The Trafficking Blog

The US State Department’s Trafficking In Persons Report for 2008 is out.

For those of you who don’t know, the TIP report is an annual report that the State Department has been releasing since 2000, under an Act of Congress then passed.

This legal and actual history of trafficking is of course far older than some of the recent legislative activity, such as the UN’s anti-trafficking protocol and the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (which began the TIP reports) might lead us to think. The Mann Act, for example, was passed in 1910 as “The White-Slave Traffic Act” to fight slavery, although its vague language was used to criminalize a far broader range of activity.

But the TIP Report is hugely influential in the realm of anti-trafficking policy, and its numbers for people who are enslaved each year are among the most widely-quoted in the world. Those numbers are unchanged this year, as it cites the 800,000 people–80% women and up to 50% underage–taken across international lines every year as slaves, and the range of estimates from 4 to 27 million people enslaved worldwide at any given time.

What strikes me first about the report is not the numbers, and not the introductory statements or the grading of countries into tiers according to their response to trafficking: it is the human element. Next to the numbers, there’s a story, a true story, that’s one of those 800,000 people. There’s nothing extraordinary about it, really; it could have been any of millions of stories in the world today not very different from it. Here is this one: (Skip to the end if you can’t keep reading.)

Thirty-two year old “Sandro,” from the interior of Mexico, found himself in a migrant shelter in Tijuana. A recruiter approached him in the shelter and urged him to come to the U.S.-Mexico border to “take a look.” As they neared the border, the recruiter (knowledgeable of the shift change in the border patrol), pushed him over the border and instructed him to “run.” Sandro was guided by Mexican traffickers to a “safe house” where he was tied to a bed and raped about 20 times. He was then transported, at gun point, to another “safe” house in San Diego and forced into domestic servitude. Eventually, he was taken to a construction site during the day. His pay check was confiscated by his traffickers. He felt he had no recourse since he lacked even basic identification papers. His abuse continued when one of his traffickers forced him at gunpoint to perform sexual acts. He was later rescued and has since received temporary residency in the United States.

This is normal; this is what we have to change.

The elements are often different, here and there. But every life, every single one of those numbers, is a real person.

News from from UN News Centre - Women, Children, Population on June 3, 2008, 1:00am

Global and regional pacts must be put into action if the world is to tackle the scourge of human trafficking, a $32 billion annual industry, General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim said today in New York.

» See the Article

New York State is generally divided into two areas: New York City at the southernmost tip, and everyplace else. Upstate New York has some absolutely spectacular wildlife, wonderful forests, nice rivers, farms of all sizes–many of them traditional in different regards–small towns and cities, etc… New York City is the kind of city that makes most other cities seem like they aren’t cities at all–the “downtown” area of most cities is nothing next to Manhattan.

Obviously the difference between NYC and the rest of the state has all kinds of political and socioeconomic dimensions–where do taxes go, what kind of diversity are you likely to run into in New York City vs. Upstate, what corruption do you have to deal with, what’s Republican and what’s Democrat, what’s the Gini Coefficient, etc…

But while New York City is someplace we’re likely to think of when we think of Human Trafficking in the US, upstate New York is not.

Slavery isn’t confined to our biggest cities. It may not be happening within fifty miles of us–but it may also be around the corner, no matter where we live. Eleven women were found held as sex slaves in the quiet suburbs of Western New York last December, and consider: (1) those are only the ones we know about, (2) slavery isn’t confined to suburbia, and (3) sex slavery isn’t the only kind. From a WBFO article:

“LEWISTON, NY (2008-05-15) Western New Yorkers were shocked in December when a police sting closed down several massage parlors operating a sex slavery business. But members of the local human trafficking task force say no one should be surprised. Members of the task force and others gathered Wednesday to begin educating the public on who is being victimized and what is being done to stop it.”

“Amy Fleischauer is coordinator for Trafficking Victims’ Services at the International Institute in Buffalo. She said the community can not pretend it is not happening here.”

She goes on to identify the Buffalo Niagra region as a significant spot for human trafficking. It’s “a pass through and training ground for Toronto and New York city,” she says, and she points to local demand aside from that, not only for sex slaves but also slaves kept for agricultural and domestic labor. And she adds, because people do not know, that “some are United States citizens, and include women, girls, men and boys.”

It’s important to say that it happens to our citizens, because it does, and that fact helps to drive the problem home. Yet I dislike emphasizing that part, because we shouldn’t care who it’s happening to: we should care that it’s happening. If the slave next door is a Tibetan girl, I should care no less than if she’s an American. It shouldn’t matter what labels we put on her; she is real.

Still, it drives the terrible realities of slavery home, and we often care a little more, when we realize it could happen to our friends. It could happen to us. It could happen to our children.

News from from Sofia News Agency (novinite.com) on May 29, 2008, 8:03am

Police from the city of Stara Zagora have arrested three Bulgarians over allegations of human trafficking. The two men and a woman are accused of enticing women of low social status by promising them jobs in Spain and later forcing their victims into prostitution. Another Bulgarian controlled the …

» See the Article

There is a tendency in some circles to dismiss trafficking as an immigration problem only, and of course that’s ridiculous: firstly, if something dangerous is happening a few blocks away from our home, it’s our problem. If slavery is happening a few blocks away from our home, it’s definitely our problem.

Secondly, while the victims of trafficking in this country may tend to be foreign nationals, that doesn’t mean that Americans can’t be trafficked to other countries–while rarer than having foreign slaves trafficked into America (because of the relative wealth of our nation), it does happen.

Thirdly, Americans are paying for it–the Gians come from our communities, and often have no idea of the turmoil and terror and pain that the young girls under them have gone through. Their ignorance doesn’t excuse them of responsibility for the rape, even if they had no moral qualms about prostitution itself in the first place.

And fourthly, the slave trade flourishes in corrupt environments and promotes the corruption of those that are not corrupt. There’s a lot of money for bribes in the slave trade, and while bribery in America is less common than it is in the developing world, it is nonetheless far too common for comfort. An ongoing slave trade encourages corruption.

• If slavery is going on near our home, that’s our problem.
• If our daughters are stolen, that’s our problem.
• If we’re paying to steal someone else’s daughters, that’s our problem.
• If an activity encourages corruption, that’s our problem.

As Americans, those are four obvious problems we should have with slavery today. As Human beings, we can add to that the fact that people are being bought and sold. I don’t mean they sign a contract to do a job–I mean they’re grabbed from the side of the road, beaten or gang-raped until they submit, taken to a strange place where they often don’t even know the language, and made to smile at men who pay to rape them.

We are the land of the free and the home of the brave–and here is the very opposite of freedom, in our lives, in our homes, in our communities and our cities and our world. It is offensive to the very notion of America, and sad almost beyond believing–but it is here, and we must deal with it.

From the AP

Only one example of the human trafficking that goes on today: two women were hired to take a baby from vietnam to China. They were paid a $150 courier fee and $875 was to go to the seller.

It’s been an interesting road getting to this point–from first learning that slavery existed today, to wondering if I’d be able to make myself write a rape scene that wouldn’t make the reader slam the book shut, to writing River of Innocents and editing it, getting feedback from a very few (and wonderful) test readers, and ultimately publishing the book.

It’s not easy for a Romantic to write about a subject so dark, and it wounds me to see characters hurt–even when it must be done. But at the end of the day, I have a good story and an honest one, even though it’s terrible and dark and hopeful all at once.

Since I announced River’s release on Thursday, around 2,000 people have been trafficked across international borders–and that’s not touching the domestic trafficking numbers, which are a lot higher. "Trafficking" has a very specific definition that the UN ratified and sociologists and feminists spend a lot of time with, but for some reason it sounds much gentler to me than "slavery," and there’s nothing gentle about what trafficking is.

I am pleased to announce the release of River of Innocents.

One of the worst crimes in the history of man is human slavery. Unfortunately, it didn’t end in the American Civil War; it was only outlawed. Today there are thousands of slaves in the U.S. and millions more overseas. They’re real people, just like you and me, but they’ve been sold or tricked or kidnapped into slavery.

A hundred and fifty years ago, Uncle Tom’s Cabin brought a tremendous fuel to the abolitionist movement in the time leading up to the Civil War. It helped to free the slaves, by making the slave human to the world.

River of Innocents is an Uncle Tom’s Cabin for today’s world, where slavery is still very much alive. Today’s slaves are real people, flesh and blood and beating hearts, and more of them are sold each decade than were sold in the entire 400-year-history of the African slave trade.

River of Innocents: In a world of stolen children and broken dreams, the seventeen-year-old Majlinda struggles to hold on to her humanity. She has no control over her life or even over her own body, yet where people are disposable, where rape is part of the normal day, and where guards watch her every move, Majlinda strives to create a family out of the stolen children around her and to give them hope when all they know is fear.

River is a novel about that hope and that terrible fear, about ideals in the face of despair, about the strength we find in ourselves when others need us, and about slavery as it is. If we are to end today’s slavery, we must first know of it; here is the story of Majlinda’s long struggle to be free.

www.riverofinnocents.com

River is what I’ve been working on lately–you can confirm what I’ve said about slavery via the “Slavery in the Media” link off of the web site, or by doing a web search for “New York Times Magazine The Girls Next Door” or “Human Trafficking.”

I wrote River because I learned about people not very far from me who were kept locked up and were rented out ten and twenty times a day and more. “Rented out” in the sense of “raped by men who paid to have sex with them.” On their best days, they might only be raped a few times.

When you learn about something this bad, one of the first things you do–after you can feel anything through the rage, the sadness, and the disbelief–is you ask “What can I do about it?”

River of Innocents was the answer. Uncle Tom’s Cabin worked 150 years ago: it made a difference and helped to free thousands of slaves. River of Innocents is Uncle Tom’s Cabin for slavery today. It is a part of what I can do–of what we all can do–to free the slaves.

Please read it, and talk about it, and spread the word: Slavery is real. Slaves are real. They’re in the world today, and we can help to set them free.

~ Terry Lee Wright

Please post this all on your blog–here’s a link to the html–or write your own message about it. Promotion code ttb7q530 gives a 10% discount at the publisher’s website through the end of May.

Remember, every day thousands of people are enslaved for the first time. Every day counts. We can make a difference–but we need to start now. Every day counts.

News from from Business Travellers Against Human Trafficking by Phil on May 6, 2008, 3:40am

The UK home office has launched a poster campaign with the stark warning “Walk in a punter, walk out a rapist.” The posters will be piloted in men’s toilets in Westminster and Nottingham. This is latest attempt by the UK government to tackle demand for trafficked women, by raising doubts in the minds of men [...]

» See the Article

As a condition for EU Membership, the EU required that Romania deal with it’s so-called "orphan problem." Romania had many massive orphanages, and the EU’s goal was to make Romania get these children out of state custody and into the homes of families. When the orphanages were shut down, some of the children did find families–but often families took them for the money the government offered, and did not care for them. It became far more common following Romania sought EU membership to see homeless children in the street.

In Romania, tens of thousands of children are left at hospitals each year because mothers simply can’t afford to care for them–without the orphanages, where would they go? This is not to say that mothers don’t care, for surely the orphanages and the notion of a ward of the state is a part of the culture; but now that the standards of the EU change that part of culture, where would the children go?

Tragically, all-to-often the answer is that they go into the hands of traffickers. Italy has seen an increase in Roma youngsters trafficked for sexual exploitation, and an increase in Roma children trafficked to beg on the streets.

Sources: 2007 Tip Report, Italy