Recognizing Trafficking Victims

[TuscanDreams]

Printed with permission from http://usinfo.state.gov/gi/Archive/2...29-696018.html for educational purposes. Article is snipped for efficency, please view the entire link for full information. I've highlighted the various types of trafficking in persons.

How Can I Recognize Trafficking Victims?

Sex Trafficking

Victims of sex trafficking are often found in the streets or working in establishments that offer commercial sex acts, i.e. brothels, strip clubs, pornography production houses. Such establishments may operate under the guise of:

-- Massage parlors;
-- Escort services;
-- Adult bookstores;
-- Modeling studios; and
-- Bars/strip clubs.

Labor Trafficking This is NOT for harassment of persons crossing the border on their own to work as migrant workers, etc. This is for persons who paid someone to take them into America and have literally held them hostage.
People forced into indentured servitude can be found in:

-- Sweatshops (where abusive labor standards are present);
-- Commercial agricultural situations (fields, processing plants, canneries);
-- Domestic situations (maids, nannies);
-- Construction sites (particularly if public access is denied); and
-- Restaurant and custodial work.

Visible Indicators May Include:

-- Heavy security at the commercial establishment including barred windows, locked doors, isolated location, electronic surveillance. Women are never seen leaving the premises unless escorted.

-- Victims live at the same premises as the brothel or work site or are driven between quarters and "work" by a guard. For labor trafficking, victims are often prohibited from leaving the work site, which may look like a guarded compound from the outside.

-- Victims are kept under surveillance when taken to a doctor, hospital or clinic for treatment; trafficker may act as a translator.

-- High foot traffic especially for brothels where there may be trafficked women indicated often by a stream of men arriving and leaving the premises.

What Is the Profile of a Trafficking Victim?

Most trafficking victims will not readily volunteer information about their status because of fear and abuse they ve suffered at the hands of their trafficker. They may also be reluctant to come forward with information from despair, discouragement, and a sense that there are no viable options to escape their situation. Even if pressed, they may not identify themselves as someone held in bondage for fear of retribution to themselves or family members. However, there are indicators that often point to a person held in a slavery condition. They include:

Health Characteristics of a Trafficked Person. Trafficked individuals may be treated as disposable possessions without much attention given to their mental or physical health. Accordingly, some of the health problems that may be evident in a victim include:

-- Malnutrition, dehydration or poor personal hygiene;
-- Sexually transmitted diseases;
-- Signs of rape or sexual abuse;
-- Bruising, broken bones, or other signs of untreated medical problems;
-- Critical illnesses including diabetes, cancer or heart disease; and
-- Post-traumatic stress or psychological disorders.

Signs That a Person Is Being Held as a Slave. In addition to some of the obvious physical and mental indicators of trafficking, there are other signs that an individual is being controlled by someone else. Red flags should go up for police or aid workers who notice any of the following during an intake. The individual:

-- Does not hold his/her own identity or travel documents;
-- Suffers from verbal or psychological abuse designed to intimidate, degrade and frighten the individual;
-- Has a trafficker or **** who controls all the money, victim will have very little or no pocket money; and
-- Is extremely nervous, especially if their "translator" (who may be their trafficker) is present during an intake.

Coupled with any of the above, another indicator that a person may be held against their will is if the individual is a foreigner, unable to speak the language in the country where they reside or work.

While there is no set formula to determine whether or not a person has been trafficked, the following list of questions can serve as a guideline to determine if trafficking elements are present in a given situation.

Trafficking Screening Questions

1. Is the person free to leave the work site?
2. Is the person physically, sexually or psychologically abused?
3. Does the person have a passport or valid I.D. card and is he/she in possession of such documents?
4. What is the pay and conditions of employment?
5. Does the person live at home or at/near the work site?
6. How did the individual arrive to this destination if the suspected victim is a foreign national?
7. Has the person or a family member of this person been threatened?
8. Does the person fear that something bad will happen to him or her, or to a family member, if he/she leaves the job?

Anyone can report suspected trafficking cases. If the victim is under 18, U.S. professionals who work in law enforcement, healthcare, social care, mental health, and education are mandated to report such cases.

Through a grass-roots, community-wide effort and public awareness campaign, more professionals on the front line can readily identify the trafficking victim and have him/her treated accordingly.

How To Report a Suspected Trafficking Case

In the United States:

-- Call the Health and Human Services-sponsored, toll-free line 888-3737-888 24 hours/day. This hotline will help you determine if you have encountered victims of human trafficking, will identify local resources available in your community to help victims, and will help you coordinate with local social service organizations.
-- Contact your state s Attorney General s victim/witness coordinator.
-- Contact your local FBI.
-- Additional information on reporting suspected cases within the U.S. can be accessed through: http://www.usdoj.gov/trafficking.htm.

For countries outside the United States:

-- Call the national or local trafficking hotline, if applicable.
-- If the suspected victim is foreign, contact their embassy.
-- If local law enforcement is reliable, contact local police.

(Sources: Donna Hughes, ECPAT USA & IOFA 2003, Vital Voices and the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence)

[wind149]

I watched MSNBC the other night and got sick to my stomach. There was a young woman on there that is from MI and she was trafficked by a boy she met in school! He invited her on a date, I guess all the girls thought this guy was pretty fly, had the bling, the car, and one thing led to another and she has sex with him. Now she comes from a strict Catholic family and this boy taped their encounter and threatened to show it to her family and blackmailed her into becoming a prostitute. This poor girl was horribly abused, sodomized, beaten, gang-raped, was absolutely afraid of that boy and his friends and that scumbag was making tens of thousands of dollars off the pain of this child and it took almost dying before she came forward to a cop and the worst part her mother was not supportive of her, and I can say, this, knowing mine, she would not have either. I felt so bad for this girl, but I feel for all of them.

On the streets in any city tonight, there are trafficked women and girls working the strip, making millions of dollars they never see, they are treated like a piece of meat, their traffickers will let the John's do anything they wish to the girls, and a lot of them end up with HIV or full-blown AIDS, HEP C, STD's and unlike high priced call girls, they are not brought to doctors for care, the scumbags are too afraid the doctors would see injuries on these poor women and report them to the police. Also they are kept locked up in windowless rooms, half-starved, and they are terrified of these scumbags because if they try to escape, they threaten to kill their family members or them, so the cycle of violence continues. Some that have been lucky to get away tell of horror stories of trafficking in this country. Teens, little girls, are on the streets, whereas they should be home mooning over the Jonas Brothers and instead they are giving blow jobs and getting abused and the worst part, when the police break up a ring, they just open up another one with more trafficked girls.

Used to be most of the girls would be from Asia or the Ukraine, India, and now more and mores right here in NYC, Detroit, LA, Miami and there has to be a way to stop this, but it is so global, and a lot of these poor women will not tell anyone what is going on with them, we all watched the movie and that is exactly how it is for these women and little girls and it is so sickening to think that in this day and age, sex slaves and child slaves are being used over and over. I liken it to this. The criminal element knows that running drugs can be risky, but they sell a pound of cocaine, they will get their price, but if they can sell something over and over. they can make millions and are getting away with it and what they are selling is human beings!!