Human Trafficking in America

A friend of mine sent me this article today. The Kansas City Star:

America declared war on human trafficking nearly a decade ago. With a new law and much fanfare, the government pledged to end such human rights abuses at home and prodded the rest of the world to follow its example. But the United States is failing to find and help tens of thousands of human trafficking victims in America.

But an investigation by The Kansas City Star found that, in spite of all the rhetoric from the Bush and Obama administrations, the United States is failing to find and help tens of thousands of human trafficking victims in America.

The Star also found that the government is doing little to stop the flow of trafficking along the porous U.S.-Mexico border and that when victims are identified, many are denied assistance.

The United States also has violated its own policies by deporting countless victims who should be offered sanctuary, but sometimes end up back in the hands of traffickers.

After spending millions of taxpayer dollars, America appears to be losing the war in its own backyard.

Even some top federal anti-trafficking authorities in the Bush and Obama administrations acknowledged serious problems.

“The current system is not yet picking up all the victims of human trafficking crimes,” Janet Napolitano, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, told The Star two weeks ago. “It has been a growing problem and in a world of growing problems, it’s time for the nations of the world to take it on.”

America’s failure to live up to its own high standards isn’t for lack of will or good intentions or even money. The Star’s investigation pointed to problems that are more systemic: an uncoordinated, inconsistent approach to finding victims; politically charged arguments over how to define trafficking; and a continuing disbelief among some in local law enforcement that it even exists.

Trafficking of Men in the US

Via CNN:

Thirty Thai men who were "tricked into a life of forced labor" after being promised lucrative jobs in the United States are just one symptom of the problem of modern-day slavery, CNN reported Monday.

According to the State Department, there are as many as 200,000 forced laborers in the US, with some 17,500 arriving every year.

"This is a hidden crime," Louis C. de Baca, the State Department's ambassador for human trafficking, told CNN. "The very nature of this crime masks it from us."

CNN reported on the case of 30 Thai men, who were promised jobs picking tobacco on North Carolina by a company called Million Express Manpower. The company required the men to pay the equivalent of $11,000 for the necessary visa and transportation.

But when they arrived in the US, they discovered there were no jobs waiting, and their passports were seized. The men "realized they were trapped," reports CNN's Sean Callebs.

The case of the 30 Thai men is somewhat unusual, as human trafficking often focuses on women and children. The Guardian recently reported on the problem of women and teenage girls being trafficked to the United States for sex and servitude:

In one recent incident a 16-year-old Mexican girl was found to have been trafficked across the US border. Doctors noticed the heavily pregnant girl showed clear signs of physical abuse when she was brought into a hospital in Dayton to give birth. The police were called but the couple who had brought her had already fled. When the girl's story emerged, it became clear she had been kept against her will in the nearby city of Springfield and used for labour and sex. "I thought slavery ended a few centuries ago. But here it is alive and well," said Springfield's sheriff, Gene Kelly.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently launched a 14-city pilot project, "Hidden in Plain Sight," to combat human trafficking. The project involves setting up billboards across the city with an 800 number that victims of human trafficking can call to get help.

Obama Visits Old Slave Fort in Ghana

President Barack Obama, with family tour Cape Coast Castle, in Cape Coast, Ghana, on July 11, 2009. Obama and his family made a trip to a former slave trading fort in Ghana. The Obamas went on a guided tour of Cape Coast Castle, formerly one of the continent's main outposts from where countless slaves were shipped trans-Atlantic to the Americas. Obama, the son of an African immigrant, and his wife Michelle, a descendant of African slaves, were accompanied on the tour by their daughters Malia and Sasha.

Ecuador's Sex Industry

Sex workers in Ecuador are building a national labor network and trying to curb HIV-AIDS, while dealing with the growing presence of minors and undocumented workers in brothels:

RedTrabSex (labor union), Ecuador's national network of sex workers with headquarters in Quito, is divided into 15 organizations and is still growing. So far, the group, which began mustering its ranks in 2005, has established organizations in 14 of the country's 24 total provinces.

The Ministry of Health registered 25,000 sex workers in 2000. But the real figure is much higher, given that sex workers rarely stay more than a few weeks in one place. Health officials also only monitor licensed venues and clandestine brothels are numerous.

But RedTrabSex--the name, an abbreviation for sex workers network in Spanish--faces legal and ethical complications in Ecuador, where sex work is neither legal nor illegal. Currently, brothels derive their legitimacy not from the law but from a series of health and sanitation certificates from local health authorities that add up to "centers of tolerance," where prostitution is accepted.

Some Colombian sex workers are drawn to Ecuador because it uses the U.S. dollar as its official currency. Human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation is a strong reality in Ecuador. A high percentage of Colombian sex workers in Ecuador arrived after being lured by pimping agents with promises of high-end retail and caretaker jobs only to end up in indentured servitude in brothels and bars.n those paid in the more volatile Colombian peso. Many Ecuadorian minors are trafficked from small rural towns to commercial capitals across the country, particularly Quito and Guayaquil.

More on the sex trade in Ecuador.

While I was in Ecuador, I looked at child exploitation in the sex industry, and interviewed several sex workers in brothels in Quito, and the Galapagos Islands.

• I found that in legal brothels, there is a rotating scheme for women from different countries and they are required to have mandatory health screenings once a month.
  
• In the Galapagos Islands, there was a correlation between the price of sexual acts and the gains from fishing.
  
• There is also a class issue, those from the lower class were usually on the street, in the underground market, whereas those from higher class were found in the legal brothels. For example, most of the women/men on the street were of African origin.

The Story Behind Tomatoes

A short distance from Naples, Florida is the tomato capital of the United States. Chances are if you have eaten a tomato this winter, it is likely that it was picked by a person who lives in virtual slavery. An article in Gourmet explains:

Between December and May, as much as 90 percent of the fresh domestic tomatoes we eat come from south Florida, and is home to one of the area’s largest communities of farmworkers. According to some of these farmers, it is “ground zero for modern slavery.”

Unfortunately, involuntary servitude—slavery—is alive and well in Florida. Since 1997, law-enforcement officials have freed more than 1,000 men and women in seven different cases. And those are only the instances that resulted in convictions. Frightened, undocumented, mistrustful of the police, and speaking little or no English, most slaves refuse to testify, which means their captors cannot be tried.

Tomato harvesting involves rummaging through staked vines until you have filled a bushel basket to the brim with hard, green fruits. You hoist the basket over your shoulder, trot across the field, and heave it overhead to a worker in an open trailer the size of the bed of a gravel truck. For every 32-pound basket you pick, you receive a token typically worth about 45 cents—almost the same rate you would have gotten 30 years ago. Working at breakneck speed, you might be able to pick a ton of tomatoes on a good day, netting about $50. But a lot can go wrong. If it rains, you can’t pick. If the dew is heavy, you sit and wait until it evaporates. If trucks aren’t available to transport the harvest, you’re out of luck. You receive neither overtime nor benefits. If you are injured (a common occurrence, given the pace of the job), you have to pay for your own medical care.

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), has been working to ease the migrants’ plight since 1993, when a few field hands began meeting sporadically in a church hall. Even though the CIW has been responsible for bringing police attention to a half dozen slavery prosecutions, Benitez feels that slavery will persist until overall conditions for field workers improve. The group has made progress on that front by securing better pay. Between the early 1980s and the mid-1990s, the rate for a basket of tomatoes remained 40 cents—meaning that workers’ real wages dropped as inflation rose. Work stoppages, demonstrations, and a hunger strike helped raise it to 45 cents on average, but the packers complained that competition for customers prevented them from paying more.

What is the solution? What can consumers do?

• In the warm months, the best solution is to follow that old mantra: buy seasonal, local, and small-scale.
  
• But what about in winter? So far, Whole Foods is the only grocery chain that has signed on to the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) Campaign for Fair Food, which means that it has promised not to deal with growers who tolerate serious worker abuses and, when buying tomatoes, to a pay a price that supports a living wage.
  
• When shopping elsewhere, you can take advantage of the fact that fruits and vegetables must be labeled with their country of origin. Most of the fresh tomatoes in supermarkets during winter months come from Florida, where labor conditions are dismal for field workers, or from Mexico, where they are worse, according to a CIW spokesman.
  
• One option during these months is to buy locally produced hydroponic greenhouse tomatoes, including cluster tomatoes still attached to the vine. Greenhouse tomatoes are also imported from Mexico, however, so check signage or consult the little stickers often seen on the fruits themselves to determine their source.
  
• You can also visit the CIW’s information-packed website (ciw-online.org) if you are interested in becoming part of the coalition’s efforts.

Kolkata's Red Light District

Kolkata's red light districts are world famous, but the women who work there are too numerous to stand out. Shamita Das Dasgupta and her co-author interviewed some of those with children to feed.

U Visas Faltering

In 2000, Congress created the U-visa to help law enforcement's ability to investigate and prosecute certain crimes in return offering protection to the victims. After an eight-year delay, the government issued its first U-visa last summer. Through the end of 2008, 65 such visas had been issued, although about 13,300 people have filed applications. Twenty have been denied. After a preliminary review, the government also has given temporary benefits to 10,800 applicants while they wait for a final decision, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration. The LA Times reports:

To be eligible for a visa, the victim must have information concerning the crime, be helpful in the investigation or prosecution and have suffered substantial physical or mental abuse as a result of the crime. After three years, visa holders can apply to become legal permanent residents and can eventually become U.S. citizens. The law allows 10,000 applicants to receive visas each year. They can petition for certain family members to also receive visas.

Because it took so long to create the regulations for the visas, the government created an interim relief for qualified applicants. Until a decision is made on the visa, those applicants are protected from deportation and can receive work permits and access to public services while they are waiting, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Reathorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act

President George W. Bush signed H.R. 7311, the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2008, in the Oval Office of the White House. Named for English abolitionist William Wilberforce, who led the Parliamentary movement against the British slave trade in the early 19th century, this bill authorizes appropriations for fiscal years 2008 through 2011 for the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, enhancing measures to combat trafficking in persons.

Global Trade in Domestic Workers Surges

As the global trade in domestic workers surges, millions of young girls face exploitation and abuse. The Washington Post reports:

The number of girls who leave their communities or even their countries to clean other people's houses, has surged in recent years, according to labor and human rights specialists. The girls in the maid trade, some as young as 5, often go unpaid, and their work in private homes means the abuses they suffer are out of public view.

The ILO, a UN agency based in Geneva, said more girls under 16 work in domestic service than in any other category of child labor. The organization said that maids are among the most exploited workers and that few nations have adequate regulations to safeguard them.

Rights groups say rural families often send their girls off to work willingly, as a way to escape poverty, not understanding the risks of abuse. And the employers are often only marginally better off. Having climbed a step or two on the economic ladder, they can afford one of the first trappings of prosperity: a girl to do the chores.

Human Rights Watch has documented nearly 150 cases of female domestic workers from Indonesia who killed themselves in recent years in Singapore, many jumping to their deaths from high-rise apartments. In Saudi Arabia, thousands of girls and women from Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Indonesia and other nations have fled abusive employers, according to the New York-based rights group.

Child trafficking from Guinea-Bissau to Senegal is on the decline

Child trafficking from Guinea-Bissau to Senegal is on the decline, partly due to better collaboration among local residents, civil society groups and government. Community village chiefs, the governors of Kolda and Bafata on the Senegal and Guinea-Bissau sides of the border respectively, and border police from both countries, have set up surveillance committees that work with local authorities to report suspected transport of children crossing into Senegal.

Government and aid workers closely following child trafficking say most of the children crossing the border are being sent to Senegal to become ‘talibés’ or followers of a religious leader – a marabout – to whom families send their children for learning the Koran.

The biggest difficulty NGOs face, other than working on a shoestring budget, is getting religious leaders, or Imams, on board.

Protection Project Releases New Report on the 2008 Trafficking in Persons Report

The Protection Project has released a new report reviewing the US State Department's annual Trafficking in Person's Report for 2008.  It looks at labor trafficking, sex trafficking, legal and NGO responses, and new challenges including identification of survivors, religion, corruption, technology and education.  

'Trade"

See the move 'Trade,' based on the New York Times Magazine article by Peter Landsman, 'The Girls Next Door."

When 13-year-old Adriana (Paulina Gaitan) is kidnapped by sex traffickers in Mexico City, her 17-year-old brother, Jorge (Cesar Ramos), sets off on a desperate mission to save her.

Trapped by an underground network of international thugs who earn millions exploiting their human cargo, Adriana's only friend throughout her ordeal is Veronica (Alicja Bachleda), a young Polish woman captured by the same criminal gang. As Jorge dodges overwhelming obstacles to track the girl's abductors, he meets Ray (Kevin Kline), a Texas cop whose own family loss leads him to become an ally.

From the barrios of Mexico City and the treacherous Rio Grande border, to a secret internet sex slave auction and a tense confrontation at a stash house in suburban New Jersey, Ray and Jorge forge a close bond as they frantically pursue Adriana's kidnappers before she is sold and disappears into a brutal underworld from which few victims ever return.

"Coutertraffickers"

William Finnegan on Countertraffickers:

"Even those in the group at highest risk—poor young women—tend to see trafficking as something that may happen to someone else, but not to them. In surveys, most Moldovans say that they don’t know anyone who’s been trafficked. That may be partly because women often conceal this experience, even from their own families. (Men, too, who have been trafficked, most commonly for construction or farmwork in Russia or Ukraine, are ashamed to admit that their emigration was an emasculating fiasco.) And most of those who go abroad do get where they’ve paid to go, and find jobs, for better or for worse. One estimate, accepted by the I.O.M., is that between one and two per cent of all Moldovan migrants may find themselves trafficked at some point. An unworldly, underemployed young person considering a vaguely dubious job offer overseas would probably not be stopped from migrating by those odds. Add desperate poverty and an unhappy household—the standard “push factors”—and the pipeline of likely trafficking victims out of Moldova never runs dry."

See Blattman's analysis