Each year on January 11th, the U.S. celebrates National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. But this year, one coalition of anti-trafficking organizations is making today about more than just awareness. They’re launching a national initiative to make anti-trafficking efforts a priority and protect critical funding to fight trafficking.

There are more slaves in the world today than at any point in history. Slavery is more affordable, more wide-spread, and more entrenched in 2011 than it was in ancient Rome or the antebellum South of America. Modern-day slaves, also called human trafficking victims, can be male or female, from any country, or representing any ethnicity. They can be enslaved in any industry, although common industries include domestic servitude, agriculture, the commercial sex industry, factories, and the service industry. Human trafficking is truly a global crime.

But fortunately, so is the growing grassroots movement to fight it. Governments, businesses, civil society actors, and individuals are working harder than ever before to fight trafficking. They’re passing and enforcing laws, cleaning up corporate supply chains, and finding new ways to better protect vulnerable children. But even as we celebrate recent victories, we realize how much work the modern-day abolitionist movement has ahead of it.

This year, Congress and the Obama administration have the opportunity to make historic progress in the fight against modern-day slavery. Ending human trafficking is a bipartisan issue which should have the moral support of people from all nationalities, faith traditions, and political affiliations. There would be no reason not to protect or expand anti-trafficking legislation in 2011, other than Congress and the Obama administration failing to make it a priority.

That’s why the anti-trafficking coalition ATEST has launched a national campaign asking Congress and President Obama to make ending human trafficking in 2011 a priority by renewing the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and protecting critical resources for the fight against human trafficking in the U.S. and around the world. Together, we can make this National Human Trafficking Awareness Day about both awareness and action.

What could make a woman with a masters degree from Columbia University spend a year making no salary, living off cottage cheese and apples, and periodically asking herself if she’s insane? For Faith Huckel, it was the determined drive to meet a desperate need in New York City — a shelter for women trafficked into the commercial sex industry. Her story is one of how a woman turned her passion into a fresh start for hundreds of trafficking and abuse survivors.

As a social worker in Philadelphia, Huckel began noticing a pattern among the women whose cases she managed — sexual exploitation. In addition to issues like poverty, incarceration, and HIV, most of the women she worked with had been sexually exploited at some point in their lives. Some were molested as children, others raped as adults, still others pushed into the commercial sex industry by coercion or circumstance. When Huckel moved to New York City, that pattern added a new dimension — the sex trafficking of women from overseas into the U.S.

So when she and a group of friends were talking around a dinner table about what they would do to change the world, Huckel immediately knew she’d want to address sex trafficking. After asking around the city, one need above all others became clear: there was no shelter in New York City for foreign women to feel safe while they healed from violence and abuse. So in 2008, Huckel quit her lucrative job and applied herself full-time to creating a shelter, even though it meant a lot of cottage cheese and a lot more telling herself she wasn’t crazy.

Today, she has proof she’s both sane and successful. Restore NYC is the first ever long-term safe house for international trafficking victims in New York City, and one of the few in the country. To date they have served over 100 women, mostly from China and Korea. Many of these women were brought to the U.S. under student or tourist visas, saddled with inflated debts up to $60,000, and forced into prostitution to pay back those debts. But now they have a place to heal from the abuse with 24-hour, live-in support staff fluent in Korean and Mandarin and help dealing with everything from immigration paperwork to trauma.

But nothing makes the success of Restore NYC real to Huckel as much as the story of one survivor we’ll call “Jing Li”. Jing Li is a 20 year old woman trafficked from China and forced into the commercial sex industry. When police found her in a brothel in New York, they immediately identified her as a trafficking victim and connected her with Huckel. For awhile, she was working with a lawyer to get a T-Visa and receiving support from Restore NYC. Then one day, she vanished. Huckel soon received a phone call that Jing Li had been arrested in Washington, D.C. for prostitution. Huckel spent weeks trying to convince Jing Li there was a safe house in New York where she could live for free and where people would help her get back on her feet. But so much in Jing Li’s life had been a lie, so many offers had come with a terrible catch, she refused to believe the place existed until she saw it. Bnce she took a tour, Jing Li was sold. She moves in November 23, and is now planning to get her GED and go to college.

Huckel says getting to where Jing Li is isn’t easy. Survivors have to overcome immigration issues, PTSD, language barriers, lack of basic education and employable skills, racism, and the stigma behind prostitution, in addition to the mental, emotional, and physical trauma of sex trafficking. But at Restore NYC, they have a community of volunteers who make that a possibility. And it’s thanks to these people who were willing to do something to end human trafficking that Jing Li and her peers have a chance to start over. As Huckel says,

“N0 matter how big problems may seem, don’t throw your arms in the air and think you can’t do anything. We have a responsibility, when we see injustice, to act and not to walk away. Whatever you can do, do it, even if it’s in a small way.”

Faith Huckel knows about big and small. Restore NYC may be a small organization but they’re having a big impact in the fight against human trafficking, one survivor at a time.

GOT A TIP FOR US? Is there a story or campaign in your area that we’d want to know about? E-mail us at humantraffickingtips@change.org

Photo credit: leunix

Today, thousands of advocates from across the country are coming together to take action against child sex trafficking in America. They’re calling their representatives in Congress, signing petitions, and supporting the grassroots campaign to pass national legislation that will provide critical services to American children who have been forced into the commercial sex industry. Will you join them?

In America, at least 100,000 children are forced into prostitution each year. With increased resources and an understanding that child prostitution is child trafficking, thousands of those kids are now being rescued. However, only a handful of shelter beds for those thousands currently exist. That means trafficked children have no place to go for safety, shelter, and therapeutic services. Too often, this lack of resources means law enforcement arrests these young victims  as  juvenile offenders, simply to get them to safety. This lack of resources means crime victims are being imprisoned while their traffickers and predators remain free.

But today, you can end these injustices.

Today is the National Day of Action to pass the Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act, sponsored by the National Coalition to End Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking. This legislation will mean more young domestic sex trafficking survivors will have access to the shelter and restorative care services they need. It will also increase resources for law enforcement to arrest and prosecute traffickers and predators who victimize children.

This law can absolutely become a reality for the hundreds of thousands of trafficked children in the U.S. The Senate bill is currently awaiting a vote in the Senate and the House bill picked up steam after the Sept 15th House Judiciary hearing where Craigslist announced the permanent closure of their erotic ads in the U.S. But time is running out for the current 111th Congress, and it is critical to pass this legislation, especially in the House, before the session ends.

Here’s how you can make this historic bill to fight child sex trafficking in America become law:

1. Join advocates across the country today to make the phones on Capitol Hill ring off the hook and send members of the U.S. House of Representatives a clear and united message: The number of children being trafficked in the U.S. is on the rise, and it’s time for Congress to act! You can find a sample script and call-in information here.
2. Sign the Change.org petition asking your representative to support the Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act.
3. Share the National Day of Action on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media networks (check out the buttons at the top of this post) to spread the word and inspire more people to join the fight against child sex trafficking in America.

We have an opportunity to create historic change and reduce child sex trafficking in America. If you’ve participated in the National Day of Action, post a comment below about who you called and why. Together, we can end domestic minor sex trafficking in the U.S.

The Not for Sale Campaign is giving shoppers the chance to fight slavery with their smart phones this holiday season. The Free2Work app give consumers a handy guide to how their favorite brands fare in preventing slavery and other serious abuses in their supply chains. Now you’re just a touchscreen away from making every purchase support freedom and fairness for workers around the world.

Free2Work rates companies that manufacture consumer goods on their policies toward and responses to human trafficking, child labor, and related abuses in their supply chains. Rated companies range from Adidas to the Gap, M&M/Mars to Walt Disney, and even more companies will be added between now and the holiday shopping season. The companies are rated using a tool that examines their code of conduct, enforcement of labor standards, and responses to incidents of child or slave labor in suppliers. And now, that information will be available to shoppers on the go.

The Free2Work app premiered this week at the SF AppShow, where it was named one of the “11 Great Apps for 2011.” And the accolades are no surprise. The app will allow consumers to easily browse company grades and information, get updates from other activists, and see the latest videos and photos from the field. It’s tool that will empower conscious consumers with the information they need when they need it the most — before they step into the checkout line.

But the Free2Work app has the power to do much more than just inspire Susie McShopperson to go with one brand of sneakers over another. It has the power to mobilize consumers to take collective action and vote with their dollars for companies working to prevent slavery and trafficking. When companies know consumers have a tool to check their human rights and labor records at the point of purchase, they might just take those issues a lot more seriously. So if you use the Free2Work app this holiday season, let Not for Sale know about it.

The app will be available (barring any technical difficulties) in the iPhone and iPad stores on Monday, making it even easier to make your holiday season shopping slavery-free.

Photo credit: Cristinano Bello

ICE utilizes all of its authorities and resources in a cohesive global enforcement response in order to dismantle the global criminal infrastructure engaged in human trafficking. ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) has developed a comprehensive strategy to combat these criminal organizations through coordination with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and law enforcement, both domestically and in foreign countries, in order to identify and provide services to trafficking victims and coordinate investigations. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2009, ICE initiated 566 human trafficking investigations resulting in 388 arrests, 148 indictments, and 165 convictions. This is a 31 percent increase in investigations over the previous year.

Special Agents within our domestic and international offices work closely with the Headquarters Human Smuggling and Trafficking Unit (HSTU), International Affairs (IA), ICE Cyber Crimes Center (C3), Victim Assistance Program (VAP), and other units within HSI to conduct victim-centered investigations of trafficking in persons. Additionally, ICE plays a leading role in the government’s multiagency Human Smuggling and Trafficking Center. ICE continues to enhance its Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Strategy and plays a key role in DHS’s anti-human trafficking initiative, the Blue Campaign. The Blue Campaign is organized around the three “Ps” of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA): Protection (victim assistance), Prevention (public awareness) and Prosecution (law enforcement efforts). The Blue Campaign also emphasizes a fourth “P”: Partnerships.

Protection (victim assistance)

ICE is fully committed to victim-centered investigations in which the identification, rescue, and needs of victims have equal importance to the apprehension and prosecution of traffickers. ICE enhanced its victim assistance efforts by staffing full-time Victim Assistance Specialists in ICE HSI field offices and hiring dedicated Child Forensic Interviewers. To date, 13 of 26 ICE Special Agent in Charge offices have hired full-time victim specialists to complement the work of our 250 collateral duty Victim Assistance Coordinators.

ICE provides temporary legal immigration status to victims of trafficking in the form of Continued Presence (CP). CP ensures that trafficked persons are allowed to remain in the United States during the ongoing investigation and allows them to obtain a work authorization and other benefits. ICE has sole authority to adjudicate CP requests, which must be submitted by a federal law enforcement official. Typically, CP is granted for one year, but extensions may be authorized in one-year increments. In FY 2009, ICE authorized 447 CP requests and extensions.

As part of the Blue Campaign, ICE has produced a CP brochure that will serve as a resource for state and local law enforcement, NGOs, and victim service providers. The brochure provides a concise, yet comprehensive overview of CP, describes who is eligible, explains the CP process, and debunks myths commonly associated with CP in the law enforcement and NGO community.

Prevention (public awareness)

ICE’s Hidden in Plain Sight public awareness campaign reached 14 U.S. cities in the fall of 2009. The campaign was designed to raise general awareness of the crime of human trafficking and prompts the public to report suspected trafficking incidents. As part of its TIP strategy, ICE also produces and distributes trafficking indicator cards, pamphlets on the Victim Assistance Program, a public service announcement focused on victim recognition, and human trafficking posters. The wallet-sized TIP card is available in 17 languages. The PSA is available in 15 languages.

Prosecution (law enforcement efforts)

ICE is committed to combating human trafficking and aggressively investigates all allegations of exploitation. ICE recognizes that the nature of trafficking and the commitment to victim-centered investigations requires a multidisciplinary response. To this end, ICE personnel conduct outreach, conferences and training across the U.S. to law enforcement, consular officials, prosecutors, social service providers, and other partners on trafficking indicators, case initiation, human trafficking referrals, victim-centered investigations and immigration relief available to trafficking victims. In FY 2009, ICE Special Agent in Charge (SAC) and Attaché offices conducted outreach to 6,293 domestic law enforcement officials and over 20,000 NGO and law enforcement partners worldwide. Since inception of the ICE TIP Strategy in 2007, ICE has conducted outreach to over 85,000 NGO and domestic and foreign law enforcement personnel.

As part of the Blue Campaign, ICE has designated 39 human trafficking Subject Matter Experts (SME) – at least one in every SAC office. The new SMEs will be specially trained to serve as a resource and coordinate human trafficking efforts within their local offices. Additionally, ICE launched a new email address to allow for law enforcement, NGOs, and victim service providers to contact ICE Headquarters human trafficking experts with questions, comments, or concerns. The email address is ICEHumanTrafficking.HelpDesk@dhs.gov.

Partnerships

ICE has long recognized the critical role that partnerships play in the global fight against human trafficking. In addition to the outreach to law enforcement and the NGO community conducted under the auspices of the TIP Strategy, ICE participates in the Department of Justice (DOJ) funded, locally led human trafficking task forces comprised of representatives from the state and local law enforcement, state prosecutors, local U.S. Attorney’s Offices, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and NGO partners. In September 2009, the HSI International Affairs hosted its first NGO Liaison Working Group Meeting. Representatives from over a dozen NGOs, the International Organization for Migration as well as Custom and Border Protection and other DHS offices shared information regarding their activities on forced labor and trafficking in persons. ICE is partnering with the Government of Mexico and DOJ to increase coordination and information sharing with Mexico’s Procuraduría General de la República and to provide training and outreach to Mexican state and local prosecutors and investigators. ICE and DHS recognize that local, regional, national, and global partnerships are key to combating human trafficking.

Trafficking Case Examples

NGO Tip Leads to Rescue of 85 Trafficking Victims
In New York, Peruvian migrants were subjected to forced labor and debt bondage. A husband and wife were sentenced to 11 and 15 years, respectively, for conspiracy to commit forced labor and document servitude, conspiracy to bring in and harbor aliens and engaging in extortionate credit transactions.

Trafficker Arrested in Cameroon
In Baltimore, a 10-year-old girl from Cameroon was brought to the U.S. for the purpose of domestic servitude and subjected to physical abuse and isolation. The trafficker fled the U.S. and was later arrested in Cameroon. The trafficker was brought back to the U.S. to serve a 17-year sentence for involuntary servitude and harboring for financial gain. The trafficker was ordered to pay $100,000 restitution to the victim.

Trafficker Sentenced to 23 Years
In Texas, four Mexican women were rescued from traffickers who raped them and forced the victims to cook and clean for them. Eight defendants were convicted of human smuggling/trafficking violations. The lead defendant was sentenced to 23 years for involuntary servitude.

Sex Traffickers Sentenced to 40 years
In Los Angeles, 15 women and girls were forced by a family-run human trafficking organization into prostitution. As a result of the investigation, seven Guatemalan and two Mexican nationals were found guilty of conspiracy, sex trafficking of children by force, and importation and harboring of illegal aliens for purposes of prostitution and sentenced to terms of imprisonment ranging from two to 40 years depending on their level of involvement.

Cooperation with Mexican Law Enforcement Rescues 24 Victims
In New York, an ICE-led investigation, in collaboration with the Government of Mexico, targeted a trafficking organization that smuggled Mexican women into the United States and then subjected them to commercial sexual exploitation. Twenty-four women were forced into prostitution at brothels on the East Coast through threats of violence against them and their children. The principal traffickers were sentenced to terms of imprisonment from 25 to 50 years each. The mother of the main defendants was arrested in Mexico and later extradited to the United States, where she was sentenced to 10 years in prison for her involvement in the scheme.

Russian, Ukrainian and Czech Labor Trafficking Victims Rescued in Detroit
In Detroit, a concerned citizen reported women being forced to work against their will as exotic dancers. Ten women were brought to the United States through a visa fraud scheme where they were forced to work as dancers through threats of violence, sexual abuse, and threats of jail and deportation. The investigation resulted in the arrest and indictment of nine defendants. All of the defendants pleaded guilty and their sentences ranged from probation to 14 years imprisonment.

Domestic Servitude Victim Rescued on Long Island
On Long Island, ICE agents arrested a husband and wife as a result of a domestic servitude investigation. The couple was alleged to have held two Indonesian females in their residence where they were forced to perform domestic services. They were found guilty by a jury of forced labor, peonage, document servitude, harboring aliens and conspiracy. The wife was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment and her husband was sentenced to three years. The jury ordered that their residence, valued at $1.5 million, be criminally forfeited in order to assist with victim restitution. 

To report instances of suspected human trafficking,

please contact  ICE at 1-866-DHS-2ICE.

Human trafficking is dark, dirty and secretive. The victims are often voiceless, scared and hidden in plain sight. ICE and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) investigate many federal crimes, but human trafficking – especially that of children – is one of the most egregious. Lives are compromised. Productive futures are destroyed.

Today, ICE, with counterparts from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Secret Service, the St. Paul Police Department, the Nashville Metropolitan Police Department, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, announced the arrest of more than 20 individuals associated with the trafficking ring. These individuals transported girls across state lines and forced them to have sex in exchange for small amounts of marijuana and liquor. Allegedly, they also filmed the sexual acts and transmitted them via cell phones for others to view.

Charges in this case stem from an initial investigation conducted by ICE’s Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the St. Paul Police Department. The two agencies had reason to believe that a Somali gang was forcing young girls into prostitution. Working off a tip, the investigation led the agencies to Tennessee where a possible victim – a runaway from Minnesota – was located. Agents confirmed that the victim was one of four underage girls being transported across state lines for prostitution.

ICE and other law enforcement agencies need your assistance to end human trafficking. If you notice suspicious activity, call ICE’s Tip Line, 1-866-DHS-2-ICE.

Learn more about ICE’s role in human trafficking.

Learn more about the DHS’ Blue Campaign against human trafficking.

At least 100,000 American children are forced into prostitution each year, right here in the U.S. You can help make that number zero by uniting your voice with thousands of people from across the country to demand an end to child sex trafficking and pass landmark legislation which will keep traffickers off the streets, punish those who buy sex with kids, and protect victims.

On November 17, the National Coalition to End Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking is organizing a National Day of Action to pass the Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act. Right now in the U.S., there are only a handful of shelter beds for the thousands of children who are being removed from prostitution each year. This legislation will mean more young domestic sex trafficking survivors will have access to the shelter and restorative care services they need. It will also increase resources for law enforcement to arrest and prosecute the traffickers and predators who victimize our children.

This law can absolutely become a reality for the hundreds of thousands of trafficked children in the U.S. The Senate bill is currently awaiting a vote in the Senate and the House bill picked up steam after the Sept 15th House Judiciary hearing where Craigslist announced the permanent closure of their erotic ads in the U.S. But time is running out for the current 111th Congress, and it is critical to pass this legislation, especially in the House, before the session ends.

Here’s how you can make this historic bill to fight child sex trafficking in America become law:

1. Join advocates across the country on November 17 to make the phones on Capitol Hill ring off the hook and send members of the U.S. House of Representatives a clear and united message: The number of children being trafficked in the U.S. is on the rise, and it’s time for Congress to act! Check back next week for call information, contact numbers, and a sample script.
2. Sign the Change.org petition asking your representative to support the Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act.
3. Share the National Day of Action on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media networks (check out the buttons at the top of this post) to spread the word and inspire more people to join the fight against child sex trafficking in America.

We have an opportunity to create historic change and reduce child sex trafficking in America. Will you join us on November 17 in calling for an end to the exploitation and sale of children in our country?

The year 2007 may have marked the bicentenary of the abolition of slavery but the reality is that many people around the world are living in conditions of forced labour or slavery.  In her book Enslaved: The New British Slavery, Rahila Gupta gets in contact with five modern day slaves and convinces them to share their stories. These are heartbreaking and shocking tales that expose the hidden and invisible world of modern day slavery. All of these testimonies were obtained in England so this is not simply a “third world problem” that we can sweep under a rug; it is happening in our neighbourhoods.

The book includes the testimonies of five modern day slaves:

1. Farhia Nur was from Somalia.  She told the story of how she was subjected to the most severe type of female genital mutilation, infibulation, when she was only eight-years-old.  She was just seventeen years of age when war broke out in Somalia and she found herself unable to return home from her place of work where she helped out with household chores.  Once dependent on her employers, they stopped paying her and one of the men in the family began to sexually assault her.  She was eventually trafficked to England and began a long process of seeking asylum while repeatedly being subjected to further exploitation and unpaid labour.
2. Natasha Bulova originally came from Samara in Soviet Union.  Natasha responded to an offer to work abroad and was trafficked to Brussels via Frankfurt.  On arrival in Brussels she was sexually assaulted and forced into prostitution.  When she tried to leave, she was informed that she was deeply in debt with her pimp for the costs of her transportation, visas and passport.  After a particularly vicious attack by a client, she was sold to a pimp in London who also assaulted her repeatedly and forced her to work as a prostitute. Eventually she is caught in a police raid and begins the process of seeking asylum.
3. Naomi Conte was just ten-years-old when war broke out in Sierra Leone and she found herself homeless and alone on the streets of Freetown.  After living on the streets for eighteen months, she was taken in by a family and made to look after their children for no pay.  She was trafficked to England and made to work as an unpaid domestic servant and subjected to incredible abuse.  She eventually escaped with a man to Birmingham but he soon began to prostitute her and took all of the money too.  She eventually made it back to London where she discovered she was pregnant and began the long process of applying for asylum.
4. Liu Bao Ren tells the horrific story of his persecution as a Fujianese person in China and his gruelling and shocking journey as he was trafficked across Asia and Europe by a triad gang.  He arrived in England quite by accident and began a process of working for near slave wages as he attempted to pay back the triad gang.  He tells the story of paying exorbitant rentals for rooms that housed several men, cockle-picking on the coast and falling out of favour of the triads. 
5. Amber Lobepreet from the Punjab in India was married young and the demands of the groom’s family almost ruined her own family’s financial standings.  It seems that the couple were in love at first but Amber soon found herself abused by the mother and sister.  They all moved to England where Amber was made to do all of the cooking and cleaning in the home and where her husband took on a lover.  Amber was subjected to the most horrendous treatment before being rejected by both her family and that of her husband and finding herself all alone in England.

The five stories were very well told and were aided by competent interpreters.  It is nearly impossible to put the book down as you try to come to terms with the fact that these are true stories that happened to real people and that some of the worst of these people’s experiences occurred within the borders of one of the most powerful nations on the planet. 

In the last third of the book, the author takes an in depth look into why people migrate and the differences between trafficked victims and economic migrants.  She goes into some detail in analysing the financial impact of immigration and seeks to dispel the myth that immigrants cost tax payers huge amounts of money.  In fact, Gupta states, migrants constitute ten per cent of the population in the United Kingdom and produce eight per cent of the wealth.  She reminds the reader that asylum seekers do not get free medical care and are extremely limited in their recourse to public funds.  Gupta calls for wide-ranging reforms in immigration policy as she asserts that it is this policy which fuels situation in which slavery, forced labour and trafficking can occur.  Such arguments might be especially pertinent now with the Conservative and Liberal Democrat alliance in power as both of these parties called for a tightening of immigration controls and more stringent conditions to be imposed on refugees.

This is a very good book that will dispel the myth that modern day slavery does not exist.  I would certainly recommend it for any reader seeking to expand their knowledge of trafficking, slavery and the plight of asylum seekers.

Well-Made, a new campaign from Verite, focuses on one of the root causes of labor exploitation and slavery: hiring traps aimed at migrant workers. Hiring traps are a common way for people to end up in human trafficking. But human trafficking can be prevented by tracing supply chains back to hiring traps and exploitative hiring practices.

What is a hiring trap? Basically, it’s a situation where a labor recruiter uses some combination of deception and coercion to lure a worker into an exploitative work situation. Hiring traps and deceptive hiring practices are used by recruiters to lure workers into unfair or exploitative labor. Sometimes the job offers involve outright lies, and sometimes just omission of key details (like substandard living conditions). You can read some examples of hiring traps here.

If hiring traps are the problem, the Verite’s Well-Made Campaign has an answer. The initiative focuses on giving companies and investors the tools to trace supply chains back to the labor recruiters who are often behind hiring traps. Addressing these fair hiring issues at their root can help address many of the labor exploitation issues which show up in product supply chains. Migrant workers and contract workers are particularly vulnerable to labor broker abuses. Companies can solve a number of their labor compliance issues by monitoring the practices used to recruit and place workers in their supply chain.

At this point, Well-Made is mostly questioning companies, investors, and others who should ask to reduce exploitation in hiring practices. However, this is one of the most important first steps to developing a culture of corporate responsibility that leads all the way down the supply chain. It’s a good tool for companies committed to do the right thing, but what about those who are reluctant? Those who don’t see their supply chains as their responsibility? Or those who claim their supply chains are too complicated to monitor? We still need tools for them. Well-Made may not be the only campaign we’ll ever need, but as far I’ve seen, it’s the only initiative trying to follow a supply chain all the way from corporate headquarters to the hiring trap that leads to trafficking.

You can check out the Well-Made campaign for tools for companies, advocates, investors, and others to trace labor exploitation and human trafficking to one of its most common sources: hiring traps.

Photo credit: queercatkitten

Success! A small but rapidly growing mom-and-pop shop prostitution ring operating out of the Boston area and New York has been busted. Five people (three in Massachusetts and two in New York) were just arrested on multiple charges relating to forced prostitution and trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation.

The group has been operational for over five years, running brothels out of roughly 11 apartments in the greater Boston area. They would post ads on Craigslist and in newspapers in Massachusetts, New York, and California seeking Asian women to move to Boston to work as escorts (in a few instances, the women were in the country illegally). These traffickers were so aggressive in wanting to expand their business and grow their brothels, that they spent over $13,000 in one seven month period placing ads in just one local newspaper in Boston … who knows how much they spent in total! Once here, the women were picked up from a local bus station, distributed amongst the group’s apartments and forced to have sex for money. If they were not complicit, the ring leaders, Hong Wei, known as Ms. Chen, and Jing Liang Chen, known as Mike, would threaten to harm their families.

If convicted, Hong Wei and Jing Liang Chen will be slammed with a heavy jail sentence; up to life in prison for sex trafficking, 20 years for forced labor, and 10 years for harboring and concealing aliens. (I like the sound of this!) The other three defendants, Xiang Hua Zhang, Dong Kai Chen, and Yu En Jin, will be stuck behind bars for five years for conspiracy and inducement of travel for prostitution. It seems as if our justice system is starting to work …

But not so fast. So far, three of the defendants have been released on unsecured bonds in the amounts of $10,000 and $100,000. This means that they only have to pay if they fail to show up for court, as opposed to being released on a secured bond, where the defendants front the money to later be returned if they make their court date. While in both cases the convict-in-attendance will not be out any cash, by not asking these predators to pay up from the get-go makes me think the judge doesn’t really care about what they’ve been doing for the last five years. Recent stories involving human trafficking busts indicate that secured bonds of varying amounts are the norm. So why did the judge think it was appropriate to let our pimps and pimpettes go for, well, nothing? Even if he (or she) thinks these actions are as heinous as I do, releasing them on unsecured bonds gives the illusion that sex trafficking is no big deal. And, well, it is.

Once again, the fate of a criminal has come down to a judge’s subjectivity. As our laws and legislation pick up the slack were our courts may fall off course, we can only hope that the jury isn’t nearly as lenient.

But let’s look at the bright side. Another prostitution ring has been busted. Let’s now extend some protection to the victims and offer them T-Visas to let them stay in the U.S., if they so choose. Slowly but surely, we’re busting down the doors of pimps and traffickers. Now let’s give these predators the punishments they deserve.