Virginia making gains in curbing human trafficking

From the Washington Examiner: 

By Emily Babay

Virginia has improved what had been a dismal record on curbing human trafficking, according to a national anti-trafficking organization.

Polaris Project, which runs the national human trafficking resource center, had previously rated Virginia in its lowest tier. But after the state passed three anti-trafficking bills last year, Virginia is now ranked in its second-highest tier and is no longer singled out as "lagging behind" in its human-trafficking laws.

"Great bills went through," said James Dold, policy counsel for Polaris Project.

Gov. Bob McDonnell signed the three bills in May. One makes the abduction of any person for prostitution or of a minor for manufacturing child pornography a Class 2 felony that is punishable by 20 years to life in prison. Another requires the Department of Criminal Justice Services to advise law enforcement about prosecuting trafficking offenses. The third mandates that the Department of Social Services develop a plan to help trafficking victims.

Officials said those measures are already being implemented. The state held its first training seminar on recognizing human trafficking and prosecuting it last week.

"The biggest problem is spotting it," Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said. He said the session taught prosecutors, police officers and social workers about signs of trafficking and Virginia laws.

Read the full article

UN Urges Asia to Enforce Human Trafficking Laws

From Voice of America:

By Ron Corben

Senior United Nations officials say countries of the Greater Mekong Sub-region including Thailand, Cambodia and Laos are failing to apply existing laws aimed at combating human trafficking.  The conclusions come as a U.N. envoy on human trafficking concluded a 10-day assessment of Thailand's efforts to curb labor migration abuses.

The U.N.'s Special Rapporteur on Human Trafficking, Joy Ezeilo, says countries need to adopt a comprehensive approach to combat trafficking and implement laws that are already on the books.

Read the full article

Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force Strategy and Operations e-Guide

From the Office for Victims of Crime Training and Technical Assistance Center: "Developed in partnership by the Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), this e-Guide is a resource for both established and new Task Forces. Established Task Forces can use it to enhance existing operations or as a tool to assist in the revitalization of Task Force efforts and operations. This Guide does not provide OVC or BJA programmatic or grant-specific information as it is intended to be a tool for all anti-trafficking Task Forces, regardless of funding source."

The Guide includes many resources for existing task forces looking to enhance their effectiveness, to locate additional resources, or to see other models. The Guide also has foundational information for fledgling task forces. Sections include Forming a Task Force, with resources on assessing human trafficking in a local area, descriptions of existing task forces and best practices, and suggestions for building political will around the issue.

The section on Victim-Centered Response provides guidance for needs assessments, law enforcement and service provider interactions with victims, and common challenges for surviving victims. The guide also has information operating task forces, on laws and legislation, and on prosecution strategies.

Each section of the Guide includes recommended tools and training resources, and the final section of the Guide is a compilation of all of these resources for easy access.

See the Guide here.

DOJ Launches New Enhanced Enforcement Initiative

From the U.S. Department of Justice:

Department of Justice Announces Launch of Human Trafficking Enhanced Enforcement Initiative

WASHINGTON – The Departments of Justice, Homeland Security and Labor announced today the launch of a nationwide Human Trafficking Enhanced Enforcement Initiative designed to streamline federal criminal investigations and prosecutions of human trafficking offenses.

As part of the Enhanced Enforcement Initiative, specialized Anti-Trafficking Coordination Teams, known as ACTeams, will be convened in select pilot districts around the country. The ACTeams, comprised of prosecutors and agents from multiple federal enforcement agencies, will implement a strategic action plan to combat identified human trafficking threats. The ACTeams will focus on developing federal criminal human trafficking investigations and prosecutions to vindicate the rights of human trafficking victims, bring traffickers to justice and dismantle human trafficking networks.

The ACTeam structure not only enhances coordination among federal prosecutors and federal agents on the front lines of federal human trafficking investigations and prosecutions, but also enhances coordination between front-line enforcement efforts and the specialized units at the Department of Justice and federal agency headquarters. The ACTeam Initiative was developed through interagency collaboration among the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security and Labor to streamline rapidly expanding human trafficking enforcement efforts.

“This modern-day slavery is an affront to human dignity, and each and every case we prosecute should send a powerful signal that human trafficking will not be tolerated in the United States,” said Attorney General Eric Holder. “The Human Trafficking Enhanced Enforcement Initiative takes our anti-trafficking enforcement efforts to the next level by building on the most effective tool in our anti-trafficking arsenal: partnerships.”

“Working together, the entire U.S. government continues to make progress in convicting traffickers, dismantling their criminal networks and protecting their victims,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. “Combating human trafficking is a shared responsibility, and the ACTeam Initiative is a critical step in successfully leveraging all our federal, state and local resources to crack down on these criminals.”

“This pilot is a necessary tool in the federal government’s crackdown on human trafficking,” added Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. “Victims of these contemptuous acts have been left in an unfamiliar land with no family, no support systems, and no way to make a life for themselves. We must do whatever we can to ensure that victims of trafficking receive full restitution, including denied wages.”

On Oct. 29, 2010, at an event commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, the Department of Justice announced that the Interagency ACTeam Initiative would be implemented in conjunction with directives within the Department of Justice to enhance coordination among the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys, U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the department’s subject matter experts in the Civil Rights Division’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section.

The ACTeam initiative follows the July 22, 2010, launch of the Department of Homeland Security’s Blue Campaign, which includes new web-based training for law enforcement officers, enhanced resources for trafficking victims and expanded public awareness campaigns. The ACTeam Initiative also follows the Department of Labor’s March 15, 2010, announcement that it would, in coordination with other federal agencies, begin certifying U non-immigrant visas for human trafficking victims and other qualifying crime victims who are identified during the course of labor investigations and enforcement actions.

The locations of the pilot ACTeams will be announced upon completion of a competitive interagency selection process.

Setting the Record Straight

Last week, the Association of Chief Police Officers of England, Wales, and Northern Island issued a report that found that nearly 10% of prostitutes in the UK are victims of human trafficking (that figure jumps to 15% for migrant women.

Release about the report:

The report, called Setting the Record, involved a widespread collaboration between a number of law enforcement agencies, non-government organisations and has been independently academically reviewed. It also has the support of government as providing the most comprehensive estimate of the levels of trafficking for sexual exploitation.

It found that around 17,000 of the estimated 30,000 women involved in off-street prostitution in England and Wales are migrants. Approximately half come from Eastern Europe and a third from Asia. These women were grouped into three categories: those who were trafficked, those who are vulnerable and those who meet neither threshold.

Of the 17,000 migrant women identified, 2,600 were deemed to have been trafficked and a further 9,200 were deemed vulnerable migrants who may be further victims of trafficking. Most of those trafficked (2,200) are from Asia, primarily China.

ACPO lead on migration and associated matters Deputy Chief Constable Chris Eyre said: “Human trafficking for sexual exploitation involves the most extreme abuse of individuals in our communities.

“We recognise that Project Acumen focuses on only one area of trafficking, but it clearly sets out the scale of the problems that those in law enforcement, victim support, social care and border protection, collectively face.

“It provides us with a more sophisticated and nuanced understanding of how migrant women are involved in prostitution - how they are influenced, controlled, coerced, exploited and trafficked. “The publication of this report represents not the end of a process, but the start. We now have a better picture of the extent of trafficking and will look to support from Government to ensure we work effectively with all agencies to make the UK a more hostile environment for traffickers, to shut down trafficking routes into the UK and to prosecute those who are exploiting women for their own gains.”

Read the full report here.

RFP for Enhanced Task Forces Announced

From the DOJ Office for Victims of Crime:

OVC FY 10 Enhanced Collaborative Model to Combat Human Trafficking

Eligibility: Applicants are limited to state and local law enforcement agencies and nonprofit victim service organizations with a demonstrated established relationship and capacity to successfully partner among themselves and key stakeholders to support an enhanced approach to identifying, rescuing, and assisting victims of all forms of human trafficking. Applicants will only be eligible to apply if their application is made in conjunction with an application from a law enforcement agency or a victim service organization. Recipients of awards under this solicitation must be located in the community, jurisdiction, or geographic area specified in the application. Grantees currently receiving human trafficking funding from BJA and OVC are eligible to apply for this funding.

Overview: Through this solicitation, BJA and OVC seek to update the DOJ multidisciplinary anti-human trafficking task force model for contemporary relevance and incorporate lessons learned into a new model: the Enhanced Collaborative Model to Combat Human Trafficking. This FY 2010 program will fund up to three Enhanced Collaborative Model Task Force sites that will take a comprehensive approach to combating all forms of trafficking–sex trafficking and labor trafficking of foreign nationals and U.S. citizens (male and female, adults and minors). A total of six cooperative agreements are expected to be awarded. Three awards are expected to be made by BJA to support law enforcement agencies to coordinate the goals, objectives, and activities of the entire task force in close collaboration with the local U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) and victim service provider partner; and three awards are expected to be made by OVC to support a victim service organization to coordinate the provision of a comprehensive array of culturally and linguistically appropriate services to all trafficking victims identified within the geographic area impacted by the task force.

Deadlines: Registration and Application: Registration is required prior to submission. OJP strongly encourages registering with Grants.gov several weeks before the deadline for application submission. The deadline for applying for funding under this announcement is 8:00 p.m. eastern time on July 27, 2010.

Please find the full RFP here.

Why is it so hard to catch men who sell teen girls for sex?

By Julia Dahl for The Crime Report.

Like a lot of 14-year-old girls, all Shaquana wanted was a boyfriend. The skinny Brooklyn, N.Y. eighth-grader was on the honor roll at school, but unhappy at home. She hadn’t seen her father in years, and endured constant teasing about her looks from her siblings and verbal abuse from her strict, religious mother.

“I used to pray every night that God would make me prettier and give me a boyfriend,” says Shaquna, now 20, who asked that her last name not be used for this story.

In the spring of 2004, her prayers were answered – or so she thought. Every day after school, as Shaquana walked to her job at a local farmers’ market, she’d pass a guy who tried to get her attention. You’re so cute, he’d tell her. Come here and talk to me. Shaquana ignored him for a while, but after a couple of weeks, she relented. The two exchanged numbers and started talking on the phone. She told him she was 15; she thought he was probably about 17.

“He made me feel really comfortable,” she remembers. Soon, they were meeting at the local park, then hanging out at his apartment, where he started to pressure her for sex. “I told him it was a sin, but he was like, ‘I like you a lot, and if you like me you’re gonna do it.’ I thought that meant we would be together forever.”

She was wrong. After they had sex a few times, he stopped calling, and told her to stop coming around. She was devastated, and finally went to his place to beg him to take her back. That’s when he told her the truth: he was 26 years old ―and a pimp.

“He said, ‘I don’t have time for little girls,’” she says. “He told me if I wanted to be with him I had to work for him, or just get lost. I was so focused on being with him that I said I would.” Soon, Shaquana was going on “dates” he set up for her. He taught her how to perform oral sex, and strung her along, being nice one minute, manipulative the next. Shaquana says she felt completely trapped. “It was so degrading, and I felt like I was the only one my age who could possibly be doing this.”

She wasn’t. By some estimates, there may be as many as 100,000 minors involved in the sex trade in the United States. . .

Oakland’s Jim Saleda is one of five city officers assigned to a unit focused specifically on under-age prostitution and internet crimes against children – a unit that Saleda fears may not survive upcoming budget cuts. (Last year, California cut $80 million from the state’s Child Welfare Services budget, according to the non-profit California Budget Project.)

Saleda says that even as recently as 15 years ago, pimping was “a gentleman’s game,” a family business, of sorts, often passed down from father or uncle to son.

His observation matches research done by Prof. Jody Raphael of DePaul University Law School. Raphael conducted in-depth interviews of five former Chicago-area pimps and found that all but one had been introduced to the sex trade by family members.

Now, says Saleda, gangs and drug dealers have gotten involved, making the profession more violent and ruthless. Just this year, Saleda found one 16-year-old sex worker “savagely” murdered. Her killer is still at large.

“Pimping young girls is a lot less risk and a lot less overhead than dealing dope,” Saleda says. “The girl is the one that gets arrested, and she won’t talk because it’s built into them never to roll on their pimp. And it doesn’t cost anything but maybe a couple fast food meals a day and maybe getting their nails done.”

Slowly, law enforcement authorities and prosecutors at both state and federal levels have recognized they need to address the problem more seriously. Since 2003, the federally funded Innocence Lost National Initiative, has marshaled the efforts of 38 task forces and working groups around the country that focus on combating domestic child sex trafficking. . .

Some states, however, are doing more. In Washington State, for instance, a new law mandates longer sentences for both johns and pimps who exploit underage prostitutes. As of June 10, the punishment for paying for sex with someone under 18 went from a slap on the wrist to 21 to 27 months in prison, a $5,000 fine and 15 years of sex offender registration. . .

Still, concedes FBI Agent Michael Langeman, such efforts may not necessarily lead to more prosecutions.

“Prosecutors have a history of shying away from these cases because [the girls] don’t always make great witnesses,” explains Langeman, who has been with Innocence Lost for five years. “It can be (difficult) to portray them as victims when they’ve become so hard.”

The legal system wasn’t much help to Shaquana. She never testified against any of the men who turned her out, raped her, and even beat her so savagely she ended up in the hospital. But, with the help of advocacy group GEMS, she constructed a better future for herself. She was valedictorian at her high school graduation and while she attends college she works for GEMS, speaking at juvenile detention centers and group homes about her experiences.

“It was so easy for him to manipulate me,” says Shaquana of her first pimp. “He was twice my age. And all those guys I slept with, they’d ask me how old I was; when I’d say 19, they’d say, ‘No you’re not, you look 13.’ They knew, and they went on and did their thing anyway.”

Read the full article here.

Even as the US formally acknowledges its own trafficking problem for the first time in the 2010 Trafficking in Persons Report, it is important to consider the challenges that exist in the US for ending all forms of trafficking. I appreciate that this article details the insidious forms that recruitment and control can take, particularly in the commercial sexual exploitation of children, while also pointing to both policy and law enforcement innovation, as well as policy and law enforcement challenges. At the same time, issues with victim services and after care that this article draws our attention to bear out the US assessment in the TIP report that "government services for trafficked U.S. citizen children were not well coordinated; they were dispersed through existing child protection and juvenile justice structures. The government made grants to NGOs for victim services, though there are reports that the system is cumbersome and some NGOs have opted out of participating. Victim identification, given the amount of resources put into the effort, is considered to be low and law enforcement officials are sometimes untrained or unwilling to undertake victim protection measures."

Landmark as first human trafficking case goes ahead in Ireland

From Irish Central:

The first human trafficking court case will go ahead in Ireland after a slew of allegations.
Some 66 allegations of sex trafficking were made in 2009 alone.

Catherine Dunne, of the Labour Party’s women section said, "In June 2008, the 'US Trafficking in Persons Report' classified Ireland for the first time as a destination country for women, men, and children trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labour.”

No one in Ireland has ever been charged with the crime of human trafficking even though 2008 saw the introduction of Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) Act 2008.

Out of the 66 allegations in 2009 only 13 were found not to involve human trafficking. Dunne commented on the lack of convictions, thus far, despite the introduction of the law.

She said “In the two years since this law has existed there have been no convictions…Ten prosecution cases have been initiated but we wait for a conviction. While this is not a criticism, we do want to note the fact that this is the case.

"We know from studies that trafficked girls and women have been identified in Ireland.
She added “We do not want this piece of legislation to be like the law against marital rape, which was enacted in 1990 but only secured the first conviction in 2002.”

At a Stormont Public Accounts Committee meeting last month assistant chief constable of the Police Service in Northern Ireland, Drew Harris, said “Girls in their early teens are being trafficked to Northern Ireland and forced into prostitution and servitude right under our noses.”

The conference brought to light chilling stories about various cases of trafficking discovered throughout Ireland.

Harris told the story of a young orphaned girl who had been trafficked through four countries. She was just one of 20 people the Police Service in Northern Ireland had discovered in 2006.

Stop Modern Slavery: Human Trafficking Training

Stop Modern Slavery DC's Training Team will host a human trafficking training at the Cleveland Park Police Station on Tuesday, June 15th at 7:30 pm.

The training will cover what human trafficking is, how you can spot a trafficked victim--often described by experts as "hidden in plain sight"--and what you can do to help put an end to these unthinkable crimes. The training is open to the public.

The training is targeted to groups that may come into contact with trafficking victims, including emergency medical personnel, taxi drivers, police officers, hotel workers, etc. Stop Modern Day Slavery DC urges people to forward information about the event to anyone who may be interested in the event, particular the populations listed above. Contact organizers@stopmodernslavery.org for more information.

When:
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
7:30pm - 9:30pm

Where:
Cleveland Park police station
3320 Idaho Avenue Northwest
Washington, DC 20016

Who:
Open to the public

To RSVP, go to one of these links:
Meetup.com

Facebook

Other

Additional Thought to Arizona's Immigration Bill and Human Trafficking

Earlier today, Jennifer wrote about the effects of Arizona's new immigration bill on the ability of trafficking victims to come forward and the likelihood that victims will simply be arrested and deported if they lack status.

Another consideration that hasn't been talked about yet is that undocumented survivors who have already been identified by service agencies and law enforcement could also be arrested and/or deported under a law like Arizona's. Survivors of human trafficking go through various stages of immigration relief and the amount of time between them also varies. A survivor could go months without status while a law enforcement agency applies for continued presence (a temporary status, typically one year, that allows a survivor to stay in the US during an on-going investigation), federal certification or while a legal service provider applies for a T Visa (a more long-term immigration status set up through the TVPA).

During this time, service providers work to assist survivors to gain English skills, temporary housing, in addition to providing for other personal needs, but they are free to explore and walk around their community. While service providers can safety plan with survivors, the idea of explaining a law like that to an undocumented survivor who is waiting for immigration relief seems extremely challenging and, I would safely guess, add to the fear of law enforcement that survivors often already have.

Simply because a survivor is working with a law enforcement or service agency does not prevent another law enforcement agency from arresting and deporting them under this law because other law enforcement agencies would not have access necessarily to that individual's case. And, again, even though a person has been identified as a pre-certified victim of trafficking, they may still be considered undocumented and be without any form of government ID until the paperwork has gone through on any status application. If survivors are arrested or worse, deported, that negative experience could be extremely traumatic to that survivor (or worse) and damage any investigation or prosecution; all of which would be serious injustice for survivors.

Gambino Crime Family Charged with Sex Trafficking, Other Crimes

According to a Department of Justice Press Release:

PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and GEORGE VENIZELOS, the Special Agent-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI"), announced today the arrest of 14 members and associates of the Gambino Organized Crime Family of La Cosa Nostra (the "Gambino Family") on charges including racketeering, murder, sex trafficking, sex trafficking of a minor, jury tampering, extortion, assault, narcotics trafficking, wire fraud, loansharking, and illegal gambling.

DANIEL MARINO is a longtime member and is currently a Boss of the Gambino Family. In that capacity, MARINO has over 200 fully-inducted or "made" mafia members under his command, as well as hundreds of associates who commit crimes with and for the mafia. THOMAS OREFICE and ONOFRIO MODICA are currently Soldiers of the Gambino Family acting under MARINO's supervision. OREFICE and MODICA each supervise crews that include DOMINICK DIFIORE, ANTHONY MANZELLA, MICHAEL SCOTTO, MICHAEL SCARPACI, THOMAS SCARPACI, DAVID EISLER, and SALVATORE BORGIA, all of whom are charged with racketeering and racketeering conspiracy. The indictment also charges other individuals who committed crimes with and for the Gambino Family, including STEVE MAIURRO, KEITH DELLITALIA, SUZANNE PORCELLI, and ANTHONY VECCHIONE.

In addition to the racketeering charges, the defendants are charged with [among other crimes]

Sex Trafficking and Sex Trafficking of a Minor

OREFICE, DIFIORE, MANZELLA, SCOTTO, EISLER, MAIURRO, and PORCELLI are charged with sex trafficking and sex trafficking of a minor. From 2008 to 2009, the defendants operated a prostitution business where young women and girls—including an underage girl who was 15 years old at the time—were exploited and sold for sex. The defendants first recruited various young women and girls—ages 15 through 19—to work as prostitutes. The defendants then advertised the prostitution business on Craigslist and other websites. The defendants drove the women to appointments in Manhattan, Brooklyn, New Jersey, and Staten Island to have sex with clients. The defendants then took approximately 50 percent of the money paid to the young women. The defendants also made the women available for sex to gamblers at a weekly, high-stakes poker games that OREFICE and his crew ran. . .

U.S. Attorney PREET BHARARA stated: "As today's case demonstrates, the mafia is not dead. It is alive and kicking. Modern mobsters may be less colorful, less flamboyant, and less glamorous than some of their predecessors, but they are still terrorizing businesses, using baseball bats, and putting people in the hospital. Today, the Gambino Family has lost one of its leaders, and many of its rising stars have now fallen. We will continue to work with our partners at the FBI to eradicate the mafia, and to keep organized crime from victimizing the businesses, and the people, of this city."

FBI Special Agent-in-Charge GEORGE VENIZELOS stated: "In some ways, this is not the Gambino Family of John J. Gotti. But while the leadership may maintain a lower profile, this case shows that it's still about making money illegally, by whatever means. No crime seemed too depraved to be exploited if it was a money-maker, including the sexual exploitation of a 15-year-old. In truth, despite the popular fascination, it was never really about the thousand-dollar suits. It was—and is—about murder, mayhem, and money."

Mr. BHARARA praised the outstanding investigative work of the FBI. Mr. BHARARA also noted that the investigation is continuing.

Assistant United States Attorneys ELIE HONIG, STEVE KWOK, and JASON HERNANDEZ are in charge of the prosecution. The case is being handled by the Office's Organized Crime Unit.

The charges contained in the indictment are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Read the Full Press Release.

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As the press release explicitly states, all actors named in this case have not been convicted and are presumed innocent. Also, while this case may highlight more sensational aspects of trafficking, it's important to keep in mind that there is no one face of traffickers, and many if not most traffickers are not involved in organized criminal syndicates. Nevertheless, I am excited to see this case for two main reasons. First, assembling prosecutable trafficking cases is extremely difficult. I am pleased to see sex trafficking charges included with the other charges and to see the trafficking aspect of the case explicitly acknowledged. Also, as this case shows, other criminal activity such as racketeering often occurs in conjuncture with trafficking, which can be a useful avenue to pursue for both criminal cases and civil litigation on behalf of survivors when trafficking charges themselves may not hold up. Second, this case is an important reminder that the United States is not exempt from human trafficking, including human trafficking cases involving organized crime. This reminder is quite timely as we await the soon to be released US State Department's 2010 Trafficking in Persons Report where the US will include a rating for itself for the first time.

Few New York State Prosecutions Despite Law

From the New York Times:

Despite a highly trumpeted New York State law in 2007 that enacted tough penalties for sex or labor trafficking, very few people have been prosecuted since it went into effect, according to state statistics.

In New York State, there have been 18 arrests and one conviction for trafficking since the law was signed by Gov. Eliot Spitzer and took effect in November 2007, according to the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services. There is one case pending in Manhattan, one in Queens and two in the Bronx.

The situation is not very different in New Jersey or roughly 30 other states with laws against human trafficking — defined as using fraud or force to exploit a person for sex or labor. A federal law passed in 2000 with life prison penalties has resulted in 196 cases with convictions against 419 people, according to the United States Department of Justice.

The scale of those numbers contrasts starkly with the 14,500 to 17,500 people the State Department estimates are brought into the United States each year for forced labor or sex.
Prosecutors like Anne Milgram, the New Jersey attorney general, and Janet DiFiore, the Westchester County district attorney, blame a lack of training.

Police officers, they said, do not recognize signs of exploitation and do not ask the right questions at an opportune time. Eager to move a case along, the police may arrest someone for promoting prostitution rather than stiffer trafficking charges. With evidence growing stale, it can be hard to upgrade charges later on, the prosecutors said.

“It’s very reminiscent where we were 30 years ago on the domestic violence stuff,” Ms. DiFiore said. “People just don’t get it yet.”

In a typical recent case, a 22-year-old woman from Mexico said she was lured to New York by her boyfriend, who promised a waitress’s job. Instead, she said she worked for his uncle in Queens as a prostitute, servicing 10 men a night across the five boroughs for $35 to $45 a trick.
Friendless, stranded on alien streets, frightened that the police would discover she was here illegally, she felt she had no choice, said the woman, who is pregnant.

“I felt so bad, so bad,” she said, drying tears as she spoke softly with the help of a translator. “I didn’t know what I could do. I was alone.”

In July, the boyfriend was arrested after, she said, he beat her so brutally that she finally fled and sought out a stranger, who led her to the police. But he was charged only with a misdemeanor assault for domestic violence.

The Mexican woman said that had she been asked, she would have told how she had been intimidated into prostitution, but the police did not press her, and she did not volunteer anything because she was afraid the boyfriend might seek revenge against her family in Mexico. Her lawyers say they are trying to get Queens prosecutors to upgrade the charges, something prosecutors say they will consider.

The police, experts say, should be asking an immigrant prostitute whether she was forced to work the streets, whether her passport was taken away, whether she was held against her will. Training sessions on such questions have been held, including one Nov. 12 in Mount Kisco, N.Y.

“If you’re looking at a frightened immigrant woman in a brothel, it doesn’t take a Ph.D. in political science to know what you’re dealing with,” said Dorchen Leidholdt, legal director for Sanctuary for Families, a Manhattan agency for battered women that is helping the Mexican woman. She runs across many police officers who do not know that a trafficking law exists, she said.

But the police often are not helped by victims, who are “taught, trained and manipulated by their exploiters not to cooperate with nor trust law enforcement,” Richard A. Brown, the Queens district attorney, said in an e-mail message. His office said that the Mexican woman told officials only that her boyfriend had punched her; she never mentioned prostitution.

If the right questions are asked, trafficking charges do result. In Westchester, a 21-year-old Hungarian immigrant told prosecutors she was deceived by her employer, Joseph Yannai, 65, author of a book profiling the world’s top chefs, into thinking she would be coming to Pound Ridge to be his personal assistant. But according to a criminal complaint, the job required sexual favors.

The woman escaped and her testimony resulted in charges against Mr. Yannai of sexual abuse and two counts of labor trafficking — one involving the Hungarian and another a Brazilian woman at the Yannai home. Under the new law, each labor trafficking count carries a prison sentence of three to seven years.

In their questioning, prosecutors learned, according to the complaint, that Mr. Yannai had deceived the Hungarian woman about the job, had limited her phone calls and offered her no spending money — acts that undergirded the trafficking charge. Mr. Yannai, who is awaiting trial, said the women “were free to come and go as they wished,” according to his lawyer, John D. Pappalardo.

On Tuesday, a Queens jury convicted David Brown, 32, of St. Albans, of sex trafficking and kidnapping. The Queens district attorney said it was the first conviction for sex trafficking since the 2007 law was passed.

Prosecutors said the defendant forced a woman to work for him as a prostitute for 12 days in August 2008 by threatening to beat her and cut up her body if she left his apartment. Witnesses testified that the woman was “sold” to the defendant for $2,000 by an ex-girlfriend.
Amy Siniscalchi, program director for My Sister’s Place in Westchester, a service agency working with seven trafficking victims, said “everybody in the field thinks that the crime of human trafficking is increasing.”

Jennifer Dreher, senior director of the anti-trafficking program at Safe Horizon, a domestic violence agency, said the world economic crisis had made desperate people more willing to believe employment schemes and had provided workers for massage parlors and brothels.
Those trafficking cases that have been brought illustrate how trafficking is different from run-of-the-mill crimes like promoting prostitution.

Last month, two Mexican immigrants — a husband and wife — were charged by federal authorities in Brooklyn with using physical violence — including cutting the victim with a knife, beating her with a brick, punching her and breaking her finger and nose — to force a young woman to work as a prostitute starting in April 2007.

Benton J. Campbell, the United States attorney in Brooklyn, described the case as “sex slavery.”
In the Queens case involving the Mexican woman, she said the police asked her only about visible bruises. Vivian Huelgo, another lawyer for Sanctuary for Families, faults them for not digging harder.

“A couple of different questions — is someone forcing you to have sex and is that sex for money — would take you down the road to a more serious crime,” she said.

The article has many good points, and I'm thrilled that the first conviction under New York State Law finally happened last week. Just giving my own view on the material in the article though, I think our problems run even deeper than just law enforcement and district attorneys understanding how to ask victims the right questions. I think there is an issue with police and prosecutors even understanding or believing there is a problem of trafficking in their areas. In a report entitled, Understanding and Improving Law Enforcement Responses to Human Trafficking, the authors conducted surveys among 3,000 state, local and municipal law enforcement agencies and found that, "The majority, between 73 and 77 percent, of local, county and state law enforcement in the random sample (n=1661) perceive human trafficking as rare or non-existent in their local communities." While the report provides for much more complex analysis of the results of the survey, that is a huge indication that even the best state laws will prove useless unless there is a more basic understanding of the problem of trafficking and an acknowledgment that it can happen pretty much anywhere.

Illinois and the Swedish Prostitution Model

llinois' Cook County Sheriff, Tom Dart, is in the process of re-focusing Illinois' efforts to address prostitution to the demand side. In his efforts, he is looking to the Swedish model for addressing prostitution. In Sweden, the selling of sex is legal, but buying sex is illegal, reflecting a belief that prostitution is a form of violence against women. The law is meant to put the focus on the people who create the demand for commercial sex and facilitate it: johns, pimps, and in some cases traffickers.

In a recent article in the Weekly Standard, Ambassador Lagon, former Ambassador-at-Large and Director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP) and current Executive Director of Polaris Project, reports that Dart is shifting "enforcement resources from the supply side to the demand side: from arresting (and releasing and rearresting) forcibly prostituted women and girls to arresting pimps and johns and impounding their cars, while directing the prostituted females to social services."

Lagon quotes Thomas Bodström, a former Swedish minister of justice, stating that "as long as men think they are entitled to buy and use women's and girls' bodies, human trafficking for sexual purposes will continue." While not all commercial sex is forced or is trafficking, proponents of the Swedish model and efforts to address demand argue that such efforts will afford protections to anyone engaged in commercial sex, since it will allow prostitutes and sex-trafficking victims to access social services and healthcare without fear of arrest.

End Demand, IL, an organization advocating for efforts to address demand for commercial sex, states that its goals are to "advocate for the creation of resources and tools for law enforcement to hold perpetrators accountable, deter further exploitation and increase options for prostituted and trafficked women and girls. . . . EDI's work will result in the adoption of sound public policies and practices that focus law enforcement efforts on protecting victims of the sex industry and prosecuting traffickers, pimps and other enterprises that profit from the exploitation of women and girls in the sex trade. Furthermore, our work will create an infrastructure of care for those involved in prostitution." From a basic economic-analysis standpoint, addressing demand makes sense, given that reducing supply tends to mainly drive up prices and profits - for pimps and traffickers, in this case - and does not eliminate demand.

At the same time, Amanda Kloer of End Human Trafficking points out that simply lifting the Swedish model and attempting to graft it onto other communities and localities is problematic. She lists three main reasons that simply imposing the model on Illinois may not work, including Sweden's more extensive social welfare system, the fact that Sweden is more homogeneous and a significantly smaller country and more centralized nation than the US, and a cultural emphasis in the US on individual rights and the ability to "do what we want." She concludes, "These concerns shouldn't prevent Sheriff Dart or any other creative public servants from taking a hard look at their prostitution policies and reinventing them to better protect women and girls in prostitution. But they should be an reminder that the U.S. isn't Sweden, and thus we shouldn't implement the exact same policies nor expect the exact same results."

We can learn a great deal from international efforts to end slaver, but at the same time, innovative efforts, in fact all efforts, to address trafficking must carefully consider the local context.

Human Trafficking Event in Rochester, New York

Human Trafficking: Awareness & Action

December 8, 2009, 9:00 AM—4:00 PM

RIT Inn & Conference Center

5257 W. Henrietta Rd, Rochester, NY 14467

The International Institute of Buffalo, Farmworker Legal Services of NY and the NY Branch of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children are partnering to hold a conference and networking event entitled, The Human Side of Human Trafficking: Awareness & Action.

Speakers include:

• Florrie Burke, Co-Chair, Freedom Network (USA): Ms. Burke will provide an overview of Human Trafficking, victim profiles, collaborative multi-disciplinary models of response andservice, and building a community-wide response to trafficking.


• Ron Soodalter Co-Author, The Slave Next Door: Using examples from his research Mr. Soodalter will focus on the state of human trafficking and slavery in the United States andwhat is being done to address trafficking in various regions.


• John O’Brien, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Michigan & Edward Price, Detective Sergeant, Michigan State Police—Detroit: The instructors will provide information on an actual child prostitution investigation which spanned from Michigan, Ohio, Florida and Washington D.C. and grossed over two million dollars in illegal money and assets. The instructors will discuss in detail the different methods and techniques that were used to dismantle these criminal enterprises which involved two pimps and over nine juvenile victims.

Intended audience includes government and social service providers, law enforcement members, educational staff, medical personnel, community, religious, and cultural groups, legal assistance providers and victim advocates in Upstate New York.

Register by filling out the registration form and mailing it to NCMEC/NY, 275 Lake Ave, Rochester, NY 14608 or Fax: 585-242-0717.

Download the information and registration form here.

For more information, contact: Kathy Cannon, Kcannon@ncmec.org,
585-242-0900 x 3339

New Texas Law Establishes State Task Force and Victim Assistance for Domestic Victims of Trafficking

From Governor Perry's Office:

AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry today ceremonially signed House Bill (HB) 4009, which establishes a human trafficking taskforce in the Attorney General's Office that will develop policies and procedures for the prevention and prosecution of human trafficking crimes.

"The taskforce created by this bill will focus state efforts on ending this criminal activity that primarily targets women and children," Gov. Perry said. "Human trafficking is a serious problem, and this legislation sends a message to those who would profit from exploiting others in this fashion – Texas won't stand for it."

HB 4009 directs the task force to report on the numbers of trafficking victims and convictions, how victims are transported into the state and routes taken, and the factors that create a demand for the services that victims are forced to provide. The taskforce is to present its reports to the Legislature and governor every even numbered year. The report will also include recommendations on training law enforcement to recognize and handle human trafficking, efforts to combat human trafficking, and ways to increase public awareness and bring offenders to justice.

"Texas has always been, and continues to be, a leader in the modern day abolitionist movement, and this legislation is the first of its kind in the United States," Rep. Randy Weber said. "Most people think human trafficking happens elsewhere in places like Thailand and Cambodia, but the reality is that it is happening in our own backyard. In fact, the vast majority of the victims identified within Texas are actually our own citizens."

The taskforce will work with U.S. attorneys, border patrol agents, and the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards to develop and conduct training for law enforcement personnel, judges and their staff, examine law enforcement agency training protocol, and develop recommendations for strengthening state and local efforts to prevent human trafficking.

According to the U.S. State Department, nearly one in five victims of human trafficking in the U.S. travels through Texas, with Houston and El Paso listed among the most intense trafficking jurisdictions in the country. Between 14,500 and 17,500 people are trafficked into the U.S. each year, 80 percent of them women and 50 percent of them children. Victims of human trafficking are recruited, harbored and transported for labor or services through the use of force, fraud or coercion, and are subjected to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, slavery or forced commercial sex acts.

We will undoubtedly be seeing more of these types of state legislation being signed over the next couple of years. Upon reading the bill itself, the highlight is probably Subchapter J-1, which is a provision for assistance to domestic victims of human trafficking (US citizens and permanent legal residents), which is currently not covered by federal legislation. The Task Force itself seems to apply to all victims, however the subchapter provides a grant program and specific resources for domestic victim services. It also includes a provision for the study of how to fund victim assistance programs, including the possibility of the use of assets seized from traffickers. The bill also includes the possibility of a study of alternatives to the juvenile justice system for children who engage in acts of prostitution.

Former Western New York Judge Receives Sentence

From the Buffalo News:

Ex-Justice Tills given prison term in sex case
Federal judge calls women real victims

By Phil Fairbanks and Dan Herbeck

NEWS STAFF REPORTERS

Updated: August 08, 2009, 6:36 AM

Phrases like “human trafficking” and “sex trade” bring to mind tough, brutal images that are hard to believe about anyone.

When the accused is a well-respected judge, a jurist known for tough sentences, it becomes what his own attorney acknowledged Friday is a long fall from grace.

Ronald H. Tills, 74, a retired State Supreme Court Justice, was sentenced to 18 months in prison Friday, becoming the first person given jail time in connection with the continuing federal probe of the Royal Order of Jesters.

“I will never forgive myself for the possible harm I’ve caused to the victims in this case,” Tills told a packed courtroom. “I’m embarrassed, and I feel terrible about the shame I’ve brought to the bench and the bar.”

In sentencing Tills, U. S. District Judge William M. Skretny referred numerous times to victims in the case and at least twice mentioned one young woman by name.

“Coco is a real victim in this case, and regrettably, she’s not the only one,” the judge said at one point.

Skretny described Coco as an illegal immigrant who barely spoke English and was sold into sexual slavery as a young woman. Coco, he added, was transported by Tills across state lines to serve as a prostitute at a Jesters convention in Kentucky.

The judge admonished Tills for victimizing a member of what he described as the most vulnerable subset of illegal aliens, “the undocumented women involved in the sex trade.”

The judge also chastised Tills for engaging in a sexual relationship with a woman who had appeared before him when he was still a judge and then recruiting her to work as a prostitute at a Jesters convention.

“I view, and I think society views, this as particularly disgraceful,” Skretny said.

He referred to Tills as a “real Jekyll and Hyde” and suggested the former judge and state assemblyman had not shown the level of remorse Skretny would have liked to have seen from him.

Tills pleaded guilty last September to a felony charge of transporting prostitutes across state lines.

He also admitted that, while still serving as a state judge, he recruited prostitutes for a number of Jesters weekend outings, known as “books.”

“He knows what he did was reprehensible,” said Terrence M. Connors, one of Tills’ lawyers. “He knows he’s disgraced that robe.”

Tills’ legal problems began in late 2007 when federal agents found out that a judge and a police captain were among the customers of a Niagara County massage parlor that hired illegal aliens to work as prostitutes.

The massage parlor probe— conducted by the Western New York Human Trafficking Task Force — led to an investigation into the Buffalo Jesters chapter and its use of prostitutes.

In urging the judge to give Tills 18 months, federal prosecutor John Rogowski told the judge his ruling would affect the public’s view of the judiciary.

Rogowski also urged the judge not to be blinded by the emotional aspects of the case and to remember that what Tills did was a serious crime.

Tills will begin his 18-month jail term on Oct. 1 at a federal prison yet to be determined.

Two other Jesters — John Trowbridge, 62, a former Lockport police captain, and Michael Stebick, 61, Tills’ former law clerk — were previously sentenced by Skretny.

Trowbridge was put on probation for two years. Stebick was given four months of home confinement and had to forfeit his motor home, which was used to transport prostitutes over state lines, to the government.

Connors, in seeking leniency from Skretny, stressed that Tills had helped federal agents with information about prostitution activities involving several other Jesters chapters in other cities.

So far, no charges have been filed against anyone outside the Buffalo chapter.

“He’s given them inner workings,” Connors said. “This group of sordid individuals, which has done what it’s done for years, has stopped. They’re out of business.”

In May, a national spokesman for the Jesters told The Buffalo News that the presence of prostitutes at Jesters gatherings is something that only the Buffalo chapter engaged in, adding that such conduct is never condoned by the national leadership.

The all-male organization — which is a division of the Freemasons— has 191 chapters with 22,000 members, mostly in the United States. The fraternal group’s members have included two U. S. presidents, politicians, entertainment figures and prominent businessmen.

Some former Jesters told The News that many Jesters chapters have engaged in wild parties with prostitutes for decades.

Tills, who previously served as a member of the State Assembly, was known by colleagues and defense attorneys as one of the region’s toughest sentencing judges before he retired from his job as a state judge in 2005.

The human trafficking task force includes investigators from the FBI, U. S. Border Patrol, U. S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement, and the Erie and Niagara County sheriff’s offices.

pfairbanks@buffnews.com and dherbeck@buffnews.com

Another case that demonstrates traffickers can come from any part of society. This is a case that I feel surprisingly few people in Western New York know about; most people seemed shocked to find out that a judge had been involved in a sex trafficking case right in our community. Shock is a natural reaction to almost any trafficking case, I suppose, but at this point, I think we really need to accept the fact that traffickers and victims can have any background. Human trafficking is defined by the exploitation of the victim and the profit gained by the trafficker; not the personal identity or background of the people involved. The sooner this realization is accepted, the sooner we will be able to help more victims and put away more traffickers.

Migrant fishermen fall through cracks in Thai trafficking laws

*Photo from Wikipedia

Taiwan News

Don't ever accept an invitation to go fishing in Thailand. You might not come back.

Almost daily, bodies are washing ashore along the coasts of Thailand, Malaysia, Burma, Cambodia. These are unfortunate migrants, most of them from here in Cambodia. These people were sold to Thai fishermen who took them out to sea, worked them until they starved to death and then threw them overboard. It happens all the time.

The problem got so bad that the United States Senate's Foreign Relations Committee and the United Nations both but put out reports in recent weeks excoriating Thai and Malaysian authorities for selling Cambodian and Burmese migrants to Thai boat captains, sending them to a near-certain death. "If they are unable to pay for their release," the Senate report said, "the refugees are sold into forced labor, most commonly on fishing boats."

Once on the boat, "they don't come back," said Maj. Gen Visut Vanichbut of the Thai police. "All they get to eat is the fish that get left over in the net. They aren't paid. If they get sick, they're thrown overboard."

When they die, from overwork or starvation, their bodies are thrown to the sharks. In most cases, no one knew the victim was on the boat, and so no one claims the body if it washes ashore.
The general told me about this last year. But the United Nations report shows that the hideous problem continues at full force even now. It quotes several Cambodians who watched fishermen decapitate captives or throw them overboard. Several governments, not just Thailand's, are at fault. And by all accounts, the economic crisis is exacerbating the problem.

Most of the news you hear from Thailand these days involves the riots and demonstrations to overturn whatever government happens to be in power. No one talks about the fishing-boat problem. The fishermen pay off the police. The police then cover up the crimes, and so hundreds of victims continue to die month after month.

If a victim manages to survive, then Thailand is well-equipped to care for him and then use international agencies to help send him home. The Thai government has shelters and administrators whose jobs are to help human-trafficking victims. I have seen them. The shelters are quite nice. And that serves as a stark illustration of a noxious paradox that afflicts human-trafficking enforcement in Thailand, Cambodia and much of the world.

When human trafficking first came into focus for law-enforcement a decade ago, legal and political officials everywhere put primary emphasis on protecting the victims - the people who were lured into slavery and abused. Stories a decade ago of police and immigration agents jailing and then deporting the trafficking victims along with their captors horrified human-rights advocates, and their complaints were quite influential when the first human-trafficking laws were drafted.

No pressure

That victim-oriented approach has held firm all these years, and "it has proved to work perfectly for the Thai," said Lance Bonneau head of the International Organization of Migration office in Bangkok, his tone oozing disgust. His organization works with the Thai government to send trafficking victims back home to Cambodia, Burma - just as other IOM officers do all over the world.

"If you 'have' the victim," Bonneau told me, "there's no pressure to go after the traffickers" who are paying off the police. "It doesn't upset any of the arrangements the police have" with the fishing boat captains, the brothel and dance-club owners or others who enslave hapless victims. The traffickers can pursue their unconscionable work; the police can continue taking their kickbacks.

When the State Department researches its annual Trafficking in Persons report each year and asks Thailand what it is doing to fight trafficking, the Thai can point to their anti-trafficking laws and to those lovely shelters for victims. Usually, that's enough to save Thailand from a poor rating.

Thailand officials responded to the Senate and United Nations allegations with angry denials. Maybe in Washington's next report, it will look a little deeper at Thailand.

FULL ARTICLE

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Many government authorities are interested in putting nominal efforts to countermeasure human trafficking to be qualify for the US aids.

To keep them from recording a poor rating on the State Department research, the Thai government,for instance, has implemented an anti-human trafficking laws and built shelters for trafficked victims.

But, it has not yet attempt to figure out how to prosecute the endless chain of corruption between the police men and the traffickers, which essentially allows human trafficking to perpetuate in the country.

Slavery Listed as Factor for Worst Places for Refugees in USCRI's World Refugee Survey

Last month, the United States Committee for Immigrants and Refugees (USCRI) released its annual World Refugee Survey. This is one of the most comprehensive sources of information on the situation facing refugees worldwide, including statistical and qualitative data on the number of refugees, where they are currently located and where they are from. The report also includes a section on "Best & Worst Places for Refugees", which discusses places that have made significant changes to accomodate refugees and their familes and places where refugees suffer from serious discrimination, lack of protection and/or physical violence.

In this year's report, Malaysia is listed as one of the worst places for refugees specifically because there is evidence that refugees are often turned away and sold into slavery:

"Malaysian immigration officials continued to sell deportees to gangs that operate along the Malaysia-Thailand border. The gang members extort bribes from the deportees in exchange for smuggling them back into Malaysia, and sell those who cannot pay into slavery. Men frequently end up on Thai fishing boats, women in brothels, and children with gangs who exploit child beggars. At least 1,000 refugees and asylum seekers were among the deportees in 2008. Malaysia’s RELA, a volunteer immigration enforcement militia, continued to engage in violent raids against undocumented foreigners in the country, and immigration officials caned at least six refugees—one of them a minor—for immigration violations."

Refugees are sometimes a population that receives less attention, particularly in the media, when it comes to discussing victims of human trafficking. Their vulnerability and struggle to survive make them perfect targets for traffickers, who exploit the isolation and desperation faced by refugees to gain profits. This is not a problem that is only specific to Malaysia; however without proper protection and, worse in this situation, with the sanction of government and law enforcement officials, refugees will continue to fall prey to slavery.

You can find more information about UNHCR and their resources related to refugees and human trafficking here.

Human Trafficking in the Midwest

"Human trafficking in the Midwest, really?" is a question I am often asked. Perhaps because people tend to associate human trafficking with crossing international borders, states like Missouri that are located right in the middle of the country might seem immune. The reality is incredibly different, as shown in a recent indictment of 12 people in Kansas City accused of operating a massive trafficking ring.

According to the Kansas City Star, “A federal grand jury indicted the defendants on racketeering, marriage fraud, identity theft and other counts in a scheme that involved forced labor trafficking and immigration violations in 14 states.” Three businesses were also charged, and the scheme allegedly involved Missouri, Kansas, Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, South Carolina and Wyoming.

Though Kansas City has mainly dealt with sex trafficking cases and mainly with domestic trafficking, this case is an international labor trafficking case. Victims allegedly came to the US based on promises of legitimate jobs, only to be held with debt bondage and threats. The article quotes a written statement by James Gibbons, acting special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement who stated “The indictment alleges that this criminal enterprise lured victims to the United States under the guise of legitimate jobs and a better life, only to treat them as modern-day slaves under the threat of deportation.”

Kansas City has been extremely active in anti-trafficking efforts since receiving a grant from the Department of Justice in 2006; the number of cases investigated and prosecuted has sky-rocketed.

Just this past March, the Human Trafficking Rescue Project in Kansas City (the taskforce and larger coalition that received the DOJ grant) conducted an undercover operation investigating attempts to obtain underage prostitutes (which is automatically considered trafficking under Federal Law). KMBC Kansas City reported that “During the operation, task force officers placed Internet ads for underage prostitutes. According to court documents, the ads -- some of which were posted on Craigslist -- clearly stated that the prostitutes were "little girls" and were "young."”

This operation was unusual, in that it proactively focused on addressing those who patronize victims of human trafficking, rather than on traffickers per se. Seven defendants have been charged as a result of "Operation Guardian Angel" as the operation has been called; it is the "nation’s first-ever federal prosecution of the alleged customers of child prostitution under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act," according to Matt J. Whitworth, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri.

Late last summer, a group of traffickers pled guilty in a case where they brought women into the Kansas City area from China for forced prostitution. According to an article in the Kansas City Business Journal, John Wood, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri, stated: “Chinese women were recruited to travel to Kansas City, then coerced to work as prostitutes at massage parlors. These businesses have been shut down and the owners brought to justice. We have also provided social services to assist their victims.” Two years ago, a year after receiving the Justice Department grant, officials in Kansas City conducted a similar raid on “massage parlors” that were fronts for forced prostitution.

While this might appear to be a disturbing trend, it is actually quite heartening; eventually I hope that the cases will go down, but for now it means that victims are actually being found unlike in the past, not that there has been a sudden influx of victims. Ideally, similar efforts to train law-enforcement and social-service professionals in Missouri and surrounding states will lead to similar increase in identifying trafficking victims, providing services to survivors, and punishing perpetrators.