I’ve seen several stories in the various local news sites here in Austin over the past couple of years. Here’s the Texas Attorney General’s website:
Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve always read “human trafficking” as code for “illegal immigration” and/or “prostitution”. Neither of which makes you a slave.
Now, maybe I’m biased here by my knowledge of chattel slavery in the US, but it seems to me state support is an important component of slavery. Otherwise you could just leave. People don’t hire chain gangs to pick strawberries, and they don’t hire prostitutes who are chained to a bed. You can’t send a kidnapped adult into an open field every day to work (or a street, or motel, etc) and expect them not to run. Maybe there’s some physical threats going on, too, but people fight back, they band together, they take chances. How have we never heard of a single escaped slave?
Now I’m well aware that prostitutes and illegal immigrants are ripe for exploitation because they always have “we’ll tell the cops on you” hanging over their heads. But exploitation isn’t slavery. And it seems that the “trafficking” part had to have been voluntary, or else “we’ll tell the cops” isn’t much of an issue, because what are they going to do, send you back home?
Something just doesn’t add up. I’m not saying there’s not an issue, and I’m not saying we shouldn’t do something about it. But when I see the stats saying there’s a million slaves entering the US alone every year (or some other outrageous claim), I just don’t buy it. These stats have an agenda behind them, and I’m not sure what it is, but I don’t trust it. Especially when the most obvious solutions (legalizing prostitution and immigration) are never suggested, and in fact very few solutions at all are offered. It’s all “strip clubs are bad”, “sex work is bad” guilt trip stuff.
And one thing that is always in my mind in this discussion: pimping has itself been a crime all along. Its convergence with “trafficking” is partly driven, and I don’t blame anyone for it, by a desire to bring attention to the reality of predatory pimps, abusive SOBs much different from the pop-culture image of a slick dude in flamboyant threads and a tricked out ride who’s admired for keeping his bitches in line. But I get the feeling that in most cases that is all there is: common vulgar pimping.
But yes: the major mode of human trafficking in the world is non sexual labor trafficking. Transfer of people for illegal agricultural, domestic, menial or sweatshop work, often under debt indenture.
I suspect that this depends on the organization doing the trafficking.
As noted earlier in the thread, the women trafficked into Germany (probably by Russian mafia) have their families threatened, back home.
In the case of Mexican women, brought into the US, it’s possible that the women are willing. But that still wouldn’t mean that they are kept in - what we would consider to be - humane circumstances or what we would consider to be a “willing” frame of mind. If you’re a member of a cartel, enslaving women, you tell them that you have control over the town, contacts in high places, and that you’ll be able to track them down, no problem. And if they do their part, they’ll get their money when they’re returned to Mexico. But in the meanwhile, they’ll have to put up with whatever ill treatment you or the customers give them.
A lot of control can probably also be exerted via the wage scheme. Provide food and lodging while they’re in the US, and they’ll have no money to run away with. Give their family half the money when the girl leaves Mexico and the other half when she comes back. As the bread winner, she’s on the hook to see everything through.
In the case of American women, managed by a pimp, often drugs and alcohol are involved to keep them hooked and pliable. And generally those with a pimp are runaways who are underage. If the police find them, they’ll be sent back to the home that they had runaway from - possibly with good reason.
In the US what generally happens is a woman is promised a job in the US as a maid making good money for their home country. Once they get to the US they are put in a brothel, their documents are taken away, and they are threatened with violence unless they become prostitutes in the brothel. In order to prevent escape the brothel is guarded. Also the women usually does not speak English, has no legal papers, and comes from a country where the police are usually in the pay of criminals and not to be trusted. They can also be given addictive drugs to make them dependent on the brothel owners.
Women do escape and their stories are available if you look for them. I don’t believe the problem in the US is as big as advocates claim but it does happen.
To me the issue seems to be term “human trafficking” seems to conflate a bunch of very different crimes:
[ul]
[li]Arranging for the travel of illegal immigrants to the US (who in most cases are making a rational decision to immigrate to the US and not being coerced at all).[/li][li]Sexual exploitation of children or adults in the sex trade (whether or not they are US citizens and have actually be transported anywhere)[/li][li]Sexual exploitation of illegal immigrants who have come to the US under false pretenses and kept in the trade by threats of violence or exposure to the authorities[/li][li]Non-sexual exploitation of other immigrant workers[/li][/ul]
There is obviously a lot of exploitation and abuse going on in all these situations. Personally though I don’t see the point of conflating all these into one.
On a related note, my pastor posted another story today about how ERs are seeing parades of teenage girls and young women who have been the victims of (among other things) forcible anal rape, which they do because they and their boyfriends/husbands have seen it in porn and think it’s normal.
I inquired about this on a medical board I post on, on both the ER and OB/GYN boards, and the people there said, pretty much to a person, “What kind of weirdo is your pastor, anyway?” He WAS invited to the Vatican to speak about it a couple years ago; he is a respected person in the field.
I do find it difficult to believe that kids who have grown up in any kind of mainstream environment would do this on this scale, and discuss it casually with him which he claims happens on a daily basis. I have DEFINITELY never heard of a relationship between people of any age that was sexually abusive and not abusive outside the bedroom.
He also said something a few weeks ago about how infertility specialists in his area have had to ask couples, “Are you having penis-in-vagina intercourse, and if so, do you ejaculate inside her?” Apparently a lot of people are not, and don’t know that this is necessary to conceive. (Good grief, my cats’ parents figured that out on their own.) One of the posters on the doctors’ board said, in effect, “How would a person who doesn’t know the basics of human reproduction know to go to a fertility specialist, or have the mental capacity to make an appointment?”
I don’t think my pastor or his secretary, who’s also part of the conversation, are making it up. I guess when you’re in the thick of something, like they are, you see the world much differently.
Very well known by the millions of fans of internet porn. I’ve never looked at it, and it’s not my thing, but that site has been covered by many mainstream news organizations for several years for reasons good and bad.
Might as well get bent out of shape over someone revealing the name of super underground sex trafficking organization Vivid or Manwin.
None of these organizations have anything to do with sex-trafficking, BTW. While overblown, you could probably point the finger at some much more well known and mainstream websites.
Maybe not “making it up” as much as they are passing along urban legends or playing a weak game of telephone.
This sounds like something out of the “rainbow party” myth canon. Of course pastors would never have any interest in exaggerating sexual decadence.
Note that all of these organizations are making their money from this problem.
So I’d take their statistics with a grain or salt, at least. Like asking an Insurance salesman if you have enough insurance.
Take the 100,000 children per year number. Even assuming that as correct, it is a pretty broad definition of exploitation.
From doing some volunteer work in this area, I know that young GLBT boys who were thrown out of their home after coming out (called runaways, but are really ‘throwaways’*) usually are offered payment for sex within a few days of being on the streets. And many of them accept, to earn money for food, clothing, & shelter. (But that’s pretty much the same reason I worked for Wells Fargo.) As they said, it was easier & paid better than McDonalds.
You could certainly call that exploitation, but trafficking? Who is doing the trafficking – the kid themself?
*It seems to me that it is these same evangelical ministers who rant about ‘human trafficking’ also encourage their parishioners to force their GLBT kids out of their homes.
Or the jelly bracelet thing around the same time.
Maybe I lead a very sheltered life, but I have NEVER known, or even heard of, anyone who threw their child out, or disowned them, for being gay. I don’t doubt that it’s happened, and I believe that when it does, there’s a LOT more going on. MHO, of course. (It’s like the stereotype of the man who leaves his wife when he finds out she has breast cancer. I am the child of a BCS and encountered many of them when I worked in healthcare, etc. and have never witnessed this either. I do know of people who got divorced; all of them were already headed down that road long beforehand.)
Some of these numbers remind me of the stories in the 1980s about 2 1/2 million missing children every year. That story evaporated quickly when it was revealed that 99% of those were runaways, and 99% of the children who were kidnapped turned out to have been abducted by someone they knew, usually a non-custodial parent or grandparent.
Right. Suppose I was kidnapped off the streets of New York by a gang, smuggled in to Saudi Arabia, and told that unless I fixed their oil drilling rig they would put me on a plane back to JFK. I’d probably say, “Ok, send me home.”
Except if you found it likely that the gang might kill you upon return.
Not so much facts and figures, but news stories:
Rhode Island has had legalized prostitution via loopholes in the law (closed in 2009) that prostitution indoors was legal. In turn, it has opened the door to human trafficking, especially of Asian nationalities. RI has been fighting the tide ever since:
[QUOTE=wiki]
Prostitution was decriminalized in Rhode Island in 1980, when the prostitution laws were amended, reducing prostitution from a felony to a misdemeanor. The drafters of the law deleted the section that addressed committing the act of prostitution itself, and only street solicitation remained illegal.[4] Prostitution remained legal in the state until November 2009, when it was outlawed again.
It has been argued that the lawmakers who amended the Rhode Island prostitution laws in 1980 had decriminalized indoor prostitution by mistake, without realizing that the new laws were creating a “loophole.” Rhode Island State Senator John F. McBurney III was the only member of the General Assembly at the time of the 2009 vote who had served in 1980. He stated in 2009, “We probably vote on 500 bills a year (…) They didn’t know what they were voting for.”
[/QUOTE]
In turn, this had led to numerous “masseuse parlors” being run in RI. These, however, have been slowly located and closed down.
[QUOTE=Providence Journal]
A new Asian massage parlor opened last Friday next to a tavern frequented by police officers — and didn’t last the week before it was raided for prostitution.
The Angel Spa, which had ads featuring scantily clad young Asian women in the adult entertainment section of Backpage dot com, was the first to open since the passage of a city ordinance regulating “body works” establishments. The ordinance was intended to crack down on suspected prostitution and sex trafficking, and it resulted in the closure of all of the spas in the city in February.
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=ABC6]
The doors to this Providence massage parlor on Pontiac Ave. are closed. The blinds are drawn, and the lights are off. It’s just one of five where prostitution was common that have shut down after police pressure. Neighboring businesses we spoke to say they are happy with the crack down.
“It is an illegal thing, so I guess it’s better for the neighborhood, and better for the community,” said Sonny Pham who works at High-Tech Auto Services and Detail. His businesses is right across the street from two of the parlors, Red Rose Spa, and JJ Tunia Body Work.
[/QUOTE]
http://www.abc6.com/story/19399837/providence-police-crack-down-on-illegal-massage-parlors
LEOs have been finding and cracking down on trafficking in RI recently:
[QUOTE=NBC10]
Cranston police arrested 17 people in a prostitution and trafficking sting.
They have accused 21-year-old Yuleysi Garcia of Providence with human trafficking of a 16-year-old girl.
Devon Brown of Everett, Massachusetts has been charged with pandering.
Investigators started their sting online, saying that they posted ads on sites like Backpage.com, posing as both people looking for sex for money and those providing it.
[/QUOTE]
http://turnto10.com/news/local/17-people-arrested-after-human-trafficking-sting-in-cranston
[QUOTE=ABC6]
For the last five months, police say several girls of Mexican and Guatemalan decent have been arriving weekly to work at Providence residential brothels, prostituted for about $30 an act.
The latest discovery was about two weeks ago on the first floor of a triple–decker apartment located on Dora Street.
Inside, police found two women, one engaging with a client. The so called pimp, Armando Arevalo was arrested for sex trafficking.
[/QUOTE]
http://www.abc6.com/story/25623644/human-trafficking-discovered-in-providence-brothel-busts
[QUOTE=GoLocalProv.com]
On March 23, the Rhode Island State Police Computer Crimes Unit / ICAC Task Force received a CyberTip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) regarding a possible sexual assault of a 14 year old juvenile female. The Rhode Island State Police, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Franklin Township (New Jersey) Police Department worked to located the victim in New Jersey on April 6. At the time the victim was located, Paul Monteiro, age 30, was arrested by HSI and charged federally with human trafficking. The prosecution of this arrest is being handled by the Providence office of the United States Attorney.
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE= The Hartford Current"]
Two Rhode Island men are facing charges, including promoting prostitution, after police conducted a human trafficking investigation.
[/QUOTE]
Addendum:
A Providence Journal writer, Lynn Arditi, had written these articles in 2009 that helps lay the groundwork to the issues RI faced(faces):
and here:
I also found this, an Analysis of Human Trafficking Cases in Rhode Island, 2009-2013
It’s not that you lead a sheltered life, really, it’s that nobody knows a random sampling of people. Most people tend to know people with similar values and beliefs and socioeconomic status.
About a decade or more ago, Canadian media was being hyped up over boatloads of illegal immigrants being smuggled into Canada - depending on who was doing the talking, to work in sweat shops, to be prostitutes, to go onward to the USA.
In fact, many of these were no different than the people who paid smugglers to take them to the USA from central America, or from Arica and the middle east to Europe, or by boat to Australia. They were looking for a better life and somehow came up with thousands of dollars to make this happen.
One of the Canadian MPs, since retired, was pushing a bill that eventually became law to “fight human trafficking”. At the time, the hype made it sound like she aimed it at smugglers bringing illegal migrants into the country; it turns out, the only application I’ve heard it being used for, was to prosecute one or two pimps who brought girls down from northern Indian Reserves for prostitution… essentially, a second law, against pimps who transport people. it should not surprise us considering the discussion above that the former conservative government involved a lot of evangelical types.
I hear of a variety of “human slavery” problems in developed countries, like Canada and the USA.
One is people brought over in legit schemes that bind them to specific employers, who then have their passports taken away, are told they must work long hours, if they try to leave the police will arrest and deport them (because they no longer have a job), they still owe thousands for their transport and must work for nothing, do not know labour standards and work long hours. They are suitably cowed and do as they are told; conditions back home are not good. The jobs range from domestic help to jobs like restaurant kitchen work.
A more insidious for on slavery is the same, but involves people brought to the country illegally. They have a greater expectation that involving the authorities will result in deportation. They may also end up in ethnic areas where their situation is less noticeable and be more heavily exploited - living 20 to a room, working sweatshop conditions… or they may end up being the gardener for your lawn service, or farm workers. Of course the people who brought them in likely have connections in the home country and can continue to demand more and more “repayment” of smuggling expenses - so it’s not safe to quit.
the worst is of course sex trafficking. There are stories of women brought in to be “domestics” and ending up coerced to be sex workers - same trick, hold their passports and threaten them. Some local women may be suitably coerced, but too many know the score and can easily escape. I read something about the majority of red light district women in Amsterdam now being imports (with varying degrees of willingness) by criminal gangs from eastern Europe where things are tougher.
I’ve assumed that things are much worse in the USA, with the easier access for immigrants who don’t have a wall, and the larger ethnic communities with those who originally appear to want help but just see easy exploitation.