Speakers urge awareness to help curtail human trafficking
Christine Pocratsky
Christine Pocratsky U.S. Attorney David J. Hickton address the crowd as the featured speaker at the Community Awareness Forum held at Penn State The Eberly Campus on Monday.
Christine Pocratsky
Christine Pocratsky Christine Pocratsky Anne Rackow spoke about the Project to End Human Trafficking during the Community Awareness Forum held at Penn State, The Eberly Campus, Monday.
Christine Pocratsky
Christine Pocratsky U.S. Attorney David J. Hickton addressed the crowd as the featured speaker at the Community Awareness Forum held at Penn State, The Eberly Campus, on Monday.
The United States abolished slavery more than 150 years ago, but many remain unaware that slavery exists in a modern form known as human trafficking.
Globally, the lucrative business, which enslaves between 20 million to 30 million into lives of sexual slavery and forced labor, nets an estimated $32 billion annually. But trafficking “hubs” and “circuits” quietly exist in our own backyards in and along the transit routes that link major cities, including Detroit, Cleveland, Akron, Toledo, Youngstown, Pittsburgh and Harrisburg.
“There’s no question that human trafficking exists in Pennsylvania,” said David J. Hickton, U.S. attorney for the state’s western district, which includes Fayette and Greene counties. Hickton was the keynote speaker at a forum to raise community awareness about human trafficking held Monday at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus.
“In a country where slavery was abolished over 150 years ago, we will not tolerate the scourge of human trafficking,” he said.
The event, sponsored by Fayette County Children and Youth Services and the Crime Victims’ Center of Fayette County, was held in conjunction with several other events this month. April is victims’ rights, child abuse prevention and sexual assault awareness month.
The prevalence of human trafficking is second only to that of drug trafficking, said Anne Rackow of Project to End Human Trafficking, Western Pennsylvania Human Trafficking Coalition, which compiles and evaluates data on human trafficking.
The “enormously high” profits and low risk of being prosecuted for human trafficking fuel the business of enslaving the vulnerable, said Rackow, who also spoke at the event.
In the U.S., homeless teens and victims of past abuse are among the most vulnerable to be recruited into and trapped in a life of exploitation, with recruiters using “thought coercion” while providing basic, unmet needs for the victims. Recruiters may use a number of methods of enticement and retention to keep a victim in bondage, including faked romantic relationships, isolation, violence or threats of violence, debt bondage, confiscation of a victim’s money or travel documents, shaming and blackmailing.
Victims are routinely transported by their controllers between circuits, shuffled around to keep them isolated, unfamiliar with their surroundings and afraid to seek help, she said.
According to CIA statistics, as many as 100,000 women are brought into the country each year by traffickers, but it is also estimated that 75 percent of sex trafficking victims in the country are U.S. citizens, she said.
According to Pittsburgh law enforcement, there are 1,600 reported missing persons in Pittsburgh, Rackow said. Of that number, the majority are runaway youth and of the runaway youth, most are habitual runaways, she said.
Many of these habitual runaway youth are caught up in local gangs and individuals who engage in drug and human trafficking, according to Rackow.
While many victims end up in sexual slavery, others end up in forced labor situations, working as dishwashers in restaurants or in construction or agriculture industries. They may be leased by staffing agencies, which pay the workers only a percentage of what they collect for their labor and often overcharge victims for their sleeping and travel accommodations, the speakers said.
One way to combat human trafficking is by reducing our “slavery footprints” as consumers, Rackow said. People shouldn’t assume that all women working in strip clubs are there voluntarily, although they might be. While it may be impossible to completely eliminate the purchase of all products resulting from slave labor, each conscious decision not to purchase such a product helps reduce the demand for such products and could lead to a reduction in human trafficking, she added.
While some red flags signaling enslavement may be obvious, others are more subtle, but people can learn to spot the signs of human trafficking just by being observant, Rackow said.
“Do they appear to live where they work? Does the victim have a translator who always seems to be keeping an eye on them? Do they appear malnourished, fearful of law enforcement? Is it a minor talking about an older boyfriend, or are they inappropriately dressed for the weather?” she added, referring to the constant relocation that victims undergo.
When witnessing suspected human trafficking, it is important to know how to handle the situation, Rackow said.
“Do not attempt to rescue the victim yourself,” Rackow stressed. “Don’t act like you’re suspicious, even. The victim might get in trouble and be quickly relocated,” leaving a cold trail for law enforcement to follow.
To report suspected human trafficking, call the Polaris Project Hotline at 1-888-373-7888 or text BeFree (233733).
Only in an emergency situation where the victim’s life may be in danger should anyone call 911, she added.