Lecture warns of labor, sex trafficking

Most immigrants hope to start a new life when they arrive in a new country. Instead, what… Most immigrants hope to start a new life when they arrive in a new country. Instead, what about 4 million of these hopefuls get is little or no income, their passports and visas stolen and forced labor at the hands of strangers – a reality known as human trafficking.

The danger of illegal human trafficking between countries is attracting national attention.

Mary Burke, founder of the Project to End Human Trafficking at Carlow University, and fellow colleague Kim Bellora spoke at Pitt yesterday as part of International Week 2007. The event was sponsored by four of the international studies departments to create awareness on this hot topic.

Burke wants to make more U.S. citizens aware of the signs of a trafficking victim and teach them how to help those in need.

In 2000, the United Nations Protocol on Trafficking issued a formal definition for the term “human trafficking”:

“Trafficking in humans refers to all acts related to the recruitment, transport, sale or purchase of individuals through force, fraud or other coercive means for the purpose of economic exploitation.”

“Since the definition has been publicized, laws have been finally able to be issued, now that there is concrete terminology for what trafficking is,” Burke said.

The Project to End Human Trafficking is a Pittsburgh-based, non-profit organization that began three years ago.

Shortly after human trafficking was defined, the U.S. government gave each state the right to make human trafficking illegal.

Six years after states were given this choice, in 2006, Pa. Congressional representative Katie True passed a law banning all human trafficking within the state.

“One of the main problems that is causing states to delay this ban for so long is that fact that many officials have trouble spotting trafficking victims and are confused as to how to aid them,” Burke said. “Concurrently, many victims also don’t know their rights and are sometimes afraid to talk to law enforcement for help.”

Human trafficking is split into two categories: labor trafficking and sex trafficking.

Labor trafficking includes domestic servitude, as well as sweatshop and agricultural labor. Commonly, individuals who wish to be transported into another country will voluntarily make a contract with a local company for work.

Burke mentioned that these individuals become victims of human trafficking if their contracts are breached and cease to be paid and are held captive.

The second form is called sex trafficking, which involves mostly women and young girls. Typically, victims are sold into slavery and forced to work in illegal brothels, pornographic industry or massage parlors.

According to the 2006 Trafficking in Persons report, of the approximately four million illegally trafficked humans in the world, one million of them are in the sex industry. Women and girls also make up 80 percent of all individuals trafficked.

Pittsburgh recently established an Anti-Trafficking Coalition in an attempt to buckle-down on urban trafficking.

“Many larger cities already have active anti-trafficking organizations, so Pittsburgh is now trying to catch up. Those involved hope to teach law enforcement the signs of a victim in human trafficking and screening questions [to] identify that a person is, in fact, involved in trafficking.” Burke said.

In Worthington, Pa., 40 miles outside of Pittsburgh, 20 Thai people were recently discovered to be victims of human trafficking.

“They all had contracts with the same company to have a steady payroll and work for three years. But once they arrived in America, they sometimes didn’t work for months and either didn’t get paid at all or very little,” Bellora said. “We found them alongside a river fishing for their dinner because they couldn’t afford anything. Many of them are so in debt that they can’t return to Thailand yet.”

Since the Thai victims were found, two of them have remained in the Pittsburgh area and are being trained at a local restaurant, while the others moved throughout the country.

Burke concluded her discussion with tips on how to participate in the anti-trafficking movement.

“The best ways to get involved for students are to get connected with an anti-trafficking group or to start your own and to learn enough about this topic to educate others, as we’ve done today,” Burke said.