Human Trafficking

 

Attending a lecture at the Black Box Theatre that is located on the EdCC campus, that was informative and an eye opener, it made you think about the subject on Human Trafficking.  The lecture was given by Jeanne Kohl-Welles a state senator from the 36^th district, who is one of the writers of the Washington Anti-Traffic Bill.

            The lecture was also hosted by Humanities Washington a private non-profit organization that helps people in many different situations. They are big supporter of Anti-Trafficking methods and will do what they can to stop it from happening.

Most people do not realize that Seattle is a hotspot for human trafficking, most that get caught up in the process will usually become prostitutes, domestic servants of many different tasks and some will become mail order brides. At one time before Craigs list removed the specific chat rooms, there was over a dozen mail order bride listings, and quite a bit of ads dealing with sex for sale, and some of it was dealing with the illegal practice of human trafficking.

Kohl-Welles had a list of questions up on the view screen to consider that could be asked if you couldn’t think of any. Human trafficking is modern day slavery, and it can deal with smuggling stowaways. The reason it went on at one point is that slavery had a very high investment, now the investment isn’t that high, human trafficking goes through many hands and the person who ends up buying the modern slave pays most of the money, but it is still a big business.

As of 2000 there has been a Federal Trafficking Victims Act, this act lists some major forms of what is considered Human Trafficking and the reasons for it. Forced Labour, sex, bonded labour, and one of the major forms is child sex trafficking.

Some sell babies that are just born for future sex slaves and passed around in the underground sex trade. Human trafficking can happen any where in the world, it is not just a third world problem.

One of the most common that people know, but don’t realize it being part of the Human Trafficking problem is “Bride Trafficking”. There are many websites and companies that deal in commercially selling bride arranging, a commodification of the human being,

These commercial bride arranging make tons of money in the form of finding men and women who want to buy their spouse, then use and abuse them any way they see fit.

The comedication of human life is a large secret industry in that people don’t know who works for or as a human trafficker, the baby market is a billion dollar sex trade industry.

There is a film titled “Eden” it is about a young girl that gets a fake id with a friend and they go out clubbing. She then wakes up handcuffed to a medical bed, not knowing what is going on. This is a to real scenario to many people that have escaped from the human trafficking world.

Kohl-Welles went on to talk about “The Mercer Maids” and John Pinnell who is noted in history as the man who started the first Brothel in Seattle in 1861 at the time when Seattle and most of the Pacific Northwest had Eight men to one women.

The “Mercer Girls” where advertized in “Harper Magazine” in 1864, and there was a Matrimonial News section in newspapers and papers just for that purpose to buy a bride.

“Backpage.com” has come under fire with the issues dealing with some of the mail bride advertisement. Kohl-Welles mentioned as she talked and even showed a video clip about backstage.com and what they say about the issue.

A book titled “Hearts West: True stories of mail order brides on the frontier” By Chris Enss. The book has some of the actual advertising from both men and women seeking a spouse, and includes stories from the mail order brides and their exploits.

The senator talked about “Madame K’s Pizzeria and Bristro in Seattle in the 1990’s , the building was the place of a notorious brothel in the 19^th and early 20^th century, Seattle Founders day parade and festival always has women dressing up and portraying the “Mercer Girls”

Sandra Gardner “I am really shocked at what I have learned here as I listened to the Senator. She was really informative and seemed to have a deep passion for ending Human Trafficking”

Kohl-Welles has been the advocate of getting several bills passed into law that will slow down and stop the many forms of trafficking, such as Forced labour, Sex slaves, Bonded labour and especially child sex trafficking.

Human Trafficking can happen in the first world nations  and is actually more prevelant in the superpower nations, major aspect of it is the mail order bride or Bride Trafficking. Russia and the US is the most common of the countries for this.

John Cole “ I attened this with my wife, we wanted to get information on how to make sure our daughter doesn’t end up as a statistic in the trafficking, we are always weary about letting her travel on her own, she is just sixteen and loves to travel to Europe on summer vacation.”

With the Senate Bill 6412, thousands of emails were flooding the legislative members, and then with the creation of House Bill 1175 in 2003 with the criminalization of human trafficking, more and more people are waking up to this problem and starting to take notice on what to do if it does happen close to home.

Washington state is the first state in the Union to create a bill and pass it, which sees the people involved in selling humans as criminals. The bill covers all Human Trafficking including Domestic sex trafficking of minors.

Senate Bill 6630 gave the ability for people to display trafficking posters in highway rest stops along I-5 and to display posters during the Olympic Winter Games / Summer Games when played in the US.

Senate Bill 6251 is the senate bill that makes it a crime of publishing adult escorts ads as if they were minors.

Washington and New Jersey are the only states to receive the most bills for anti-trafficking laws that go after the johns, and Teachers in these two states are also getting certified and trained to recognize sex trafficking in children and adults that they come in contact with.

People just don’t know anymore who their neighbours are, all those people living in one house could be there against their will. More and more people are becoming aware of the problem.