RIGHTS: US Congress Moves to Fight Human Trafficking

By Jim Lobe Reprint | | Print |

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, May 11 2000 (IPS) - The US House of Representatives, tackling a growing problem that has already caught the attention of US intelligence agencies, has approved a new bill designed to punish and prevent trafficking of women and children by international crime syndicates.

In a voice vote taken without opposition, the lower house passed the Trafficking Victim’s Protection Act (TVPA), which toughens penalties for those convicted of human trafficking and provides safe haven and support for victims who are brought to this country by traffickers.

It also bans non-humanitarian aid to foreign governments which tolerate or condone trafficking and provides for public- information programmes in victims’ home communities so that other women and children who are forced or induced to leave home in hopes of finding work abroad learn about the risks and dangers of trafficking.

.”Every year, millions of women and children are trafficked into modern-day slavery around world, and many are forced coerced, or fraudulently thrust into the international sex trade industry with no way out,” said Republican Rep. Chris Smith, the chief TVPA sponsor. “This legislation will put these offenders behind bars while protecting the victim,” he added.

“It is intolerable that at the beginning of the 21st century, people are still being sold into modern-day slavery,” noted Rep. Sam Gejdenson, the bill’s chief Democratic sponsor. “This bill seeks not only to address the effects of this problem in the United States, but also its root causes – the economic conditions which continue to imperil the lives of vulnerable women and children.”

The measure was backed by an extraordinarily broad range of groups, from the Christian Right Family Research Council to Equality Now, a progressive feminist campaign. Lawmakers who are usually bitterly opposed to each other on population issues found themselves united on this initiative.

As many as two million people, primarily women and children, cross national borders each year in search of what they believe is legitimate work, but which turns out to be a form of virtual slavery or indentured servitude to employers who use them as prostitutes or in hard labour.

Of that total, some 50,000 such people are brought to the United States each year, mostly from Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Mexico, and Asia, according to a recent study by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which recently concluded that human trafficking has become the fastest-growing source of profits for organised criminal enterprises around the world.

The study, “International Trafficking in Women to the United States: A Contemporary Manifestation of Slavery,” cites examples of women coming to the United States in response to ads for au pair, sales clerk, secretarial or waitress jobs, but once here, finding that they have been taken prisoner and forced into prostitution or indentured servitude.

The CIA study cited, among other examples, cases of Latvian women brought to Chicago where they were forced to dance naked in private clubs; and Mexican women, including girls as young as 14, brought here on the promise of house-keeping or child-care jobs and sold directly to brothels.

If they resist, they are often threatened with bodily harm, even death, or they are told that their families back home will be harmed. If they still do not co-operate, they are beaten and often raped, according to the study and testimony provided to the House International Relations Committee by expert witnesses and victims over the past several months.

“Trafficking is a form of torture,” said Laura Lederer of the Protection Project, a leader in the fight to get the bill enacted.

Still others are brought here as indentured servants in sweatshops or in households. The public was shocked in 1995 when 72 Thai workers were discovered in a town near Los Angeles where they were forced to work 20 hours a day for 69 cents an hour in a compound ringed by razor wire fencing to prevent their escape.

In another case cited by the CIA, a Nigerian smuggling ring charged parents as much as 12,000 dollars to bring their children to New York to gain a better education. Once arrived, however, the children were forced to work as domestics.

Moreover, trafficking is growing both in the United States and worldwide, according to the report, which singled out Thailand, Vietnam, China, Mexico, Russia, and the Czech Republic as the major sources for traffickers who deliver to the United States.

The study, however, found that US justice and immigration system were ill-equipped to deal with the challenges presented by trafficking in part because of confusion over jurisdiction, the difficulty in investigating cases, and the light penalties – maximum penalties now do not exceed 10 years in prison – handed out to traffickers or employers when they are discovered.

Worse, the victims – particularly those compelled to work in the sex industry – are most often immediately deported to their home countries where the economic conditions which propelled them into the hands of traffickers have not changed and where they cannot testify against the perpetrators.

The TVPA is a first attempt to rectify those problems. It provides for much tougher penalties for those engaged in trafficking or employing its victims. Maximum penalties will be doubled under the law to up to 20 years with the possibility of life imprisonment in cases where the offence results in death or involve kidnapping, aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill.

In addition, the bill provides that victims of severe forms of trafficking in the United States who are willing to co-operate with law-enforcement agencies would be eligible for both a new type of visa legalising their stay here and for benefits under certain federal programmes. Up to 5,000 such “T” visas could be granted each year.

“Until now, our laws have seemingly targeted the victims of trafficking instead of the perpetrators,” Gejdenson said Wednesday. “This bill will ensure better prosecution of traffickers and better protection for victims.”

In addition, the bill provides funding for programmes to increase public awareness of the dangers of trafficking in foreign communities where it is widespread and directs the US Agency for International Development to target the same communities for development projects as a means of deterring trafficking.