Emancipation Now
Human Trafficking: You Don't Have to Look Far
By Rachel Zeng, for Y57
Human trafficking. Sex trade. We hear these words on the news, but most often, we tend to attach these terms to third-world countries, or places where civilization hasn’t been fully established. It is only in recent years however, that cases of human trafficking and illegal immigration in the lower mainland have been brought into light. Unbeknownst to a lot of people, ESL and language schools in Greater Vancouver were the ideal places to channel these dealings. To shed some light on the issue, I got a chance to talk to a counsellor who previously worked at one of these language schools, who had seen the situation first-handed. To keep his anonymity, I will refer to him as C.
Can you tell us about the role of these language schools as well as what your role in it was?
C: The role of the ESL Colleges is to upgrade or teach the basics of English. The students primarily come from China. They are usually in high school (Gr. 10-12) or above and are here to prepare for studies in North America. I was essentially contracted to provide consulting services: curriculum and policy development, textbook selection, etc.
During your time at the school, what illegal acts were going on?
C: I saw evidence of the transfer of large sums of money from The Bank of China into specially designated accounts here in Canada. Typically the transfers were approximately $30K in Canadian funds per student. The “students” had student visas to study abroad and were registered at the college as full time enrolled students. There were in excess of 300 such student files in my time there, but only evidence of about 40 students actually attending the college. The fake documents were perfect replicas of a typical student’s file, complete with high school diplomas and transcripts.
What was the process behind the transactions?
C: The owner and his assistants sustained the transactions. The money transfer was done by direct transfer in advance from an agent in China. It was my assumption that money was paid at several different times. Essentially someone in China was paying to have the girls brought into Canada, so the college owner received the payments in exchange for providing a plausible scenario for a visa. There were shady people often at the school offices for meetings that I was not invited to. I guessed later that these meetings were about the transfers. It was a kind of network of businessmen all involved in the transfers for profit.
Who were these victims?
C: The victims were almost entirely female, age ranging from 15 to 21, and usually from smaller towns in China (according to the files). They were met at the airport by the owners of the college along with an older female representative from the school. She was there to calm the girls in case there was any difficulty. Some of the girls were taken to the college to begin their studies. The college provided housing assistance. Most of the girls never set foot in the college again after that first night. They were taken to various cities in Canada and I think the United States. They were provided with false documents and identification.
How did you find out about the situation?
C: In my consulting role, I had access to student files. I became suspicious when I saw that hundreds of files were maintained, but I only saw about 30 students physically in the college at any one time. I also saw copies and receipts from the money transfers. On numerous occasions, I witnessed female students coming to the college itself and asking and pleading to go home. Often the owners yelled and threatened them, saying if they were sent back they would be in serious trouble, maybe even with Canadian authorities.
At any point, did anyone try to pull you into the “business” as well?
C: Yes of course. It was clear after a while that my main role was to create and maintain the image of a functioning college. Since the owners were businessmen and knew nothing about education, they needed someone with the “right” credentials to provide the proper image. I was never directly involved in any phase of the transfer to Canada of money or people, but indirectly I was put in the role of maintaining the program in order to facilitate the illegal activity.
I’m sure that a lot of Vancouverites don’t believe that human trafficking exists in our part of the world, so close to us. Is there anything you would like to relay to better inform those who are relatively unaware of the situation?
C: I agree with your assumption that most people are unaware of this activity and would be shocked to see to what extent it takes place in our own backyard, so to speak. Recently, the RCMP has uncovered apartments and condos where many of the girls were housed, often next to people living in nice communities. The neighbours might appear shocked when the discovery is made, but at the same time they were aware.. People should stay aware and report unusual activity to the authorities.
Richelle Zheng
Richelle is a grade eleven student at Prince of Wales Secondary. As an aspiring journalist, she loves writing, photography and travel. Currently a section head of her school's yearbook, much of her weeknights are spent in the computer lab slaving over Photoshop and InDesign while devouring junk food. Her friends classify her as easily-stressed, but she has found great a stress-reliever in hitting the slopes at Cypress Mountain and blasting K-pop in her room. Richelle dreams unrealistically of living in New York in ten years.
Human trafficking. Sex trade. We hear these words on the news, but most often, we tend to attach these terms to third-world countries, or places where civilization hasn’t been fully established. It is only in recent years however, that cases of human trafficking and illegal immigration in the lower mainland have been brought into light. Unbeknownst to a lot of people, ESL and language schools in Greater Vancouver were the ideal places to channel these dealings. To shed some light on the issue, I got a chance to talk to a counsellor who previously worked at one of these language schools, who had seen the situation first-handed. To keep his anonymity, I will refer to him as C.
Can you tell us about the role of these language schools as well as what your role in it was?
C: The role of the ESL Colleges is to upgrade or teach the basics of English. The students primarily come from China. They are usually in high school (Gr. 10-12) or above and are here to prepare for studies in North America. I was essentially contracted to provide consulting services: curriculum and policy development, textbook selection, etc.
During your time at the school, what illegal acts were going on?
C: I saw evidence of the transfer of large sums of money from The Bank of China into specially designated accounts here in Canada. Typically the transfers were approximately $30K in Canadian funds per student. The “students” had student visas to study abroad and were registered at the college as full time enrolled students. There were in excess of 300 such student files in my time there, but only evidence of about 40 students actually attending the college. The fake documents were perfect replicas of a typical student’s file, complete with high school diplomas and transcripts.
What was the process behind the transactions?
C: The owner and his assistants sustained the transactions. The money transfer was done by direct transfer in advance from an agent in China. It was my assumption that money was paid at several different times. Essentially someone in China was paying to have the girls brought into Canada, so the college owner received the payments in exchange for providing a plausible scenario for a visa. There were shady people often at the school offices for meetings that I was not invited to. I guessed later that these meetings were about the transfers. It was a kind of network of businessmen all involved in the transfers for profit.
Who were these victims?
C: The victims were almost entirely female, age ranging from 15 to 21, and usually from smaller towns in China (according to the files). They were met at the airport by the owners of the college along with an older female representative from the school. She was there to calm the girls in case there was any difficulty. Some of the girls were taken to the college to begin their studies. The college provided housing assistance. Most of the girls never set foot in the college again after that first night. They were taken to various cities in Canada and I think the United States. They were provided with false documents and identification.
How did you find out about the situation?
C: In my consulting role, I had access to student files. I became suspicious when I saw that hundreds of files were maintained, but I only saw about 30 students physically in the college at any one time. I also saw copies and receipts from the money transfers. On numerous occasions, I witnessed female students coming to the college itself and asking and pleading to go home. Often the owners yelled and threatened them, saying if they were sent back they would be in serious trouble, maybe even with Canadian authorities.
At any point, did anyone try to pull you into the “business” as well?
C: Yes of course. It was clear after a while that my main role was to create and maintain the image of a functioning college. Since the owners were businessmen and knew nothing about education, they needed someone with the “right” credentials to provide the proper image. I was never directly involved in any phase of the transfer to Canada of money or people, but indirectly I was put in the role of maintaining the program in order to facilitate the illegal activity.
I’m sure that a lot of Vancouverites don’t believe that human trafficking exists in our part of the world, so close to us. Is there anything you would like to relay to better inform those who are relatively unaware of the situation?
C: I agree with your assumption that most people are unaware of this activity and would be shocked to see to what extent it takes place in our own backyard, so to speak. Recently, the RCMP has uncovered apartments and condos where many of the girls were housed, often next to people living in nice communities. The neighbours might appear shocked when the discovery is made, but at the same time they were aware.. People should stay aware and report unusual activity to the authorities.
Richelle Zheng
Richelle is a grade eleven student at Prince of Wales Secondary. As an aspiring journalist, she loves writing, photography and travel. Currently a section head of her school's yearbook, much of her weeknights are spent in the computer lab slaving over Photoshop and InDesign while devouring junk food. Her friends classify her as easily-stressed, but she has found great a stress-reliever in hitting the slopes at Cypress Mountain and blasting K-pop in her room. Richelle dreams unrealistically of living in New York in ten years.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
If prostitution were a job freely chosen, as the pro-legalization forces would have us believe, it's unlikely that the average age of entry into that workforce would be 14.
It's unlikely that between two-thirds and 90 per cent of the workers in this "chosen" field would have told researchers in Portland in a recent study that they were victims of incest.
It's unlikely that 82 per cent of the women in a recent Vancouver study would have reported being sexually abused as children by at least four perpetrators, or that 95 per cent would have said that they wanted out.
What are the chances, if this really were a choice, that so many who choose it are poor, under-educated immigrants or members of minority groups?
Finally, if this really is a job we'd want our sisters, mothers, daughters and friends doing, can someone please explain why so many prostituted women need drugs or alcohol to get through the day and why so many who have left the job are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder?
Selling sex is dehumanizing and soul-destroying to most of the people who do it. That's not a moral judgment. It's fact.
Yet last week an Ontario judge struck down key sections of Canada's prostitution laws and effectively legalized brothels, living off the avails of prostitution and communicating for the purposes of prostitution.
Justice Susan Himel said the laws are unconstitutional and contrary to the guarantees of liberty and security. Legalizing brothels, she said, would keep prostitutes safer.
But Janine Benedet, associate professor of law at UBC, says at most the decision might change it from "an extremely dangerous job to a very dangerous job."
She cites two Vancouver cases -- both from 2007.
Nicole Parisien, 33, was strangled in a Kitsilano apartment building by Andrew Evans, a former UBC rugby player, who paid her $200 after finding her name and number on Craigslist.
Evans dragged Parisien's body outside and dumped it near a parking lot at the south end of the Burrard Street bridge.
Hong Wei Yin's body was found in the trunk of a car. She was also 33 and had worked indoors at a massage parlour.
Lawyer Cleta Brown calls it "naive, disingenuous and dangerous to frame prostitution only in terms of safety, choice and individual autonomy."
Prostitution, she says, is a violation of human rights and a barrier to equality that pits women and children (the majority of sex-trade workers) against men, who are the main purchasers.
Brown helped draft the motion passed this summer by the Canadian Federation of University Women that calls on the federal government to adopt what's called the Nordic model, which decriminalizes prostitution while criminalizing those who use it.
The federation has received no response.
Last week, the federal government promised to appeal the Ontario ruling. It would be smarter and a lot cheaper to rewrite the law based on the advice of a majority of Canada's women's groups.
Those groups -- derided by SFU criminology professor John Lowman as "radical feminists," as opposed to the legalizers, whom he calls "liberal feminists" -- include two groups representing former sex-trade workers, the Native Women's Association of Canada, the Aboriginal Women's Action Network, Asian Women Coalition Ending Prostitution, South Asian Women Against Male Violence, Vancouver Rape Relief and Women's Shelter and the Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres.
They don't want harm reduction, they want harm elimination. Abolition.
The Nordic model, begun in Sweden against the tide of legalization in the Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand, parts of Australia and Nevada, criminalizes buyers of any sexual services.
Prostituted persons are protected from prosecution and provided with services including retraining, counselling and job placement.
Nordic-model countries commit to attacking the root causes that force many women and children into the sex trade -- poverty, childhood abuse and addiction -- and educating citizens that buying sex is violence and a violation of fundamental human rights.
The outcomes haven't been perfect. But since adopting the model, those countries report reductions in prostitution, organized crime and human trafficking.
Canada's -- and particularly Vancouver's -- record on ensuring the safety of sex workers is appalling and change is desperately needed.
But moving prostitutes indoors is no solution.
Far from emancipating them from the yoke of a bad law and the heavy hands of pimps and madams, it turns organized criminals into business people.
It signals to men and boys that now it's okay to buy sexual services, which is almost certain to increase demand.
And, chillingly, legalization provides a false assurance to sex workers that if a customer turns violent, police will get there in time to help.
dbramham@vancouversun.com
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
It's unlikely that between two-thirds and 90 per cent of the workers in this "chosen" field would have told researchers in Portland in a recent study that they were victims of incest.
It's unlikely that 82 per cent of the women in a recent Vancouver study would have reported being sexually abused as children by at least four perpetrators, or that 95 per cent would have said that they wanted out.
What are the chances, if this really were a choice, that so many who choose it are poor, under-educated immigrants or members of minority groups?
Finally, if this really is a job we'd want our sisters, mothers, daughters and friends doing, can someone please explain why so many prostituted women need drugs or alcohol to get through the day and why so many who have left the job are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder?
Selling sex is dehumanizing and soul-destroying to most of the people who do it. That's not a moral judgment. It's fact.
Yet last week an Ontario judge struck down key sections of Canada's prostitution laws and effectively legalized brothels, living off the avails of prostitution and communicating for the purposes of prostitution.
Justice Susan Himel said the laws are unconstitutional and contrary to the guarantees of liberty and security. Legalizing brothels, she said, would keep prostitutes safer.
But Janine Benedet, associate professor of law at UBC, says at most the decision might change it from "an extremely dangerous job to a very dangerous job."
She cites two Vancouver cases -- both from 2007.
Nicole Parisien, 33, was strangled in a Kitsilano apartment building by Andrew Evans, a former UBC rugby player, who paid her $200 after finding her name and number on Craigslist.
Evans dragged Parisien's body outside and dumped it near a parking lot at the south end of the Burrard Street bridge.
Hong Wei Yin's body was found in the trunk of a car. She was also 33 and had worked indoors at a massage parlour.
Lawyer Cleta Brown calls it "naive, disingenuous and dangerous to frame prostitution only in terms of safety, choice and individual autonomy."
Prostitution, she says, is a violation of human rights and a barrier to equality that pits women and children (the majority of sex-trade workers) against men, who are the main purchasers.
Brown helped draft the motion passed this summer by the Canadian Federation of University Women that calls on the federal government to adopt what's called the Nordic model, which decriminalizes prostitution while criminalizing those who use it.
The federation has received no response.
Last week, the federal government promised to appeal the Ontario ruling. It would be smarter and a lot cheaper to rewrite the law based on the advice of a majority of Canada's women's groups.
Those groups -- derided by SFU criminology professor John Lowman as "radical feminists," as opposed to the legalizers, whom he calls "liberal feminists" -- include two groups representing former sex-trade workers, the Native Women's Association of Canada, the Aboriginal Women's Action Network, Asian Women Coalition Ending Prostitution, South Asian Women Against Male Violence, Vancouver Rape Relief and Women's Shelter and the Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres.
They don't want harm reduction, they want harm elimination. Abolition.
The Nordic model, begun in Sweden against the tide of legalization in the Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand, parts of Australia and Nevada, criminalizes buyers of any sexual services.
Prostituted persons are protected from prosecution and provided with services including retraining, counselling and job placement.
Nordic-model countries commit to attacking the root causes that force many women and children into the sex trade -- poverty, childhood abuse and addiction -- and educating citizens that buying sex is violence and a violation of fundamental human rights.
The outcomes haven't been perfect. But since adopting the model, those countries report reductions in prostitution, organized crime and human trafficking.
Canada's -- and particularly Vancouver's -- record on ensuring the safety of sex workers is appalling and change is desperately needed.
But moving prostitutes indoors is no solution.
Far from emancipating them from the yoke of a bad law and the heavy hands of pimps and madams, it turns organized criminals into business people.
It signals to men and boys that now it's okay to buy sexual services, which is almost certain to increase demand.
And, chillingly, legalization provides a false assurance to sex workers that if a customer turns violent, police will get there in time to help.
dbramham@vancouversun.com
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
Evaluation of the ban on purchase of sexual services,
Government Offices of Sweden, Department of Justice
Press release 02 July 2010
Ministry of Justice
The Inquiry on evaluation of the ban on purchase of sexual services today submitted its report Förbud mot köp av sexuell tjänst (Prohibition of the purchase of sexual services). En utvärdering 1999-2008 (An evaluation 1999-2008) (SOU 2010:49) to Minister for Justice Beatrice Ask. The purpose of the evaluation was to investigate how the prohibition, which has been in force for over ten years, works in practice and what effects it has had on the incidence of prostitution and human trafficking for sexual purposes in Sweden.
The evaluation shows that the ban on the purchase of sexual services has had the intended effect and is an important instrument in preventing and combating prostitution and human trafficking for sexual purposes.
Effects of the ban The Inquiry concluded that prostitution in Sweden, unlike in comparable countries, has not in any case increased since the introduction of the ban. The ban on the purchase of sexual services has also counteracted the establishment of organised crime in Sweden. Hence criminalisation has contributed to combating prostitution and human trafficking for sexual purposes.
Prohibiting purchases of sexual services also has a normative effect. There has been a marked change in attitude to the purchase of sexual services that coincides with making it a criminal offence to buy sex. There is now strong support for the ban on purchasing sexual services in Sweden. The ban has proved to act as a deterrent to sex purchasers. The Inquiry could find no indication that criminalisation has had a negative effect on people exploited through prostitution.
Application of the ban The investigation of the application of the ban shows that, following an initial period of some uncertainty, police officers and prosecutors now consider that, in general, the application works well. However, it is clear that the effectiveness of application depends on the resources deployed and the priorities made within the judicial system.
Proposed measures The Inquiry stresses the value and necessity of continued and sustained social work to prevent and combat prostitution and human trafficking for sexual purposes. Efforts must be coordinated if this work is to succeed. Consequently the Inquiry proposes the establishment of a national centre tasked with coordinating efforts against prostitution and human trafficking for sexual purposes.
The Inquiry also proposes that the maximum penalty for the purchase of sexual services be raised from imprisonment for six months to imprisonment for one year. The examination of case law made by the Inquiry shows that there is a need to be able to make a more nuanced assessment in more serious cases of the purchase of sexual services than is possible within the current penalty scale for the offence. According to the Inquiry, the current level of penalties for certain sexual purchase offences is not proportionate to the seriousness of the crime.
In the opinion of the Inquiry, a person exploited through prostitution may be regarded as the injured party in purchases of sexual services. The issue of whether the person exploited is to be regarded as the injured party must be determined in each individual case.
[See below for the English summary of the report]
2009 Human Rights Reports: Canada US State Department
[Canada] was a destination for child sex tourism.
NGOs estimated that 2,000 persons were trafficked into the country annually, while the RCMP estimated 600 to 800 persons, with an additional 1,500 to 2,200 persons trafficked through the country into the United States. Many victims were Asians and Eastern Europeans, but a significant number also came from Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Women and children were trafficked for sexual exploitation; on a lesser scale, men, women, and children were trafficked for forced labor. Some girls and women, most of whom were Aboriginal, were trafficked internally for commercial sexual exploitation.
Traffickers tended to be members of larger criminal organizations, members of small criminal groups, or individual criminals. Organized crime groups were involved in transnational trafficking to varying degrees.
Vancouver, Montreal, and Toronto served as hubs for organized crime groups trafficking in persons, including for prostitution. East Asian crime groups targeted the country, Vancouver in particular, to exploit immigration laws, benefits available to immigrants, and the proximity to the U.S. border.
NGOs estimated that 2,000 persons were trafficked into the country annually, while the RCMP estimated 600 to 800 persons, with an additional 1,500 to 2,200 persons trafficked through the country into the United States. Many victims were Asians and Eastern Europeans, but a significant number also came from Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Women and children were trafficked for sexual exploitation; on a lesser scale, men, women, and children were trafficked for forced labor. Some girls and women, most of whom were Aboriginal, were trafficked internally for commercial sexual exploitation.
Traffickers tended to be members of larger criminal organizations, members of small criminal groups, or individual criminals. Organized crime groups were involved in transnational trafficking to varying degrees.
Vancouver, Montreal, and Toronto served as hubs for organized crime groups trafficking in persons, including for prostitution. East Asian crime groups targeted the country, Vancouver in particular, to exploit immigration laws, benefits available to immigrants, and the proximity to the U.S. border.
Shared Hope International, Independence/Kansas City, MO June 2008
An investigation into the sex slavery of children in the United States.
Men Who Buy Sex, Eaves
"Despite their awareness of coercion and trafficking, only five of these 103 men reported their suspicions
to the police. They feared a loss of anonymity, especially fearing their families’ discovery of their use
of prostitutes." At page 17.
to the police. They feared a loss of anonymity, especially fearing their families’ discovery of their use
of prostitutes." At page 17.
UNODC report on human trafficking exposes modern form of slavery, 2009
According to the Report, the most common form of human trafficking (79%) is sexual exploitation. The victims of sexual exploitation are predominantly women and girls. Surprisingly, in 30% of the countries which provided information on the gender of traffickers, women make up the largest proportion of traffickers. In some parts of the world, women trafficking women is the norm.
Canada does little to protect the human rights of trafficked persons, Canadian Council for Refugees
Report on Organized Crime 2008, Criminal Intelligence Service of Canada
"A small number of organized crime groups, mostly based in B.C. and Quebec, are involved in the facilitation of international TIP. Conversely, several street gangs are active within the domestic TIP market for the purposes of sexual exploitation. These groups facilitate the recruitment, control, movement and exploitation of Canadian-born females in the domestic sex trade, primarily in strip bars in several cities across the country."
| criminal_intelligence_service_canada_2008_report.pdf |
Prostitution: Violating the Rights of Poor Women, Shelagh Day
"Prostitution is fundamentally an issue of the equality rights of the poorest and most vulnerable women. For both practical and conceptual reasons, this report concludes that abolition is the best strategy for women’s equality advocates to adopt; it is the only approach to prostitution law reform that is consistent with the legal concept of substantive equality and with feminist understandings of violence against women."
| prostitution.pdf |
Ten Reasons for Not Legalizing Prostitution, Janice G. Raymond
Concertation des luttes contre l’exploitation sexuelle (CLES)
Inside human trafficking: The disturbing underbelly of Las Vegas
Hetty Chang reporting, My News 3
Friday March 19, 2010
It’s a crime you don’t want to believe is happening in Las Vegas: Women and children, some as young as ten years old, are traded by the hundreds for sex and labor every night.
Las Vegas is now considered one of the top ten human trafficking locations in the world.
Behind the bright lights of the Las Vegas Strip, in the shadows of hotel-casinos known all around the world, women and children are traded in the most heinous of crimes.
Man #1: How young do you have?
Man #2: I don't have anything under 14 (years old).
Man #1: 14 is good.
This conversation was a child sex trade negotiation that happened right here in Las Vegas.
Man #2: If you pay the price you can get what you want. I can get it for you.
Man #1: Really?
Man #2: Now if you want something really young, it’s going to cost you a little more.
Man #1: Sure, sure.
The undercover investigator is from the faith-based group Shared Hope International, which has uncovered that more than 1,400 children are trafficked into sex slavery in Las Vegas from nearly every single U.S. state and several countries worldwide.
During the nights that big events come to Las Vegas, so do visitors ready to spend, making human trafficking the fastest growing crime in the world.
Marlene Richter, Executive Director of The Shade Tree Shelter, works with sex trafficking victims after they are rescued. She says each victim, whether trafficked for labor or sex, tells a similar story of coercion, violence, and greed.
Hetty Chang: What is human trafficking?
"It's the buying and selling of human beings, as if they're a commodity,” Richter explains. “They starve them, they beat them, they rape them, they hit them, lock them in and take everything away from them and say, ‘You are going to do this or I’m going to kill your family.’”
This threat stays with the victims throughout their lifetimes. As such, Richter only agreed to be interviewed if we agreed to keep her shelter location confidential.
Hetty Chang: You were hesitant to even do this interview.Tell me why.
“Human Trafficking is unlike anything else that we talk about.”
Victims tell Richter they would rather prostitute themselves every night than find out what would happen if they were to disobey their pimps.
“When you're looking in from the outside, the sex act they participate in, it looks like they are initiating it, participating in it, and have full choice. But that's not the truth.”
The truth is that in many cases it’s the victims who are arrested, not their pimps.
“There’s a lot of fear, coercion that these traffickers put on these people,” explains FBI Special Agent Joe Dickey.
Hetty Chang: What type of person does this?
“To force someone into slavery has to be one of the lowest of the low things you can do,” Special Agent Dickey continues. “Freedom is one of the most basic of civil rights.”
Last year the FBI, in conjunction with the Metro Police Department, rescued more than 150 trafficked juveniles in Clark County.
But since the creation of the joint Human Trafficking Taskforce in November of 2008, Special Agent Dickey says only a few offenders have actually been convicted of federal human trafficking charges.
“The biggest challenge is really infiltrating these systems that they have set up.”
Another challenge is convincing victims to testify against their pimps.
“They’re not cooperative with law enforcement when they're arrested, especially with the prostitution cases, with helping us (ferret) out who is controlling their movements. Their pimps, a lot of times they will face charges when they're picked up for soliciting, for trespassing, and other local violations.”
Victims are often thrown in jail because it’s a safe place. But it’s only for a short time; without their testimony, they are back at the mercy of their pimps within days and sometimes even on the very same night.
Hetty Chang: On any given night is there ever a shortage of customers willing to buy these victims?
“I wish there was but no,” Richter says. “Not yet.”
You may notice signs for the Human Trafficking Taskforce all throughout the valley, even along the I-15’s resort corridor. It’s just one push to raise awareness in the city, now one of the top ten trafficking locations in the world.
In order to gain the trust of trafficking victims, law enforcement is also working with various community and faith-based groups, several which are forming right here in Las Vegas.
Friday March 19, 2010
It’s a crime you don’t want to believe is happening in Las Vegas: Women and children, some as young as ten years old, are traded by the hundreds for sex and labor every night.
Las Vegas is now considered one of the top ten human trafficking locations in the world.
Behind the bright lights of the Las Vegas Strip, in the shadows of hotel-casinos known all around the world, women and children are traded in the most heinous of crimes.
Man #1: How young do you have?
Man #2: I don't have anything under 14 (years old).
Man #1: 14 is good.
This conversation was a child sex trade negotiation that happened right here in Las Vegas.
Man #2: If you pay the price you can get what you want. I can get it for you.
Man #1: Really?
Man #2: Now if you want something really young, it’s going to cost you a little more.
Man #1: Sure, sure.
The undercover investigator is from the faith-based group Shared Hope International, which has uncovered that more than 1,400 children are trafficked into sex slavery in Las Vegas from nearly every single U.S. state and several countries worldwide.
During the nights that big events come to Las Vegas, so do visitors ready to spend, making human trafficking the fastest growing crime in the world.
Marlene Richter, Executive Director of The Shade Tree Shelter, works with sex trafficking victims after they are rescued. She says each victim, whether trafficked for labor or sex, tells a similar story of coercion, violence, and greed.
Hetty Chang: What is human trafficking?
"It's the buying and selling of human beings, as if they're a commodity,” Richter explains. “They starve them, they beat them, they rape them, they hit them, lock them in and take everything away from them and say, ‘You are going to do this or I’m going to kill your family.’”
This threat stays with the victims throughout their lifetimes. As such, Richter only agreed to be interviewed if we agreed to keep her shelter location confidential.
Hetty Chang: You were hesitant to even do this interview.Tell me why.
“Human Trafficking is unlike anything else that we talk about.”
Victims tell Richter they would rather prostitute themselves every night than find out what would happen if they were to disobey their pimps.
“When you're looking in from the outside, the sex act they participate in, it looks like they are initiating it, participating in it, and have full choice. But that's not the truth.”
The truth is that in many cases it’s the victims who are arrested, not their pimps.
“There’s a lot of fear, coercion that these traffickers put on these people,” explains FBI Special Agent Joe Dickey.
Hetty Chang: What type of person does this?
“To force someone into slavery has to be one of the lowest of the low things you can do,” Special Agent Dickey continues. “Freedom is one of the most basic of civil rights.”
Last year the FBI, in conjunction with the Metro Police Department, rescued more than 150 trafficked juveniles in Clark County.
But since the creation of the joint Human Trafficking Taskforce in November of 2008, Special Agent Dickey says only a few offenders have actually been convicted of federal human trafficking charges.
“The biggest challenge is really infiltrating these systems that they have set up.”
Another challenge is convincing victims to testify against their pimps.
“They’re not cooperative with law enforcement when they're arrested, especially with the prostitution cases, with helping us (ferret) out who is controlling their movements. Their pimps, a lot of times they will face charges when they're picked up for soliciting, for trespassing, and other local violations.”
Victims are often thrown in jail because it’s a safe place. But it’s only for a short time; without their testimony, they are back at the mercy of their pimps within days and sometimes even on the very same night.
Hetty Chang: On any given night is there ever a shortage of customers willing to buy these victims?
“I wish there was but no,” Richter says. “Not yet.”
You may notice signs for the Human Trafficking Taskforce all throughout the valley, even along the I-15’s resort corridor. It’s just one push to raise awareness in the city, now one of the top ten trafficking locations in the world.
In order to gain the trust of trafficking victims, law enforcement is also working with various community and faith-based groups, several which are forming right here in Las Vegas.
PBS Frontline: Sex Slaves
"Hidden cameras trail "Olga" as she takes the women from the port of Odessa to Istanbul and then to a parking lot in the Aksaray district where the women are sold."
