Human Trafficking Training

Human trafficking is a modern-day form of slavery. Victims of this heinous crime are subjected to force, fraud, or coercion, for the purpose of sexual exploitation or forced labor. Victims are young children, teenagers, men and women. Approximately 600,000 to 800,000 victims annually are trafficked across international borders worldwide, and between 14,500 and 17,500 of those victims are trafficked into the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of State. Sheriff Wendell Hall has recently sent members of the Santa Rosa Sheriff's Office through this training on how to recognize and deal with such cases. By 2008 all law enforcement officers will be required to attend this same training.

Reason for the Training?

It's a modern day form of slavery

Restaurants-Hotels-Strip Clubs-Construction- Agriculture-Resorts-Massage Parlors

What do all of the above have in common? They may be places where human trafficking occurs, hidden in plain sight. Human trafficking is a modern-day form of slavery. Victims of this heinous crime are subjected to force, fraud, or coercion, for the purpose of sexual exploitation or forced labor. Victims are young children, teenagers, men and women. Approximately 600,000 to 800,000 victims annually are trafficked across international borders worldwide, and between 14,500 and 17,500 of those victims are trafficked into the U.S. , according to the U.S. Department of State.

Victims are generally trafficked into the U.S. from Central and South America, Asia, and Eastern Europe. Many do not speak and understand English and are therefore isolated and unable to communicate with service providers, law enforcement and others, who might be able to help them.

Many victims are lured by false offers that induce people into trafficking situations. Women and children are lured by advertisements promising jobs as waitresses, maids, and dancers in other countries, but are then trafficked for purposes of prostitution, once they arrive at their destinations. They may be exploited not only for prostitution, but also for stripping, pornography and live-sex shows. Many wind up in sweatshop factories or domestic servitude. Men and boys are often lured in with a promise of a job as a migrant agricultural worker or other form of domestic servitude.

Traffickers use force, fraud and coercion to compel men, women and children to engage in these activities. Rape, beatings and confinement are used to control victims. Forceful violence is used to breakdown a victim's resistance to make them easier to control. Coercion in terms of threats of serious harm or physical restraint of a person is used to make a person believe that failure to perform an act would result in serious consequences. Even debt bondage comes into play in terms of the victims having to pay off transportation fees into the destination countries. Victims are also threatened with the loss of their travel documents and threats to their family members back in their homeland. They often face punishment if they fail to meet daily quotas of service or exhibit "bad" behavior. Victims become trapped into a world where a cry for help is rarely heard or heeded by anyone. It is often difficult for victims to find help because of the social, physical and language barriers that they face.

Human trafficking is not smuggling. Smuggling involves the importation of people into the U.S. involving deliberate evasion of immigration laws. This offense includes bringing illegal aliens into the U.S., as well as the unlawful transportation and harboring of aliens already in the United States. Smuggling is transportation based. Trafficking entails commercial sex induced by force, fraud or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such acts has not attained the age of 18. It also deals with the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, debt bondage or slavery. Some victims may come into the country illegally, but many are U.S. citizens.

Until the year 2000, no comprehensive Federal law existed to protect victims of trafficking or to prosecute their traffickers. Now the TVPA Act of 2000 protects victims and provides Federal and state assistance to certain victims so they can rebuild their lives in the U.S.

Law enforcement, at all levels, needs your help in fighting this heinous crime. The citizenry at-large are the eyes and ears for law enforcement. If you think you have come in contact with a victim of human trafficking, call the Trafficking Information and Referral Hotline at 1-888-373-7888. For more information on this subject visit www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking.

** Excerpts taken from material provided by the Florida Coalition against Human Trafficking