge of possession of child pornography, Prine previously told The Times.

Bennett’s arrest stems from a three-month investigation coordinated by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.As a result of the investigation, search warrants were executed in 34 counties across the state. The operation, known as Operation Restore Hope, involved 24 agencies, federal prosecutors’ offices and the state Attorney General’s office.

It also included the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Postal Service.

President's Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons

2010-02-12T14:34:00.000-08:00

Commitment to Action by the President's Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons

The President's Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons issued a joint statement of commitment to action on February 3rd, 2010:

Trafficking in persons violates the most basic of human rights. It degrades our common humanity and is intolerable in any society. Human trafficking is a modern form of slavery. To combat this heinous crime, we recognize and build on the progress of the past ten years since the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and the Palermo Protocol.

As members of the President’s Interagency Task Force, we commit to a balanced approach in the prevention of human trafficking, the protection of victims and the prosecution of their traffickers. We pledge to uphold a system that provides for all victims, whether they have lost their freedom through sex trafficking or labor trafficking, and regardless of age, gender or immigration status. We will continue vigorously to investigate and prosecute traffickers and work toward dismantling the criminal enterprises that perpetuate human trafficking.

We will work tirelessly to overcome the barriers to victim identification and assistance, continuing a victim-centered approach and focusing on vulnerable populations at greatest risk.

We will collaborate with international, federal, state, and local counterparts, the private sector, and nongovernmental organizations and advocates, recognizing that the key to ending this crime is rooted in strong and effective partnerships.

As the President’s Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, we will work with our partners across borders and oceans on behalf of the victims of trafficking to combat this violation of basic human rights.

For the President’s Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons:

THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE
THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET
OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE
UNITED STATES AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
U.S. EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION

Hundreds Forced Into Sex Trade, Ohio Report Concludes

2010-02-12T04:19:00.000-08:00

About 1,000 American-born children are forced into the sex trade in Ohio every year and about 800 immigrants are sexually exploited and pushed into sweatshop-type jobs, a new report on human trafficking in the state said Wednesday.

Ohio's weak laws on human trafficking, its growing demand for cheap labor and its proximity to the Canadian border are key contributors to the illegal activity, according to a report by the Trafficking in Persons Study Commission.

"Ohio is not only a destination place for foreign-born trafficking victims, but it's also a recruitment place," said Celia Williamson, an associate professor at the University of Toledo who led the research.

Formed last year by Ohio Attorney General Richard Condray, the commission also found that hundreds more in the state are at risk of being forced into sex trafficking or to work against their will in fields, restaurants, sweatshops or constructions sites.

read the rest here...

End Global Slavery

2010-02-02T05:05:00.000-08:00

Global Advocacy Days from David Hepburn on Vimeo.

Come join me as I help with the fight against human trafficking and slavery!

Chain Store Reaction

2010-01-30T12:02:00.000-08:00

It's time to act! Do the companies you buy products from use slave-free methods? Find out and make sure they are! You'd be surprised at the amount of items in your closet, you kitchen pantry, and throughout your house that have been made by slaves.

Chain Store Reaction: Our working definition of forced labor:Anyone who is forced to work without pay (beyond minimal subsistence), under the threat of violence, being economically exploited and unable to walk away.

All you need to do is choose a store, click to send a pre-made letter, and view the responses! Let's make the companies accountable - NO SLAVE LABOR!

CNN: Child and Organ Trafficking in Haiti

2010-01-30T05:08:00.000-08:00

On CNN last night Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive talked to the network's Christiane Amanpour about child trafficking and organ trafficking from victims of the earthquake that struck a few weeks ago.

Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery

2010-01-27T05:29:00.000-08:00

In his book Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Slavery, author Siddharth Kara presents a business and economic analysis of sex trafficking. Though such a study may seem heartless or dehumanizing, Kara argues that analyzing sexual slavery through the lens of economics can reveal short- and long-term solutions to end trafficking, and that, in fact, without this type of analysis intervention attempts may do more harm than good.

Kara, a former investment banker with an MBA from Columbia University, left his corporate career to pursue anti-slavery research and work. He is a board member of Free the Slaves. In his book, he argues that ending sex slavery will necessitate ending the demand for sex slavery, and that the most effective way to decrease demand is to increase risk. He presents suggested ways to increase the risk/cost of slavery to traffickers, and uses basic economic concepts, such as elasticity of demand, to evaluate the effectiveness of anti-trafficking efforts.

Many of Kara's findings are more suggestive than conclusive, which he readily acknowledges. For example, he argues that increasing the costs of using sex slaves will dramatically decrease the demand for these slaves due to the elasticity of demand for commercial sex. Though his conclusion aligns with my own beliefs and the beliefs of many NGOs, the analysis is based on an extremely small sample size that may not be representative. While this example points to some of the challenges in conducting research on human trafficking and its causes, it also points to the need for more research and data.

Kara extensively researched sex trafficking around the world, and he contextualizes his economic analysis within his firsthand interviews with sex trafficking victims and survivors, and his experiences with the market for sex slaves. While many of the most compelling parts of his books spring from these experiences, his analysis of slavery in the United States is somewhat anemic and does not discuss the sex trafficking of US citizens.

Throughout the book, Kara discusses the role that globalization has played in creating situations rife for exploitation and slavery. He demonstrates the ways that governmental policies and corrupt greed help perpetuate human rights abuses and poverty. He argues that vulnerability to trafficking can often be traced to unequal distributions of power and wealth that are only increasing as a result of globalization.

Though his book focuses mainly on sex trafficking, Kara does touch on labor trafficking issues and acknowledges the need for a similar analysis of the business of labor trafficking. Many of his insights about the economic factors that contribute to the demand for slavery and the need to increase the economic costs of slavery for producers and consumers will prove useful in such an analysis. At the same time, the causes of labor trafficking and the factors that fuel its demand are different from sex trafficking, and more research on this form of trafficking is vitally needed.

Kara's research and analysis provide a useful foundation for further efforts to effectively end slavery that is grounded in an understanding of the economic and business realities that fuel this crime.

posted by JenniferKK at The Human Trafficking Project

Walmart Won’t Buy Cosan Sugar Amid Slavery Blacklist

2010-01-21T07:29:00.000-08:00

By Helder Marinho and Lucia Kassai

Jan. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s biggest retailer, suspended a supply contract with Cosan SA Industria & Comercio after the Brazilian sugar maker was added to a government slavery “blacklist.” Cosan said it won an injunction ordering it be removed from the list.

Walmart is the first retailer to come out with sanctions against Cosan after the sugar producer was added Dec. 31 to a Brazilian Labor Ministry’s list of companies whose workers operate in slave-like conditions. Walmart’s local unit said it temporarily suspended purchases of Cosan’s Acucar Uniao and Acucar da Barra sugar brands.

Walmart “vehemently repudiates any practice that does not respect human rights,” the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer said in a statement.

Walmart’s move follows a decision by Brazil’s national development bank BNDES to cut off Cosan from financing. The inclusion on the blacklist means Cosan isn’t eligible for new loans and won’t receive future installments of agreed-to financing, BNDES said yesterday in a statement.

‘Mistake’

Cosan climbed today in Sao Paulo trading after Agriculture Minister Reinhold Stephanes called the company’s inclusion a “mistake.” Cosan rose 0.9 percent to 23.67 reais, after earlier increasing as much as 3.5 percent.

“Cosan had problems with a contractor three years ago and solved them immediately,” Stephanes said. “It has good practices.”

The slavery blacklist is managed by the Labor Ministry. Stephanes suggested Cosan and Labor Ministry officials meet to discuss its removal from the blacklist.

The Labor Ministry said 42 Cosan workers were found and “liberated” from conditions analogous to slavery. Another 163 employers are also on the ministry blacklist, which was created in 2004 and is updated every six months.

Petroleo Brasileiro SA’s fuel distribution unit, which buys ethanol from Cosan, may consider “restrictions” on the company, a BR Distribuidora spokesman, who couldn’t be named because of company policy, said yesterday. Petrobras is Brazil’s state-controlled oil producer.

Recognize the Signs

2010-01-11T06:00:00.000-08:00

Potential Trafficking Indicators

The following is a list of suggested red flags that may be signs of a human trafficking situation of victim. It is important to note that this is not an exhaustive list. Indicators listed are intended only as potential red flags to keep in mind. In addition, each indicator taken individually may not imply a trafficking situation, but when taken with other indicators, may cumulatively paint a larger picture of human trafficking. Lastly, many of these indicators apply to victims of both transnational and local trafficking as well as both sex and labor trafficking.

Potential Indicators include individuals who:

■Have few or no personal possessions
■Travel through town frequently
■Have few or no personal financial records
■Ask about their whereabouts and/or do not know what city they are in
■Are not in control of their own identification documents (ID or passport)
■Owe a large debt and are not able to pay it off
■Have their communication restricted or controlled. They may not be allowed to speak for themselves,
■a third party may insist on translating, or they may seem watched or followed.
■Have an attorney representing them that they don’t seem to know or didn’t seem to agree to representation
■Have injuries, signs of physical abuse, and/or signs of torture
■Have signs of malnourishment
■Have been “branded” by a trafficker with the trafficker’s name
■Lack the freedom to leave working or living conditions
■Exhibit behaviors including fear, anxiety, depression, submission, tension, and/or nervousness
■Are unpaid, paid very little, or paid only through tips in their work environment
■Are not in control of their own money
■Work excessively long and unusual hours
■Are not allowed breaks during work
■Exhibit a lack of health care for a prolonged period of time
■Are under 18 and are providing commercial sex – de facto
■Live in locations with peculiar security including barbed wire, guarded compounds, bars on outside of windows, or opaque boarded-up windows
■Claim to be “just visiting” an area but are unable to articulate where they are staying or to remember addresses
■Have numerous inconsistencies in their story
■Exhibit unusually fearful or anxious behavior after bringing up “law enforcement”
■Are performing odd tasks at odd hours (e.g., washing a car at 10pm at night in the cold)
■Avoid eye contract
■Exhibit “hyper-vigilance” or paranoid behavior
■Have a loss of sense of time or space
If you have reason to suspect that someone is a victim of human trafficking, call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline (1-888-373-7888). Multilingual call specialists are on standby 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. All calls are confidential.

National Human Trafficking Awareness Day

2010-01-11T05:07:00.000-08:00

What Can YOU do to help?

2010-01-10T10:06:00.000-08:00

I can...

•Educate myself
•Save the hotline number in my cell phone: 888-373-3888
•Tell others
•Email this website to people I know
•Keep my eyes open at all times in my community
•Report suspected incidents of trafficking to the hotline
•Wear a baseball cap
•Wear a T-shirt or sweatshirt
•Wear a button
•Carry a book bag or tote bag
•Put a bumper sticker on my car or truck
•Put a bumper sticker on my luggage
•Put a bumper sticker on my notebook
•Display a hotline magnet
•Distribute hotline wallet cards
•Sign a petition
•Pass out flyers
•Put up posters
•Distribute brochures
•Host a video or film screening
•Declare myself a New Abolitionist
•Print flyers
•Take action
•Coordinate with my local neighborhood watch group
•Download, print and distribute copies of the Community Guide
•Join the New Underground Railroad
•Find out if my state has an anti-trafficking law
•Ask my state legislators to pass an anti-trafficking law
•Tell others to take action
•Attend a community training
•Watch for suspicious activity at truck stops
•Watch for suspicious activity in airports
•Keep my eyes open for suspicious activity or cargo
•Examine or report suspicious cargo
•Be an Internet sleuth
•Request training for employees in my organization
•Have a bake sale to fund an anti-trafficking library
•Start a church library of anti-trafficking books
•Design flyers
•Design posters
•Design t-shirts and other clothing
•Write a poem
•Write a report or research paper
•Write to my congressman
•Write a petition and get people to sign it
•Make a video and put it on YouTube
•Find out if my company’s products are Fair Trade certified
•Teach computer skills
•Teach English as a second language
•Provide translation services
•Teach children
•Cook meals
•Give a presentation to a local travel club
•Give a speech
•Provide graphics services
•Offer writing services
•Provide IT services
•Provide web design and webmaster services
•Provide printing services
•Provide security for a shelter
•Provide film production services
•Start a New Abolitionist club or meetup
•Start a “Slavery-Free City” campaign
•Form an airport watch
•Volunteer to do victim outreach
•Offer shelter
•Minister to rescued slaves
•Provide free counseling
•Provide free health care services
•Provide pro bono legal or accounting services
•Assist with T-visas
•Advocate for policy changes
•Examine my company's supply chain
•Examine my clients’ books for Fair Trade practices
•Report Wage and Hour violations
•Offer employment to rescued slaves
•Assist nonprofits with research
•Research and write about human trafficking
•Write a song
•Write op-ed pieces
•Write public service announcements
•Write press releases
•Write freelance articles
•Write and/or produce a television episode or series
•Write and/or produce a film
•Produce a public service announcement
•Make a music video
•Make a film to teach children safety
•Organize a march
•Hold a candlelight vigil
•Organize a fundraising event
•Organize or support a fundraising walkathon or marathon
•Stage a rally
•Sell clothing and accessories
•Train others
•Sponsor an anti-trafficking law
•Sponsor a walkathon or marathon
•Support a new film project
•Apply for Fair Trade certification
•Become a celebrity spokesperson
•Stage a benefit concert or tour

See your options here!

End It Now

2010-01-10T04:49:00.000-08:00

National Slavery and Human Trafficking Month

2010-01-06T07:17:00.000-08:00

President Obama declared January, 2010 as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month.

The proclamation states that "As a Nation, we have known moments of great darkness and greater light; and dim years of chattel slavery illuminated and brought to an end by President Lincoln's actions and a painful Civil War. Yet even today, the darkness and inhumanity of enslavement exists. Millions of people worldwide are held in compelled service, as well as thousands within the United States. During National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, we acknowledge that forms of slavery still exist in the modern era, and we recommit ourselves to stopping the human traffickers who ply this horrific trade."

In addition to acknowledging the realities of the horror of modern-day slavery, the proclamation calls for increased medical and social services for victims, increased training for first respondents, and increased public awareness.

In the proclamation, President Obama states that "Fighting modern slavery and human trafficking is a shared responsbility. This month, I urge all Americans to educate themselves about all forms of modern slavery and the signs and consquences of human trafficking. Together, we can and must end this most serious, ongoing criminal civil rights violation. . . I call upon the people of the United States to recognize the vital role we can play in ending modern slavery."

See this full article at The Human Trafficking Project.

Why Don't They Leave?

2009-12-30T07:00:00.000-08:00

Why don't human trafficking victims who aren't physically confined or chained up just leave? Because traffickers use many types of invisible chains, tactics of control and abuse, to confine victims in other ways. Think about these scenarios as if you were a trafficking victim and ask yourself, "if someone did this to me, could I leave?" Some common invisible chains are:

1. Coercion and Threats. Often, traffickers will threaten to rape, beat, murder or traffic the victim's children, spouse or family. This is a powerful threat, especially when you know the trafficker knows exactly where your family lives. Traffickers may also threaten to tell your family or community that you have been in prostitution or doing demeaning work. They may tell you what a failure you will be if you stop working.

2. Controlling Perception. Traffickers control victims' perception of their situation and the world by being their primary or only source of information. If the traffickers are the only people you know in the place you are, and they tell you that the police will beat, imprison or deport you, would you call the cops? The traffickers have also told you that you have no rights. They have told you the government is corrupt and everyone in the community is their friend. How about now?

3. Creating Dependencies. Traffickers often attempt to make their victims completely dependent. They may control physical items such as your passport or identification. They may force or entice you to take drugs or drink alcohol and become addicted. Traffickers also create economic dependencies by controlling all the your money and/or food.

4. Economic Abuse. Economic abuse is extremely common in human trafficking situations. Debt bondage- excessive debt enforced under abusive and unreasonable conditions -binds can bind you to your traffickers, especially if the traffickers have told you you'll be thrown in jail if you don't repay the debt. You can easily be trapped in a never ending cycle of fabricated debt and/or control of your money.

5. False Promises. Sometimes hope is the strongest weapon. The traffickers may have made you promises- earning money for your family, safety for yourself and your kids or even love from the trafficker. These promises are what lured you into exploitation and what keeps you here. Children are especially vulnerable to such manipulation.

6. Indulgences. One strong control tactic for creating emotional dependencies is providing occasional indulgences, like gifts, affection or information. These indulgences, especially when coupled with the false promises, lure you into a false sense of security and trust.

7. Isolation. Traffickers may isolate victims by limiting contact with others and monitoring conversations. Traffickers may prevent you from talking to your family or people in your same ethnic or religious group. They may repeatedly tell you that you are all alone in your situation, that no one will help or believe you, that you have no legal rights, that what has happened is your fault, or that there is no hope.

8. Minimizing and Blaming: Traffickers may reinforce internalizing blame by telling you that you're worthless, deserving of the abuse, or owned by another person. The trafficker claims you are personal property, which both minimizes you and justifies the abuse.

9. Privilege: Cultural, Religious and/or Gender. Sometimes, traffickers are of a dominate race/religion/gender compared to the victim. They may degrade your religious or cultural beliefs or force you to do things against your religion or culture. Male traffickers will often use gender privilege to control female victims, including using rape and sexual abuse as control tactics.

10. Sexual Abuse. Sexual abuse doesn't always have to be physical, such as rape, or sexual assault. Sometimes, sexual harassment and threatened sexual violence are even more effective tools of control. The trafficker may call you degrading sexual names or threaten to rape or assault you.

These are just a few of the invisible chains which traffickers use to keep their slaves. Sadly, many of these are just as effective if not more so than actually locking a victim up with chains.

Find this article and more on Change.org.

2009-12-29T09:21:00.001-08:00

Global Issues: Human Trafficking - Awesome video clips here

Sunitha Krishnan fights sex slavery | Video on TED.com

2009-12-28T11:45:00.000-08:00

Sunitha Krishnan fights sex slavery Video on TED.com

Slavery - Does it really exist?

2009-12-28T10:07:00.000-08:00

Many of us live with our heads in the sand. Come on, admit it. I, myself, have lived this way. There are just certain things in this world that we are more comfortable ignoring, turning away from, pretending it doesn't exist.

But it does.

And we can ignore it no longer. It's time for those of us who have lived with blind eyes to open them up and see what's around us. According to HumanTrafficking.org, more than 17,500 people, mostly women and children, are trafficked in the United States each year. That rounds out to about 48 people a day!

Slavery has many forms. Men, women, and children (some as young as five) are trafficked for the purpose of domestic service, construction work, sweatshops, and commericial sexual exploitation.

There are many anti-slavery organizations out there and many countries committed to combatting this evil but awareness and funds are still necessary to fight these criminals and abolish slavery. And make no mistake...if you think slavery was abolished after the Civil War, you are sadly uninformed - as I was!

Slavery is in your town. Atlanta, New York, L.A., Kansas City. According to the article "Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation in New York", June 22, 2009 by Patrick Arden, slaves may even live next door to you.

It's real.

It exists.

Let's help put a stop to this unimaginable crime!

A New Project

2009-12-27T14:23:00.000-08:00

I became aware and interested in human trafficking several years ago when I saw a made-for-tv movie called "Human Trafficking". Depsite being uncomfortable watching the scenes unfold in the movie, I watched it till the culmination. For days afterward I felt disgusted, outraged, afraid, and immensely bereaved for all the women and children out there who are living this tragic life.

There are many websites and organizations out there across the world whose main focus is to combat this terrible human slave trade. What can I do? I am only one person. But, if I can help to open the eyes of a few people who are willing to spread the word even more, then I've done what I set out to do.

This is not an easy topic. For months, I've put off doing this because I was afraid of what others might think about my topic of choice. It's easier to just sweep it under the rug and pretend it's not there. But tell me...if your daughter, mother, sister, cousin, aunt, or friend were kidnapped, beaten, raped, and sold to traffickers for the dark pleasures of others, would you sit by and sweep it under the rug. No! You'd be angry! These women and children are daughters, mothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, and friends. They deserve our attention and our determined attempts to save them.

With this blog, I hope to commit to a New Year's resolution to bring awareness to people about the horrible act of human trafficking. It's a personal mission. If you'd like to join me on this mission, feel free to leave me a comment. We'll do it together.