Ohio Senators Teresa Fedor (D-Toledo) and Tim Grendell (R-Chesterland) have introduced legislation that would make human trafficking in Ohio a second-degree felony.  A bi-partisan group of twenty-six senators have co-sponsored the legislation.

Fedor’s office noted that Ohio is one of only seven states lacking felony-level language for human trafficking in-line with federal standards.

“Ohio needs legislation that will attack human trafficking criminal enterprises and put them away for a very long time,”Senator Fedor said. “Children are trafficked within Ohio’s borders every year because the traffickers know our laws are weak.  It is about time Ohio joined the 43 other states with human trafficking laws on the books and let traffickers know – our children are not for sale.”

The bill comes on the heels of a report by the Ohio Trafficking in Persons Study Commission, of which Senator Fedor is vice-chairwoman. The report found that over one thousand children are trafficked in Ohio each year, while several thousand more are considered to be at risk.

“Ohio’s Criminal Justice system needs a new tool to fight the growing travesty of human trafficking in our great State. We can not sit by while hundreds of people are victimized every year by what equates to modern day slavery,” said Senator Grendell, the joint sponsor who chairs the Senate Criminal Justice Committee.

Here’s a copy of the legislation.

Due to the high volume of phone calls & e-mails received concerning the “Playground” screening the NURFC asks for you to send an RSVP to FreedomCenterRSVP@gmail.com to reserve your seat. We have a 300 seat theater and expect this FREE screening to fill up quickly.

The Freedom Center will host a free screening of “Playground,” the shocking undercover documentary film on sex trafficking in America.

The 1 hour-25-minute film will be shown at 6 p.m. on March 11 in the Harriet Tubman Theater.  The screening is free and open to the public, but seating is limited to the first 300 viewers.

(more…)

According to a 2005 survey by the respected International Labor Organization (ILO), at least 12.3 million people around the world are toiling in some form of forced slave labor.  Of these, about 2.45 million individuals are caught in a vast, largely hidden human trafficking economy whose tentacles reach throughout the globe, including some 15,000 – 20,000 who are trafficked into the U.S. annually.  Just under half (43%) of those being trafficked worldwide are involved in some form of commercial sexual exploitation. Far and away, according to the ILO, most trafficking occurs in Asia, but it is increasing everywhere.

And yet fighting this rising tide of the slave trade is, for most police organizations around the world, like trying to find a light switch in a pitch-black room. They know it’s there, but from cops on the beat to national and trans-national security agencies, understanding the extent of the trafficking problem — and where it is happening — remains a significant challenge. As the DCAF report notes, “Although various international and national entities are today tackling human trafficking, reliable information is still lacking on the scale of the phenomenon, on the way it works, and on the most effective means to prevent it.”

Macro data and estimates of the extent of trafficking are available.  What’s lacking are local and regional statistics (or “intelligence,” as police call it) that could help counter-trafficking officials pinpoint problems in their jurisdictions. (more…)

Virtually every nation on earth has a law prohibiting slavery and human trafficking.  Yet by almost all accounts, human trafficking is growing worse: a $32 billion global business that is now on par with illegal drugs and weapons sales.

As the scourge of modern-day slavery continues to seep into the fabric of contemporary societies world-wide, an obvious question arises: what can — and is –  being done about it?

If there’s any group or sector for which this question is especially pressing, it would be the world’s law enforcement agencies and criminal justice systems.  It is police and prosecutors and judges, after all, who make up the frontline troops in the battle to check the spread of slavery.  Are the world’s police agencies and judicial systems up to the task of identifying trafficking crimes, arresting the perpetrators, disbanding trafficking rings, helping protect victims and obtaining successful prosecutions?

The answer right now is no, according to a compilation of research studies by a Swiss-based think tank, the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF). The business of buying and selling humans on a global scale, the report concludes, is growing faster than the ability of law enforcement to control it and courts to prosecute it.

For anyone seriously interested in understanding contemporary slavery, the report, entitled “Strategies Against Human Trafficking: the Role of the Security Sector,” is a must read. Through more than 514 extensively researched and annotated pages, dozens of scholars and security experts probe the issue of human trafficking from the perspective of how well or poorly police, prosecutors, judges and victim advocates at the local, national and international levels are dealing with the issue.

The report’s overall conclusion is not encouraging.  Police, starting with the proverbial cop on the beat, are falling behind in the battle to stop trafficking. Although prosecutions are increasing worldwide, the experts writing in the DCAF report say that the number of cases actually brought and successfully prosecuted is woefully inadequate. Just as alarming, the report contends that human trafficking victims often end up as legal lost souls who remain vulnerable to further exploitation.

There isn’t a chapter in DCAF report about the United States.  But much its overall findings  echo an assessment made in a recent series or articles in the Kansas City, Missouri,  Star newspaper.  That series had this to say about domestic efforts to gain control of trafficking: “After spending millions of taxpayer dollars, America appears to be losing the war (against trafficking) in its own backyard.”

The Kansas City series, like the DCAF report, dwells extensively on the pivotal role and response of law enforcement units, the court system, and government agencies to the trafficking issue.  The DCAF report covers a broad, transnational canvas; the scholars whose chapters are included in the report are experts in their field whose writings draw upon extensive research in Europe, Southeast Asia and the UK.

If the overall assessment is grim, the reasons for the report’s pessimistic tone are manifold, ranging from inadequate intelligence to the lack of inter-agency cooperation at both the national and transnational levels.  Police corruption is also a factor, especially in poorer nation states.  Most of all, the report says, a pervasive lack of acknowledgment by the “security sector” (i.e., law enforcement and the criminal justice system) that there even is a contemporary slavery issue is holding back progress. Absent stepped-up training and enforcement, which would produce more prosecutions under existing laws, the DCAF report concludes that the contemporary slave trade in human beings will continue to expand its tentacles around the globe.

Since its release this past summer, the DCAF report hasn’t gotten much attention by the world news media.  But there’s much in the study worth commenting upon.  So over the next week or so, we will delve into the DCAF report in a series of posts here on the Freedom Blog.

The first blog will deal with how the lack of trafficking data is hindering progress.

The catastrophic dimensions of the earthquake in Haiti are still not known, but if prior experience in these situations is any guide, children are especially vulnerable — not just to physical injury, but also to human traffickers.

The Freedom Center is organizing a response to this situation to help insure that Haitian children obtain food, shelter and also protection from traffickers who, like carrion, descend upon scenes of devestation and ruin to literally kidnap children to sell into slave labor rings.

This is what happened, according to police and human rights organizations, in the wake of the South Asian tsunami.  But to prevent a repeat, vigilance and action on the ground in Haiti is quickly required.

One organization with a special knowledge of the situation is the Cincinnati-based Restavek Foundation, whose founder, Jean-Robert Cadet, is a former Haitian child slave (”Restavek”) who has become a widely known spokesperson for the plight of Haitian children.  Cadet is soon expected to make his way into Haiti to assist in relief efforts.  He will be especially focused on looking after young boys and girls, says his foundation’s marketing director, David Fatherree.

Meantime, as is so often the case, the world is responding to the Haitian nightmare with food, clothing, rescuers and other forms of direct aid.  Donations are being welcomed by numerous organizations — including the Restavek Foundation.  On Monday, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, all visitors to the Freedom Center receive free admission, but this year, we’re asking for a child’s clothing or shelter item to send to Haiti.

President Obama is expected to sign into law new legislation that increases funding to help human trafficking victims.

The money is contained in a larger bill passed by Congress this week.  Funds will be dispersed among several government agencies that each have areas of responsibility in attempting to stem the tide of human trafficking in the U.S.  For example, more than $5 million is set aside for the Department of Justice to help bring more trafficking cases to court.

Details of the increased funding are here.

In the meantime, Department of Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano told the Kansas City Star that a major new anti-trafficking initiative would be launched in January by the Obama Administration.  Details are non-existent, but Napolitano — like the Administration generally — is under increasing scrutiny to take more concerted action to stem the tide of trafficking into and within the U.S.

Tomorrow at Washington Square Park in New York City seven large shipping containers will open to the public and document true life stories of sex trafficking victims.  The exhibition titled, “The Journey” highlights the gruesome, heartbreaking conditions victims of the sex trade are forced to endure every day.  British actress Emma Thompson, who co-curates “The Journey” became involved in the project after meeting a young Moldovan teen named Elena, in 2006.  Elena’s story is similar to that of other young women who are trafficked; she was promised a job as a receptionist in London but when she entered the country her passport was taken away and she was forced into the sex trade.  The exhibit is based on the testimony of Elena and other survivors. The exhibition’s opening in New York City will be the first presentation of “The Journey” in the United States.

“The Journey” has undoubtedly had a searing impact on all who have seen it.  The aim of the exhibition is to show visitors the reality of human trafficking – a crime that happens every day, all around the world – and to encourage the public, politicians and especially consumers to take action.  Each container shows a different stage in the trafficking process, starting with “Hope” that reflects the aspirations of young women planning to leave their home countries. The containers “Uniform”, “Bedroom” and “Customer” offer a graphic and disturbing insight into the daily ordeal of women forced to work in the sex industry.

“The Journey” also contains a message of hope. “It reveals — as I have learned from Elena and other survivors — the extraordinary resilience of the human spirit. It shows how, with support and care, these courageous women can rebuild their lives,” Emma Thompson wrote.

“The Journey” will be on display at Washington Square Park in New York City from Tuesday, November 10 – Sunday, November 15, 2009.  For more information on this exhibition click on the links below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFBznfVdtpc

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Entertainment/emma-thompson-speaks-human-trafficking/Story?id=9030723&page=1

http://www.ungift.org/ungift/en/stories/journey.html

http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/press/releases/2008-02-06-2.html

Sex trafficking is by general agreement the fastest growing and one of the most pervasive forms of contemporary slavery in the U.S. and around the world. Now, under intense pressure by women’s advocacy and anti-prostitution groups, governments and law enforcement agencies are looking to Sweden for a possible solution.

There, a decade-old national law makes the purchase of sexual services a crime. Offenders face a fine or up to six months in prison, with pimps and other traffickers facing stronger penalties, including jail for up to 10 years. Prostituted women, instead of being prosecuted, are instead offered social service assistance to help them develop another career choice, while recovering from the dehumanization of their experience. One of the best descriptions and analysis of the Swedish law is from the California-based Women’s Justice Center.  Most importantly, as the Women’s Justice Center article makes clear, the law appears to have made a serious dent in sex trafficking into and within Sweden.  In the past few years, only 200 to 400 women and girls have been sex trafficked into the country, compared to the 15,000 to 17,000 that are trafficked into neighboring Finland.

The Swedish law (since adopted in similar form by Norway and Iceland) represents a radical change in the philosophy of how to deal with prostitution.  Currently in the U.S. and most other nations, women who sell their bodies are most often prosecuted under state or local vice laws; their controllers (pimps) often receive light or no punishment — as do the customers buying sex.  Seldom do police have the time or the command to look more deeply into situations that could include the telltale signs of trafficked slavery: women held against their will, under threat of real or psychological violence, and with no ready means of escape. This imbalance in the law deeply offends some women’s rights groups — but for widely differing reasons.  Some want to eradicate prostitution as a modern-day equivalent of slavery; others, however, hope to see prostitution legalized as a legitimate form of work.  Both sides agree upon the fundamental unfairness of laws that place the full burden of prosecution on the women themselves.

Now, with Sweden leading the way, that imbalance may be righting — with huge consequences in the U.S. and elsewhere.  Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland and other nations are evaluating the Swedish model, as are several cities (including Cook County, IL — Chicago) and states in the U.S.

Is there a trend developing? Is this the common sense solution to an age-old societal problem? It’s too soon to tell, but if government and law enforcement is serious about stopping the human trafficking of girls and women for sex, it’s probably time to look to Sweden for an answer that just might work.

Rising levels of poverty around the world appear to directly correlate to increasing numbers of children caught up in sex trafficking, especially in Southeast Asia, according to reports.

“The recent economic downturn is set to drive more vulnerable children and young people to be exploited by the global sex trade,” said Carmen Madrinan, executive director of End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual purposes (ECPAT).

According to a recent report by the group, increasing poverty, reduced budgets for social services, and restrictive immigration laws in “destination countries” (which encourage children to avoid detection) are among the factors heightening children’s vulnerability.

Added to that, deteriorating household living conditions often compel young people to abandon school to contribute to the family income, exposing them to risk as they seek livelihood options that could result in exploitation, the report states.

UNICEF surveys indicate that 30 to 35 percent of all sex workers in the Mekong sub-region of Southeast Asia are between 12 and 17 years old.  Earlier this year, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) stated in its Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2009 that 79 percent of all global trafficking is for sexual exploitation, one of the world’s fastest-growing criminal activities.

The report said the proportion of minors involved in various forms of human trafficking increased from about 15 percent to nearly 22 percent between 2003 and 2007.

We’ve posted numerous blog posts on this site about human trafficking worldwide. But sometimes, words on a computer screen fail to convey the true horrors of contemporary slavery.

Now, a new film simply titled “Playground” gives anyone who watches it a veritable body blow of unforgettable images of young children caught up in sex trafficking. But these are not teenagers in Thailand or Brazil; these are young girls and boys in the United States.

“Playground” was created by film maker Libby Spears, and among its producers are George Clooney and film director Steven Soderbergh. (Here’s a link to the Nest Foundation’s website; scroll down the left hand side to the “View Excerpts from the Film” link). The pedigree of quality is immediately apparent; this is a professionally rendered glimpse into the seamy underside of life in America, where children barely into their teenage years are sexually abused and exploited against their will and (as the film graphically shows) threatened with physical and emotional violence.

“Playground” — even just an excerpt — is not easy to watch. But if the U.S. and the rest of the world is going to come to grips with modern forms of slavery, “Playground” just might be the 21st Century’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

On August 1, chained from head to toe, Eric Proffitt began his 42 day quest, Run for the Rescue, and will run through major cities in the United States and United Kingdom. From the Statue of Liberty in New York to the graveside of abolitionist hero William Wilberforce in London, Eric will not only carry heavy chains but a message of hope to fight modern day slavery.

“At least 27 million people are already victims of human trafficking, they are suffering on a magnitude too staggering to comprehend” said Eric.  The songwriter who attended the Vienna Forum to Fight Human Trafficking in February last year said he was inspired to take action by the work of the UN to combat human trafficking.  At the conference, Eric realized the severity of the crime.  Nearly 60% of people in slavery are children and over 80% of people living in slavery are used as sexual slaves.

“A drug can only be sold once, but a person can be sold over and over again in the same night, that is why human trafficking has become the second most profitable illegal activity in the world.  People are not aware that this crime happens around us, it’s a global problem and actions need to be taken, this is clearly slavery” he added.

Run for the Rescue hopes to raise US$1 for each of the 27 million people living in slavery, and to awaken the world to the reality of this crime in every major city across the globe.  Proceeds from the race will be used by non-profit organizations to rescue and rehabilitate trafficked victims and to find and prosecute the perpetrators of human trafficking.

To follow Eric’s blog, donate, or see Eric run in a city near you check out: http://www.run4therescue.com/

One of the thorniest issues confronting police departments is how to treat young children they find caught up in sex trafficking situations or what appears to be prostitution. In most municipalities, kids who are arrested in brothels are charged with prostitution — leaving little flexibility for police to consider the very real and obvious question: how did these young people end up where they are?

More law enforcement agencies are re-thinking how to treat underage children, including the suburban Washington D.C. Montgomery County, Maryland Police Department. Lieutenant Robert Bolesta oversees the unit responsible for the effort. Whenever possible, his department pursues alternatives to arresting children who are victims of domestic sex trafficking.

“They are afforded certain rights and protections if they are a trafficking victim,” said Lieutenant Robert Bolesta. “We will rescue them from the situation. We will not charge those individuals with prostitution.”

Prostitution remains perhaps the most controversial issue within the broader subject of human trafficking. Many advocate treating prostitution as a legitimate form of work while, others believe it is a criminal activity in which women victims are forced to use their bodies as, in effect, work tools.

Common sense suggests, however, that there are not likely to be very many young girls — teenagers and younger — who have entered the world of prostitution willingly, or as a way to make a living. If that’s the case in most situations police would encounter, perhaps more law enforcement agencies will adopt Montgomery County’s enlightened policy.