WHAT IS HUMAN TRAFFICKING?

• Trafficking is the business of exploiting vulnerable women, men, and children for use as commodities in conditions of sexual and labor servitude. Traffickers use fraud, deception, coercion, threats and force to transport, harbor or obtain a person to perform commercial sex or labor acts against their will.

• The United States is the second highest destination in the world for trafficked women. The UN estimates criminal trafficking groups take in 7 billion a year. Eighty percent of victims are women and girls trafficked for sexual exploitation. An estimated 20,000 victims are in U.S. In 2000 the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Prevention Act, was passed to combat the issue on a national level.

• New York is consistently named as one of the top cities that traffickers use as both a point of entry into the U.S., transit location, and as a final destination for victims. According to the U.S. Justice Department, New York City's JFK Airport is a main trafficking hub.

• In 2004, only 4 states had laws criminalizing trafficking. In 2006, 27 states had enacted tough anti-trafficking legislation. New York has no such legislation. Few states in the nation can claim as compelling a need, or as immense an opportunity, to make a direct impact on the devastating effects human traffickers have been leaving throughout the world and in our city.

IN OUR OWN NEIGHBORHOODS:

• August 2006- Thirty-one people involved in an international trafficking ring are arrested. Operating at least 10 brothels from Rhode
Island to Washington D.C. (two located on 26th St. and 59th St.) traffickers brought Korean women into the country, took their identification and travel documents, forced them into prostitution and threatened to turn them over to "authorities" or hurt their relatives in Korea if they tried to leave. In this case, 67 women were rescued. Some of the brothels, which generated tens of thousands of dollars a month, had special rooms or compartments where the women could be hidden in the event of a raid.

• July 2006- Two men and one woman from the former Soviet Union were arrested by police for allegedly forcing women to work as prostitutes in Elmhurst and Corona. According to affidavits, over the past seven years the defendants operated five brothels and shuttled 20-25 Russian women to and from the locations to work from 10am to 8:30pm. One of the trafficking victims said she first met a defendant when she responded to an ad in a Russian newspaper ad for an employment service. The defendants told her he would arrange a job as a housekeeper. He said he needed her passport to process the paperwork. Upon arrival, he told her she would have to work as a masseuse for 3 to 6 months before her passport would be returned. She was soon asked to provide sex. She says the defendant threatened to kill her and harm her family in Russia if she did not comply. The fees charged:$200 for sex; $150 for oral sex; $100 for manual release.

• April 2006- Three defendants pled guilty to 27 charges connected with operating a human trafficking ring between Tenancingo, Mexico and New York City from 1991-2004. In one of the largest sex trafficking cases to date, the men admitted to luring young, uneducated Mexican women to NYC. The women were raped and imprisoned and forced to work in NYC brothels seven days a week, servicing up to 25 men a day. The male customers paid $25 to $35 for sexual acts with the women. The profits were split between brothel owner and traffickers. Two defendants were sentenced in federal court to 50 years in prison, a third defendant to 25 years.

• March 2006- A large brothel in Flushing, Queens housing Korean women who spoke little or no English was shut down after a 10-month investigation by the US Attorney for the Eastern District of NY. The brothel had a "boarding house" where the women, who were illegal and smuggled into the US were kept. Immigrant documents, the ecstasy drugs and $800,000 were seized. The brothel, which generated $4,000 a day, was successful to a large extent because the traffickers had bribed two veteran police officers, who received free sex, drinks, cash and tips on other criminal activity. These officers were charged with public corruption and are awaiting prosecution. This large trafficking operation regularly advertised in the World Journal, a daily Mandarin newspaper.

THE MEDIA: THE MARKETING ARM OF TRAFFICKING

• Traffickers supply New York City's large established sex industry with workers, women they've lured to New York with promises of jobs as nannies, housekeepers or models. Traffickers funnel women into brothels to fulfill the shortage of workers and meet the demand of the market.

• The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services documented 250 brothels in 26 cities, including New York, with trafficking victims in the year 2000.

• Traffickers use mainstream media outlets to advertise their business. Community newspapers grow rich with sex ads. "Adult" advertisements generate 35% of newspaper gross revenue on a weekly basis. Many papers report that they would be unprofitable or unable to publish if not for these advertisements. Ads featuring specific ethnicities or "in call only" escort services are most often found to have human trafficking ties according to the Department of Justice.

• The Village Voice generates an average of $80,000 a month on the adult ads that line its back pages, according to the classified ad sales department. The Verizon Yellow Pages generates hundreds of thousands of dollars annually on its extensive escort services and massage parlor advertising categories.

NEW YORK: A HUB FOR HUMAN TRAFFICKERS HAS YET TO MAKE TRAFFICKING A CRIME
History:
• The 2006 New York State legislative session ended without passage of a widely supported bill, sponsored by Assembly member Jeffrey Dinowitz (D-Bronx). The Assembly Codes Committees, however, did not take it to the floor for a vote until the 11th hour, leaving little time to conference with the Senate and agree on one version of the bill. Shockingly, the Codes Committee reduced the crime of human trafficking from a C felony to a D non-violent felony. Altering a Metrocard to trick the turnstile is a D non-violent felony.

• Urge Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who control the Codes Committee, and all the committee members, to push forward to establish a strong law that will put traffickers out of business. Find them at: assembly.state.ny.us

Essentials for an effective bill:
• Meaningful Penalties: Must rise above a D-nonviolent felony (basically the penalty for "pimping,") a low-level felony for which almost no defendant ever serves jail time. This is simply too low a charge to reflect the serious harm inflicted by the traffickers. Human trafficking should be classified as a C-violent felony.

• A comprehensive definition: Traffickers use forms of coercion that may not meet the legal definition of an imminent threat of force. Traffickers use fraud, intimidation, and immigration abuse to control their victims. The crime of trafficking must be defined broadly enough to meet the experiences of real victims.

• Address demand: Sex trafficking flourishes because there is a huge demand for commercial sex. The law must raise penalties on those who patronize illegal commercial sex (prostitution, and especially underage prostitution). One of the reasons sex trafficking is so pervasive a problem is that there are not enough American women to meet the demand for commercial sex; as a result women are trafficked into the country against their wills.

• Sex Tourism: New York needs a strong law making it clear that, whatever the status of prostitution in other jurisdictions, sex tour businesses are prohibited from operating here.

• A defense for victims: Victims of sex trafficking should not be subjected to arrest and prosecution for prostitution. A person's status as a trafficking victim should be a defense to prostitution charges.

• Services: Survivors of human trafficking need a comprehensive set of immigration and social services to assist them in rehabilitating their lives.

ON THE FEDERAL LEVEL: CAROLYN MALONEY LEADS THE FIGHT AGAINST TRAFFICKING

• Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan) recently introduced a bill that appropriates $2 million to create a special office within the IRS to prosecute sex traffickers for violating tax laws. The bill raises penalties for tax violations by sex traffickers, such as failing to file returns or not reporting income, to a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $50,000 fine.

• Maloney, who co-founded the Congressional Human Trafficking Caucus, authored the End Demand for Sex Trafficking Act of 2005which authorizes $50 million for grants to state and local law enforcement to investigate and prosecute persons who engage in the purchase of commercial sex acts. The funds have yet to be appropriated.