Human trafficking: Awareness and education are key to ending it

Human Trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labor, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others; a modern day form of slavery. It is a multi-billion dollar criminal industry that denies freedom to 20.9 million people around the world

And its happening outside our door.

An estimated 100,000 are trafficked annually for commercial sex in the United State with the most in California. According to the Polaris Project, no matter where you live, chances are it's happening nearby and there was a 24 percent increase of victims 2014-15. The average age of a trafficked child is 14-16-years old, and while most of the victims are female, there are also many males trafficked.

Trafficking isn't just about sex. There is also Labor Trafficking: 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, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.

There are no totals for victims in South Lake Tahoe, yet.

"We don't know a true number as so many people do not identify as a trafficked victim," said Jane Flavin, executive director at Live Violence Free. "As we put out the red flags, help with training and partner with different agencies we'll be able to help people be aware. Then, and only then can we start assessing our real situation."

This week in South Lake Tahoe there was an event hosted by the Partners Against Trafficking of Humans (PATH) which enlightened many in the audience of what trafficking is, how it affects youth around the world as well in Lake Tahoe and California. A non-profit formed in El Dorado Hills, 3 Strands Global, was there to speak and provide information. They were established after a local teen was trafficked so they now combat human trafficking through education, reintegration and engagement initiatives.They are empowering a global community to combat human trafficking through their growing network of government and law enforcement agencies, individuals, organizations, corporations and non-profits all working together.

Many who are trafficked don't realize that what is being done to them is wrong as they know no better.

"People aren't knowledgeable about these warning signs," said Flavin. "Self realization will help us tackle this."

South Lake Tahoe is unique in the battle against trafficking as multiple agencies have banded together in the fight: Live Violence Free, Tahoe Youth & Family Services, PATH, the FBI, El Dorado and Douglas County Sheriffs' Offices and the El Dorado County District Attorney's Office.

"Partnering will make us successful in helping us tackle this," said Flavin. "This is what is great about our city....coming together to rely on each other."

"We are strategically located between Sac Reno and Vegas routes where human trafficking victims pass through," said South Lake Tahoe Police Lt. Shannon Laney. "We are in the process of developing a human trafficking task force with Live Violence Free, Douglas County Sheriff's Office, El Dorado County District Attorney and Sheriff's Office. All of our officers have been trained in human trafficking investigations as mandated by the State of California. And this is a growing issue."

Tactics of a Trafficker

Labor traffickers will promise fake jobs, transport the victims and take their passports and documents, drug and force victims to work, and keep them through debt bondage ("You owe me"). They trick or force someone to work for little or now pay. The victim works to repay a debt but will never be paid enough to repay the debt or get away. Common industries in the United State for labor trafficking are farms/agricultural, massage parlors, restaurants, nannying/housekeeping. Around the globe those jobs may include brick kilns, clothes factories, electronic production, fishing operations and coffee/tea plantations.

A new location for both sex and labor trafficking are on Californian marijuana farms. Teens are lured there, perhaps by a "boyfriend' and then once there, they are exploited.

Sex traffickers will lure victims through a relationship, groom a victim, threaten them with force and violence, use both physical and emotional abuse, and slowly strip away the victim's identity.

A trafficker will learn about, and then exploit, a victim's vulnerabilities. Youth in the biggest target area have life experiences that create a contest for them to be vulnerable: Homeless youth, foster youth, runaway youth, bullied youth, abused youth, LGBTQ youth and youth with a lack of support or supervision.

The internet is a way for both traffickers to recruit youth as well as to find clients for their trafficked youth.

Traffickers groom victims, sometimes for up to a year or so. The build relationships, become "Romeo boyfriends," become that person who "cares."

In some cases children have been used as payment for their parent(s) drugs.

Signs of a Trafficked Person

Facts from 3 Strands Global:
- More than 70 percent of the victims do not know they are trafficked.
- All children are vulnerable
- Forced labor is the largest form of human trafficking in the world.
- 65-95 percent of those trafficked were abused as a child.

When people are educated to the signs of a trafficked person, then there is hope to end this crime.

Did a person send the teen money for travel?
Where they persuaded by someone to run away?
Is a young person spending a lot of money on clothing or personal care?
Is a teen becoming closed off from friends and family?
Do they have an older (or secret) boyfriend?

From Polaris:

Common Work and Living Conditions: The individual(s) in question
Is not free to leave or come and go as he/she wishes
Is under 18 and is providing commercial sex acts
Is in the commercial sex industry and has a pimp / manager
Is unpaid, paid very little, or paid only through tips
Works excessively long and/or unusual hours
Is not allowed breaks or suffers under unusual restrictions at work
Owes a large debt and is unable to pay it off
Was recruited through false promises concerning the nature and conditions of his/her work
High security measures exist in the work and/or living locations (e.g. opaque windows, boarded up windows, bars on windows, barbed wire, security cameras, etc.)

Poor Mental Health or Abnormal Behavior
Is fearful, anxious, depressed, submissive, tense, or nervous/paranoid
Exhibits unusually fearful or anxious behavior after bringing up law enforcement
Avoids eye contact

Poor Physical Health
Lacks health care
Appears malnourished
Shows signs of physical and/or sexual abuse, physical restraint, confinement, or torture

Lack of Control
Has few or no personal possessions
Is not in control of his/her own money, no financial records, or bank account
Is not in control of his/her own identification documents (ID or passport)
Is not allowed or able to speak for themselves (a third party may insist on being present and/or translating)

Other
Claims of just visiting and inability to clarify where he/she is staying/address
Lack of knowledge of whereabouts and/or do not know what city he/she is in
Loss of sense of time
Has numerous inconsistencies in his/her story

Education

The biggest way to end the trafficking of humans is education of the public. This is done in South Lake Tahoe through PATH, Live Violence Free, 3 Strands in partnership with the South Lake Tahoe Police Department and Lake Tahoe Unified School District.

A community presentation by 3 Strands and SLT Police Chief Brian Uhler was given to the community two years ago in the South Tahoe Middle School. Since that time,
SB 1227 in California is known as the Human Trafficking Prevention Education and Training Act, passed in 2017.

3 Strands Global has created curriculum for 5th, 7th, 9th and 11th graders. While it isn't taught in all grades in South Lake Tahoe schools yet, it is being taught to South Tahoe High School freshmen as part of their health classes. 3 Strands has offered, for free, their four years of curriculum to LTUSD. This hasn't happened yet, bit almost a dozen SLT teachers will be taking the free training taught by 3 Strands Global on February 14.

"Following the community meeting, all freshmen at STHS were pulled from their PE classes to participate in presentations conducted by 3 Strands," said STHS Vice-Principal Justin Zunino. "Last school year, we followed suit in conducting a 2nd year of presentations for all freshmen. I’m currently working with 3 Strands and Cindy Archer (Chairperson of PATH) to do the same this spring. This year will be our 3rd year in working with 3 Strands at STHS to educate our students about this important topic."

The Polaris Project conducts a survey on their website and the following are some of its questions (to take the whole survey, visit http://polarisproject.org/stories):

Which was NOT one of the top three reported types of labor trafficking in the U.S. last year?
1. Traveling Sales Crews
2. Factories and Manufacturing
3. Domestic Work
4. Restaurants and Food Service

If you answered 2 you are correct. The other three were the top three types of labor trafficking reported to the National Hotline in 2016.

In order to effectively fight human trafficking, it’s necessary to understand what type of trafficking is happening in your community.

True or False

True: Breaking up human trafficking into types based on industry or business model allows those who are fighting trafficking to expose the unique vulnerabilities in different traffickers' operations and understand the ways that traffickers use legitimate businesses or operations.

Which type of sex trafficking is the most frequently reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline in the U.S.?

1. Escort Services
2. outdoor Solicitation
3. Residential
4. Illicit Massage, Health & Beauty

The answer: Number 1. Nearly 5,000 cases of sex trafficking have been reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline that involve selling victims for commercial sex at temporary locations (frequently motels and hotels).

People who are trafficked may work out in the open at restaurants, hotels and massage parlors, or in businesses underground such as residential brothels and illegal drug distributions.

One may ask, so why don't the victims just leave? It's not that easy. The trafficker will hold them captive because of:
- Threat of violence against family
- Restrictions on freedom of movement: traffickers remove passport/identity documents
- Fear of authorities: trafficked person scared of being imprisoned or deported
- Debt bondage: trafficked person owes money to trafficker or his/her family
Isolation: trafficked person does not know the language of country or how to get around
- Emotional attachment: trafficked person may have emotional attachment to trafficker (boyfriend or only person feeding them).

Superbowl weekend has the highest rate of sex trafficking in the country. To bring awareness and hopefully save a victim, members of Tahoe Activist Artists (creators of the poster in this story) will be distributing copies of the flyer in the restrooms of Stateline casinos. More than 30 volunteers distributed the four posted they created: One aimed at perpetrators / men paying for sex; One aimed at victims who may be in the grooming process, or trying to escape; Two aimed at educating the public, with the hope that they will recognize the signs of sex trafficked individuals and reach out to help them. Every poster prominently features the national helpline number.

That helpline is 888-373-7388 or text 'HELP' to BeFree (233733).

If you see something, say something.

Penalties

Penalties are severe for those caught trafficking in labor or sex. Fines are up to $1.5 million and jail time is 5-12 years. If the sex trafficked victim is under 18 the trafficker could spend the rest of their lives in prison.

According to Ashlie Bryant, Co-Founder and President of 3 Strands Global, of the 47 traffickers she interviewed at San Quentin Prison in California, 46 of them did not know the penalties.

Learn More

For more information on trafficking:

3 Strands Global - http://3strandsglobalfoundation.org
Polaris Project - https://polarisproject.org/
PATH - http://www.pathsouthtahoe.org
The Trafficked Human - http://thetraffickedhuman.org