Understanding the US Trafficking in Persons Report

What is it?

There has been significant controversy over the latest report released by the U.S. State department. Several countries who have been downgraded (most notably Russia and China) reject the report and deem in unfair, stating that the U.S. is trying to advance its own international policy. But what is this report that has created so much controversy?

Here's Secretary of State John Kerry's introduction here:

The Trafficking in Persons report is the U.S. Government's main tool to engage foreign governments on the issue of trafficking; it is meant to facilitate global conversation on trafficking and key human rights and law enforcement issues. The US Government uses the report to engage foreign governments in dialogues to advance anti-trafficking reforms, to combat trafficking, and to target resources on prevention, protection, and prosecution programs.

What factors does the State Department look at?

The Department of State places each country onto one of three tiers based on the extent of their governments' efforts to comply with the "minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking" found in Section 108 of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA). Some factors that the US looks at are

1. Whether the government investigates and prosecutes acts of human trafficking
2. Whether the government actually convicts and sentences perpetrators of human trafficking
3. Whether the punishment adequately represents the severity and nature of the crime
4. Does the government protect victims of human trafficking
5. Does the government encourage the victims to assist in the investigation and prosecution of human trafficking cases
6. Does the government provide adequate legal remedies to victims of human trafficking, such as not deporting them back to countries in which they continue to be victimized
7. Does the government not unfairly incarcerate or fine victims of trafficking
8. Does the government adequately train law enforcement officials in regards to human trafficking cases
9. Had the government adopted measures to inform and educate the public about human trafficking

1. Has the government adopted measures that identifies and protects potential human trafficking victims
2. Has the government adopted measures to ensure that its nationals who are abroad on peacekeeping missions do not engage in trafficking.
3. Does the government cooperate with other governments on measures to prosecute and investigate incidents of human trafficking
4. Does the Government extradite individuals who are guilty of trafficking
5. Whether the government monitors immigrant populations who are potential targets for human trafficking
6. Progress of the government's efforts to prevent human trafficking
7. If the government of the country has made several and sustainable efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts and participation in international sex tourism by nationals of the country

A sampling of Countries

Here are a couple countries and their statuses

• United States- Tier 1- source, transit, and destination for victims of trafficking. Often immigrants are targeted for labor trafficking, and children in welfare system for sex trafficking
• United Kingdom- Tier 1- Source, transit, and destination for victims. Majority of victims are from Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe. Increased trafficking of sex trafficking victims from Latvia.
• France- Tier 1- mainly destination and transit centers for victims of trafficking
• Canada- Tier 1- destination, source, and transit center. Children in welfare system are at high risk for trafficking
• Russia- Tier 3- source, destination and transit center. Over 1 million reported cases of victims who work in forced labor situations. 
• China- Tier 3- Source, transit, and destination for many trafficking victims. Most trafficking victims come from neighboring countries, although there are many cases of forced labor trafficking from within China.
• Cambodia- Tier 2- Source, transit, and destination. Ramifications from internal conflict creates unstable environments that put victims at particular risk.

• Laos- Tier 2- Mainly source, often trafficked to neighboring countries
• Philippines- Tier 2- mainly source in sex and labor trafficking. Case workers are worried about an increase in labor trafficking. There are many instances of involuntary servitude. Skilled workers, such as nurses and engineers, are getting trafficked for free labor in neighboring countries
• India- Tier 2, source, destination, and transit area. NGO workers are concerned about the increase that they are seeing
• Thailand- Tier 2, Source, destination, and transit area. 2-3 million workers are in situations of forced labor. Thailand is also a known destination for international sex tourism, creating an environment that encourages sex trafficking
• Burma- Tier 2. Due to the recent conflict and revolution, there are numerous refugees who are prime targets for trafficking. Burmese army has also been cited as forcing families into forced labor, and trafficking individuals
• Japan- Tier 2. Mainly destination. Quite a few instances of labor trafficking, often women are brought into the country and told that they are being married to Japanese men, instead are forced into trafficking. The Yakuza, the Japanese organized crime leaders, are responsible for most of the trafficking
• Malaysia- Tier 2. Destination and source for labor and sex trafficking. Women are often told that they are being hired for legitimate hotel and other hospitality industry jobs, and are instead forced into sex trafficking.
• Indonesia- Tier 2, major source of trafficking, for both sex and labor trafficking.

Backlash

Both China and Russia have disputed their Tier 3 ranking. A foreign ministry spokeswoman said "We believe that the US side should take an objective and impartial view of China's efforts and stop making unilateral or arbitrary judgments of China," while a Russian statement read "As far as the application of unilateral sanctions against Russia concerned... the very idea of raising this issue causes indication."

The reason for this downgrade is that no country can stay stagnant on Tier 2 of the watch list according to a 2008 law; they have to either be upgraded or downgraded.

Jasmine Prokscha

Intern

The U.S. Lags Behind in Ratification of Human Rights Convention

Happy International Human Rights Day! December 10 was chosen to honor the day when the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948. According to the UDHR, human rights are indivisible and inalienable, and encompass three categories: 1) civil and political rights, 2) economic, social, and cultural rights, and 3) rights that extend beyond the confines of a country and an urge for all countries who have signed the UDHR to mutually safeguard these rights for each other.

Eleanor Roosevelt and the UDHR

This morning, Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, released a press statement celebrating the important of human rights and also reiterating the United States’ priority commitment to protect human rights for both its citizens and those abroad. “Human rights cannot be disconnected from other priorities,” she wrote. The U.S. is no doubt in a privileged position, with both political power and technical knowledge that allows it to contribute to far-reaching human rights work. Our nation seems to excel in the open discussions of many human rights issues and does not have as serious of human rights violations as some other countries. Isn’t it uncanny then, that the U.S. has not ratified the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)?

The U.S. is among one of seven countries who have yet to ratify the CEDAW, placing it alongside Iran, Nauru, Palau, Somalia, Sudan, and Tonga. It is also the other country besides Somalia who has not ratified the CRC to this day, although it has ratified two provisions: 1) prohibiting the involvement of children in armed conflicts, and 2) prohibiting the sale, prostitution, and pornography of children.

Both the CEDAW and CRC are crucial in protecting the freedoms of children. The CEDAW promotes equality for women in the legal system, in political and public life, in access to education, in the right to equal pay, in the right to enter marriage, in the right to maternity leave. It protects women from discrimination linked to parental responsibilities and places women on the equal footing as men to enjoy human rights. The CRC protects children from neglect, abuse, exploitation, sexual abuse, underage labor, and deprivation of a national identity, healthcare, and education. It even calls for pre-and post-natal care for mothers, and seeks to ensure that children have adequate living standards that are conducive to their physical, mental, spiritual, moral, and social development.

There are several reasons for why the U.S. has not reached ratification of both of these long-overdue treaties. Opposition to the CEDAW comes from the contentious debate on women’s rights in the U.S. with regards to family planning, reproductive rights, and gender equality. Some of the same individuals and organizations that protest adoption of the CRC fear that parental rights to raise children at each parent’s discretion and traditional family structures will be undermined. However, the CRC does emphasize the importance of family involvement and guidance in nurturing the child.

It has been 31 years since the CEDAW and 12 years since the CRC went into force. The women and children of the U.S. have been waiting to have their rights. The people of the U.S. have a responsibility to recognize them and do them justice by serving them as equal human beings. 

Esther Liew

AATOP program development intern

More Than Exchanging Drugs and Weapons as Gang Activity

Gangs in the U.S. have generally been known for drug trafficking, the exchange of weapons, and violent crimes that result in shootings and deaths. However, according to the FBI’s 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment, they have shifted from activities which are more dangerous and risky to less visible ones such as human trafficking, alien smuggling, and prostitution. At the time of the report, 35 states and U.S. territories have reported gangs in their jurisdictions who are complicit in these activities. These crimes involve a lower risk of detection and are also more profitable because humans are considered a more expensive commodity. After all, the criminal exchange of humans has become the second most profitable industry globally after the drug trade. If the traffickers are out of sight, the trafficked are the ones who will get into trouble with the police because they are positioned vulnerably on the front lines.

Some gangs have combined the trafficking of drugs and humans, where girls and women will transport drugs and at the same time, engage in commercial sex. Gangs in the U.S. are both locally based but also have transnational ties, enabling the movement of trafficked victims across state and international lines. Gang members act as pimps who first lure young girls into their care, then will control them through physical and psychological abuse. Gang-related human trafficking, many cases of which are sex trafficking, is evidence of the escalating prevalence of the domestic sex trade in both U.S. cities and suburbs.

Gang members have used social networking websites to recruit girls. They prey on girls by complimenting them on their looks, asking to get to know them better, and extending offers for opportunities to make monetary profit with their good looks. If these girls, who are mostly young teenagers, agree to meet their solicitors, they will be asked to provide a cell phone number where they can be contacted for an in-person meeting. The girls are quickly taught the ropes of commercial sex, sometimes by older girls who have had more experience in this work.

Sometimes, girls are recruited through “skip parties”, where young girls succumb to the enticing option of going to a party instead of sitting in a classroom during school hours. The masterminds behind these parties, knowing that girls like to travel in groups, conveniently encourage them to invite friends to the skip parties. Girls are then passed on from member to member, until she is “seasoned” for the streets and deemed ready to work.

The FBI has identified Asian gangs, Somali gangs, Bloods, Crips, Gangster Disciples, MS-13, Sureños, Vice Lords, and Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs to have engaged in human trafficking. 27-year old Justin Strom, leader of the Underground Gangster Crips in Fairfax, Virginia was convicted in September of this year for recruiting high school girls online, then trafficking them for commercial sex. MS-13, the first gang that the U.S. has named as a transnational criminal organization in October, has been notoriously known for its violent crimes, numerous murders, beatings, and infamous attacks with machetes. The presence of MS-13 is most heavily felt in LA County and the Washington, DC area. One of its mottos is “Mata, roba, viola, controla”, which translates to “Kill, steal, rape, control”. To ensure payment from the girls’ customers and that the girls were not hurt, MS-13 members would carry weapons while accompanying the girls to work.

Young boys are no exception to being victims of trafficking. They are considered low cost, low risk, and expendable to gang members who traffic them for labor purposes. While girls are more likely to be subject to sex trafficking, boys at age 7 are recruited to transport drugs, steer customers toward designated drug exchange locations, and as lookouts when law enforcement investigates suspicious drug-related activities. These boys are offered protection, food, and shelter when they cooperate, but are deprived of them when they do not. They will be socialized to gang norms, desensitized to violence, may grow up to belong to the gangs themselves, and will likely be incarcerated.

The nation’s first ever state-based wiretap investigation targeting human trafficking involved a case in Chicago that lasted one and a half years in 2011. Operation “Little Girl Lost” resulted in charging nine individuals with ties to street gangs who trafficking children and young women, some as young as twelve years old. The nine were charged with Involuntary Sexual Servitude of a Minor and Trafficking in Persons for Forced labor, punishable up to 30 years. Throughout the investigation, police found dozens of young women and girls who had suffered extensive emotional and physical abuse and were then provided social services that could give them safety from their traffickers. IOFA played an important role in this case as a partner with the State Attorney’s efforts to refer victims to recovery and after-care services, and at present continues to be an important presence in the city as a co-collaborator on the Cook County Human Trafficking Task Force.

With the involvement of gangs, human trafficking is becoming an increasingly organized and networked crime. Although some tactics that gang members use to coerce girls into working for sex are similar to non-gang affiliated traffickers, it behoove anyone whose work involves interventions to reduce and prevent gang violence to address human trafficking. Three San Diego professors have received a $399,999 federal grant to explore the intersection of gang activity and human trafficking in their region. Although this issue is relatively new in comparison to other gang-related activity, it will continue to be a fast-growing business if there is not a concerted effort to target these specific victims. We cannot let the drugs, weapons, and shootings overshadow human trafficking, for this is a vile human rights violation.

Sources:

Aguilera, E. (2012). Experts to Study Region's Gangs, Sex Trafficking. U-T San Diego.

Cook County State Attorney’s Office. (2011). State’s Attorney Announces Charges In Joint Undercover Human Trafficking Investigation: Operation “Little Girl Lost” Targets Chicago Street Gang Members.

Fox, E. (2012). Child Drug Traffickers: What Can Be Done? InterAmerican Security Watch.

Lederer, L. (2011). Sold for Sex: The Link Between Street Gangs and Human Trafficking.The Witherspoon Institute Public Discourse.

National Gang Intelligence Center. (2001). National Gang Threat Assessment: Emerging Trends.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation. Teen Prostitution: Gang Used Social Media Sites to Identify Potential Victims.

Esther Liew

IOFA Asian American Trafficking Outreach Project program development intern

Using Cricket to Confront Gender Inequality in Mumbai

While in Mumbai this past summer on my study abroad program, I learned from the residents living in “slums” about the systemic mistreatment of girls. The giving away of girls in marriage at the age of 16 is very commonplace. Additionally, there is a significant number of girls who are forced to drop out of school when puberty hits simply because there are no bathroom facilities for girls. Unfortunately, this basic oversight contributes to their lower educational achievement. Although girls and women play a huge role in holding up the community, they are very often dismissed as less than human beings.

Disparity in gender equality has created practices such as child marriage, high incidences of domestic violence, bodily mutilation, and constraints on a woman’s education or freedom outside the home. Harmful practices toward children can often be based upon tradition, culture, religion, or superstition. However most of these practices are rooted in individuals taking advantage of vulnerabilities faced by girls and the lack of ability to consent or refuse consent themselves. ¹ While there are initiatives that exist to protect and empower girls and women, they sometimes place less importance in addressing the male counterpart of this issue because there is less consensus on how to approach it.

Here is one account of a community organization’s effort at addressing this gender issue beginning at childhood. The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) executed a program in Mumbai, India called Parivartan, which means “transformation” in Hindi. This initiative gathered boys from the ages of 10 to 16 to play the enticing game of cricket and simultaneously challenged them to think about women’s roles and their roles as males in their communities.  These young boys spanned the economic spectrum; some came from middle and upper class families, and others were from Shivaji Nagar, a large slum community that was one of my field work locations. Of course, the cricket coaches as role models would first have to confront their personal views of gender inequality before they taught their boys about a manhood that conferred respect and equity to girls and women.

Their traditional views of men such as one of machismo and views of women as submissive helpers kept in the homes were challenged. Across the span of the program, Parivartan did see changes in the boys: they were less supportive of the physical abuse of girls. For example, most boys in the program agreed that a girl should not be hit if she did not finish her homework. However, the program hasn’t shown evidence that the little change that began here in young boys will continue to develop as they grow older, but is a launching point for other similar programs to address gender inequality. Violence is so commonplace in India, especially in poorer communities that the lessening of it will be gradual and will necessitate a difficult transformation in the heart and mindset that shifts from one of rigid and oppressive patriarchy to one of supportive gender equality. The commitment of boys and men to confront this difficult problem is redemptive to the girls and women in their community. What seems as simple to us in the U.S. as gaining support and respect from the male figures of their families already speaks a great deal about the worth of females in their eyes.

Read more about the Parivartan project here.
¹ International NGO Council on Violence Against Children, Violating Children’s Rights: Harmful Practices Based on Tradition, Culture, Religion or Superstition, http://www.crin.org/violence/search/closeup.asp?infoID=29619 (October 2012)

Esther Liew

AATOP Program Development Intern