Human Trafficking in  [USA]  [other countries]
Street Children in  [USA]  [other countries]
Child Prostitution in  [USA]  [other countries]
 

Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery

The United States of America (USA)                                       [ Country-by-Country Reports ]

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency estimates that 50,000 people are trafficked into or transited through the U.S.A. annually as sex slaves, domestics, garment, and agricultural slaves. [map]

The United States (U.S.) is a destination country for thousands of men, women, and children trafficked largely from East Asia, Mexico, and Central America for the purposes of sexual and labor exploitation. A majority of foreign victims identified during the year were victims of trafficking for forced labor. Some men and women, responding to fraudulent offers of employment in the United States, migrate willingly—legally and illegally—but are subsequently subjected to conditions of involuntary servitude or debt bondage at work sites or in the commercial sex trade. An unknown number of American citizens and legal residents are trafficked within the country primarily for sexual servitude and, to a lesser extent, forced labor.

The U.S. Government (USG) in 2007 continued to advance the goal of eradicating human trafficking in the United States. This coordinated effort includes several federal agencies and approximately $23 million in Fiscal Year (FY) 2007 for domestic programs to boost anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts, identify and protect victims of trafficking, and raise awareness of trafficking as a means of preventing new incidents.Adapted from U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2008   [more]

 

 

CAUTION:  The following links have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in the USA.  Some of these links may lead to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false.  No attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content.

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Hotline Launched To Report Human Trafficking - 866-347-2423

Human trafficking cases increase in El Paso

Gardes showed the photograph of a field worker standing on top of a large farm truck -- a scene common across the Southwest. His name is Ricardo, she said. He was smuggled across the border in Arizona and abandoned in the desert for eight days with only three days' worth of food and water. He was found by another smuggler who offered to guide him, for a fee. When Ricardo couldn't pay, the smuggler sold him to a Florida labor contractor for $1,100.  This became Ricardo's debt. He worked in a field for $80 a week to repay it. At the same time, his trafficker overcharged him for rent and other necessities. Gardes said he was never meant to be able to repay the debt.  One day, another trafficking victim escaped, was recaptured and was beaten in front of Ricardo and the others. "At this point, Ricardo realized this was really slavery," Gardes said.

Sexual Slavery in Southern California Today?

She was a teenage girl from an impoverished village in Bangladesh. The American couple offered her transport to America and a better life: a nice job as their nanny and housekeeper, wages and opportunity. The dream offer dissolved into a nightmare as soon as she reached sunny Southern California. The couple informed her she owed them a huge sum for bringing her into the country and forced her to work without wages for years in their home, where she was repeatedly raped and beaten by the husband and abused by the wife. After three failed attempts, and with the help of good Samaritans, she finally escaped.

Runaway raped, held as sex slave [

Since September, the 15-year-old girl had been raped repeatedly, threatened with death and sold for sex over the Internet, police said.  Her captors hid the runaway in a hollowed-out box spring covered with a piece of wood and tucked underneath a bed in a small apartment complex adjacent to Interstate 17 in west Phoenix.

Gov't Effort to Stem Human Trafficking Helps Very Few

But what the ads don't mention is, in order to take advantage of these benefits, victims must first agree to cooperate in the criminal Investigations of their abusers. This is not a viable option for most.  Those who cooperate may face retaliation from their exploiters or risk harm to their loved ones in their homelands. For example, a Thai domestic worker who has agreed to testify against her abuser may want to bring her two children from Thailand to safety before the abuser is released from jail. He often threatened to have them killed if she were to ever seek help.  Victims who come forward must also go through the arduous task of proving themselves survivors of "a severe form of trafficking." And they must demonstrate they would face extreme hardship if returned to their home country.

 

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Hotline Launched To Report Human Trafficking - 866-347-2423

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) TIPLINE at 866-347-2423

Indian workers' struggle shines light on human trafficking, slave labor

The plight of immigrant Indian workers who were deceived into virtual slavery has brought attention to the vile practice of human trafficking.  Indian workers protest slave-like conditions before the Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., June 11.  The workers took jobs with Signal International to work on the U.S. Gulf Coast following the devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The Indian workers were told they would receive "green cards," allowing them permanent legal residence in the United States. Many who left their families behind in search of better wages had been told they would be able to bring their relatives.  The promises were all lies. Instead of receiving permanent legal status, the workers—who had paid fees of up to $20,000 to Signal—received 10-month H-2B temporary worker visas.  The workers were essentially trapped, and their employers knew it. Their documents were stolen and wages were withheld. For all practical purposes, slavery had returned to Louisiana.

Modern slavery global scourge, speakers tell CBF supporters

The woman came over from China expecting love, marriage and a better life, according to a speaker on human trafficking June 19, during a workshop session at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly in Memphis, Tenn.  But she wasn’t allowed to leave her house for three years.  Her husband was the only one who ever told her she was beautiful and loved, said Paul Lange, executive director of Oasis USA. She had a twisted loyalty; at times she felt loved and dedicated to her husband, but most days he abused her.  He seized her documents so she couldn’t leave, Lange said. Instead of the freedom she sought, she became a captive in her own house.

Researchers Issue Report on Human Trafficking

A team of researchers at Northeastern University’s Institute on Race and Justice, in collaboration with Arizona State University and Sam Houston State University, has issued a report about the incidence of and response to human trafficking in the United States. Lead by principal investigators Assistant Professor Amy Farrell, Ph.D., and Associate Dean Jack McDevitt, the researchers conducted a random survey of law enforcement agencies throughout the United States to better understand how agencies identify and respond to suspected cases of human trafficking. Previous research has provided limited information on human trafficking cases, from specific jurisdictions, while this survey provides the first comprehensive national look at how local, state and county law enforcement agencies respond to human trafficking.

The report, entitled “Understanding and Improving Law Enforcement Responses to Human Trafficking,” was made possible by a grant from the National Institute of Justice and is now available online … Full Report [PDF] … Executive Summary [PDF]

Fulton judge, deputy son charged with human trafficking

A former Fulton County magistrate judge, his Forsyth County Sheriff's deputy son and the deputy's wife have all been charged with human trafficking, among other charges, for their part in allegedly forcing an Indian nanny to work without pay in their Woodstock home beginning in 2003.  The suit also alleges they then used their influence to hassle her after she escaped with the help of a neighbor.

The charges against the three allege the Garretts later stopped paying the victim for her work as a nanny, significantly curtailed her freedom and ability to leave their home, and threatened to malign her to her family in India if she did not work for them.  The woman was reportedly forced to work more than 16 hours a day, every day, under a barrage of insults, intimidation and threats of jail and deportation. With the assistance of a neighbor, the victim escaped the Garretts' home, said Nahmias. 

In addition, the indictment alleges that after the victim escaped, the Garretts falsely accused her of theft to local authorities, reported her illegal status to federal authorities and falsely accused her of engaging in terrorism-related activities to the Department of Homeland Security.

One woman who operates a shelter in northwest MO speaks out

"We have dealt with many cases where as the girls are brought in as mail-order brides, when they got here basically they were used for prostitution and pornographic purposes," said Cheryl Leffler, who operates a women's shelter in northwest Missouri for more then 10 years.

"They usually start with just written correspondence with them, and after they have pretended to be the perfect person they get the girls to trust them," said Leffler.  Traffickers promise the world to potential victims and pay for their plane ticket to Kansas City. Traffickers then take them to their home, where the horrific experience begins.  "They had been traumatized. Their first sexual experience had basically been brutally raping them to get them under control," states Leffler, "'This is what's going to happen to you if you don't do what I tell you.' They thoroughly believe these guys will kill them."

Grand Jury Indicts Human Trafficking Suspect

Police say Walker lured two women to Lexington then forced them to work at a strip club then took their money.  The women also say Walker tried to keep them from leaving.

Man Sentenced for Human Trafficking and Alien Smuggling

Corea lured young Central American women to the United States with promises of good jobs. However, once the young women arrived, they were forced to work in the bars and cantinas of the defendant and co-defendants selling high-priced drinks to male customers. The women were subjected to numerous threats of harm to themselves and family members in order to compel their servitude, and some suffered sexual assaults at the hands of the defendant and his co-defendants.

Former Human Trafficking Victim Speaks Out

HAWAII - This young Tongan named Francis came here in 2001, Lueleni Maka promised him $240 a week. He was paid only $20.  "I ask him about the rest of my money. Said he sent em back to my family, so I called my parents and they said they never get nothing from him," said former victim Francis.

Maka told Francis he would turn him into immigration if he tried to escape the pig farm he stayed at.  "He make me afraid of him. He hit me a couple of times. yeah. metal frames, I get scars on my back from him. Get guys they worse than me. He beat 'em up till blood coming out their mouth and nose. it's very sad. We cannot do nothing. we so scared of him," Francis said.

Sentences given in human trafficking plot

Members of a human trafficking ring have been sentenced for a conspiracy to smuggle Central American women into the United States and keep them in forced labor.  Eight defendants were convicted in Houston in connection with a scheme to force the women to work in restaurants, bars and cantinas in the Houston area. The defendants were accused of planning to use threats of harm to the victims and their families to keep them from escaping before they paid off their smuggling debts.

How an eastern Iowa teen prostitution, human trafficking ring took root

In the basement of an ordinary-looking Williamsburg home, the 13-year-old girl was given a choice. Either she would have sex with two men nearly twice her age or she would be given back to her kidnapper.  Already in the week since Demont Bowie told the suburban Minneapolis girl she belonged to him, he'd beaten and abused her, starved her and deprived her of sleep. He traded her body to his friends and even a mechanic. When Demont told her to do something to someone, she did. There was no refusing. He'd said he'd kill her, kill her family, if she tried to leave. - htcp

3 Arrested On Suspicion Of Human Trafficking

According to the complaints, the victims were forced to work nearly 24 hours a day and were advised that it would be necessary for them to work for several years while they repaid their "travel debt."  The victims allegedly were threatened, and their passports were kept from them.

Sex victim gives voice to problem

At 15, Theresa Flores was a self-described "blond, white girl" from an upper-class Detroit suburb and went out on date with a boy she knew from school. That night she was attacked and raped as the boy’s cousins took photos.  It was the beginning of an agonizing two years for Flores. Her attackers - members of a gang - blackmailed her with the threat of revealing the photos and forced her to become a sex slave. Fearing for her life, she escaped only after her family moved from the state, taking her with them.  "You don’t think that it happens here" in the suburbs, "and until it hits you between the eyes, you don’t realize it," she said. "But it can happen to anybody."

Human trafficking steps from the shadows

Describing herself as "a nice Catholic girl who lived in a large, suburban house" near Detroit during her teenage years, she said she was targeted by traffickers, drugged, and date-raped at the age of 15 - "I was just a kid," she said - and then blackmailed and forced to work as a prostitute "for two long years."

"They said they would kill me and my family and my dog if I didn't do what they said," reported Flores, adding that she was "beaten into silence every night" by her captors. Throughout her ordeal, she said, she was permitted to live at home, sneaking out every night to turn tricks, and then returning home and going to school the next day. Once, she said, she was kidnapped, taken to inner-city Detroit, and "tortured for hours and hours and left for dead" before being returned to her emotionally absent parents by an unsympathetic police officer. Only when her father moved the family to another city after a job transfer, she said, did she finally break with her captors.

Indian Workers Accuse Signal International Of "Human Trafficking"

They talk of living "like pigs in a cage" in a company-run "work camp."  "I've been a guest worker all my life. I've never seen these kinds of conditions," said the interpreter, "We lived 24 people to a room. And for this, the company deducted $1,050 a month from our paychecks."

Man Pleads Guilty In 'Kennel Case' Rape

The accused ringleader behind a horrific 2005 kidnapping and rape case pleaded guilty on Friday to six charges after admitting his role, Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas said.

The 15-year-old victim was kidnapped, gang raped and during her 42-day captivity, forced to engage in acts of prostitution, Thomas said. She was mostly confined to a dog kennel, Thomas said.

Website Content Calls for Action to Combat Human Trafficking

That reality hit home for one Chicago area family when their 17-year-old daughter was abducted and forced into prostitution. It would be seven years before she was found.  The teenager had decided to delay her college plans and answered an advertisement seeking a nanny, recalls Ruth Hill, executive minister of Women Ministries, who knows one of the girl’s cousins. The girl was kidnapped as soon as she arrived at the home for the job interview.  Five years later, the girl was able to slip out a postcard saying she was being held at a bar in Cincinnati, but her captors had moved her by the time law enforcement arrived. It would be another two years before the FBI found her - addicted to heroin and pregnant.

Georgia Man Sentenced to 15 Years on Sex Trafficking and Mann Act Charges

"Defendant Jones' sentence sends a clear message that those who traffic in people will be harshly punished," said U.S. Attorney David E. Nahmias.  "Defendant Jones preyed on numerous young American women who fell for his fraudulent 'modeling' scheme, signed contracts in which they owed the defendant money, then were forced and coerced into prostitution to pay back the contracts. The case broke when two victims were brave enough to come forward and report Jones' crimes to APD, whose human trafficking task force worked closely with the FBI in bringing justice to the victims."

Numerous victims were on hand for the sentencing and testified that Jones caused them to engage in sex acts, including oral sex and vaginal intercourse, with himself and others, by striking them and threatening to beat them. One victim submitted her statement to the court, outlining the abuse she suffered at the hands of Jones and stating that Jones was "a cruel and manipulative man whose life revolved around the sexual,emotional, physical and psychological exploitation of young women." She stated that her life was devastated and that she even considered suicide on more than one occasion to escape Jones' brutality.

Brothel/human trafficking operation discovered in Tumon  [Guam]

Officers went to the Blue Room in Upper Tumon where they found a mini-brothel. Police believe the girls were brought over from Chuuk, under false pretenses that they would be working at a restaurant. Instead, they would be forced to work in the brothel, as their passports were allegedly withheld by the owners of the establishment, who are Korean.

Three get max sentences for roles in human trafficking ring

A federal judge in Trenton today sentenced three people to the maximum sentences allowed for their role in a human trafficking ring that smuggled young women from Honduras and forced them into indentured servitude working in Hudson County bars.

The Rosales-Martinez sisters admitted they helped oversee dozens of illegal Hondurans who were forced to work six days a week and live in cramped Hudson County apartments until they could repay smuggling fees as high as $20,000.  The immigrants earned $5 an hour, plus tips, by dancing and drinking with male patrons at bars in Union City and Guttenberg. One ring member said the girls were encouraged to prostitute themselves; another said they were beaten if they ignored the house rules.  Another told agents she was forced to ingest abortion pills after ringleaders learned she was pregnant. The baby was born in a toilet and died.

A Tennessee man is in jail in Lexington, after being charged with human trafficking

45-year-old Calvin Walker was arrested yesterday morning at the Catalina Motel and charged with two counts of human trafficking for allegedly forcing two women to work at a local strip club, then taking their money.

The women say he lured them here from Tennessee, then when they tried to leave, he took their identification and their money.

Four Accused Of Human Trafficking, Prostitution

Federal agents conducted early morning raids at four massage parlors and accupressure locations the government says were fronts for prostitution and human trafficking.  U.S. Attorney Terry Flynn says the four suspects charged large amounts of money to women in Asia who wanted to come to the United States. The women were forced to pay back the fees by performing sex for money inside those spas, says Flynn.

Human trafficking more common in Ca.

California is the top destination in the U.S. for people who force women and girls into hard labor and sex trade. U.C. Berkeley researchers found 57 forced labor operations over a five year period, in about a dozen California cities, involving more than 500 people from 18 countries.

Sex slaves, human trafficking ... in America?

In spring of 2004, Katya (not her real name), like thousands of other foreign exchange university students, was looking forward to the summer job placement that she and a friend had received in Virginia Beach, Va. When she and her friend Lena arrived at Dulles Airport after a long flight from Ukraine, they were relieved to be met by fellow countrymen who spoke Russian.

“When we got to the hotel in Detroit, everything changed,” says Katya. “They closed the door and sat us down on the couch, took our passports and papers and said, ‘You owe us big money for bringing you here.’ They gave us strip clothes and told us that we were going to be working at a strip club called Cheetahs.”

Georgia Wrestler Forced Women In Sexual Servitude

In addition to forcing the victims to work as prostitutes, Norris made the women work in and around his two homes in Cartersville. Witnesses testified that Norris required the victims to haul trees, lay sod, and paint. The evidence at trial further established that Norris set strict rules and fined the women for such infractions as talking too much or failing to exercise. In addition, he kept the women financially indebted to him by charging them for food, medicine, and cigarettes. Norris then told the victims that they could not leave until their debts were paid, all the while continuing to increase the debt he claimed he was owed.

Human trafficking often below radar in Columbus

Human-trafficking cases in Columbus are rare, but when they occur, they aren't likely to be reported to law-enforcement agencies.

"In four of the five labor-trafficking cases, service providers indicated that, although they knew whom in law enforcement to contact about trafficking victims, they could not take the chance that the disclosure could lead to negative consequences for their clients," researchers wrote in their report, released last month.  Language barriers and the fear of arrest and deportation were among the reasons that human-trafficking cases go unreported, the study found.  "For the undocumented, the overriding concern is about immigration status," said Angie Plummer, executive director of the Community Refugee and Immigration Service, one of the groups interviewed by researchers.  "There is a reluctance to present victims to officials who have the right and ability to turn them over to (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)."

Human Trafficking

"Sue" says she ran away from a foster home at 13. She met a man in his 40's who promised her free rent, meals and a job. After a few months, "Sue" says things changed, drastically.   "He started beating me with sticks, poles, knives, hammers. It really got out of control. So besides fighting the street you had to fight this non-human.  i was told, if we left, he was gonna hunt us down, and, you know, kill us."

"Sara" says the traffickers who held her poured gasoline on her while they held a match. "They kicked and stomped on me. They dragged me by the hair. Fifteen guys circled me and stomped on me."

Ukraine woman forced to dance at strip club testifies in D.C.

Lured from the Ukraine with the promise of a student visa, the young woman believed she was headed to the U.S. to study and to Virginia Beach to work as a waitress -- not to Detroit, where she was forced to dance at a strip club.  Using the alias "Katya" to protect herself, the 22-year-old woman spoke publicly for the first time today, describing to a congressional panel how she was forced to work at the Detroit club for months until she and another young woman escaped with the help of one of the patrons of the club.  "They forced me to work six days a week for 12 hours a day," she said of the men who made her work at Cheetah's in Detroit. "I could not refuse to go to work or I would be beaten." While she was forced to dance at the strip club, she said she was not made to be a prostitute.

Houston major hub for human trafficking

The picture, with its implicit threat, was all it took.  It was taken just before Christmas 2004. She had been thinking about running away from the windowless bar on Houston's northwest side, where he kept her and other women, forcing some of them into prostitution while they paid off their "debts."

But Maximino "Chimino" Mondragon knew of her plans.  Carrying a camera and Christmas presents for the woman's daughter, he had appeared unannounced at her family's home in El Salvador. The woman, who was not identified by authorities, told investigators that Mondragon had talked his way into the home by saying the gifts were from her.  "By the way," Mondragon reportedly asked her parents, "would you mind taking a photo of me with the little girl?"  There were no more plans of escaping.

With similar threats, Mondragon and a network of family members and associates operated one of the largest human trafficking rings in U.S. history in which as many as 120 women were held captive and coerced to work off their smuggling debts. Some of the women were raped and forced to have abortions.

Slavery in my backyard and a thousand points of light

(At the lecture) Coonan also said that it’s happening within the Chinese community as well, with traffickers promising young women a better life in America. According to Coonan, in nearby Quincy, a Chinese restaurant has Hispanic women working there and living in a small shed behind the restaurant. Many of these restaurants also have their employees living in the kitchen after hours as well.

“I think the most shocking thing is that everything is close to home,” said Danielle May, who attended the lecture. “This is not something that you see on the international news being in Cambodia, or Thailand. This issue is happening at home. I think it’s scary. Quincy is 45 minutes away and people are being enslaved. This is shocking that this is 2007 and slavery is still going on.”

Md. Cracks Down On Human Trafficking

One who escaped told her story with the condition that she not be identified.  "We were kept in one room, me and my daughters," said the woman.  Their passports taken, her children were forced to work in the home without pay while she worked on the outside.  "We've had a number of significant cases in the Washington suburbs, mostly women, who have been held in basements doing labor at no charge. Domestic labor," said Rod Rosenstein, U.S. Attorney for Maryland.

A Modern Slavery

It took 12 years for Martina Okeke to break free. After moving from Nigeria to New York in 1988, she cooked, cleaned and took care of a Staten Island couple's children on the promise of a $300 monthly wage and tuition help for her kids back home. She never received a penny.  Friends from Okeke's church finally convinced her to leave the family, but she refused to report them to the authorities. "I did not want to have a bad name," she told a reporter from the New York Times.

In June 2001, two Indonesian women, who paid $3,000 each for a falsified visa, airline tickets from Jakarta and the promise of a well-paying restaurant job in New York, escaped from a Brooklyn brothel. They had arrived in New York only to find that their "debt" had increased to $30,000. The men waiting for them at the airport also threatened to kill them if they refused to work as prostitutes, according to the Brooklyn Rail.

Cary's Neo-China accused of 'human trafficking'

According to a lawsuit filed in Wake County court, Neo-China's parent company, Freshco Inc., sponsored Amu Zheng and his wife and son to come to the United States in 2001. Under immigration law, employers can sponsor someone for a green card if they can offer a full-time position. Once in the country, Zheng alleges, Neo-China's owner Diana Yu and manager Chris Chang told Zheng and his family that they had to work at the restaurant "at whatever terms they imposed"—more than 90 hours a week at less than minimum wage.

Antipoopoo's (FMW'S) Backyard

HUMAN TRAFFICKING: A MILLION-DOLLAR INDUSTRY IN DESTIN - She was 19, petite and brunette.  She was from Eastern Europe and had been in the United States for less than a month.  Promised a job as a housekeeper at a hotel or condominium in Okaloosa County, she instead found herself stripping at a local topless bar.  She had to borrow a costume and when she hit the dance floor, she moved without rhythm or style, as if her body and her mind were in two different places.  This isn’t what she came to the United States to do.

Man Sentenced On Child Prostitution Charge

A man was sentenced to five years in prison Friday in a case where federal prosecutors have said a child was essentially bought and sold for crack cocaine

Prosecutors said Geiler took a 17-year-old girl to Gray's house in January. He told Gray the girl owed him money, and he left her with Gray so she could work as a prostitute to pay off her debt.  They say Gray ultimately let the girl leave with another person who promised him crack.

Three charged in hair salon human trafficking ring

The women lived in crowded apartments rented by the alleged ringleaders in Newark and East Orange, sleeping 8-10 to an apartment and sleeping on tattered mattresses on the floor, Manifase said. Victims told investigators their travel documents were taken from them and they were threatened with return to Africa if they objected to working without pay, authorities said.

Man Pleads Guilty as Trial is About to Begin on Federal Sex Trafficking and Mann Act Charges

Wan J. Kim, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights; David E. Nahmias, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia; Gregory Jones, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Richard Pennington, Chief, Atlanta Police Department, today announced that Jimmie Lee Jones, also known as "Mike Spade," 31, of Stone Mountain, Georgia, pleaded guilty yesterday to federal charges of conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking and transporting young women across state lines for purposes of prostitution.  Just after his trial began, Jones admitted to U.S. District Court Judge William S. Duffey, Jr. that he had lured and coerced eight young women -- including two juveniles -- into prostitution.

"The defendant in this case took advantage of numerous young women by enticing them with promises of modeling contracts and then using force, threats, and coercion to force them to work as prostitutes," said Assistant Attorney General Wan J. Kim.

AMW Fugitive Data File For Maribel Rodriguez Vasquez

BOGUS JOB OFFER ENTICES GUATEMALAN GIRL TO U.S. - Jane Doe told authorities that after a month of working as a babysitter, Vasquez turned the tables and began forcing her into a life of prostitution.  According to Doe, when she refused to become a sex slave, Vasquez threatened to kill the family she left behind in Guatemala.  Doe also recalled that Vasquez forced her to see a so-called witch doctor who cast spells and foretold bad fortune if she ever tried to escape or told anyone about the prostitution ring.

RP diplomat: No human trafficking in case filed by maid

According to the Associated Press, under the plea, Reyes must pay Gado about $78,000 to make up the difference between what she was paid and what she was supposed to get under her contract.  Gado had claimed she was promised $8 per hour for a 40-hour workweek and $12 an hour for overtime, but was paid $250 a month, pay that was increased to $325 in July 2006 when she was required to begin caring for the Reyeses’ infant granddaughter.

'Slave trade' growth prompts action in FW

The International Chiefs of Police Association delves into the secret world of human trafficking; and one officer has managed to breach te walls and delve into that world. He is one of few who work in the new Fort Worth Anti-Human Trafficking Division.

"You can buy a human being out on the street for $90 and put him to work as a slave," the undercover said.  Women, men, boys and girls are forced into prostitution. Some can end up having sex with different men every 15 minutes while others are purchased to work on farms or restaurants for little to no money.

"Some of them are put to sleep in garages," the officer said. "They're locked up in closets. They're being fed very minimal. Especially, the females are being verbally abused, physically abused."

US hands Lithuanian 7-year-sentence for human trafficking

Michail Aronov, 34, and his business partners "smuggled women into the United States and compelled them through threats and coercion to work as dancers in strip clubs, holding them in a condition of involuntary servitude," the department said in a statement.  The human trafficking network used the guise of a legitimate business, Beauty Search Inc., to cover their criminal conduct, it added.

"These criminals preyed upon the hopes and dreams of women who came to the US for a better life, but found only enslavement, exploitation, violence and isolation," special agent in charge of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office of investigations in Detroit said in the statement.

Blacks enslaving blacks in 2008

[mssg #81]  Elizabeth, 54, was meted a three-year jail term by the U.S. court after pleading guilty to a charge of forced labor.  The judge noted that Ruiz was made to sleep on a dog bed and work 18 hours a day.  Too, while she cleaned and provided fresh food to the pets of the Jacksons, she was only given three-day old food for her meals.  After working several months for the Jacksons, Ruiz only got $300 as payment and was even threatened by the Jacksons that she would be turned over to the immigration authorities should she try to leave them.

Christian Medical Association Doctors: U.S. Government Must Link AIDS, Anti-Trafficking Efforts

Highlighting a just-published study showing that sex slaves spread AIDS even after their rescue from human trafficking overlords and pimps, the nation's largest faith-based association of doctors today called for more concerted U.S. government action related to the link between AIDS and human trafficking.

Dr. Barrows said, "Health officials have just begun to recognize this link, and stronger emphasis is needed. Interventions aimed at eradicating sex trafficking, rescuing and restoring sex-trafficked victims, and preventing future sex trafficking need to be a more strongly emphasized strategy in the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and other AIDS-related programs. Anti-trafficking measures should be specifically and consistently emphasized in AIDS-related grant stipulations and proposal evaluations."

Enslaved in the U.S.A. - American victims need our help

President Bush made combating human trafficking a priority. Both Attorney Generals Ashcroft and Gonzales have spoken out against trafficking in the U.S. and made the investigation and prosecution of trafficking a priority. Most of the focus on identifying and assisting victims and prosecuting offenders has been on foreign nationals trafficked into the U.S.  There are more American citizens than foreign nationals victimized by sex traffickers in the U.S., yet there are no federally funded services for them, particularly if they are over age 17.

Company Accused Of Human Trafficking

Workers from Thailand say they've been made into economic slaves by the company that brought them to our area.  They're 20 men from Thailand who for the past year have picked mushrooms in Armstrong County.  They say they often did not get paid and now they must return home where they will face enormous debt.

Venture into an abandoned limestone mine in Armstrong County and you'll find hundreds of workers picking mushrooms in the dark.  It's tough work and not enough locals wanted the job so last year Creekside Mushrooms hired 20 legal guest workers from Thailand through a California company called Global Horizons.  Under the contract, Creekside paid Global but soon discovered that Global wasn't paying the workers for long stretches of time. Some nights, the men had to go fishing after work just to feed themselves.

"We made multiple phone calls to the president of the company who then chose not to return any of my calls or emails and the gentlemen just weren't getting paid," Domenic Galassi, an official with Creekside Mushroom, said.  And Galassi says their situation has become even more dire. He says each man paid upwards of $20,000 to a recruiter in Thailand to come to America on Global's promise of three years employment.

3 Arrested in Human Trafficking

Some factors taken into consideration to file criminal charges against these individuals included allegations of victims receiving rationed meals of limited quantity, the acrobat performers not being paid the salary they were promised, their passports and work visas being held from them, enforcers watching and controlling the movements of the performers, and a fear of the performers that their families in China, as well as themselves, would be harmed if they attempted to leave.

Nevada man sentenced to life in prison on charges related to the sex trafficking of minors

The evidence at trial showed that during the first two weeks of May 2005, Doss conspired with his wife, Jacquay Quinn Ford, to transport two girls across state lines to work as prostitutes. Doss and Ford transported the victims -- one 14 and one 16 -- from Nevada to work as prostitutes in Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco and Oakland. Doss recruited and transported the 16-year-old victim by the use of force.

Las Vegas Acrobatic Troupe Busted For Human Trafficking

On Friday, the FBI and Metro descended near Desert Inn and Grand Canyon. That's where authorities say they found four adults and five juveniles being held against their will.

State struggles with legal, moral aspects of human trafficking

"I saw the victims in the brothels," said state Rep. Joanne Giannini, recalling that many of the prostitutes were minors. "A lot of people think that it doesn't exist."  Giannini said when police have raided these facilities the women refused emergency social and medical services. "They are afraid of getting into trouble," she said.

According to Garry Bliss, director of policy and legislative affairs for Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline, efforts have been made to provide counseling and social services to the women, but they rejected them, fearing retribution from their captors – the owners of the establishments who reap big profits.

He believes most of the women to be in their 20s or 30s, and said some have probably been in this country for some time, being moved constantly from state to state. They are initially enslaved to pay off debts incurred in traveling to the United States. Often, they have come to this country assuming that they are to work as housekeepers or nannies.  "It's a hole that they can never dig themselves out of," Bliss said. "These women are not acting on their own free will."

Middle Tennessee sees rise in human trafficking

GIRLS LURED INTO SEX TRADE - As a result of November's arrests, Nashville resident Cristina Andres Perfecto pleaded guilty to two counts of commercial sex trafficking and admitted luring two Mexican girls to the United States by telling them they would be employed at a restaurant in Nashville.

Perfecto admitted she knew all along that the girls, who were 13 and 17, would be coerced to engage in prostitution in brothels in Memphis and Nashville. Perfecto said physical force and threats against the victims and their families were used to force the girls to engage in prostitution.

Woman Pleads Guilty to Human Trafficking Related Charges

Olga Mondragon is a 47-year-old El Salvadoran national.  She and her co-defendants conspired with others to smuggle female illegal aliens from Central America to Houston.  Once in Houston, Olga Mondragon, working with other co-defendants held the women and girls in a condition of servitude in bars owned by the conspirators until the women had paid their smuggling debts to the defendants.  The defendants used threats of harm to the women and their families to keep the women in a condition of servitude. Specifically, Olga Mondragon and her co-defendants threatened that the women's families or children would pay the consequences if any of the young women attempted to leave before paying their smuggling debts, including threats of kidnapping and threats to report the young women to dangerous co-conspirators who could have people killed or burn people's houses down.

Falling Short of the Mark: An International Study on the Treatment of Human Trafficking Victims [PDF]

UNITED STATES - The United States is complying with its international obligations under the Trafficking Protocol for the protection of victims of human trafficking. Increasing approval rates for victims seeking residency and support are encouraging signs that the system is working and not being abused. The integration of government and civil society support, which receives some government funding as well, has had encouraging results. There are some concerns about the needs of child victims which warrant attention, as well as the degree of pressure put on victims to cooperate with law enforcement officials.

RESIDENCE - Under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (.TVPA.)78 and Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (.TVPRA.),79 the U.S. Department of Homeland Security may issue .T-Visas. to allow victims of .severe forms of human trafficking. To remain in the country in order to provide assistance in federal investigations and prosecutions of those responsible for the harm they have suffered. After three years of having T-Visa status, victims may apply for permanent residency. Victims may, in some cases, also apply for non-immigrant status for their spouses and children; or, in the case of victims under 21 years old, their parents.

Details emerge in human trafficking case in San Antonio

How's $600 to buy what you'd like simply for accompanying men on trips? We can make it happen, al otro lado — on the other side.  That pitch allegedly made by a trio of women sounded like gold to some impressionable teens and a young woman not making much in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.  Three girls agreed to be smuggled to the United States in mid-May and once they were in or near San Antonio, they were primped, new clothes were bought for them and they were given English lessons. Their understanding was that they did not have to have sex with the men.

But rather than the glitz they were promised, they were sold in an underground world for prostitution, according to prosecutors and documents filed in federal court Friday.  The girls were delivered to a man in San Antonio referred to in court records as the "boss," who had them strip, inspected their bodies and told them they were going to be having sex with men for up to five years to pay off their smuggling debt.  The "boss" said he had paid $3,000 apiece for two of the girls and said he would pay even more to get them ready for other men, witnesses told investigators, according to their statements. Anyone who fled would die, and their families would also suffer the same fate, the statements said.  - HTUSAMX

Laws Block Trafficking; Sexual Terror Ignored

The report found that half of all states' laws now make trafficking a felony, nine state laws provide restitution to victims and 11 states enacted laws providing for victim protection. Many Midwestern states, including Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska, had additional laws such as those to regulate travel service providers that facilitate sex tourism.

Report Card on State Action to Combat International Trafficking [PDF]

Each state therefore received fi ve letter grades, one for each type of law — criminalization, victim protection and services, statewide interagency task force, regulation of international marriage brokers, and regulation of travel service providers that promote sex tourism. Each state’s individual report card includes a brief analysis of the state’s legislation and includes recommendations for improvements.

Fourth Chinese National Pleads Guilty to Trafficking-Related Charge

Each defendant acknowledged in his or her plea having a role in recruiting and arranging travel and immigration documents for Chinese females to travel to American Samoa to engage in prostitution. Upon arrival, the victims, who were unpaid, were denied access to their passports and return airline tickets, and were denied the opportunity to leave until they had paid off increasing debts.

Beatings, Isolation and Fear: The Life of a Slave in the U.S.

Evelyn Chumbow was once a slave, but not in some distant country. She worked right here in the United States.  Chumbow, now 21, was brought to suburban Maryland in 1996 from her native Cameroon by Theresa Mubang. Mubang promised Chumbow's family that if 11-year-old Evelyn came to America, she would have the prospect of a bright future and a first-rate education, as she had been a top student in her native country.

Wealthy N.Y. Couple Charged With Slavery

The women, prosecutors said, were subjected to beatings, had scalding water thrown on them and were forced to repeatedly climb up stairs as punishment for perceived misdeeds. In one case, prosecutors said, one of the women was forced to eat 25 hot chili peppers at one time.

One of the women also told authorities they were forced to sleep on mats in the kitchen and were fed so little, they had to steal food.

The women legally arrived in the United States on B-1 visas in 2002; the Sabhnanis then confiscated their passports and refused to let them leave their home, authorities said. Identified in court papers as Samirah and Nona, the women said they were promised payments of $200 and $100 a month, but federal prosecutors said they were never given money directly. One of the victims' daughters living in Indonesia was sent $100 a month, prosecutors said.

Human Trafficking on Long Island, NY

The Long Island group was born in the fall of 2004, just months after the arrests of a couple on Long Island in what was then considered one of the largest human-trafficking cases in the country.

Mariluz Zavala and her husband, Jose Ibanez, later pleaded guilty to smuggling 69 fellow Peruvian immigrants and enslaving them in Amityville, Brentwood and Coram. Both are in prison; Zavala was given 15 years, even longer than prosecutors asked for.

Most Wanted Women: Human Trafficking Mastermind

The Federal Bureau of Investigations says this Guatemalan national lured twelve women -- three mere minors -- with the promise of the American dream.  "What they would do is go to these countries to the rural areas and recruit women with the promise here and making good money."  After crossing the border, promised dreams quickly turned in to nightmares as the victims were forced into street prostitution to work off their smuggling fee.

"Often times they were physically abused if they tried to leave they were beaten up."

Trafficking victims spurn help

But local investigators are finding that victims of human trafficking don't surface easily.

In the six months since World Relief got a $450,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to help survivors in the region, none have been found.

Human trafficking called a concern for N. Texas

Given Kachepa, 20, of Zambia said he was lured out of his country nine years ago by a Sherman-based Christian group that promised him a better life in the United States. When he and 10 other boys got here, they were organized into a choir that toured the nation, earning large fees for the ministry.

Regardless of sickness or fatigue, they were required to perform up to seven concerts a day, with no payment.

"If we did not sing, the choir manager would say, 'No singing, no food,' and he would turn off the gas for the stove so we couldn't cook," Mr. Kachepa said. "Sometimes we went for three days without having anything to eat."

Modern day slave trade: Human trafficking continues, even in the U.S.

According to a report published on the Central Intelligence Agency Web site, “International Trafficking in Women to the United States: A Contemporary Manifestation of Slavery and Organized Crime,” 45,000-50,000 women and children are brought to the United States as slaves every year. The document also reported that the majority of these victims come from Latin American and Southeast Asia, although there has been a recent influx of trafficking from Central and Eastern Europe. “After drug dealing, trafficking of humans is tied with arms dealing as the second largest criminal industry in the world, and is the fastest growing,” states the United States Department of Health & Human Services Web site.

Modern-Day Slavery in America

Yes, There Are Slaves in the United States, and the Problem Is Getting Worse.

Emily Nicely, 19, was routinely beaten with broom handles, a metal pipe, belts and wooden boards.  She was forced to quit school, to do chores and deliver newspapers without pay. She was by any definition - including those of the federal government and the family that held her captive for six months - a slave.

Man charged with human trafficking

Carter said human trafficking "is something that is coming to our attention more due to the fact that we have a growing diverse population within Hillsborough County that could potentially be victims." Victims generally do not report the crime, because they are in the country illegally, she said.

State mobilizes to fight human trafficking

The problem: Trafficking has proved hard to detect. Victims typically fear retribution and clam up, experts say. Unlike smuggling, trafficking involves confiscation of travel documents and other coercion.  The U.S. State Department estimates 14,500 to 17,500 foreign workers are brought into the country each year via trafficking - part of a $9 billion global criminal trade exceeded only by illegal arms and drug dealing.

The victims of human trafficking

“I felt more like a slave,” he told 11 News in Spanish.  While often invisible, the stories are strikingly similar.  “They were making sure I was so scared so that I wouldn’t walk out, or immigration would come get me.  “It was really hard for more it was tiring my feet had blisters,” Diego said.

At just 14, Diego journeyed alone from Honduras to El Paso with an American dream, one that quickly turned into a nightmare when ranchers took him in and forced him to clean stalls seven days a week, he said.

WJZ Investigates Sex Trafficking

19-year-old Chantee was hanging out with two friends in downtown Baltimore. They decided to go for a ride with an older man, who was a friend of a friend. They thought they were going for a joy ride, but it would become much more than that.

Human trafficking and slavery still active practices

People can be sold repeatedly, Atkinson said. This creates a tier of markets and prices, based on how worn a person has become in the sex or labor trade, he said. In the sex trade, people get sold overseas when they reach the lower prices.  “From there, they die and never come back,” he said.

Human Trafficking Plaguing Maryland

Lidia and her daughters came to Maryland from Asia to get married to a man they thought they could trust. But when the three arrived, he made them his personal servants. He beat them and fed them only once a day. "We were kept in one room, me and my daughters", said Lidia.  The man also seized their passports, and while Lidia was forced to work outside the home for no money her children did house chores. "Each day I came home I had a scary feeling, that I might not see my kids."

Human Trafficking Victims May be Hidden in Plain Sight

They are kidnapped, branded and forced into prostitution. Or they are lured from their home countries to the U.S. with the promise of jobs as nannies and housekeepers and then, "once they get to the United States, it turns into quite a nightmare."

Man pleads guilty to smuggling women for prostitution in brothel ring

The ringleaders sneaked hundreds of women into the United States, most of them from Latin American countries, and forced them to have sex with as many as 40 men a day, according to the court documents. They moved the women from brothel to brothel and kept the earnings.  "The prostitutes reported they were not free to leave the brothels on their own, and the brothel operators were usually armed with firearms," according to the filing.

Lawsuit accuses Connecticut nursery of human trafficking

A dozen Guatemalan workers filed a federal lawsuit Thursday accusing one of the nation's largest nurseries of engaging in human trafficking by forcing them to work nearly 80 hours per week, paying them less than minimum wage and denying them medical care for injuries on the job.

The workers, who filed the lawsuit against Imperial Nurseries in Granby and its labor recruiter, say they were promised jobs planting trees in North Carolina for $7.50 per hour. Instead, they say they were taken in a van to Connecticut without their consent, had their passports confiscated so they would not escape and were threatened with arrest or deportation.

"These workers came here lawfully to earn a living and support their families," said Nicole Hallett, a Yale Law School student helping the workers. "Instead they were defrauded and trapped into conditions of forced labor."

U.S. intensifies fight against human trafficking

A senior U.S. Justice Department official estimated about 15,000 victims of human trafficking arrive in the United States annually, some as young as 9 years old, destined for jobs in brothels, as unpaid domestic servants, or in other jobs as virtual slaves.

The victims represent a source of continuing income for the rings that provide them, making human trafficking more attractive than drug smuggling to some criminal syndicates, authorities said.

Tall Americano, Hold the Paycheck

A Tacoma teen's coffee shop servitude shows that human trafficking isn't just about sex slaves.

When Abdenasser "Sammy" Ennassime returned home to visit his family in Morocco six years ago, he could brag of a bustling coffee shop, a baby son, and an American wife to show for his more than two decades in the United States.  In this light, Ennassime's suggestion to bring his adolescent niece, Lamyaá, to his home in Tacoma to help with the new baby—in return for enrolling her in school and guiding her toward U.S. citizenship—was seen as the magnanimous gesture of a generous uncle.

Woman Pleads Guilty to Forcing Juvenile Girls Into Prostitution In Memphis

At her plea hearing, Perfecto admitted that she told the girls, who were 13 and 17 years of age at the time, that they would be employed at a restaurant in Nashville, knowing all along that the girls would be coerced to engage in prostitution in brothels in Memphis and Nashville.  Perfecto further admitted that co-defendant Juan Mendez then used physical force and threats against the victims and their families to force the victims to engage in prostitution.

Legislation targets human trafficking in state

Bradley and O'Dell, of Litchfield, were convicted in 2003 of forcing four Jamaican men to work for their tree-cutting business. The men lived in unsanitary and unsafe conditions, and received no pay for their work, according to Zuckerman. Both Bradley and O'Dell were sentenced to five years, 10 months in prison.

The slaves of New York

Albany needs to wake up and pass a law that will quash human traffickers and protect the most vulnerable.  Human slavery - not just crummy pay and lousy work conditions, but outright forced servitude, including the kidnapping, buying and selling of people - is going on in New York City, which is a major hub and destination in a monstrous, global slave trade.  The modern resurgence of this ancient horror will continue for exactly as long as cynical politicians and an apathetic public allow it.

"Pimps promise to smuggle the impressionable girls into the United States, telling them they can get jobs as nannies, cooks and maids - making enough money to support their families back home," Bode wrote. "These traffickers charge the girls as much as $7,500 in illicit crossing fees - but once they get to the United States, the girls are raped and forced into prostitution.  By the time the girls realize they have been kidnapped, it's too late for them to escape."

Human trafficking is 'alive and well' in U.S.

Human trafficking most commonly is found in the sex trade, but also plagues the lives of farmworkers, domestic servants and hotel and restaurant workers.  The $10 billion annual revenue generated through human trafficking, Colletti said, can start like it did for a Chinese girl, "Maria."

Maria is not her name but is a documented example of trafficking. She was sold in China for $2,000 and taken to France. She was then shipped to the United States, where she was sold to her owner for $8,000.  Maria logged 12-hour days in a Florida manufacturing company and received $20 per week. She earned $55,000 annually for her owner but had to pay from her own pocket for housing and food.

New Yorkers Draw Attention t