Missed Opportunity in Philadelphia

Upper Darby police may have lost the chance to rescue eight young Liberian girls from an international human trafficking ring.

From Philadelphia Daily News:

An alleged sexual assault on an Upper Darby girl led police to a house full
of young, Liberian women - some of them pregnant-who may be involved in international human trafficking.

Now, police are anxious to locate the women, who disappeared after authorities started asking questions and arrested a woman posing as their mother.

[...]

The woman, Ophelia Cheayee, 34, of North Church Lane near Harrison Avenue, was arrested Dec. 11 on charges of aggravated indecent assault, possessing obscene and indecent materials, and corruption of a minor.

Read the story at http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/20081218_Authorities_investigate_human_trafficking_in_Upper_Darby.html

This story illustrates the need for every state in the United States to adopt an anti-trafficking law and to give training to police officers on all aspects of the law. States should also develop referral mechanisms to ensure that victims of human trafficking receive appropriate services.

The police failed to remove the girls from the home after the sexual assault had been reported because they felt that they did not have a legal basis to do so. This is outrageous on two counts: First, anti-trafficking laws give states the power to remove children from the home in cases of suspected human trafficking; Second, even in the absence of an anti-trafficking law, states have the legal right to remove children the home in cases of suspected abuse.

Certainly in this case the abuse is clear. The 13 year old girl reported being sexually assaulted by a woman with whom she was living and who admitted to police that she did sexually assault the girl. In these circumstances, authorities had the duty to remove all children from the home.

Despite the belief of law enforcement that the girls may be victims of human trafficking, the young girl who reported the assault has not been treated as a possible victim of human trafficking. She was not taken to a shelter and given counseling and medical care, instead she was sent to juvenile detention on an unrelated assault charge stemming from a school incident.

Even though police believe that the children were trafficked from Liberia to Philadelphia for the purpose of sexual exploitation, the woman who admitted to sexually exploiting at least one girl was not charged with human trafficking. She was charged with lesser crimes that do not carry penalties that are comparable to the penalties that are associated with the crime of human trafficking.

Tragically, the girls have disappeared and will be very difficult to locate. None of the girls had identification, and police are unsure of their names. They have likely been transported to another city in the United States and are continuing to be exploited by their traffickers.

Human Trafficking in Refugee Camps

Refugee camps are intended to be a place of safety for those who are fleeing war and conflict. Unfortunately militias, government forces, peacekeepers and even other refugees have used the camps as a captive source of vulnerable people who can be easily exploited.

Men and women fall prey to human traffickers in the refugee camps. However, children, especially unaccompanied children, are especially vulnerable to human trafficking. Children, some as young as five years old, are taken from refugee camps and forced to become soldiers. In Africa, child soldiers are forced to take drugs such as "Brown Brown" (cocaine mixed with gunpowder) and "Tik-Tik" (crystal meth) to dull their fear and to heighten aggression and brutality. The children are forced to take "Mandrax" (Methaqualone aka. Quaalude), which are sleeping pills, in order to bring them down from their high. These drugs are so highly addictive that after being rescued, some children return to their traffickers in order to obtain drugs to feed their drug habit. Children are often rejected by their communities because of the atrocities they committed while they were forced to be soldiers.

In addition to being exploited as forced combatants, both boys and girls are forced into sexual slavery and are exploited for forced labor as porters, cooks, cleaners and firewood gatherers. Girls who return from the war with children of their own face stigmatization and rejection by their families and communities.

In order to prevent the exploitation and suffering of refugees, there must be increased security in the refugee camps. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees must include combating human trafficking in its mandate for refugee camps. Demobilization programs must include drug rehabilitation programs in order to successfully transition children back into civilian life. Refugees who have been trafficked need psychological and physical care as well as help reintegrating into their communities.

Human Trafficking in Detroit?

A Detroit woman has been arrested for hosting a prostitution party involving 19 prostitutes that also included nude dancing by two 16 year old girls, one of whom is the woman's daughter. Those attending the party had to pay a $15 cover charge in addition to what the prostitutes charged for sex. The woman was charged with Child Sexually Abusive Material. However, this may be a case of human trafficking.

This is the definition of human trafficking that is contained in the United States Trafficking Victims Protection Act 2000, as amended:

SEVERE FORMS OF TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS.-

The term "severe forms of trafficking in persons" means-

(A) sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced

by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced

to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age;

(B) the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or

obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of

force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to

involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.

Note that force, fraud or coercion are not required when the victim is younger than 18 years old.

As to the two 16 year old girls, this is a case of human trafficking for sexual exploitation. The woman received money in exchange for the two girls engaging in sexually explicit conduct, which is defined in the United States Criminal Code as the graphic lascivious exhibition of the genitals of any person, and may have prostituted the two girls as well.

Also, contrary to the widespread belief that a victim must be transported in order to be considered trafficked, it should be noted that the woman's daughter was not transported anywhere, she was exploited in her own home for money.

Read the story at http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/.

Human Trafficking Begins with Greed

Just as with slavery, the primary motivation for trafficking in human beings is not the withering grind of poverty, but the determined power of insatiable greed. Now, as then, it is greed that drives men and women to seek their fortune in the enslavement and suffering of others. Human trafficking is a highly profitable criminal enterprise that is driven by greed and it must be analyzed as such in order for it to be eradicated.

Human trafficking is so profitable that it is now in third place behind the traffic in arms and drugs in revenue generation. Criminals in search of low-risk, high-yield profits have eagerly added human trafficking to their crime portfolios. Unlike arms or drug dealers, human traffickers do not have to buy their "product" from middlemen and then recoup the cost of purchase on the street. Arms and drug dealers only make money at a single point of sale. Human traffickers, on the other hand, are able to make money over the lifetime of the victim.

Human traffickers procure victims through fraud, coercion or deceit, and the money that is made from the exploitation of these victims is taken by the trafficker. In addition, the victims incur a "debt" for transport, shelter, food or any medical attention received and are fined for "infractions" all of which must be repaid to the trafficker. Furthermore, the victim can be exploited multiple ways, often suffering more than one form of exploitation at a time and sold multiple times. Each time the victim is resold, the debt and the fines are reinstated and increased. Human trafficking generates pure profit for the traffickers.

A Call To Arms

Each generation, by their conduct and example, must establish and prove the maxim: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness". Throughout the world the battle still rages between those who choose the cause of freedom and those who choose the cause of greed and the cruel suffering of their fellow human beings. This generation, like others before, must answer the call to arms, to fight for the freedom of their fellow man and eradicate human trafficking from the earth.

In order to be victorious in the fight against human trafficking it is necessary to take instruction, to be armed with the truth, an understanding of the many facets of human trafficking and compassion for others. Men and women of goodwill must resolve to exert themselves with persistence and energy to end the practice of human trafficking.

Many argue that the fight against human trafficking differs from the fight waged against slavery in the 18th and 19th centuries and that the chains of slavery which now bind countless men, women and children are lighter and easier to bear than those of the past. Factional interests stress that human trafficking is less than slavery, that it is a natural outgrowth of poverty, or merely a form of illegal migration or a minor labor law violation. These are false and dangerous beliefs. Human trafficking is defined and caused by the same things that have defined and caused slavery through the ages: Exploitation and greed. It is important to stress this point to ensure that those who take up this fight remain focused on the true nature of human trafficking and do not dissipate their effort and energy on issues that are not the cause of this inhumane practice.

When putting forth his arguments in favor of the adoption of the American Constitution, Alexander Hamilton wrote in The Federalist No. 1 that "the consciousness of good intentions disdains ambiguity". This adage is equally true of the fight against human trafficking as it is of the fight against tyranny. Therefore, it is imperative to state often and without equivocation that human trafficking is slavery.

The cause of freedom is just and it is worthy. It requires courage and faith of its champions. Its champions must not succumb to factional interests that seek to distract and divert. It is the duty of us all to stand up for those who are enslaved, to bring about an event that is necessary to the happiness and progress of all mankind: the end of human trafficking.

The Problem of Human Trafficking

The evil institution of slavery still exists. All over the world, men, women and children are enslaved. They live and labor under cruel and inhumane conditions. Now called human trafficking, modern day slavery destroys human potential, corrodes and ravishes society, and is the shame of humanity. Human trafficking is a vast commercial enterprise that generates large profits for those who engage in it. The potential to create a vast amount of wealth by enslaving others creates key stakeholders and enablers with vested commercial interests who will protect their profits by any means and at any cost. The United Nations estimates that between 7 and 10 billion dollars is earned annually from human trafficking by criminal organizations. According to the United States Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, as amended, human trafficking is now the fastest growing source of profits for criminal organizations worldwide.

The commercial interests that are involved in human trafficking are comprised of a variety of actors including government officials at all levels, multinational corporations, transnational criminal organizations, terrorist organizations, militias, militaries and individuals. Two nongovernmental organizations, Global Witness and Partnership Africa Canada, have documented the involvement of diamond traffickers, al-Qaeda and Hezbollah in human trafficking in Africa. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has documented the involvement of transnational criminal organizations in human trafficking throughout the world.

The United States Government estimates that 800,000 people are trafficked across national borders. The victims of human trafficking are men, women and children of all ages and backgrounds. Victims are trafficked for sexual exploitation, labor exploitation, criminal activity, organ harvesting and as forced combatants.

In Africa, civil wars and tribal conflicts fuel human trafficking. Not only are victims trafficked as forced combatants during these conflicts, they are also trafficked for illegal mining of precious gems and metals as well as for sexual exploitation. In March 2003, the UN Special Court in Sierra Leone indicted several individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, violations of international law, enslavement, sexual slavery and conscription of children into an armed force.

The lack of the rule of law, as well as a weak, under funded, poorly trained judiciary that is subject to the influence of the executive, create the conditions in which human trafficking flourishes. The lack of the rule of law breeds widespread corruption and impunity and a weak judiciary prevents the prosecution of traffickers and the proper adjudication of the laws.

The primary enabler of human trafficking is the lack of a comprehensive anti-trafficking law that defines human trafficking as a distinct offense, criminalizes all forms of human trafficking, establishes criminal penalties that reflect the gravity of the crime, includes men, women and children in its definition of 'victim of human trafficking', provides for the criminal liability of corporations, criminalizes all activities related to human trafficking, establishes accomplice liability and extraterritorial jurisdiction.

The responsibility of governments to aggressively combat human trafficking must be enshrined in law. Without a comprehensive anti-trafficking law, the three P's of combating human trafficking: prosecution, prevention and protection will never be achieved. Governments will be unable to design and implement programs to train their judiciary and law enforcement officers on all aspects of a comprehensive domestic anti-trafficking law and the most effective way of enforcing the law. Governments will be unable to seek extradition of suspected traffickers if the crime of human trafficking is not established in domestic law. Governments cannot identify victims in need of assistance because 'victims of human trafficking' have not been defined in law.

Without a law that delineates appropriate and necessary victim assistance programs, victims will not receive aid. Awareness raising programs that inform people of their rights will remain empty promises without the codification of those rights into a domestic anti-trafficking law.

Without an anti-trafficking law that defines human trafficking in accordance with the United Nations Protocol, governments are unable to conduct primary research and empirical analysis of human trafficking, the factors that comprise it and their linkages. Governments cannot determine best practices and put them into effect. Ideas, information and strategies are not exchanged among governments and appropriate measures of success are not established.

Without a law that clearly defines and proscribes the crime of human trafficking, human trafficking thrives and all people are vulnerable. In lieu of a comprehensive anti-trafficking law, countries rely upon existing criminal statutes to prosecute traffickers. Statutes that criminalize rape, prostitution, pimping and kidnapping are used. These statutes do not provide penalties that are commensurate with the gravity of the crime of human trafficking nor do they satisfy the obligations of countries under the UN Protocol.

The United States Government Accounting Office (GAO) reported in July 2006 that each UN agency, international organization and NGO that is funded by the U.S. Government, defines and analyzes human trafficking in a way that is most favorable to the furtherance of its own mandate.

Organizations that focus on migration define and analyze human trafficking as an element of irregular migration and conclude that establishing laws that allow open migration is the solution. Organizations that focus on labor issues define and analyze human trafficking as an element of forced labor conclude that labor law enforcement, unionization and minimum wage standards are the solution to human trafficking. Organizations that focus on children define and analyze human trafficking solely as the exploitation of children and conclude that the only solution to human trafficking is to make children the responsible agents by training them to train their parents and local communities on the rights of children under international law.

Each unique definition, analysis and conclusion is proselytized to governments, NGOs, local communities, trainers and victims to devastating effect: key stakeholders in the fight against human trafficking are forced to look at this problem through a straw. The enormity and gravity of human trafficking is severely diluted by restricting the definition of this crime to a single form of exploitation or a particular group of victims.

The GAO has determined that as a consequence of the proliferation of numerous definitions of human trafficking, countries and organizations define human trafficking differently. Governments focus all of their efforts and resources solely on the sexual exploitation of women and girls to the detriment of other forms of human trafficking such as forced labor and other victims such as men and boys.