Forum Stresses Growing Problem of Human Trafficking
Date Posted: 4/3/2006

The Boston Globe

Forum Stresses Growing Problem of Human Trafficking

Legislation filed to hike penalties
By Tracy Jan, Globe Staff  |  March 26, 2006
Slavery still exists -- not just in distant countries but on the streets of Massachusetts, said professors, politicians, and social service workers yesterday in the region's first conference on human trafficking.

It occurs in Boston, when men proposition girls at bus stops and force them to work as sex slaves, said a local youth worker. It happens in Brookline and Wellesley, where undocumented immigrants double as indentured servants in wealthy homes, others said. It spans manufacturing, agricultural and hospitality industries -- victimizing between 14,500 and 17,000 people a year in the United States alone, authorities said.
 
The daylong conference, titled ''In our backyards: Modern-day slavery and trafficking," drew 178 people to Simmons College.
 
The goal, said organizers, was to publicize a growing problem and spur social workers, academics, lawyers, and community organizers to action.
 
In Massachusetts, the Trafficking Victims Outreach and Services Network, a statewide organization based in Boston and Cambridge, handled 55 cases of human trafficking in the last two years, said its founding director, Carol Gomez.
 
About half of the state's cases involved domestic labor exploitation, a quarter involved sex slavery including ''mail order" brides from Eastern Europe, Vietnam, China and the Philippines, and the rest are in fields such as construction, restaurants, fisheries, and landscaping, she said.
 
In one Massachusetts case, 120 illegal manual laborers from Africa and South and Central America were forced to work for little pay after their passports were confiscated, said Gomez, who declined to provide further details to protect the individuals involved.
 
''The issue needs to be spotlighted," said State Senator Mark Montigny of New Bedford, who plans to file a bill within a month that will increase the penalties for human trafficking and better protect victims. ''It's going on all over here, but we as a society turn our backs. We are grossly unprepared to deal with this, and the problem is so urgent we don't have the luxury of time."
 
Human trafficking, the secret, illegal trade of humans for involuntary servitude, is the second most profitable enterprise after drug trafficking, said Dr. Gloria White-Hammond, copastor at Bethel A.M.E. Church and a pediatrician in the South End Community Health Center who works with Sudanese women once forced into slavery. About 80 percent of victims are women and children, she said.
 
Identifying the problem is not always easy, Gomez said. Many victims are afraid or embarrassed to report their abuse. Some choose to remain in the situation out of economic desperation. While most victims are not being beaten and chained, Gomez said, they are emotionally and psychologically manipulated. Some have little legal recourse and are treated by law enforcement as criminals rather than victims, she said.
 
In Boston, the Grove Hall Youth Workers Alliance in Dorchester has counseled 83 girls between the ages of 11 and 18 in the last three years who have been forced into prostitution, said Ra'Shaun Nalls, an alliance coordinator. Grove Hall residents have complained of middle-aged men from outside the neighborhood having sex with minors in cars parked in residents' driveways.
 
''People say ignorance is bliss but you have to look at what's going on and be proactive in stopping it," Nalls said.
 
In addition to increasing the penalties for human traffickers, Montigny said his bill would train law enforcement to help victims rather than prosecute them. The bill would also seek more money for victim advocacy, healthcare, and legal help.