This morning, the 2010 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report was released by the State Department, marking the 10th anniversary of America’s annual human trafficking report card for the world. Only this year for the first time ever, we’re grading ourselves. (You can check out the full report here.)

The 2010 TIP Report was announced in the Benjamin Franklin Room of the State Department, a Titanic-esque ballroom with glittering crystal chandeliers and inlaid gold covering the ceilings. But the fancy architecture was quickly obscured by the hundreds of people who packed in shoulder to shoulder to see and hear Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announce the 10th anniversary of the report. She even opened with a joke about the Fire Marshall, who could have easily mistook the crowd for the mosh pit at a rock concert, but with a higher concentration of pinstripes.

Secretary Clinton called the TIP Report a “fair and transparent” picture of human trafficking around the world, which it obviously strives (and often succeeds) to be. But for years, one crucial element of fairness was missing — although the U.S. saw fit to grade every other country in the world on their efforts to fight trafficking, we didn’t grade ourselves. Well, this year under the leadership of Clinton and Ambassador Lou CdeBaca, that changed, and America was added to the official class roster.

The grades, or “ranks” of the TIP Report each year are given on a tier system. Tier 1 countries are doing the minimum they need to be to fight human trafficking, and some are going above and beyond. Tier 2 countries aren’t doing as much as they should, but are working in the right direction. Tier 3 countries aren’t doing what they should and aren’t really trying. There’s also the Tier 2 Watch List, which is for countries who are working in the right direction, but are struggling in a few specific ways. Countries on Tier 3 may be subject to non-humanitarian economic sanctions.

So what grade do we Americans give ourselves on our very first test? Why, a Tier 1 ranking, of course. But before the chorus of “that’s just the U.S. patting itself on the back” gets going above a dull roar, I have to say that, overall, I think the ranking is deserved. By the standards used in the TIP Report, the U.S. really is doing a pretty decent job combating trafficking. Sure, there’s plenty of room for improvement, but we have developed good legislation, are creating better protections for victims, and have an actively engaged and effective group of NGOs. In fact, one of the biggest reasons the U.S. graded itself this year was pressure from NGOs to do so. I’ll have more detailed analysis on this year’s TIP report to come, but so far the “A” in the class is looking accurate.

In her speech at the launch, Clinton highlighted a few areas, which are arguably the ones the State Department will be focusing on. They include holding companies responsible for “reckless disregard” for slavery in their supply chains, focusing on building public-private partnerships, and giving resources and guidance to countries who want to improve their ranking. There were also all the general denouncements of slavery and congratulations for fighting it for the past ten years. But it was 2010 TIP Report Hero Laura Germino who really summed up the feeling of the room, the report, and the rankings, “We’re all of us fighting for a Tier Zero.”

But amidst this celebration, it is troubling to hear one of the major stories coming out of the World Cup is the issue of all the sex slaves trafficked into the country for the event. While human trafficking is common for any major event like the World Cup or the Olympics, the problem is seemingly worse in a country like South Africa. The U.S. State Department considers South Africa to be a source of sexual slavery and forced labor, as well as a destination for human trafficking from other countries and a transit nation for the modern slave trade. South African human rights groups estimate that 38,000 children are trapped in the country’s sex trade. While there have been disputed reports regarding how many people have been trafficked in for the games, the fact remains that it is occurring.

For a games meant to symbolically celebrate a country’s efforts to see all of its citizens as full human beings worthy of respect, the widespread presence of human trafficking simply undermines that message. But while the country might be responsible for not trying harder to prevent trafficking in their borders, the real problem comes from the tourists and fans that create the demand for sex slaves. When the world gathers to celebrate sport and national pride together and the result is thousands of women and children abused and oppressed, good sportsmanship is nonexistent. There’s been much talk about what the governments did or did not do to prevent the trafficking, but why aren’t we talking about how to get fans to stop raping children as part of their celebration?

The Texas Rangers baseball team are celebrating finally getting two new pitchers from the Dominican Republic just in time for spring training. The team hired Omar Beltre and Alexi Ogando five years ago, but they were banned from traveling to the U.S. at the time because they had been convicted of being involved in a human trafficking ring in the DR.

But the two new pitchers have served their time and even performed voluntary community service. The ban has been lifted, and they are now eligible to play baseball in the U.S. The big question is, will their past involvement with human trafficking haunt them in their new lives in Texas?

When Beltre and Ogando were Major League Baseball hopefuls, they and about 30 other baseball players got an offer that sounded too good to refuse. They would pretend to marry women in order to get them into the U.S. with the players. Once in America, the men and their fake wives would part ways, the women most likely trafficked into prostitution. In exchange for what was essentially filling out falsified paperwork, they’d each receive $3000. Beltre and Ogando both took the deal. But the U.S. State Department uncovered the scheme before any women could be trafficked to the U.S. All the baseball players involved were banned from getting visas to the U.S. — a ban that ended up stretching over five years.

Beltre and Ogando, according to many who have met them, are both deeply sorry for their role in the scheme. During their wait to be allowed to join the Texas Rangers, the men worked with a number of NGOs in the DR to raise awareness about the dangers of human trafficking. They’ve also worked with organizations to create training programs for Dominicans, teaching them how not to be caught up in visa forgeries, smuggling, and trafficking. Officials saw the anti-trafficking work the players were doing, coupled with the fact that they were not the masterminds of the scheme, and relaxed the ban to get them visas.

This story is one that has a pretty happy ending. Thanks to the investigative work from the State Department, no women were trafficked in this scheme. Beltre and Ogando learned some valuable lessons and were able to pass them along to other Dominicans who may find themselves in a similar situation. The Texas Rangers get two talented young pitchers, and Beltre and Ogando get a second chance that they’re incredibly grateful for.

What do you think about this case? Did the punishment fit the crime? Are Beltre and Ogando just two guys who made some mistakes and deserve a second chance to live their dream? Or should their involvement in human trafficking have kept them out of Major League Baseball forever?

The Salvation Army has launched “The Truth isn’t Sexy” campaign to raise public awareness about human trafficking in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

As Trisha Baptie, a former sex-trade worker said, “It’s human slavery. There are women in brothels in Vancouver right now, and more will come before the Games.”

The Salvation Army defines human trafficking as “…illegal movement of people for the purpose of exploitation in the form of commercial sex, domestic service, manual labour, and sales of organs.” The Salvation Army’s focus is on sexual human trafficking internationally and nationally. In the 1800’s, when it was called the “white slave trade”, the Salvation Army opened 117 homes to rescue young girls. This past January 2010, the Salvation Army in Vancouver opened Deborah’s Gate, which is a safe house that holds 10 women. Although it is primarily for sexually trafficked women, women trafficked in domestic servitude are also accepted if there is room.

At the recent Burnaby Teachers’ Association panel discussion on human trafficking and the sex trade, it was revealed that there are a larger number of trafficked persons in forced labour than in the sex trade. This includes farm workers across Canada, underage and unpaid workers in restaurants, and children held as household help 24/7.

Currently, there is nothing in the Canadian laws to guarantee protection of trafficked persons. People in this situation are terrified to speak because they do not trust authorities here nor in their own countries. They do not want to be sent home because they are ostracized by their communities and picked up again by international traffickers who abuse them even more violently because they ran away.

Women in other countries are lied to about what they are getting involved in when they are lured to Canada. The same techniques used for all types of abuse-isolation, beatings and psychological terror-are used against these women to keep them hostage. Their passports are held, many cannot speak the language, and they do not know who to trust to ask for help.

They are trapped.

As Salvation Army’s Winn Blackman said, “Desperate people do desperate things.” There are direct connections between homelessness, poverty, abuse, addiction and prostitution. There is a vicious cycle for trafficked persons who are trafficked, raped, and beaten by a pimp; who self-medicate with drugs to endure the physical, mental and emotional pain; and who then have to prostitute themselves to cover the cost of the drugs.

Currently nothing is stopping traffickers and pimps from working this trade in human flesh. This is a billion dollar business for organized crime.

90% of people in prostitution, who Salvation Army workers have spoken with, would choose a way out if they had one. What is urgently needed is exit strategies: safety, shelter, food, justice, equal treatment, support, education, and skills training in order for these exploited women to leave prostitution.

Winn said, “People always want statistics. We say if one person is harmed, it is too many. We just want this to be stopped and not part of our beautiful, beautiful city of Vancouver. We all need to join forces to make sure this is ended. If there is no demand, there is no trafficking.”

Ben Perrin indicated that human traffickers have already been here in Vancouver for at least one year and that they view the 2010 Vancouver Olympics as the biggest opportunity for them in decades.

Globally, Sweden is the only country that has reduced trafficking and the exploitation of women for sexual purposes by decriminalizing the selling of sex and criminalizing the purchasing of sex by pimps, traffickers, and johns, shifting the blame to the person who has choice.

The Salvation Army campaign is to increase public awareness because people are not aware enough of what human trafficking is and that it is happening right here in Canada and right here in Vancouver right now. They are doing a media blitz during the Olympics with CTV ads, postcards to be handed out, Slavery isn’t Sexy ads in transit shelters as well as big screen and billboard ads. There is a number to call for people who need help: 604.872.7774.

Brian Venables, of the Salvation Army, said, “Truly there is a problem in Vancouver. Those victims of human trafficking who are prostituted are not prostitutes, They are slaves used for sex who are not compensated, not cared for, and not making their own choices because their liberties have been taken away.”

Have we learned anything from the Pickton trial here in Vancouver? As was said at the BTA discussion, our common ground is women are being killed.

Please speak out to stop this horror.

“The world is not dangerous because of those who do harm but because of those who look on and do nothing.” Albert Einstein

“A resolution passed by the US Senate in 2007 marked January 11 as a day of awareness for the countless victims of human trafficking across the globe. And it does occur everywhere across the globe. Certain countries have created huge demand. And like most marketplaces, where there is demand, supply follows.

We could talk about which nations are source, transit and destination countries. We could state how some countries have become so infamous for trafficking that they are now known as both supply and destination countries. We could mention how the age of the children who are trafficked gets younger and younger: youngest on average now age 3. We could talk about who gets trafficked and for what reasons: women and children for sex; men, women and children for labor and so on.

But the main issue is how human trafficking has been escalating over recent years and is now the second largest criminal industry in the world. In some areas of the world, it is highly organized crime and others places, new crime rings are being structured now. The number of actual people (approx. 27,000,000 worldwide) is not known since many of these people do not report the crimes. Also, a lot of money is at stake. The money involved (estimated between 10 billion and possibly, up to 42 billion) is not really known. With illegal trade, it is hard to know exactly how much money changes hands.

With the economic downturn, more people around the world find themselves in desperate economic situations and are more at risk of falling into human trafficking. To see firsthand the impact these crimes have on an individual is overwhelming. I remember the faces of the people I have met after such traumatic experiences. It is hard to hold in your mind but even harder to imagine the actions behind closed doors that they experienced. Awareness can create change that can become action. That is what today could be.”

MANILA, Philippines — The first public official involved in human trafficking has been convicted by the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 9.

Judge Amelia Tria-Infante meted out the penalty of life imprisonment to Police Officer 2 Dennis A. Reci and his co-accused Feliciano Manansala after finding them guilty of qualified trafficking, the gravest offense under the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act (Republic Act 9208).

Reci, while still a policeman, owned and operated 8RC bar, which he and his associate Manansala used as a front for child prostitution.

They were arrested by the Philippine National Police on the report of undercover operatives of International Justice Mission (IJM), a human rights agency working against trafficking in persons.

During the raid of the bar, police also rescued two minor girls, who were later given immediate medical attention. Nine adult women also found in the establishment were accorded social services.

Senior State Prosecutor Deana Perez of the Department of Justice filed charges of qualified human trafficking against Reci, Manansala, and a John Doe who fled during the raid.

She and lawyer Reynaldo H. Bicol, Jr., director of legal intervention of IJM, prosecuted the case.

Reci and Manansala are only the second and third convictions under RA 9208 for 2009, and the product of cooperation between government agencies and concerned non-government organizations.

That said, I am a bit disturbed as to why this case has captured the media’s (and my) attention and outrage. It is of course horrific, but it is hardly unique. Thousands of girls around the world face similar terrors every day. Children are kidnapped off the streets in Africa, drugged on trains in India, or sold by uncles in Cambodia and end up as captive sex slaves in brothels around the world – including in the USA. At the Not for Sale site you can read the story of Srey Neang – a young girl sold to a Karaoke bar owner who repeatedly raped her and forced her to service up to ten men a day. Once when the police raided the club, this 15 year old’s “rescuers” charged her with prostitution and but her in jail until her owner bought her back. At the Polaris Project site one can hear the story of Katya, a 20-year-old Ukrainian girl who thought she had landed a waitressing job in America. But instead she found herself in captivity in Detroit forced to work in a strip club and locked into a tiny apartment with other women. Fear of getting caught as an illegal immigrant and imprisoned as a prostitute bought their silence.

Theirs is a story common to thousands of women and children, but those stories don’t make the 24/7 news channels. Maybe it’s because they aren’t cute little white girls from middle class families. Maybe because Jaycee seems so “girl next door” and these other women seem worlds away. I have a feeling the guys visiting the massage parlours or the bachelor parties at the strip clubs don’t see the girls there (often trafficked slaves) as sentimentally as the nation does Jaycee. But shouldn’t we be just as outraged at the captivity and rape of each of these girls as we are about Jaycee Dugard? I think we are right to be outraged and disgusted by what was done to her, but I don’t want that anger to simmer down just because she is now safe. There are girls all over the world, many of them in our local U.S. neighborhoods that are still living that day to day terror. They need rescue too.

So I hope this news coverage of Jaycee Dugard is not just the next sensational story to capture our attention after the death of Michael Jackson. I hope it is a wake-up call for Americans that there are girls being treated as chattel in our very midst. They may not all be cute white girls kidnapped from bus stops, but they are all someone’s daughter and children of God. Their rape, captivity, and exploitation should be pissing us off and causing us to do whatever we can to restore their lives too.

In 2007, a case of crucifixes purchased by St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York was traced back to a factory in China where girls as young as 15 were forced to work up to 19-hour days, seven days a week. Today, Christian items from bible covers to t-shirts are being made in factorys which abuse and traffic workers. And some Christians are standing up and refusing to stand for slavery.

The Just Holy Hardware Campaign has launched this week as part of a movement to end slavery, especially slavery of children, in the production of religious items. The initiative, based in Australia, aims to provide religious organizations with paraphernalia made under fair labor conditions, with a “no-slavery” guarantee. Sr. Pauline Coll, a representative on the national executive of Australian Catholic Religious Against Trafficking in Humans (ACRATH), has been particularly outspoken on the issue, saying the massive U.S.-based Association for Christian Retail,

“was found to lack basic codes of conduct and a factory-monitoring program. There was little to reassure American Christians that the religious products they buy to celebrate their faith were not made under inhumane conditions.”

In Australia, a team of NGOs have drafted a Christian Good Standard, which they hope organizations will adhere to when purchasing Christian items. Organizations in Australia are currently adopting it.

The U.S. is a huge market for Christian goods, and if the Association for Christian Retail (a very large organization) agreed to adopt a set of standards similar to the one adopted in Australia, it would make a huge impact on the lives of the slaves who are right now suffering in silence while making religious artifacts. Please, ask the Association for Christian Retail to adopt a set of anti-slavery standards for the production of Christian goods.

Christian or not, slavery is wrong. And slave-made items are tainted by this injustice, whether they are shoes or crucifixes. We need all people, regardless of faith to come together and take action so that we can end slavery in the production of religious artifacts.

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.”