Later On

Slavery may be no longer tolerated in the US (save for economic slavery, in which a company has a community so by the throat that the people must accept the work, however dangerous and ill-paid it is: see the Massey Energy communities), but it’s still a global problem. From the Center for American Progress:

On Monday, the State Department released its 10th annual report on "Trafficking in Persons," which assesses the efforts that 177 countries are undertaking to combat human trafficking, or "modern day slavery." For the first time, the U.S. has been listed as a "suspect nation" in an analysis that experts describe as "candid" and "doesn’t pull any punches." "Human trafficking is not someone else’s problem," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said. "Involuntary servitude is not something we think or hope doesn’t exist in our own communities." On a global level, human trafficking is rampant. Time magazine recently reported that "there are more slaves today than at any point in human history." The State Department estimates that the number of people in forced labor, bonded labor, and forced prostitution around the world hovers around 12.3 million. In last year’s report, the State Department warned that the global financial crisis was "feeding both the supply and demand for human trafficking." Though the global economy has improved since 2009, the problem of human trafficking has not diminished.

UNDERSTANDING HUMAN TRAFFICKING: The problems of human trafficking and illegal immigration are largely intertwined, but the terms human trafficking and human smuggling are not interchangeable. Smuggling refers to the transportation of immigrants without documents. Trafficking, however, centers around exploitation and usually involves coercion of documented or undocumented workers "for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage or slavery." While trafficking is often associated with the sex trade, it also involves other types of labor such as domestic servitude, factory work, agricultural work, and even child soldiers and some forced marriages. While poverty and organized crime are the main factors contributing to human trafficking, Clinton has also stated that "businesses that knowingly profit or exhibit reckless disregard about their supply chains" and "governments that turn a blind eye or do not devote serious resources to addressing the problem" should also be held accountable. In the report, the U.S. government continues advocating for a policy structured by the "3P" paradigm: prosecution, protection, and prevention. In 2000, the United States passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), which criminalizes and enhances the penalties for human trafficking and provides a variety of social services, legal benefits, and "immigration relief" to victims. It also established the tier ranking system which the State Department annual report employs to analyze each country’s compliance. The highest ranking, Tier 1, indicates that a country meets TVPA’s minimum standards. A country with a Tier 2 rating has not met the standards but has made a significant effort, while a Tier 3 rating means the country has made no effort to comply with TVPA.

‘NOT SOMEONE ELSE’S PROBLEM’: The report describes the U.S. as "a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to trafficking in persons." Approximately 14,500 to 17,500 people are trafficked into the U.S. each year. Though the U.S. received the Tier 1 rating, it does not mean weaknesses do not exist. Many of these problems stem directly from the nation’s broken immigration system. Without specifically naming the U.S., the report states "in response to this [immigration] crisis, governments of developed destination countries are summarily deporting undocumented migrants in large numbers, without careful consideration of whether they are in need of protection or without screening them for indicators of exploitation and human trafficking." As a result, fear of deportation, together with coercion, means trafficking victims are difficult to identify and unlikely to seek help. Non-governmental organization reports and prosecutions indicate that private recruiters for temporary worker programs in the U.S. often charge excessive fees, which leave migrant workers "vulnerable to debt bondage." To make matters worse, the State Department points out that U.S. local police who are authorized to enforce immigration law under the controversial 287(g) program have not "enhanced the response to or identification of trafficking victims or other immigrant victims of crime." Advocates have also encountered difficulty "securing law enforcement assistance to request public benefits and immigration relief." The TVPA mandates that victims not be inappropriately incarcerated, fined, or otherwise penalized for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked. However, the State Department reports that there have been several instances in which trafficking victims have gone unidentified in immigration detention. The Kansas City Star has blamed this on the fact that immigration agents simply don’t screen enough for trafficking victims when going about their enforcement efforts. Regulations also allow for the debarment of employers who abuse the temporary worker programs, but during the reporting period no employers were debarred — despite what seems like widespread knowledge that labor violations are occurring.

A GLOBAL PROBLEM: Human trafficking is a $32 billion enterprise that exists in almost every corner of the world. While the U.S. and several other nations have made "significant efforts" to combat the phenomena, other countries are lagging behind. Sixty-two countries still haven’t convicted a human trafficker and 104 countries don’t even have laws, policies or regulations that adequately protect victims. This year, the State Department report ranked 13 nations as Tier 3, which means they are subject to U.S. sanctions, including cuts in non-humanitarian aid. Those countries are Burma, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Kuwait, Mauritania, North Korea, Papua-New Guinea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Dominican Republic. Some of these governments did not take the criticisms lightly. Cuba rejected the "allegations" and called its Tier 3 designation "political" and a "shameful slander." The report maintains that though Cuba has stringent laws against human trafficking, there’s no evidence that they are being enforced as the trafficking of children who work as prostitutes on the island continues. The report also highlighted strides by several countries, including Argentina, Egypt, Syria, Pakistan, Malaysia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Egypt, which was ranked as a Tier 2 country that is home to forced labor, prostitution, and "temporary" marriages, dismissed the report as inaccurate. The Dominican Republic "categorically" condemned the "bureaucratic report." Meanwhile, many advocates are currently keeping a careful watch on South Africa, where traffickers have been "looking forward" to "doing more business during the World Cup." According to ESPN, Cape Town City Councilor JP Smith has observed, "we’re starting to see a lot of foreign nationals in brothels in residential suburbs and they were not here a year ago. This is a new phenomena, a very new phenomena."