Latest News On Human Trafficking

Human trafficking is a crime against humanity

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Human Trafficking Exposed in Houston

More often than not, we stumble across things every week that seem 'fishy' or out of the ordinary... but how often do we actually take the time to look into it, do some homework and find out what's really going on? Most of the time, we shrug out shoulders, say, 'we live in a free country and people make their own choices,' and we move on with our daily lives.

That's not what filmmaker Ruth Villatoro did when she noticed an article on cantineras 5 years ago in the Houston Press. She read a story about a man that fell in love with a cantinera and wanted to do a story on it... thinking that it was about a girl who drank alot. What she discovered the more she dug for information, was not what she originally had in mind. 

In a story published in the Houston Press titled, 'The Cantinera' exposes niche of Human Trafficking, Villatoro explains how she started filming a story about a man falling in love with a cantinera who drank a lot and ended up discovering that this is actually a form of sex trafficking. 

“A recruiter is an expert at identifying vulnerability,” she said. “They sell a story to a family, saying we have a restaurant in the United States. Your daughter will work as a waitress. They end up sending their daughter, not knowing what’s going to happen. The minute the daughter is separated from her family is when the threats start.”

Throughout the making of the film, she along with Dottie Laster, a legal representative for human trafficking victims and Cat French, director of the Houston office of Exodus Cry, an international, anti-trafficking ministry, the trio visited more than 160 sexually oriented businesses in the Greater Houston areas and identified 600 to 700 unverified ones. 

While cantineras can work freelance or be employed by a cantina, most cantina owners know how to protect their business from being shut down. Owners usually have legitimate liquor licenses but are not considered a “sexually oriented business,” which are subject to additional regulations, she said. A few tricks include registering businesses under different names and guises.

Sadly, the girls (cantineras) are the ones who take the brunt of police raids and usually end up being the ones arrested.

The positive note to this story is that change is happening and this crime is being brought to light. Sex trafficking and human trafficking in Houston, Texas, is being exposed thanks to this one citizen who took the time to do her research and study what was truly happening behind the story she originally read. 

“The most important thing is that the community is aware of the problem now,” she said. “ Business owners need to learn the signs and watch the businesses around them. That can make a huge a difference. It can make a change.”

The first step to making a difference is learning the signs of human trafficking. Trafficking is modern day slavery and no human being deserves to live in bondage. 

To learn more about slavery, see facts and stats on human trafficking or see current 2012 statistics, click on the links and educate yourself. Join Force4Compassion in the fight to end slavery and learn how you can get involved.

Human trafficking is a large problem but every person can make a difference. Don’t be overwhelmed by the statistics. Join the fight and together we can change the world one life at a time.

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Stealth and Vulnerability

Often times people hear 'prostitution' and they automatically think that some girl has given up her dreams to exploit herself on the streets...

What people often don't know is what it actually took to coerce these young ladies into prostitution... many of the 'prostitutes' that are arrested, labeled, and thrown in jail, have been brain washed and trapped in the ring of human trafficking. Once they are in the cycle, they have no where to turn and go back to the 'pimps' who declare they can protect and provide for them. 

While this isn't always the case, it is true for more than the general public may think. In a story published by the Las Vegas Sun in November titled, Sex trafficking of children: Las Vegas' deep, dark secret, Andrea Swanson, the parent of a sex trafficking victim, shares her experiences and how her teenage daughter was convinced by a predator that

"worked his way into the family and stole its youngest member, a junior at Centennial High School in fall 2008 who fell for a boy."

This story is a prime example of how an innocent teenager with low self esteem was swept off her feet by a predator who appeared to care for her, but had alternative motives. Once he had gained the family's trust, he began to work with her insecurities to gain a recurring profit... which falls into the definition of human trafficking.

Human Trafficking Defined: Article 3, paragraph (a) of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons defines Trafficking in Persons as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring 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.

There are thousands of stories similar to this one, and we encourage you to read the whole story HERE. The family saw signs of rebellion and defiance in the teen girl, but automatically assumed that it was due to drugs, which they thought to be the worst option. What they didn't know is that their daughter was coerced by the one who appeared to 'care for her' and exploited to gain a profit at her expense. Even when the mother set rules and guidelines on their dating relationship, it continued to happen. 

It is important that the general public learn the signs of human trafficking and child sex trafficking which is modern day slavery. Domestic child sex trafficking is a major issue that is kept in the dark and behind closed doors. 

This story represents how stealthy traffickers are and how vulnerable our youth are.

Together, we can abolish modern day slavery. First step is learning the facts. Click a link below to learn more:

Learn about modern day slavery

Human Trafficking Facts & Stats

Human Trafficking Statistics Report

Survivor Stories

Get Involved & Take Action

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Will shutting down a site help combat teen sex trafficking?

In a recent article titled, Three Teens Sue BackPage.com Over Sex Trafficking, posted on ABC News, attorneys "argue that the law will force sex trafficking more underground, where it will be far more difficult to police, and said that the law infringes on free speech."

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But what does this really mean in the fight against modern day slavery and child sex prostitution? 5 or 6 years ago, this issue would not have even been brought to light in the media. Just the fact that this issue of teen sex trafficking on backpage and underground listings is being recognized in the media is a huge step forward when discussing domestic minor sex trafficking. 

Human Trafficking is the second largest crime in terms of dollars transacted and is the cruelest form of crime against humanity. It involves an act of recruiting, transporting, transferring, harboring or receiving a person through a use of force, coercion or other means, for the purpose of exploiting them.

To learn more about slavery, see facts and stats on human trafficking or see current 2012 statistics, click on the links and educate yourself. Join Force4Compassion in the fight to end slavery and learn how you can get involved.

Human trafficking is a large person but every person can make a difference. Don't be overwhelmed by the statistics. Join the fight and together we can change the world one life at a time.

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How Flight Attendants Fight Against Human Trafficking

Often times, people think about the issue of human trafficking and hear words like, 'sex trafficking,' 'modern day slavery,' and 'child trafficking,' and almost brush it off as if the fight against slave trafficking is too big of a problem to even worry with. They hear human trafficking statistics and are overwhelmed by the large numbers that are seemingly too big to comprehend on an issue that it's going to take everyone being on board to demolish.

BUT... what if one call... one thought... one sign... and ONE PERSON could make a difference in saving almost 100 children's lives? It can... and it did. 

The Deseret News reported a story titled, "How Flight Attendants Fight Against Human Trafficking." Mercedes White, the author of this story reports how a flight attendant had attended a workshop on human trafficking and had learned of a hotline she could call if she noticed anything suspicious. One day she was flying (as a passenger) and noticed two distressed children with a woman who didn't even seem to know their names. She called the hotline and two weeks later received a call from the Department of Homeland Security. 

"Her tip had led to the discovery of a child trafficking ring in Boston. Agents rescued 82 children who had been brought illegally from the Dominican Republic to the United States."

Because of the response of the phone call and the lives it affected, the flight attended joined the fight to combat human trafficking by working to educate other flight personnel on how they can too help end slavery. 

"Her experience illustrates both the immense effect that a single person with knowledge of the issue can have and the difficulty in broadening industry awareness."

Because of ONE woman who many people would consider a normal person... not a superhero or someone who saves lives... 82 children's lives were saved.

While modern day slavery is an issue too big for one person to fight on their own, it's the team effort that will make strides in the combat of human trafficking.  Learn how you can take action and join in the fight against modern day slavery.

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The president calls human trafficking by its real name: "modern slavery"

In a recent article posted on usnews.com, titled, "President Obama Unveils Landmark Actions To Fight Human Trafficking," Elizabeth Flock explains how the president said it was time to call human trafficking its real name: "modern slavery."

His speech took place at the Clinton Global Initiative's annual meeting and unveiled major actions to fight modern day slavery at home and abroad. He said, "it was time to turn the focus on fighting trafficking within American borders."

Below are some highlights from the story:

"The bitter truth is that trafficking also goes on right here," he said. "It's the migrant worker unable to pay off the debt to his trafficker... The teenage girl—beaten, forced to walk the streets. This should not be happening in the United States of America."

The president also said it was time to call human trafficking by its real name: "modern slavery." Obama's speech came just days after the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, the executive order issued by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 that freed millions of slaves across the United States.

Ambassador Luis CdeBaca, who oversees the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, says that the term "human trafficking" has long been used by diplomats as a euphemism, because "slavery is an uncomfortable word."

"But slavery should be uncomfortable... And the president's speech today shows it's okay to look into this dark place, and name the evil for what it actually is," says CdeBaca.

Flock writes that the president  announced a new assessment of the scope and scale of human trafficking in the U.S. and that America would better comat modern day slavery and it's traffickers with technology. Obama ensured that the U.S. would "lead by example" and have "zero tolerance."

"The State Department estimates that between 14,500 and 17,500 people are trafficked to the U.S. every year, but the real number is likely much higher. It estimates there are up to 27 million victims of modern slavery worldwide."

This is a huge step for our country as the past four years were spent going after traffickers, but there has never been an initiative launched this size to abolish modern day slavery. It's going to take an initiative like this to combat slavery in the U.S. and in the world, but it's also going to take a lot of follow through and support from the local level to ensure that these initiatives are enforced and carried out to bring justice to those who deserve it.

Visit Force 4 Compassion's human trafficking 2012 Statistics page, Survivor Stories page  or the Facts and Stats page to learn more about how you can combat human trafficking.

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U.S. Midwest in crosshairs of child sex trafficking fight

By Deborah Feyerick & Sheila Steffen, CNN

Tamara Vandermoon is barely recognizable in the photo she holds up; her face is swollen and bruised, her eyes nearly battered shut. She was 19 at the time. "My pimp had beaten me and stomped my face," she says. "I was black and blue."

The Minnesota woman has seen a lot in her relatively short life. Abandoned by her father and angry at her mother, she ran away when she was 12, the same age she turned her first trick trading sex for money and gifts.

"I just wanted to be accepted and loved. I was told how beautiful I was and if you do this I'll get you this ... and I'll make you my girlfriend." Before she knew it she was prostituting herself up to 50 times a night, the money going to her pimp or to feed the drug habit she developed, she says, to "numb the pain" of her life.

Her eyes fill with tears as she remembers: "I was just a baby. I was 12 and they preyed on me. What would a grown man want with a twelve-year-old child?!" Now 31, she is finally getting out after nearly two decades in the sex-trade.

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This month, Florida becomes a pioneer in the battle against the complex and difficult issue of human trafficking. Last week Gov. Rick Scott signed House Bill 99, The Safe Harbor Act, which provides services to help victims who have been sexually exploited.

In addition, Scott also signed House Bill 7049, which gives prosecutors the ability to better fight this despicable crime by imposing tougher penalties.

The words “human trafficking” conjure up images of women being brought to this country illegally to be sexually exploited, and that is a very brutal reality.

However, there is another reality that we at the Florida Department of Children and Families battle every single day.

Across America, almost 300,000 youth are at risk of becoming victims of commercial sexual exploitation. They are being trafficked in our own communities.

Children are being exploited for sex across this state, and in many cases we cannot even tell who they are. They are entrenched in a life of sexual exploitation and live in constant fear.

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Men account for more than two-fifths (41%) of adult victims of human trafficking in England and Wales helped by the Salvation Army, contrary to the public perception that the crime almost exclusively affects women.

The finding comes in a survey by the charity, which provides specialist support for the adult victims of trafficking on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

The Salvation Army, which began the support service six months ago, also dealt with the first recorded case of an individual being trafficked to Britain to have their organs harvested. The case, involving an unnamed woman brought to the UK by an organised gang, is understood to be the subject of a police investigation, the Telegraph reports.

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Last year, California Attorney General Kamala Harris joined attorneys general across the country in declaring war against Backpage.com, a free classified website run by Village Voice Media. The officials threatened legal action if the site didn’t stop running ads for adult services, some of which have been linked to underage sex trafficking.

Harris recently announced an agreement with mobile and tech companies that requires their apps to better display their privacy policies. While Harris said she will not rule out legal action against sites such as Backpage, her office has begun to build more alliances with online firms. And as companies such as Facebook have matured, they have become more willing to cooperate with government leaders and law enforcement. 

This week, representatives from Facebook and Microsoft will be among 50 law enforcement and nonprofit leaders who are meeting as part of a new Department of Justice task force on human trafficking in the state. By the end of the summer, the government task force plans to issue a report containing best-practice guidelines for law enforcement, tech companies and service providers combating human trafficking locally and online.

Source: The Bay Citizen (http://s.tt/1b9K2)

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. –  A federal jury will begin deliberating in Nashville on Monday in the trial of nine defendants accused in a child sexual trafficking conspiracy operated by Somali gangs.

Attorneys finished their closing arguments Friday and the jury of six men and six women will return Monday morning to start deliberations after more than two weeks of testimony.

This is the first trial from an indictment that alleged 30 defendants, mostly people of Somali descent, were involved in a wide-ranging conspiracy to commit child sex trafficking and operated in Minnesota, Ohio and Tennessee.

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NEW YORK — A Pennsylvania father and son dispatched prostitutes to New York City, where livery cab drivers helped find customers for trysts that made the men big money but provided the women only a few dollars a night, prosecutors said Monday.

Six drivers were due to be arraigned Monday on promoting-prostitution charges in an unusually broad sex-trafficking case. It's expected to encompass charges against not only the alleged ringleaders and driver-recruiters but also, soon, some accused customers, according to the Manhattan district attorney's office.

The father and son, Vincent George Sr., 55, and Vincent George Jr., 33, both of Allentown, Pa., pleaded not guilty earlier this month to sex trafficking, money laundering and other charges. The men were being held without bail.

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For seven years, the bars and shacks on the gritty east edge of Houston served as unsightly venues of serial sex crimes where a convicted human trafficker ruled with threats, and Mexican teens as young as 14 were battered, forced to live in sheds, and toil as cantina call girls after being smuggled to Houston.

But U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes ruled Tuesday that five of the youngest victims in one of the city's most visible human trafficking rings will benefit from the sale of ringleader Maria "Nancy" Rojas and her husband's bars and the rest of their ramshackle real estate empire, according to instructions delivered to prosecutors.

It is the first time prosecutors have successfully pushed for forfeiture of assets for the benefit of sex trafficking victims in Houston - and among only a few cases nationally, said Edward Gallagher, a senior federal prosecutor who heads Houston's Human Trafficking Rescue Alliance(HTRA).

Valued at $602,000

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JUNEAU, Alaska—

Thursday was the second day of the special session called by Gov. Sean Parnell, with one bill moved forward while two others languished in committee. The bill that advanced would boost the penalties for human trafficking, often connected with the sexual exploitation of children and teens. It's the agenda item with the clearest moral imperative of the three before the Legislature, so it quickly cleared the House and the Senate and is expected to arrive on the governor's desk by Monday. Parnell has said he would sign it. The measure, as amended on Thursday, would make it a felony to sexually exploit or abuse a child under age 18. It would also extend tighter protections against trafficking for an additional two years. As Sen. Lesil McGuire (R-Anchorage) put it, "We're...changing sex trafficking in the first degree -- we're raising up the age of the victim for this crime from 18 to 20." The hope is that increasing the penalties for the trafficking of teens and children will have a deterrent effect on the crime in Alaska. The FBI has evidence of at least 23 cases of this kind of human trafficking within the state. They were cases where the girls -- many of them Yupik Eskimos -- were lured from tiny villages. 

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Marcus Choice Williams, 36, of Fort Worth, Texas, was sentenced this morning by U.S. District Judge David C. Godbey to 30 years in prison followed by 30 years of supervised release for various felony offenses related to a conspiracy to traffic women for prostitution, the Department of Justice announced. Williams was also ordered to pay $1,100 special assessment fee.

Court documents showed that Williams operated an interstate prostitution ring, including adult escort websites, headquartered in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and operating in Boston and the Washington, D.C. metro area. Williams recruited vulnerable women—specifically, single mothers from troubled backgrounds—and, in some cases, used a combination of deception, fraud, coercion, threats, and physical violence to compel the women to engage in prostitution, requiring each young woman to secure a daily quota of money, and, if operating out of town, to wire the funds to him. Williams made thousands of dollars in profits, while the victims received next to nothing.

“The court’s sentence clearly reflects the seriousness of these awful sex trafficking crimes,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “The victims suffered physical assaults, sexual abuse, and daily degradation all because of this defendant’s greed and callous disregard for them as individuals. We are committed to prosecuting sex traffickers and vindicating victims’ rights, as they were vindicated today.”

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Posted on February 14, 2012 by ssmith

In Patna, the capital of the Indian state of Bihar twenty five minor girls were rescued from child sex trafficking.  44 people were arrested on human trafficking charges after a police raid on Monday.  Shivdeep Lande, the Superintendent of Police said that the  minor girls were forced to dance naked not only for entertainment but to "attract good buyers" from outside the state.  The minor girls were who were rescued were sent to the district's children's welfare committee for rehabilitation.   It appears that human trafficking is rampant in various areas along the Indo Nepal border.  Patna according to City Mayors Foundation has been ranked as 21st fastest growing city in the world.  

Shelter houses play a vital role in the reintegration of human trafficking survivors.  The youths receive shelter, medical care, psychological counseling and an education.  Vital funds are needed in the states for victims of domestic minor sex trafficking.  Often, minors in the US are charged with prostitution and sent through the juvenile system.  There are less than 200 beds in America for domestic minor victims of sex trafficking.

Force 4 Compassion is a 501c3 non-profit dedicated to raising awareness on the crime of human trafficking and funding the shelter houses dedicated to minors.  You can learn more about us at www.f-4-c.org.  Force 4 Compassion is a division of Fashion4Compassion.   If you suspect someone is a victim on human trafficking the National Human Trafficking hotline is 1-888-3737-888.

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The crime ring had all the makings of a traditional street gang: A clear hierarchy, members who tattooed the group's name on their bodies, girlfriends at the ready to help cover their tracks.

But rather than drugs and guns, the organization whose indictment was announced this week trafficked primarily in young girls, prosecutors have alleged.

It's a trend that, according to experts, is growing, not just overseas or in big port cities but in towns across the United States.

It all comes down to what's best for business: While commodities such as guns and drugs are gone once you sell them, a human-trafficking victim — isolated, afraid, potentially addicted or dependent in other ways — provides an ongoing profit stream.

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Human trafficking is a real problem in the states.  In fact, 55% of American girls living on the streets are engaged in sexual slavery.  The average age a girl is forced into prostitution in the U.S. is 13.

Montgomery County police said Friday that investigators began probing the businesses in September and found that they were were "havens" for human trafficking. Prostitution brothels were operating under the guise of being massage or acupressure parlors, according to police.

Authorities charged 31-year-old Mauricio Alexa Garcia Guardia, operator of Executive Body Work at 966 Hungerford Drive; 48-year-old Howard Hao Wang, operator of Tropical Spa at 620 Hungerford Drive; 47-year-old Robert Carrasco, operator of Pink Spa at 932 Hungerford Drive; and 46-year-old Feng Liu, operator of Ya Ya Spa at 751 Rockville Pike.

Guardia, Wang and Liu are charged with human trafficking; all four men are charged with conducting prostitution.