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SAN ANTONIO • “What we’re really talking about here is slavery — nothing more, nothing less,” said Ambassador Charles Ray, in his presentation during the President’s Peace Commission’s look into human trafficking March 21 at St. Mary’s University. Ray, a diplomat in residence at the University of Houston, gave an international perspective to the topic “We’ve Seen the Horror: Witnesses to Trafficking,” having served for more than 23 years in the U.S. State Department, primarily in Asia and Africa.
As United States ambassador to Cambodia in 2002, he oversaw U.S. efforts there to stem human trafficking and is a leader in the international effort to curb this growing criminal industry.
Ray pointed out that victims of the modern day human slave trade are forced, coerced or defrauded into labor or sexual exploitation. “To the people who traffic, the victims are not people,” he said. “They are simply profitable, expendable and sometimes reusable commodities. And I say ‘sometimes’ because the lifespan of a lot of the victims of human trafficking is dreadfully short.”
It is estimated, he noted, that some 600,000 to 800,000 persons are trafficked across national borders yearly, the majority being women and children. This number rises into the millions if internal trafficking within countries is considered. And, while, the source of these victims tends to be less developed countries, this is not always the case. Cambodia, one of the poorest countries in Asia, has been the destination for large numbers of underage girls trafficked into the sex industry from more developed Vietnam.
When Ray arrived in Cambodia in 2002, there had been practically no prosecutions for trafficking. “Brothels containing underage girls operated openly,” he said, “serving local customers and foreign tourists.” It was even possible to go on the Internet and easily pull up maps, names and price lists for one of the most notorious areas.
The government had recently established a police anti-trafficking and child protection unit, but it was poorly trained and supported, so one of Ray’s first acts was to bring in an NGO (nongovernmental organization) to train this unit. Results were apparent a short six weeks later, when a brothel raid rescued a group of girls between the ages of 5 and 18 and the proprietor received a 20-year jail sentence — a first for Cambodia.
Ray’s team also worked very hard to get the private sector involved, landing an $800,000 grant from Nike to fund police training and resource programs. In addition to police training (along with reducing the number of police actively involved in trafficking), they worked to improve the courts, increase respect for the role of the law, and to dissuade people from getting into trafficking. This involved helping communities to develop a different attitude.
“It requires nothing less than a cultural change,” Ray said. “In many societies, unfortunately, children and women are seen as economic entities, and this is something we have to reverse if we are to really make strides and eradicate trafficking.”
Notable in the United States is a 2003 law, the PROTECT Act, which permits prosecution of Americans who go abroad and sexually exploit minors. Ray was involved in the first two such cases prosecuted under this act, with the exploiters receiving prison terms. “In one case,” said Ray, “the American who sexually exploited minors was buying young boys as young as 11, but who were so impoverished and undernourished that most of them didn’t look older than 6.”
“All of us have a moral obligation to do whatever we can to end this modern day horror,” he said, describing having seen victims as young as 5 years, who were forced to provide sexual services for up to 10 adult males daily, seven days a week. Many of these youngsters are HIV positive and die of AIDS before reaching adulthood. “But worse,” said Ray, “they’ve been robbed of any childhood they might have had. You can see it in their eyes — a vacant, hopeless stare of someone who cannot see tomorrow.”
He related that in some third world cities, young children are maimed or crippled to make them more effective beggars, and children as young as 6 are forced to work 12-14 hours a day in mines or on equally dangerous fishing vessels. “No country is immune from trafficking,” he said. “Here in the United States, last year it was estimated that there were probably 100,000 trafficked women in the commercial sex industry.” In Houston, where Ray now lives, authorities are struggling to stem internal trafficking of girls for prostitution from Louisiana, Alabama and other neighboring states.
“Slavery didn’t end with Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation,” said Ray, noting that while many governments are actively trying to put an end to it, “just like the end of the African slave trade in the 1800s, it is going to take the active intervention of the public — communities from around the globe — if we are to say finally, ‘Enough is enough. There will be no more.’”
Offering a closer to home view of human trafficking was Kathi West, victim-witness coordinator with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Austin, Waco and Midland.
West described the most common trait she has observed in these victims as a sense of hopelessness. Victims may not be under lock and key, she pointed out, and noted clues to spotting them include looking for people who never leave a residence or never leave it unaccompanied.
“I can’t stress how important coercion is in trafficking,” she said, noting it may take the form of being threatened with death or reminded of the incredible debt their family back home will owe if they leave. Traffickers are frequently connected with the smugglers who brought the victims over, so often their families and village are known to them. Some actually have written contracts indenturing them, which is a plus in prosecuting the traffickers, West noted.
Another issue facing victims is their fear of law enforcement, which the traffickers use to silence them, threatening deportation. Many feel the work they are doing will only be temporary, until they can pay off their debt or attain a better life. This includes girls tricked into work as models or dancers, who frequently wind up immediately forced into prostitution.
West related that federal money is being spent to train local law enforcement to spot victims of human trafficking. Usually, when these classes begin, no one believes they have personally seen a human trafficking case. By the end of the class, almost all realize they have, she said.
She noted that trafficking victims are dealing with a terrific amount of physical and mental distress, and their sense of self-loathing and shame is evident, especially in sexual exploitation cases. As a result, suicide attempts and self-mutilation are common.
Depression is also something she frequently sees in victims. “Their spirit’s been beaten down emotionally, oftentimes physically, by the traffickers,” she said. Drug and alcohol use is also heavy, either to numb the pain of existence or forced on them by the traffickers to better control them.
Stressing the necessity of law enforcement and NGOs working hand in hand, West noted that in Austin 30 nongovernmental organizations meet monthly in order to work together for the good of victims who assist as witnesses in the prosecution of human traffickers. Victims’ needs include counseling and medical ones, as well as learning English and basic life skills.
“You don’t just stick somebody who has been through a traumatic situation into a motel and expect that they are just going to find their way,” she said. In addition to counseling, there is the quagmire of social services to get through. Even the process of obtaining an I.D. or using a bus pass can be daunting. “We need to help make the system a little more friendly to these victims,” she said, “because it’s very intimidating.” Many of these people also struggle with independent living skills that we take for granted, such as shopping in a modern supermarket, filling out a job application or signing a lease.
Another obstacle they encounter is the temporary inability to work after being rescued. This is especially critical when victims have families back home who are depending on the money they send. And the fear of retaliation from those not in custody is very real. As a result, witness victims are often temporarily housed in another community.
Victims often feel more allied with the perpetrators than with law enforcement because of their ingrained fear of authorities, creating another problem. Victims have been known to call their traffickers to “rescue” them.
An exception was the case of three teenage girls who managed to escape the ring that had forced them into prostitution. The traffickers found them by handing out flyers in the neighborhood and abducted one of the girls, giving her such a savage beating that her two friends feared for her life and called the police “because they didn’t care at that point if they were sent back,” said West. “Their fear of deportation was not greater than losing their friend.”
If victims cooperate with law enforcement, they become eligible for a “T” visa, which allows them to stay in the United States for three years, with the opportunity for this to become permanent. West pointed out the major drawback with obtaining one of these visas, however, is its prohibiting the person from ever returning to their home country — the reason being possible retaliation, if they return, for having cooperated with law enforcement.
Their families may join them here, but West related she has yet to see a case in which this worked. It is an expensive proposition and older family members do not want to leave their homeland. Obtaining papers to prove you are a parent to a child in another country is also difficult. “Never seeing their family again is a big deal,” she said.
Ending on a positive note, West observed that victims of trafficking, with proper help in acclimatizing to this country, can and do succeed. “They need to find a new community,” she said, “whether it’s a church, an NGO organization or some support group, so that they feel like they belong.” |