Campaign aims to fight modern-day slavery
BRENDAN FARRINGTON
Associated Press
TAMPA, Fla. - Police officers and social workers will undergo training to help find people who were lured to the United States with the promise of jobs and then forced into prostitution or slavery, officials announced Wednesday.
U.S. Attorney Paul Perez and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that central Florida will be the fourth area to begin a training program and a public awareness campaign to help stop human trafficking.
A working group made up of law enforcement officials, social workers, health care workers, faith-based organizations will help train people to identify victims. Public service announcements will also help make communities aware of the problem.
Clues that may identify immigrants as being victims include evidence that they are being controlled, bruises, fear or depression, not speaking on their own behalf and lack of a passport or similar documents.
"Human trafficking is no less than modern-day slavery. It's evil. It is hideous. It's one of the most horrendous crimes of our society," said Alex Acosta, assistant attorney general for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Justice. "That it occurs at all is unjustifiable. That it occurs here in the United States, in the state of Florida and the other states of our union is intolerable."
He described a case in which a 14-year-old Mexican girl who was held captive in a trailer and forced to have sex with as many as 30 men a day. Her only possession was a teddy bear, which she kept next to a roll of paper towels, Acosta said.
"She was forced to have sex with man, after man, after man," Acosta said. "Up to 30 rapes per day - day, after day, after day. ... That is human trafficking."
It doesn't always involve prostitution. Victims may also be forced to work menial jobs, being told that they have to repay their abusers for expenses to bring them to the United States.
In 2002, three Florida citrus contractors were convicted on federal slavery charges for holding hundreds of workers against their will, threatening them with violence and keeping them captive over alleged debts. Two got 12-year sentences, the other got 10 years.
The Department of State estimates between 18,000 and 20,000 victims are brought to the United States each year.
"We're committed to rescuing these victims, we're committed to restoring them, to helping them rebuild their lives while staying in the United States," said Steven Wagner, who heads the Health and Human Services' human trafficking program. "We have generous programs and services and programs available to them to that purpose, but first we have to find them."
Wednesday's announcement follows similar awareness efforts that have begun in Atlanta, Philadelphia and Phoenix.
"We are keenly aware that we cannot wait for trafficking victims to find us," Acosta said. "Victims are not likely to pick up a telephone and call the FBI or the Department of Justice. They're fearful, they're disoriented, they're far from their country, they're far from their families. They don't speak the language. They don't have documents."
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