Commercial and Billboards in Texas Seek to Impact the Demand for Sex Trafficking

Earlier this year Huston, Texas based, Free the Captives, launched the “Reducing the Demand” campaign, targeting the Johns.  The campaign then went to work producing billboards and a Radio and TV commercial targeting Johns, who purchase sex, to highlight the realities of sex trafficking and debunk the myths that have continually plagued victims and advocates.  The PSA's are now up and beginning to air and; the video features, Sheriff Garcia, whose stern and strong presence makes it clear that men who purchase women and girls for sexual -or any other- purpose, will no longer be tolerated in Harris County, Texas.  Please watch the video PSA "Buyer BEWARE: You will be Arrested! (The Realities of Sex Trafficking)" Commercial and Billboards in Texas Seek to Impact the Demand for Sex Trafficking below:

These PSA's and billboards make it clear that when you buy sex you are fueling human trafficking, and we how to see more incentives like this sweeping the country.  

Texas has once again taken a great step in the state level fight to end national and global human trafficking.  More calls come from Texas to the National Human Trafficking Hotline than any other state, due to the great incentives put into place including the use of billboards and campaign efforts by Huston Rescue and Restore.  

The first step to ending human trafficking and modern slavery is to end demand!  Please share these resources to help open the eyes of others and see we put an end to the enslavement of innocent men, women and children once and for all.

Sex Trafficking and the Superbowl

Last night was one of the biggest events of the year for American sports fans -and non-sports fans for that matter- as the Baltimore Ravens battled the San Francisco 49ers battled it out for Super Bowl XLVII. However as the Ravens worked to see their way into NFL history, countless people were the victims to the sex crimes - all directly associated with football’s biggest day.

America's biggest sporting event is also America's biggest day for sex trafficking. Only days before the Super Bowl XLVII, New Orleans police arrested eight people and rescued five women from a human-trafficking-related operation (Fox 8 News).  Busts such as this one are not only a small indicator to the large scale, but have now dubbed the sports event the “single-largest human-trafficking incident in the United States". Some 300,000 American women and children as young as 12 years old are sexually exploited each year. While it is possible for people to be abducted during the Super Bowl, most are likely taken beforehand and used at major, large-scale events like the Super Bowl.

Such incidents include the estimated 10,000 women and minors that were trafficked in the Miami area during the 2009 Super Bowl in Tampa, Fla., according to the Florida Commission Against Human Trafficking. The Tampa Bay Times provided details of a trafficker being arrested for offering two girls, one 14 and one 18, for $300 as "a Super Bowl special." The trafficker, Manuel A. Walcott, was apparently advertising the girls on Craigslist and was subsequently sentenced to 20 years in prison. The girls had been held captive as prostitutes for two years.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott told USA Today in 2011 -when his state hosted Super Bowl XLV- that; "The Super Bowl is the greatest show on Earth, but it also has an ugly underbelly," In 2011 while the Green Bay Packers defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers; 133 prostitution-related arrests were made that year.

Clemmie Greenlee, a survivor of sex trafficking,recounted in the New Orleans how she was taken to Southern cities to prostitute for those attending such large-scale events as the Super Bowl. She's sitting in the lobby of a New Orleans hotel, decorated with San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens decorations. Her pimps took advantage of the large influx of people who attended the Super Bowl to increase business by mandating 25 a day to Greenlee and their other victims. If they didn't make the quotas they were severely beaten, raped, or forced to watch another girl receive the punishment. Now 53, Greenlee works at Eden House in Uptown New Orleans, the first shelter for sex-trafficking victims in Louisiana; the center opened in October 2012.

This year in preparation for the the Super law enforcement agencies and advocacy groups collaborated with local businesses in order to spread awareness. One such group of volunteers and coalition members, Klaas Kids travel to each Super Bowl to investigate the sex trafficking. They often find young girls, some who were reported missing. According to Brad Dennis, Klaas Kids search director, as many as "2,200 children are reported missing every day in the United States. That`s an awful lot of kids on the streets for predators to take advantage of..." and the primary reason they target Super Bowls for their investigations (Fox).  He and Nita Belles, who began work after researching human trafficking for her book ‘In Our Backyard,’ along with other members split up into groups searching through neighborhoods from New Orleans to Biloxi, MS. They`re sending information to joint task forces in both states. Biloxi Police Sgt. Aldon Helmert says, “when we`re able to have citizens to be our eyes and ears, it provides us a great deal more resources.” The investigations have led to at least 15 rescues with one of the girls had been reported missing.

Large scale awareness campaigns such as the USA Today  full page ad promoting the End It Movement -an anti-human-trafficking campaign launched at the 2013 Passion Conference, in accordance with the Super Bowl. The A 21 Campaign, established in 2008, released several Super Bowl-related info-graphics -such as the one shown above- about human trafficking this year.

Modern Slavery News Round-Up

Obama rails against 'modern slavery' of trafficking 

US President Barack Obama has decried human trafficking as "modern slavery", while outlining new measures to tackle the problem. He called trafficking an "outrage", in remarks to an annual global forum organized by ex-President Bill Clinton. International efforts were needed to help more than 20 million trafficking victims, said Mr Obama. As he spoke, the White House unveiled steps to stop trafficking in government contracting, including overseas. The administration's executive order also announced new training programmes for prosecutors, police officials and immigration judges, among others. In Tuesday's speech to the Clinton Global Initiative, Mr Obama said that human trafficking "must be called by its true name: modern slavery". Victims included abused workers who toil for little pay, boys who are turned into child soldiers, and girls sold into the sex trade. "It is barbaric and it is evil and it has no place in a civilised world," Mr Obama said.

 

Uzbek government breaks promise to end child labor in cotton fields

Uzbekistan’s prime minister pledged last month to end child labor in the country’s cotton fields. But as the harvest season gets under way, human rights activists say children as young as 13 are being put to work under grueling conditions, despite extreme measures to recruit adult labor. “Every year, from the beginning of the first days of September, the entire country is immersed in a cotton hysteria,” said Hakim,a human rights activist based in Tashkent, who asked his last name not be used for fear of persecution. “Urban residents are in a panic looking for a way to escape slavery and not be sent to work.”

Fact Sheet: Executive Order Strengthening Protections Against Trafficking in Persons in Federal Contracts
 More than 20 million men, women, and children worldwide are victims of human trafficking.  Companies around the world are taking steps to eliminate the potential for trafficked labor in their operations and supply chains, and President Obama is committed to protecting vulnerable individuals as government contractors and subcontractors perform vital services and manufacture goods procured by the United States.  As the largest single purchaser of goods and services in the world, the U.S. Government has a responsibility to combat human trafficking at home and abroad, and to ensure American tax dollars do not contribute to this affront to human dignity.

India slowly confronts epidemic of missing children
 They are boys like Irfan, drugged and abducted at the age of 9 by two men on a motorbike as he walked home one day after playing with friends. “It was living hell these past two years, trying to figure out where we could find him,” said his father, Iqbal Ali. “I used to run a biscuit bakery, but from the day he disappeared, I got so caught up trying to meet politicians, police and people who claim to do magic to get children back, that I had to shut down my bakery. I had no time for it.” More than 90,000 children are officially reported missing every year, according to data compiled and released late last year by leading children’s rights group Bachpan Bachao Andolan, which showed the problem was far greater than previously thought. Up to 10 times that number are trafficked, according to the group...It is an epidemic that, until a few years ago, remained unreported and largely ignored by the authorities. 

Anti-Human Trafficking Legislation Becomes Law
Some 65,000 children were lured into the sex trade in California between 2009 and 2010, yet only 13 people were ever sent to prison human traffic during that time. Governor Jerry Brown has signed legislation to help prevent sex trafficking crimes involving minors in California. Authored by Senator Mark Leno, D-San Rafael, and signed into law Monday, the bill gives prosecutors new tools to help ensure that criminals who are convicted of sex trafficking crimes are denied access to the resources, equipment, and cash flow that would allow them to operate and commit future crimes.

The Candy Shop and Broken Dolls

Last week Elyse Elder posted, Fairy tales are battling child exploitation, on the eyeopening awareness short film, The Candy Shop, which we both watched together in the office.  As we watched the piece I was instantly blow away at the depth and artistic twist this short film, which Elyse's boyfriend -a horror film fanatic- stumbled across on YouTube.  The film was not the horror film he had expected, but it was a horror indeed and creeped him out more than most of the cinematic horrors he is used to watching.  As the storyline unfolded the films ere story turned into a nightmare that wasn't the unrealistic nightmare it appeared to be, but the hanis reality of little girls across the country. 

As I watched the film I was instantly carried back in time to childhood as the fairy tale like story began to unfold, however this Willy Wonka character, the Candyman-who's outlandish attire even resembled the glamorized version of an American Pimp- is in a business of satisfying grown men with tasty 'candy' treats. 

As the film unfolded it not only addressed the lost innocence of the Canyman's young victims, but that of the issue of demand for 'candy' that fuels the growing industry that exploits children.  The film's ending is bitter sweet as the not only are some of the 'lollipops' unable to be turned back into little girls, as they are 'too broken'- it also show how putting an end to one 'Canyman's' business is not enough as demand only finds it's way into a new location -reminding me of the endless fight to shut down Korean 'massage parlors' -brothels- we have fought so tirelessly in DC which would often just reemerge a few weeks later or move to Virginia.

Following the film I went rummaging through my old poetry and writings as I vaguely remembered using a similar creative analogy to sex trafficking years ago.  After a bit of searching I found what I was looking for, only it wasn't about a 'candy shop', but a 'doll shop' -though the symbolism and lost innocence parallel.

Broken Doll 

Frank Horvat: Broken doll at flea market, Paris, 1958 

She sits upon the shelf with all the other dolls, smiles painted across their faces, long lashes made to flutter.

Their pretty dresses positioned just right So beautiful and delicate they look upon the shelf.

Each one quietly waits for their buyer to take them home.

  One day the big man comes in, he looks at each little doll searching for the perfect toy to take home And then he sees her... He takes her from the shelf, “This one will do.” 

 Once at home she is no longer placed upon a shelf for one to look at.

She is placed upon the cold bed and positioned every which way the man likes.

Soon the man tires of his doll and he shares her with all his friends and she becomes every one's toy.  Her dress becomes tattered, her body bruised and worn.

But her smile remains firmly painted on her face Tossed around the bed like a rag doll, until she is thrown out with all the other broken dolls.

So many broken dolls... 

So many painted smiles hiding needless pain.

Cassandra Clifford (c)2008

While the film and poem take an artistic approach to opening one's eyes of the horrors of minor sex trafficking he real story is even more ghastly, as some 27 million persons are victims of modern slavery -including the sexual exploitation of young girls and boys. In the United states alone nearly 300,000 are estimated to be at risk for sex trafficking. According to the 2009 National Report on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking, by Shared Hope International there are 100,000 children in the U.S. victimized each year.

Syrian refugees struggle to cope and seek child marriage as a solution

Recent concerns have sparked as child marriages spike among Syrian refugees in Jordan. Difficult conditions in Jordan have many parents pushing to have their daughters married at an earlier age. The issue has created a concern among many international aid organizations that the rise in child marriage has been brought on as a sort of coping mechanism to adjusting to life as a refugee in the country. The majority of these young girls are in their early teens and are increasingly being married to older Syrian men as a form of financial and other security against a backdrop of conflict and instability. Early marriage is against the laws of both Syria (minimum age of marriage at 17 for boys and 16 for girls) and Jordan. However, in Syria, religious leaders may still approve “informal marriages” at for girls from 13 years-old and for boys from 16 years-old. The “informal marriages” allows spouses to live in the same home and have children, but is only legally registered once both turn 18. In Jordan the legal minimum age for marriage is 18-years-old for both spouses, though in exceptional circumstances marriages involving 15-year-olds are allowed — it is illegal for anyone under 15 to get married. Hana Ghadban, a volunteer with the Syrian Women Association (SWA), told IRIN that in the Syrian cities of Homs and Dera’a many girls are married at the age of 13 or 14. “We know of so many girls who got married after moving to Jordan. Most of them were engaged in Syria.”

“They rape girls who are as young as her in Syria now. If they raped a nine-year-old girl, they can do anything. I will not feel OK if I do not see her married to a decent man who can protect her,” said the father of Hanadi, a pregnant child bride in Jordan aged 14.

To read the rest of this post by Bridge to Freedom Foundation Founder and Executive Director, Cassandra Clifford on the Foreign Policy Association's Children's Rights Blog here.

Modern Slavery News Round-Up

Feds dismiss largest US human trafficking case
Last Friday a federal judge dismissed human trafficking charges against executives and associates of Global Horizons Manpower Inc., a labor recruiting company.  The firm was accused of exploiting 600 of workers from Thailand through debt, confiscating passports and threats of deportation.  The case was dropped after it was made clear to prosecutors that they could not prove the charges "beyond a reasonable doubt."  Even Global Horizons attorney, Michael Green, stated that it was "very unusual" to dismiss a case with no intention of bringing it back.

Spotlight on human trafficking in Pennsylvania
A recent study released last month by a research agency has prompted an effort to legally define human trafficking in a broader sense in Pennsylvania.  The state has been known as a "transportation hub", but the study shows that it is also a source and destination for victims of trafficking.  Human trafficking was made a felony in 2006, but there is no clear distinction between labor and sex trafficking and victims are still treated as criminals.  The study confess that "while the crime...is not in its infancy, combating [it] at the state level is new."

Teen's brothel escape triggers Mexico clampdown
Only 14 years old, two cousins were abducted while waiting for their evening bus home and then sold to a pimp who forced them into prostitution.  These girls were beaten, raped, forced alcohol and drugs.  They were witness to terrible crimes, including the induction of an eight year old into their world.  After finally escaping, these girls' stories have resulted in the State's Attorney Office closing down 600 establishments and making human trafficking a federal crime, punishable up to 40 years in prison.

Modern Slavery News Round-Up

4 arrested in Florida foster child prostitution ring
Miami authorities are accusing four men of operating an underage prostitution ring.  Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle says most girls were 15 to 17 years old and were in foster care due to previous abuse.  The men lured these girls into the sex trade through cellphones, gifts of clothing and attention.  A problem across the country, these pimps shower girls with attention and then lure them into prostitution. Florida is the third most popular destination for domestic sex trafficking of minors and at least 300,000 children are at risk.

Ottawa bans sex trade business from hiring foreign workers
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced a ban on sex trade industry employees from hiring workers.  "We're protecting them from what they might not know will happen to them when they get to Canada," he explained at a press conference.  Citizenship and Immigration Canada will not process new work permit applications from temporary foreign workers who wish to work in places like a massage parlor, strip club or escort agency.  Representatives of the sex industry are considering challenging the new regulation.

Over 800 held after child-trafficking bust
An operation involving 10,000 Chinese police officers has broken up a child-trafficking ring that was operating in 15 provinces.  802 people where arrested who were selling babies to the highest bidder for up to 5,000 pounds (close to $8,000).  181 children were freed during raids that police say took place simultaneously across China. An unidentified police officer says they are managing the practice , but it's still prominent in certain areas.  However, since it's campaign to combat trafficking started in 2009, 24,000 kidnapped women and children have been rescued.