The federal Department of Health and Human Services is stepping up efforts to help victims of sex trafficking -- particularly children -- to get help rebuildiing their lives, including finding food, shelter, health care and employment.
According to the department’s National Human Trafficking Resource Center, “Sex trafficking is a modern-day form of slavery in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act is under the age of 18 years.”
The State Department has reported that 600,000 to 800,000 victims are trafficked across international borders each year and that more than half of the victims worldwide are children. And while most people are aware of the importation of young women into the United States from Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe and rural parts of Asia to be sold into prostitution, fewer know that FBI statistics show that in the U.S., 55 percent of people under the age of 18 arrested on prostitution-related charges are black children.
Under the federal law Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, any minor under the age 18 that is forced into prostitution is considered a victim of human trafficking, a modern day form of slavery.
“Human trafficking is a growing problem in the U.S. and the world, particularly when it comes to victims of sex trafficking. Because black children make up more than half of all prostitution-related arrests involving minors in the U.S., this is a serious situation that warrants both attention and action,” Tara Wall, spokesperson for the HHS Administration for Children & Families, told BlackAmericaWeb.com in a statement. “The Rescue and Restore effort by the Bush Administration is working to combat this evil by identifying as many trafficked people as possible and offering help after these victims are freed from the bonds of this modern-day form of slavery.”
AP Video
In 2003, HHS awarded the public relations firm Ketchum Worldwide $5 million to help it inform the public about human trafficking. Part of this effort has resulted in the Rescue and Restore program, which provides a hotline -- 1-888-373-7888 -- and Web site, to help those who believe they have seen or come in contact with victims of trafficking to identify community resources to assist them.
Just by being a little more attentive than usual may be able to identify trafficking victims.
According to HHS, some victims are actually kidnapped and driven into prostitution. The pimps beat them, get them hooked on drugs and put them out on the streets, truck stops, even brothels.
Often, the prostitute has been threatened physically and, perhaps, the pimp has threatened to harm her family as well if she doesn’t comply with his demands. Even if the pimp is caught and jailed, the victims of sex trafficking need other assistance so they can get off the streets.
The intent of the HHS program is to provide a comprehensive effort that goes beyond the usual criminal justice response to prostitution.
Physical signs that might indicate a young prostitute may be a trafficking victim include: appearing malnourished and failing to actively engage potential clients, frequently holding her head down, appearing depressed. She may have needle marks in her arms, a sign of drug use, and may have scars and/or bruises.
Many child victims are runaways or young people in difficult home environments who are lured away by promises of love and better treatment, only to be beaten, abused and forced into financial arrangements to “repay” someone who initially took them off the street.
In some ways, however, it is harder for a black American to prove she is a victim of sex trafficking and to get federal protection than it is for foreign victims. Foreign victims often speak little English, have been smuggled into the country or had their passports taken from them. Once certified, those victims are entitled to services and benefits available to someone classified as a refugee, including English-language instruction and job training.
“Victims of trafficking who are U.S. citizens may already be eligible for many benefits due to their citizenship,” according to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center Web site.
The site also notes that “Trafficking need not entail the physical movement of a person but must entail the exploitation of the person for labor or commercial sex.”
“You have to work with the Department of Justice to prove it. Once you’re a certified victim, they can go through the process to get help,” Jones said.
To help get the word out, “We’ve been talking to (actor and filmmaker) Michael Cory Davis, and we’ve seen ‘Cargo’ and think it’s a great eye-opener to what’s happening in this country,” Jones said.
Davis' films “Svetlana’s Journey” and “Cargo: Innocence Lost” are being used to train law enforcement agents across the country to identify the tactics of sex traffickers. Davis has also launched an awareness day campaign called “I Stop Traffick.”
If you think you have encountered a victim of human trafficking, please call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center at (888) 373-7888.
