Regional Task Forces Fighting Trafficking

Dear readers,

I include here an email from the Anti-Trafficking Task force in Orlando, Florida (home of all things Disney, for our international readers). Sometimes it's useful to see examples of the kind of information local taskforces share before, during and after their meetings, especially for those of you interested in starting your own anti-trafficking groups in your regions of the world.

Orlando Rescue & Restore Coalition

"Human Trafficking Task Force Serving Central Florida"

Dear Community Leader & Advocate:

Our goal is that each meeting is very informative and productive as various individuals contribute to the building of a safety network of partnerships that will work together to identify, rescue and restore victims in Central Florida. Our objective is to continue to have a diverse representation of stakeholders at the table. In our next meeting we will be breaking up into various working groups to begin to implement a comprehensive plan for our region.

*Please complete attached form and bring to the meeting if possible and/or email back to me

Thank you!

Our next meeting:

· When: Wednesday, July 20, 2011 from 3:00 P.M. to 4:30 P.M

· Where: Florida Highway Patrol - 133 S. Semoran Blvd., Orlando, FL. 32807 - Lake George Room - http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Florida+Highway+patrol+133+S.+Semoran&hl=en&fb=1&gl=us&sqi=2&cid=13611372735058821000&z=16&iwloc=A

· Presentation: SA Gregory T. Christopher's Office - Kelly Murphy

Tampa Area Crimes Against Children Task Force
FBI Tampa

- 2011/2012 Rescue + Restore Calendar of Meetings -

Orlando Rescue & Restore Meetings:

Wednesday, August 21, 2011 @3 PM

Wednesday, November 16, 2011 @3 PM

Law Enforcement Task Force - August 2011

Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Subcommittee - August 2011

Stop Child Labor Subcommittee (Fair trade Campaign) - August 2011

Event Planning Subcommittee - August 2011

*Saturday, January 28, 2012 - Annual Awareness Day!!!

If you need further directions or information, please feel free to contact me via email or at (407)495-5846.

In Solidarity,

Tomás J. Lares

Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking

Rescue & Restore Campaign

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/

3117 Edgewater Dr. - Orlando, FL. 32804

Overview of Human Trafficking Issue

Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery. Victims of human trafficking are young children, teenagers, men and women. Victims of human trafficking are subjected to force, fraud, or coercion, for the purpose of sexual exploitation or forced labor.

After drug dealing, trafficking of humans is tied with arms dealing as the second largest criminal industry in the world, and is the fastest growing.

Many victims of human trafficking are forced to work in prostitution or the sex entertainment industry. But trafficking also occurs in forms of labor exploitation, such as domestic servitude, restaurant work, janitorial work, sweatshop factory work and migrant agricultural work.

Traffickers use various techniques to instill fear in victims and to keep them enslaved. Some traffickers keep their victims under lock and key. However, the more frequent practice is to use less obvious techniques including:

• Debt bondage - financial obligations, honor-bound to satisfy debt
• Isolation from the public - limiting contact with outsiders and making sure that any contact is monitored or superficial in nature
• Isolation from family members and members of their ethnic and religious community
• Confiscation of passports, visas and/or identification documents
• Use or threat of violence toward victims and/or families of victims

• Orlando Rescue & Restore Coalition

  "Human Trafficking Task Force Serving Central Florida"

  Dear Community Leader & Advocate:

  Our goal is that each meeting is very informative and productive as various individuals contribute to the building of a safety network of partnerships that will work together to identify, rescue and restore victims in Central Florida. Our objective is to continue to have a diverse representation of stakeholders at the table. In our next meeting we will be breaking up into various working groups to begin to implement a comprehensive plan for our region.

  *Please complete attached form and bring to the meeting if possible and/or email back to me

  Thank you!

  Our next meeting:

  · When: Wednesday, July 20, 2011 from 3:00 P.M. to 4:30 P.M

  · Where: Florida Highway Patrol - 133 S. Semoran Blvd., Orlando, FL. 32807 - Lake George Room - http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Florida+Highway+patrol+133+S.+Semoran&hl=en&fb=1&gl=us&sqi=2&cid=13611372735058821000&z=16&iwloc=A

  · Presentation: SA Gregory T. Christopher's Office - Kelly Murphy

  Tampa Area Crimes Against Children Task Force
  FBI Tampa

  - 2011/2012 Rescue + Restore Calendar of Meetings -

  Orlando Rescue & Restore Meetings:

  Wednesday, August 21, 2011 @3 PM

  Wednesday, November 16, 2011 @3 PM

  Law Enforcement Task Force - August 2011

  Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Subcommittee - August 2011

  Stop Child Labor Subcommittee (Fair trade Campaign) - August 2011

  Event Planning Subcommittee - August 2011

  *Saturday, January 28, 2012 - Annual Awareness Day!!!

  If you need further directions or information, please feel free to contact me via email or at (407)495-5846.

  In Solidarity,

  Tomás J. Lares

  Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking

  Rescue & Restore Campaign

  http://www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking/

  3117 Edgewater Dr. - Orlando, FL. 32804

  
  

Baby Factories?

There is a line in this article that says "Baby factories" or "baby farms" are common in western Africa." Um, what? I'm not an expert on the region, but I find this statement unlikely at best. Any thoughts out there?

Police in Nigeria free 32 pregnant teens from 'baby factory;' newborns sold into labor, sex markets

BY PHILIP CAULFIELD

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Thursday, June 02, 2011

Police in Nigeria freed 32 teen girls from an alleged "baby factory" used to feed the region's exploding sex trade and human trafficking markets, authorities said.

Cops in the southern Nigerian city of Aba raided the clinic, known as The Cross Foundation, Monday after receiving a tip that the owner was harboring pregnant girls and selling their babies, Nigeria's Daily Champion newspaper reported.

Some of the girls, who were between 15 and 17, told authorities that the clinic's owner, Dr. Hyacinth Orikara, forced them to sell their babies to him for around $190, depending on the gender, Agence France-Presse reported.

"We rescued 32 pregnant girls and arrested the proprietor who is undergoing interrogation over allegations that he normally sells the babies to people who may use them for rituals or other purposes," police commissioner Bala Hassan said.

Orikara could face up to 14 years in prison for selling babies, authorities said.

The doctor denied the charges, telling the Champion that the clinic cared for teenagers with unwanted pregnancies.

The women were transferred to the regional headquarters of an anti-trafficking organization, authorities said.

"Baby factories" or "baby farms" are common in western Africa.

The organizations sell newborns to the highest bidder and the children often end up being used as factory workers, mine workers or sex slaves.

Human trafficking is ranked the third most common crime in Nigeria, after fraud and drug trafficking, according to the UN.

With News Wire Services

Human Trafficking and Corporate America

Human trafficking: Corporate America enlists in the global fight

Travel companies, airlines, and other parts of corporate America are starting to provide training programs to help employees recognize human trafficking. Will heightened awareness help detect more trafficking cases?

• 

An Airline Ambassadors International poster raises awareness on the issue of human trafficking, which enslaves up to 27 million adults and children worldwide.

Courtesy of Airline Ambassadors International

By David Karas, Contributor / July 13, 2011

Washington

Patty McPeak had no ink-ling that her new training on how to spot human trafficking would be put to use so quickly.

Traveling from the Dominican Republic back to the United States after a humanitarian mission, Ms. McPeak was in the airport boarding area when a man and a little girl sitting nearby drew her attention. The man seemed to know little about his young companion, according to testimony McPeak submitted to Congress last July, and he became nervous as she struck up a conversation and asked questions.

The girl, who was about 4, started to speak, but the man whisked her off to the restroom. When they returned, the child appeared unconscious. McPeak, suspecting she had been drugged, alerted flight personnel. Authorities later confirmed that the man had been apprehended for human trafficking.

RELATED: The five most dangerous countries for women

That incident, from October 2009, was one of the first fruits of a nascent effort to train people in the private sector – especially employees of airlines and hotels – to detect human trafficking. The involvement of corporations and nonprofit groups, such as Airline Ambassadors International (AAI), is still at an early stage, but already it is proving to be a valuable addition to the government and law-enforcement fight against the modern-day version of an age-old scourge.

"The government can't do it all by any stretch of the imagination – there needs to be that effort to get more buy-in from corporate America," says Rep. Chris Smith (R) of New Jersey, who wrote the landmark antitrafficking law in the US, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. Public-private partnerships, he says, will be key to the next decade of action against the international slave trade of today.

Because trafficking victims are often moved from place to place, those in the travel industry are among the most likely to come into contact with them. That recognition led AAI, a group of workers from every aspect of the airline industry who provides humanitarian support for people in need worldwide, to enlist in 2009 in the fight against human trafficking. McPeak, who at that time was AAI's board chairman, received her training through the organization.

More corporations, too, are joining the battle.

Carlson, an international travel and hospitality company with 1,000 locations in 150 countries, has developed a training program for its employees and has established procedures to follow when a worker spots something suspicious, says vice president Deborah Cundy. The firm, she says, has created "a virtual army of eyes and ears."

Carlson was the first North American travel company to sign a "code of conduct" drafted in 1998 by the ECPAT (End Child Prostitution and Trafficking) International Network, a

Delta Airlines and Hilton Hotels recently became the fourth and fifth US-based signers, signaling an uptick in those joining the fight, says Ms. Cundy. "At some point, we do hope that it becomes normal business practice," she says.

Employees trained to spot telltale signs of a trafficking victim are often advised to look for evidence of malnourishment, scripted or inconsistent stories, signs of physical abuse, and fear. Traffickers are often unable to answer even basic questions about those they are "escorting" and may prevent them from speaking to others.

AAI founder and president Nancy Rivard learned in June of another incident in which special training paid off. In that case, the trained individuals identified two children on a flight who appeared to be distraught and whose accounts of where they were going conflicted with what their escorts said. Authorities who subsequently investigated the incident uncovered a trafficking ring in Boston – and rescued 82 children.

"There are many, many stories every month," says Ms. Rivard. "Our goal is to provide training at airports across the country."

It was standing room only at AAI's largest training to date, held at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in January, she says. The program takes roughly 90 minutes, and participants receive wallet cards describing signs of traffickers and victims. The session is geared mainly toward heightening awareness.

Lack of awareness among Americans is one of the most challenging aspects of the fight against human trafficking, says Representative Smith, who chairs the House subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights. Organized crime, street gangs, and pimps are increasingly engaged in international sex trafficking, an "extremely lucrative undertaking" that can net a trafficker $200,000 per victim, he said June 13 at a subcommittee hearing.

Prosecutions in the US of alleged human traffickers jumped between 2009 and 2010, according to an annual State Department report, released June 27. Perhaps less heartening, the number of convictions dropped, along with the number of identified victims, it found. In the US, victims are often trafficked from other countries, though some are runaway juveniles or children abducted domestically, the report said.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton noted the importance of strategic partnerships in battling trafficking, which she said enslaves as many as 27 million adults and children worldwide.

"Government should work more closely with the private sector," she said. "The decade of delivery is upon us."

Corporate participation, especially in the travel industry, is vital, says Carol Smolenski, executive director of ECPAT USA. The child prostitution trade has touched many airlines, hotels, and other enterprises, she says. "It has happened at every brand, because it's everywhere."

It's Our 100th Post Today!

Watch a special news report on human trafficking and what United States Citizenship and Immigration Service is doing to combat it:

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42233648/ns/us_news-enslaved_in_america).#42403452

Hillary Clinton Discusses Human Trafficking

Advancing the effort to curb human trafficking

By HILLARY CLINTON

Special to McClatchy-Tribune

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Last year I met a group of young girls in Cambodia living in a shelter for survivors of human trafficking. They wanted the same things we all desire for our children: the opportunity to live and learn in safety, to grow up free to fulfill their God-given potential. But for these girls, those basics seemed nearly insurmountable. They had already endured traumas that defy description.

A decade since the United Nations adopted the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, there are more slaves living in the world today than at any point in history. The story of those girls in Cambodia, and the many others like them around the world, should serve as a call to action.

Over the last 10 years, governments around the world have joined this struggle. To date, more than 120 countries have adopted anti-trafficking laws consistent with the U.N. Protocol, which established the 3P Paradigm of prevention, prosecution, prevention.

Recently we made public a new report ranking 184 countries and territories. It finds that we are at a critical moment in this struggle. The last 10 years have been a decade in which governments have made promises, forged partnerships and put in place new ways to combat human trafficking. Yet despite this progress, the number of prosecutions worldwide has leveled off, victim identification is inadequate and protection services are weak.

We cannot allow the momentum of the past decade to slow.

That’s the measure of success. Government action cannot merely be whether legal frameworks and protection mechanisms exist but whether those tools are being implemented effectively and are making a real difference for trafficking victims and survivors.

To live up to those promises, the next 10 years need to be a decade of delivery.

That means governments everywhere must improve efforts to combat all forms of trafficking.

Criminal justice and law enforcement organizations should not only enforce existing anti-trafficking laws but refine their methods to fight modern slavery to keep up with an evolving understanding of the crime.

Partnerships among governments can improve our ability to combat exploitation in all its forms. Recent developments in supply chain monitoring will allow governments to work with the private sector, so that consumers can know whether the goods and services they buy come from responsible sources.

This is a crime that affects every nation, including the United States, and every government must take responsibility for stopping it. In countries with well established rule of law, it is not enough to assume the legal system will just take care of this problem. We must take proactive steps in identifying victims, delivering justice, and providing survivors the support and protection they need. At the same time, those in developing countries cannot plead limited capacity as an excuse for an anemic response. We have seen that political will, creative solutions, and strong partnerships can help fill the void left by a lack of resources.

The story of those girls in the Cambodian shelter is heartbreaking, but it should also give us hope. Their experience shows how effective law enforcement, comprehensive protection measures, and the commitment of good people can bring victims out of the horror of slavery and help them live healthy and productive lives.

Hillary Clinton is the U.S. secretary of state.

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/07/02/2990064/advancing-the-effort-to-curb-human.html#ixzz1RteN1T8J

South Africa and Human Trafficking

SOUTH AFRICA: Still waiting for an anti-human trafficking law

Photo: International Organization for Migration (IOM)

Awareness-raising intensified ahead of the 2010 World Cup

JOHANNESBURG, 30 June 2011 (IRIN) - South Africa has been identified as a major human-trafficking destination for victims from within the country, the region and beyond, yet there is no legislation that specifically criminalises human trafficking and protects victims.

The country is a signatory to the 2000 UN protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons. In signing this document, also known as the Palermo Protocol, the government committed to adopting legislation to make human trafficking a criminal offence and began the process of drafting a law in 2003. However, the Prevention and Combating in Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Bill only reached parliament in March 2010 and there is no indication of when it will be passed.

The US State Department's annual snapshot of human trafficking around the world, released on 27 June, described the lack of legislation that "fully defines trafficking, empowers police and prosecutors, and outlines provisions and allocates funding for victim care [as] the greatest hindrance to anti-trafficking efforts in South Africa".

Until the TIP bill is finalized, police and prosecutors are using other laws that deal with sexual offences, employment-related offences, organized crime and kidnapping to deal with traffickers, but the penalties are often insufficient. Julayga Alfred, chairperson of the Western Cape Counter Trafficking Coalition and director of Annex, a local child rights NGO, also notes that the current laws are not always applicable.

"If its pure human trafficking, if, for example you were tricked [into a forced labour situation] and there was no kidnapping or rape, it becomes 'You say, I say', and very difficult to prosecute," she told IRIN. "This is a business where you can't be prosecuted, and it's thriving."

An unknown quantity

The actual extent to which human trafficking is flourishing in South Africa is unknown. "We really don't know what the nature of the problem is, what kinds of trafficking we're seeing… and without that it's very difficult to write legislation," Ingrid Palmary of the African Centre for Migration and Society at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, told IRIN.

The US State Department report lists various forms of trafficking in the country including children being taken from rural to urban areas to work in the sex trade or as domestic workers, and young men from Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe labouring for months on South African farms without pay, but the hidden nature of the crime and the absence of specific legislation means there are no national statistics on the number of people being trafficked in or out of the country.

Zoe Rohde of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Justice, which is reviewing the TIP bill, attempted to compile statistics on human trafficking at the end of 2010 but received conflicting figures from different government departments.

"Between the SAPS [South African Police Service], Department of Justice and the NPA [National Prosecuting Authority], they all had different statistics," she said, adding that some victims, especially those trafficked within the country, are not handled by any government department.

IOM assisted 338 trafficking victims between 2004 and 2010, but according to the State Department report, as of March 2011 the NPA had initiated just 22 human trafficking prosecutions, and in 2010 there were just nine convictions, with all the offenders receiving suspended sentences or fines.

There are many other cases that we just can't prove are trafficking. People are getting away with it because it's not seen as an offence by the community at large

"There are many other cases that we just can't prove are trafficking," admitted Bonnie Currie, who heads the NPA's recently established Human Trafficking Rapid Response Team in Western Cape Province, where 15 cases are on the court roll. "People are getting away with it because it's not seen as an offence by the community at large."

Media reports have contributed to the widespread misperception that human trafficking only applies to women and children who have been taken by force from one country to another for the purposes of sexual exploitation.

The lengthy definition of human trafficking used in the TIP bill, which is drawn from the Palermo Protocol, includes fraud, deception and other forms of coercion as the means by which a trafficker may gain control over a victim, who may then be trafficked for the purpose of forced labour or servitude, not only sexual exploitation.

In South Africa, trafficking occurs not only across its borders but from rural to urban areas and the victims include men.

A government-commissioned study, conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council and published in 2010, was meant to fill in some of the gaps and inform the drafting of anti-trafficking legislation, but failed to provide hard data.

"We were very disappointed by it," said Palmary. "That was our one opportunity to figure out what trafficking is [taking place]."

Hype or reality?

In the absence of official statistics, the nature and extent of human trafficking in South Africa remains contentious. During the run-up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, government and NGOs launched various public awareness campaigns warning of a likely spike in trafficking activity while the month-long event was taking place.

When no human trafficking cases were detected, a number of commentators complained that the threat had been exaggerated and that resources could have been better spent on tackling the many other serious crimes besetting the country.

Alfred of the Counter Trafficking Coalition agreed that there had been a certain amount of "hype" rather than substantive evidence, but insisted that human trafficking was taking place in South Africa every day, and that the awareness-raising ahead of the World Cup had been valuable.

During that period, the national human trafficking hotline run by Alfred's organization was receiving around 500 calls per month. "Now we're finding the calls have dwindled to about 250 a month, not because cases are down, but because awareness-raising is not as intense," she said.

Victim protection weak

A human trafficking law would give police and the NPA a better tool for prosecuting offenders, but is unlikely to halt this lucrative trade. The experience of Mozambique and Zambia, which both passed counter-trafficking laws in 2008, suggests that legislation can improve prosecution rates while doing little to help victims.

Read more

Human trafficking on the upswing

How heavy is human trafficking?

Open your eyes when crossing the border

Zimbabwean migration camouflages human traffickers

The State Department report points out that Mozambique has not taken the necessary steps to implement the protection and prevention provisions of its anti-trafficking law, and that Zambia’s protection for victims is also weak.

The South African government does not provide any funding for the care and accommodation of trafficking victims. "Victims have a variety of needs and there's a severe gap," Rohde of IOM confirmed. Poor screening by the police leads to some victims without documentation being arrested and deported.

The TIP bill prohibits the deportation of foreign trafficking victims and even provides for paying them compensation, but Rohde said implementation will depend on training for civil servants and political will.

IOM has held training sessions for officials from various government departments on how to identify and assist trafficking victims, and Alfred noted that several departments were drafting regulations in anticipation of the bill being enacted.

"There's an indication that they really want to implement," she said. "But only when the legislation is passed can they finalize the training and compel departments to do it."

Dan Marino Gets in on the Game!!!

Former Dolphin quarterback Dan Marino produces film on human trafficking

With the backing of Dan Marino as executive producer, filmmakers hope to highlight the problem of human trafficking in the United States during the American Black Film Festival.

• Photos

• Dan Marino and movie's director talk "The Shanghai Hotel"

WHAT: The Shanghai Hotel film

WHERE: Miami Beach Cinematheque, 1130 Washington Ave, at 5pm.

INFO: For details visit abff.com

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BY PERRY STEIN

SPECIAL TO THE MIAMI HERALD

Dan Marino can now add executive producer to his growing list of professions.

In his latest project, the Hall of Famer and former Miami Dolphin quarterback teamed up with director Jerry Allen Davis to co-produce The Shanghai Hotel—a film about human trafficking in the United States that premieres Friday on Miami Beach as part of the American Black Film Festival, which runs through Saturday. The festival showcases black filmmakers.

Davis, a longtime friend of Marino, wrote the script for the film in the 1990s when, he says, human trafficking garnered little attention in the U.S.

But with the issue of domestic sex slavery having entered the public conscious in recent years, he believes now is the perfect time to show his film.

“I figured that if I had one opportunity to say a message in a film I wanted to say something important,” Davis said. “I figured this is something very important.”

The Shanghai Hotel tells the story of a young Chinese woman who illegally buys her way into the United States for a better life. She travels to the country thinking she will work in the technology industry, but when she arrives, a Chinese gang forces her into prostitution in order to pay off her debt.

Although Marino has no close ties to the issue of human trafficking, he said he decided to make his producing debut with The Shanghai Hotel to support Davis and his passion for the film.

But Marino said something else connected him to the film— two daughters he adopted from China.

“They are beautiful little girls, and I am not sure it relates at all to the movie, but at the same time there is a special feeling there.”

Human trafficking hit headlines in recent weeks because of a feud between Ashton Kutcher and The Village Voice, which has published an ongoing series on human trafficking. Kutcher tweeted that there are between 100,000 and 300,000 children in the U.S. sex trade today, and The Village Voice blasted this claim with a front page story that criticized the numbers as an exaggeration. The publication also took issue with activists who cite the figure as fact.

Adriane Reesey, chair of the Broward Human Trafficking Coalition, says human trafficking is prevalent across the country, although she acknowledged statistics are unreliable because the crime so often goes unreported.

According to Reesey, the number of victims of human trafficking is likely larger in South Florida than in other parts of the nation. Because of the region’s reputation as a tourist mecca, it is a prime destination for runaways and other vulnerable women.

“It’s happening all over the place here,’’ Reesey said. “We have a lot of educating to do and people just need to open their eyes about what is going on. It’s an issue that deals with our being human. And at the core of our very being, we need to understand that people are not for sale, that people are not commodities."

Davis, the filmmaker, said he wanted to premiere the film in Miami because the problem of human trafficking needs to be brought to light.

“Miami is a hub for a lot of trafficking issues, so this kind of hits home,’’ he said. “Why not in a place where the incidents of trafficking are happening and you have strong organizations who are working to prevent it?”

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/07/07/2304296/former-dolphin-quarter-back-dan.html#ixzz1RYSY1NpV