From the Austin-American Statesman

Austinites hope drink coasters can help battle human trafficking
Each coaster bears the story of a victim.

By Chelsea Duttweiler
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, August 08, 2009

They say they’re part of a new abolitionist movement, a wave of people dedicated to ending what they see as modern-day slavery. And they’re doing it, in part, using drink coasters at local pubs.

Austinites Shelton Green and Kester Smith, both 33, are working with seven friends to distribute coasters to bars and coffee shops with information about human trafficking.

“Trafficked people are all around us,” Green said. “People are blissfully unaware. We have to be people who want to know.”

The coasters have three designs, each with one side showing a blurred face with the phrase “Can you see me?” — which Green says represents the way victims are “hidden in plain sight.” The other side tells the stories of victims taken from case files from the Central Texas Coalition Against Human Trafficking. The names and a few details have been changed to protect the victims, Green said.

“My name is Armando. I am a slave in Texas,” the back of one coaster reads. It tells how the boy was forced to work in a factory without pay and without being able to leave and asks, “What’s your response?”

The coasters refer people to www.whatsyourresponse.com, which provides links to resources to find out more about the issue and a list of suggestions for how the average person can take action.

The group has printed 80,000 coasters with money they got from donations and a T-shirt fundraiser. The group is rounding up volunteers to help distribute the first round during a “coaster crawl” today, when they plan to head to bars and coffee shops around town and ask managers for permission to leave the coasters behind.

The International Labor Organization, a United Nations agency, estimates that at least 12.3 million people worldwide are subjected to some type of forced labor. A report from the Texas attorney general’s office to the most recent Legislature stated that nearly 20 percent of trafficking victims nationwide have been found in Texas.

Sgt. Todd Harrison with the Austin Police Department’s human trafficking unit said that most cases he sees involve immigrants who pay a smuggler to bring them into Texas, then are held against their will and forced to work.

Smugglers may tell victims that they owe them more than they had originally charged and must now work to pay off the extra debt, or they promise them jobs in the United States, then force them to work without wages, said Wende Hilsenrod, a training specialist with the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault.

Harrison said all new police recruits are trained to be able to recognize and rescue victims of human trafficking. He said citizens can help police by paying attention to what’s happening in their neighborhoods and calling 311 if they notice anyone being locked up or escorted everywhere. Victims are often taught not to trust law enforcement, so they don’t usually come to police for help, he said.

For the average person, one of the best ways to stop trafficking is by consuming wisely and avoiding products that may have been produced with slave labor, Smith said.

“If you can get six T-shirts for $5, there’s probably a reason,” he said. The group also recommends supporting organizations that provide aftercare for victims.

Texas lawmakers passed several bills in the last legislative session relating to trafficking, including one that allows victims to sue their traffickers in a civil court.

“We’re going to hit the traffickers where it hurts — in the pocketbook,” said Rep. Rafael Anchía, D-Dallas, author of the bill. Hilsenrod said suing gives victims a chance to recover the money that was made from their labor and rebuild their lives.

Anchía said he was not sensitive to the problem in Texas until raids of massage parlors a few years ago in his home district of Dallas revealed sex trafficking rings.

Green said he got the idea for the coasters from a friend who did a similar project in the United Kingdom.

“I’ve shown them to some of my co-workers, and they are shocked. They can’t believe the stories are actually real,” Smith said. “And then I’m reminded how much work is left to be done.”