Transcript Polaris Project - Child Trafficking

Trafficking in Persons
Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery,
and is a federal crime since the passage of the
Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of
2000.
Polaris Master
Training
Presentation by:
Polaris Project Staff
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For additional information, please visit:
www.PolarisProject.org
Human Trafficking:
Legal Definitions
International Law
The UN Protocol
United States Federal Law
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA)
The UN Protocol
(a) Formal name: Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially
Women and Children (Supplementing the United Nations Convention Against Transnational
Organized Crime)
(b) Signed on December 15, 2000 in Palermo, Italy
(c) Occurred at the Signing Conference for the United Nations Convention on
Transnational Organised Crime, held from December 12-15, 2000
(d) Signed by Heads of State and Ministers from more than 80 member States (double
the number required)
(e) The UN Protocol represents the first time that trafficking in persons is defined in an
international instrument.
(f) Note “Scope of Application” due to Transnational Crime – difference between
“definition” and scope of application
(g) Serves as model language and a common framework for each country that adopts
their own national anti-trafficking law
(h) Offers guidelines for implementation for each country that adopts its own law (e.g.,
definitions should not be limited to transnational trafficking)
The UN Protocol – Full Text
(a) “Trafficking in persons” shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or
receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of
abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of
the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control
over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum,
the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced
labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs;
(b) The consent of a victim of trafficking in persons to the intended exploitation set forth in
subparagraph (a) of this article shall be irrelevant where any of the means set forth in
subparagraph (a) have been used;
(c) The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a child for the purpose of
exploitation shall be considered “trafficking in persons” even if this does not involve any of the
means set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article;
(d) “Child” shall mean any person under eighteen years of age
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000
(a) The first comprehensive Federal Law on Trafficking in Persons
(b) Sponsored by Rep. Chris Smith (NJ) and a diverse bipartisan coalition
(c) Made changes to U.S criminal policy, immigration policy, human rights policy, foreign policy
(d) 3-P paradigm: Protection, Prevention, and Prosecution
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PROTECTION –
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Certification Process and Eligibility for Benefits for foreign national victims
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Creation of the T-visa (5000/yr)
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Witness Protection
PREVENTION –
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International initiatives for economic alternatives in source countries
PROSECUTION –
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Creates new criminal offenses (e.g., 1589, 1590, 1591, 1592) and increases penalties
for existing offenses
(e) Misc. - Interagency Task Force, TIP Office, Annual Report (Three Tiers), SPOG
Legal Definitions under the TVPA of 2000
“Severe Forms of Trafficking in Persons” are defined as:
(a) sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion,
or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of
age; or
(b) the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for
labor or services, through the use of force, fraud or coercion for the purpose of
subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.
More informally stated - Three different categories of human trafficking:
1) Minors involved in commercial sex;
2) Those over the age of 18 involved in commercial sex via force, fraud, or coercion;
3) Those trafficked into forced labor or services, or involuntary servitude, peonage, debt
bondage, or slavery, via force, fraud, or coercion (minors or adults)
Legal Definitions Explained –
Elements of the Crime of Trafficking in Persons
ACTION
Recruits,
Harbors,
Transports,
Provides,
OR
Obtains
(or so attempts)
MEANS
PURPOSE
(Force, Fraud, Coercion)
Commercial sex acts
Causing or threatening
serious harm
OR
Labor or Services
Causing or threatening
physical restraint
Threats of abusing or
abuse of the legal process
Document confiscation
OR
Subjection to involuntary
servitude, peonage, debt
bondage, or slavery
Causing or threatening
financial harm
Using financial control
over or debt bondage
***Sexual Servitude of a Minor: Means (entire 2nd column) not required for minors under age 18 for commercial sex
acts
***NOTE: Standard to keep in mind is “SERIOUS HARM”
Modified from Original model – MIHRC, copyright 2003
Examples of Means – “Methods of Control”
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Force: Physical assault (Beating, burning, slapping, hitting, assault with a weapon, etc), sexual
assault, rape, gang rape, and physical confinement and isolation
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Fraud: False employment offers, lying about work conditions (example: not telling someone
that commercial sex will be required), false promises, withholding wages
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Coercion: Any threats to life, safety, to family members or other similar parties. Threats
involving immigration status or arrest. Debt bondage: use and manipulation of debt to
control the victim. Withholding legal documents such as government documents. Creating a
climate of fear. Psychological abuses.
**Note: Sophisticated Methods of Control – Psychological Bondage
Legal Definitions Explained –
Smuggling vs. Human Trafficking
SMUGGLING
U.S.C §1324
A crime against a country’s borders
Requires illegal border crossing
Often transportation only
Control ends at the border
Can be a gateway to trafficking if it
leads to forced labor
HUMAN TRAFFICKING
U.S.C §1584, 1589, 1590, 1591, 1592
A crime against a person
Involves forced labor or service, or
commercial sex acts
Transportation can be, but not
required, as an element
Ongoing control
Smuggling debt can be used as a means
of control
*Title 18, Part 1, Chapter 55 – Kidnapping (Sec. 1201)
Legal Definitions Explained –
Sexual Assault vs. Sex Trafficking
SEXUAL ASSAULT
SEX TRAFFICKING
U.S.C §2241
U.S.C §1591
“Aggravated sexual abuse”
Title 18, Part 1, Chapter 109A
“Whoever knowingly causes another
person to engage in a sexual act –
(1) by using force against that other
person;
(2) by threatening or placing that other
person in fear that any person will
be subjected to death, serious
bodily injury, or kidnapping;
or attempts to do so.
Imprisoned for any term of years or
life, or both.
(a) sex trafficking in which a
commercial sex act is induced by
force, fraud, or coercion, or in
which the person induced to
perform such an act has not
attained 18 years of age; or
A commercial sex act = any sex act on
account of which anything of
value is given to or received by any
person
Induced by force, fraud, or coercion
If Minor (no means required)
Legal Definitions Top 4 Myths about Trafficking in Persons
Myth 1: Trafficked persons must be foreign nationals/only are immigrants.
Reality: Trafficked persons can be either U.S. citizens or foreign nationals - both
are equally protected under the federal trafficking statutes. Many trafficked persons in
the US are legal residents.
Myth 2: Trafficking requires transportation across state or national borders.
Reality: The legal definition of trafficking does not require transportation, although
transportation may be involved, and although the word connotes movement. Unlike
the Mann Act, no interstate transportation is required.
Myth 3: If the trafficked person consented before the abuse or was paid, then it is not
trafficking.
Reality: Consent prior to an act of force, fraud, or coercion (or if the victim is a
minor with sex trafficking) is not relevant, nor is payment.
Myth 4: There must be elements of physical restraint or bondage for it to be trafficking.
Reality: The legal definition of trafficking does not require physical restraint.
Psychological means of control are sufficient elements of the crime.
State-level Anti-Trafficking Laws
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In addition to the Federal TVPA, there is currently a growing number of States that
have passed anti-trafficking criminal statutes that make trafficking a State crime.
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As of May 2006
– 17 States have passed criminal statutes against trafficking (AR, AZ, CA, FL, GA, IA, ID,
IL, IN, KS, LA, MO, NJ, NV, SC, TX, WA)
– 7 States have passed legislation to create task forces or research commissions on trafficking
– 11 States have pending anti-trafficking criminal bills
– 5 States have pending legislation for task forces or research commissions
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Based on these new laws, a future trend in the anti-trafficking movement will be a rise
in State-level prosecutions of traffickers
Human Trafficking in the United States A Framework for Understanding Types of Human Trafficking
U.S. Citizens
(Internal)
Foreign nationals
(Transnational)
Sex Trafficking
Labor Trafficking
NOTE: All four types of human trafficking are equally protected under U.S. law
Human Trafficking in the United States Scope and Statistics
An estimated 14,500-17,500 foreign nationals
are trafficked into the United States each year
for both sexual and labor exploitation. (CIA)
Hundreds of thousands of U.S.
citizens are estimated to be at high
risk for being trafficked within the
United States, many of them
prostituted children. (University
of Pennsylvania, 2001)
Trafficking investigations have been
initiated in all 50 States (DOJ) and
trafficking cases have been reported
in 91 U.S. cities (Free the Slaves).
TOTAL TRAFFICKING IN U.S
14,500-17,500 + Internal = XXXX
Protection Project
Scope and Statistics (Global and U.S.)
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3rd largest criminal industry in the world, after arms and drugs smuggling, and
fastest growing (CIA) (some say 2nd largest)
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600,000-800,000 individuals trafficked across international borders each year
Yields an estimated $9 billion in profits each year (based on only transnational
trafficking estimates)
Majority of victims are estimated to be women and children
Only a small percentage of potential total victims have been officially identified
and assisted in the U.S.
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Who are the victims?
What is your typical image of a trafficking victim?
Major Source Regions (for U.S.):
No Single Typical Face of a Victim:
• United States (Internal)
Trafficking Victims are:
• Latin America
• Men and women
• Southeast and East Asia
• Adults and children
• Eastern Europe/Russia/FSU
• Individuals, families, or groups
• Africa (increasingly)
VULNERABLE populations:
• Undocumented migrants
• Runaway and homeless youth
• Oppressed or marginalized groups
• Those living in poverty
• Victims of abuse
• Women and families in debt
• Displaced peoples (natural disasters)
• Educated or illiterate
• U.S. citizens or foreign nationals
• Documented or undocumented
Human trafficking cuts across age, gender, ethnicity,
race, and nationality
Who are the Traffickers?
What is your typical image of a trafficker?
Characteristics:
• May be members of victim’s own
ethnic or national background
Less centralized
Diverse Trafficking Operations:
• Individuals
– Individual pimps
• Common denominator: Willingness
to exploit others for profit
• May be engaged in other criminal
activities
– Neighbors, friends, relatives
– Foreign diplomats and staff
• Small, independently-owned businesses
– Small contractors/agents
U.S. Spotlight: Decentralized
Criminal Networks:
• Small decentralized criminal operations
– May involve family or extended
family
• Group sizes range from 2-25
• Inter-related groups and roles
• Mostly informal and work ad hoc;
loose-knit
• Highly responsive and flexible to
market forces
– Hierarchies of pimps
• Intl. Organized crime syndicates
More centralized
– Russian mafia, Triads, Yakuza
QUESTION:
Why would someone become a human trafficker?
- LOW RISK
- HIGH PROFITS
- Low Barriers to Entry
- Minimal Start-Up Costs
- Little Knowledge Required
- Thriving Market Demand
- Other Thoughts?
Testimonies from Survivors
Testimony – Foreign National:
Testimony – US Citizens:
“When I was fourteen, a man came to my parents' house in
Veracruz, Mexico and asked me if I was interested in
making money in the United States. He said I could make
many times as much money doing the same things that I
was doing in Mexico.
“So what’s it really like for us? The pimps tell us about the
sneakers and jeans they’ll buy us, but they never tell us that
we’ll never see any of the money we make. They don’t tell us
what will happen when we don’t make the quota they have set
for us that night, the beatings, the physical torture we’ll receive
if we break one of the ever-changing complex set of pimp
rules. Looking at another pimp, for example, can earn a severe
beating, so we learn very quickly to look down at all times to
protect ourselves no matter what, to be loyal or faithful to the
man that scares us the most.
A week later, I was smuggled into the United States through
Texas to Orlando, Florida. It was then the men told me that
my employment would consist of having sex with men for
money.
Because I was a virgin, the men decided to initiate me by
raping me again and again, to teach me how to have sex.
Over the next three months, I was taken to a different trailer
every 15 days. Every night I had to sleep in the same bed in
which I had been forced to service customers all day.
I couldn't do anything to stop it. I wasn't allowed to go
outside without a guard. Many of the bosses had guns. I was
constantly afraid.
Because I was so young, I was always in demand with the
customers. It was awful. Although the men were supposed
to wear condoms, some didn't, so eventually I became
pregnant and was forced to have an abortion. They sent me
back to the brothel almost immediately.
I cannot forget what has happened…I still feel shame. I was
a decent girl in Mexico. I used to go to church with my
family. I only wish none of this had ever happened.
-Rosa, Age 14, Trafficked in Florida
It feels like there’s no safe place for us, because out on the
streets we take our lives into our hands every night. Every
time we get into a car or go to a motel room, we never know
if we’ll come back. We know girls who didn’t.
How does it affect us? Seventy to eighty percent of us are
diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder even though we
can’t articulate or understand why we feel so numb to the pain
we experience. We have nightmares in the daytime and terrors
in the night. Many of us have STDs, some of us can no longer
have children. Some of us are infected with HIV or AIDS.
Many of us have physical scars, but all of us have scars that
no one will ever see. We know how society feels about us, and
we begin to internalize the stigma and we always carry around
a sense of shame and self-loathing for the things that we’ve
done.
-Testimony of Rachel Lloyd, a survivor of child sex trafficking
Factors That Make a Person Vulnerable
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Poverty-driven migration (within and between countries)
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Limited educational and economic opportunities
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Dysfunctional families and institutions
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Stigmatization and persecution
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Poverty, desperation, and receptivity to false promises
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Desire to travel or travel to new locations for a “better life”
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Migration due to perceptions of developed countries
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Displacement from civil unrest
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Displacement from natural disasters (e.g., tsunami, hurricanes)
Modified from Washington, DC Task Force Community Outreach Presentation, 2006
Factors That Make Human Trafficking Possible
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Demand for commercial sex or cheap labor
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Traffickers’ greed and willingness to exploit
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Relatively low levels of arrests, investigations, and prosecutions
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Relatively low levels of community awareness
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Traffickers perceptions of low risk and high profits
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Lack of safe migration options for immigrants
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Historically uncoordinated community or regional responses
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Limited legal rights and protections for children
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A support structure of legal businesses (e.g., advertising)
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The “culture of silence” in some communities
Modified from Washington, DC Task Force Community Outreach Presentation, 2006
What People are Trafficked For
• Trafficked persons have been identified in the following:
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Commercial sexual exploitation/prostitution
Massage parlors, room salons, hostess clubs, residential brothels, escort services
Phone chat lines for commercial sex and internet dating
Exotic dancing/Stripping/Pornography
Domestic work and child care (“Domestic servitude”)
Factory work/Sweat shops
Agricultural work
Landscape work
Restaurants
Nail salons
Construction labor
Servile Marriages/International Marriage Brokers (IMBs) (Bride trafficking)
Hotel housekeeping
Day labor
False adoption
• Common threads? Often unregulated industries and low-wage labor
A Continuum of Exploitation
Applies to Both Sex and Labor Trafficking
Working Conditions
Voluntary
Working Conditions
Labor rights upheld
Instances of
Freedom to resign
Human Trafficking
STRUCTURAL
FACTORS
SOCIETAL
FACTORS
- institutions
-racism, sexism
ECONOMIC DEGREES OF
PRIVILEGE
FACTORS
-poverty, class
- marginalization
INEQUALITIES
Why Victims Don’t Leave
Methods of Control – What You Can’t See
• Common Reasons why victims cannot or will not leave their exploitative
situations (For both Foreign National and US Citizens):
– Captivity, confinement, and physical restraint (or threat thereof)
– Frequent accompaniment and being guarded/Frequent movement
– Use and threat of violence
– Use of reprisals and threat of reprisals against loved ones or third parties
– Fear
– Shame
– Self-blame
– Debt bondage
– Traumatic bonding to the trafficker
– Can’t identify how to get back home
Why Victims Don’t Leave (Cont’d)
Methods of Control – What You Can’t See
• Common Reasons why victims cannot or will not leave their exploitative situations
(Cont’d) (For both Foreign National and US Citizens):
– Language barriers, social barriers, and unfamiliarity
– Isolation
– False promises and misinformation
– Psychological trauma and dissociation
– Lack of personal identification documents
– Distrust of law enforcement or service providers
– Lack of awareness of available resources
– Low levels of self-identification as victims
– Hopelessness and resignation (believing no one cares to help)
– Normalization of exploitation
Quick Reference – Rapid Trafficking Assessment
• The following are selected questions that are helpful to be thinking about
when identifying situations of human trafficking:
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Was the person recruited? Were they promised anything?
How did the person find out about the job?
What are the working conditions?
Is the person being paid?
Is the person free to leave?
Are there incidences of physical and/or sexual assault?
Has the person been threatened? What are the threats?
Is the person in control of their own identification documents?
How many hours does the person work each day?
What are the person’s living conditions?
Is the person being held against their will?
Is the person being watched or followed?
Is the person afraid to discuss her or himself in presence of others?
NOTE: Each question taken individually can imply a trafficking situation. Questions are not
intended to be cumulative in nature.
The Burden of Violence
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Physical Violence: Physical assault (Beating, slapping, assault
with a weapon, etc), sexual assault, rape, murder, and physical
confinement and isolation
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Violence may come from traffickers and buyers
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Health effects often go untreated
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Creates a climate of intense fear and submission
Psychological Violence: Threats to life, safety, to family
members or other parties. Systematic breakdown of self-esteem
and encouragement of dependence through emotional abuse.
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Psychological abuse may come from traffickers and buyers
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Similarities to domestic violence and Battered Women’s
Syndrome
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Leads to depression, anxiety, suicidal behavior, PTSD,
disassociation, flat affect, substance abuse
Comprehensive Service Needs
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Emergency, Transitional, and Long-term housing
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Legal services
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Medical/mental health services
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Clothing and food
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Court and daily accompaniment
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Crisis intervention
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Emotional support and counseling
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Employment assistance
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Interpretation/translation (if foreign)
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Protection/safety planning
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Social service advocacy
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Transportation
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Literacy education (school, G.E.D.)
A Victim-Centered Approach
A Paradigm Shift
From Being Seen as Criminals
• Things to Consider
• Distrust of law enforcement
• May not understand the crime of
human trafficking
• Trauma and coping mechanisms
• Need for comprehensive services
To Being Treated like Victims of a Crime
• High level of collaboration
between LE and NGOs
“Federal experience has shown that prosecution without victim protection is unworkable.” –
U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)