It is not something that the majority of us think about on a regular basis, but human trafficking is a problem with profound implications for our state. As reported earlier this week, failing grades issued by two national groups have inspired some Arkansas lawmakers to buttress statutes that combat human trafficking and the related sexual exploitation of minors.
The Arlington Va.-based Shared Hope International, a non-profit that tracks human trafficking laws, gave Arkansas and 25 other states an F in a recent report. The report said Arkansas’ statutes require proof of forced sexual conduct in cases where the victim is a minor. Arkansas’ human trafficking law “fails to distinguish the commercial sexual exploitation of children as a specific form of trafficking and requires a showing for force, fraud, or coercion for all cases of trafficking, regardless of whether a minor was involved,” the report said.
Just to put the problem in proper perspective, the Non-Governmental Organization, Human Trafficking Statistics reports, “The U.S. state department [estimates] that about 17,500 people are trafficked into the U.S. every year. There are currently about 200,000 victims of trafficking in the USA today. The victims are usually forced to work as prostitutes, farm hands, housekeepers or factory workers.”
According to the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking, the majority of trafficking victims are between 18 and 24 years of age. Even so, an estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked each year. Of those victimized, 95 percent experience physical or sexual violence during trafficking. Moreover, 43 percent of victims are used for forced commercial sexual exploitation, of whom 98 percent are women and girls. Of those victimized, 32 percent are used for forced economic exploitation (compelled labor and outright slavery), of whom 56 percent are women and girls. Trafficking (either as a source, destination or both) is an issue in 161 countries.
The primary motive for human trafficking is financial. The UN reports human trafficking is a $31 billion per year enterprise. Between the aforementioned economic allure and the low rate of prosecution, many find trafficking to be easy money. Again, a few UN figures demonstrate why.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
On average, approximately 2.5 million people are trafficked globally. Whereas, an average of fewer than 3,200 successful convictions for trafficking occur in a given year. This means that for every 800 people trafficked, only one person was convicted.
While it is seldom the case in the U.S., internationally traffickers often find willing allies in law enforcement. According to the NGO, Tolerance Awareness Equity Movement (TEAM), a substantial number of women who had been trafficked to Albania stated that law enforcement officials had directly participated in the trafficking process. An example from Israel paints a similarly bleak picture. In Israel, the Hotline for Migrant Workers made an appeal on behalf of three women who had testified that the same men who had arrested them had been clients at the brothel from which they were detained. In March 2002, a policeman charged with the buying of a trafficked woman and tipping brothel owners of police raids was sentenced to only six months of community service. While these anecdotes are international in nature, we should be aware that trafficking is big business in the U.S. and not just in big urban centers. While big cities may serve as transportation hubs, trafficking victims can be found in every state. As the Polaris Project, an anti-slavery NGO, reports, “With 100,000 children estimated to be in the sex trade in the United States each year, it is clear that the total number of human trafficking victims in the U.S. reaches into the hundreds of thousands when estimates of both adults and minors and sex trafficking and labor trafficking are aggregated.”
With all this as background, it is vitally important that we support our legislators as they work to strengthen anti-trafficking laws. It may seem remote, but as with so many distant evils, this one is getting closer every day.