Human smuggling a local issue
Only the outline of her face was visible, but the voice was clearly that of a child’s.
She was supposed to be a waitress, the girl said in Thai, describing how she was lured away from her village with the promise of a job. But she later discovered there was no food to serve. “They told me this was a place where you sold your body,” she said.
The story of this 14-year-old girl, featured in a documentary called “Sisters and Daughters Betrayed,” launched a four-hour training session Friday on the problem of human trafficking. It’s a crisis that has touched many parts of the world – even the Inland Northwest, organizers say.
“People aren’t aware that trafficking is an issue in Spokane and Eastern Washington,” said Melissa Cilley, director of the Victim Rights Response Team, which is part of Lutheran Community Services’ Sexual Assault and Family Trauma Response Center. “But it’s here. People just don’t recognize it.”
About 50 people from law enforcement, social services and area faith communities gathered at Gonzaga University’s Teleconference Center for a workshop called “Human Trafficking in Eastern Washington: Working to Uncover Spokane’s Hidden Slave Culture.”
Every year, an estimated 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders, according to the U.S. Department of State. Seventy percent of these victims are female, and 50 percent are children. While the majority is forced into the commercial sex trade, some are trafficked into “forced” marriages, agricultural plantations and domestic service. About 14,500 to 17,500 foreign nationals are brought to the United States annually.
In Eastern Washington and North Idaho, more than 150 South Korean nationals have been caught in the last three years crossing the rugged border from Canada. Those cases, however, have been classified as “smuggling” instead of “trafficking.”
Federal law defines human smuggling as the transportation or illegal entry of people across an international border. Trafficking, on the other hand, involves force, fraud, coercion, sexual exploitation or forced labor. Based on these definitions, there are no confirmed trafficking cases in Eastern Washington and North Idaho. The smuggling of humans, however, continues to be a problem.
In 2003, 88 South Koreans were caught as they illegally entered the United States in Eastern Washington – a tenfold increase from the previous 12 months. So far this year, about 34 South Korean nationals have been apprehended in North Idaho and Eastern Washington, according to the local office of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
Just two months ago, a Korean national was sentenced to nearly five months in jail for helping smuggle 13 Korean women and one man into Idaho this year. Although a federal prosecutor didn’t consider the case to be “trafficking” since force and intimidation were not involved, some in the area suspect that the women were en route to Los Angeles, where they would be forced into prostitution. In recent years, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police also have investigated allegations that teenage girls are crossing the U.S. border north of Bonners Ferry, Idaho, and forced into polygamous marriages in Canada. The allegations haven’t resulted in charges against the leaders of Bountiful, a community of 800 people near Creston, B.C., but in response, Idaho legislative leaders have formed an interim study committee this year to explore the problem of human trafficking. Lawmakers in the state also are planning to consider legislation that would hike up penalties for crimes linked to human trafficking.
“Trafficking is very hard to detect,” said Lynda Buehring, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent from Seattle. “It comes in various forms, and it doesn’t discriminate. It can be your neighbor.”
Buehring, who traveled to Spokane for the training session, noted that human trafficking has become a major source of revenue for organized crime. She said U.S. citizens are not immune and that trafficking doesn’t always entail a border crossing.
Trafficking victims also aren’t easy to recognize, said Jill Peoples, another ICE agent. Most don’t have travel documents. Many don’t speak English and practice different customs. Some don’t recognize themselves as victims. Nearly all of them are afraid.
“The key is to listen,” Peoples advised. “Most victims will not come out and say they are trafficked; they don’t even know what that is.”
During the workshop, panelists shared stories of their own experiences with victims of trafficking. They also discussed ways to raise awareness of the problem and how they can collaborate in the future.
Human trafficking wouldn’t happen if there wasn’t a demand for cheap labor and sex in the United States and other countries, several participants noted. The problem also underscores the suffering in many developing nations, where thousands of women and children have been enslaved for sex and servitude. The victims of human trafficking are usually girls who are poor, uneducated and treated as second-class citizens.
When the 14-year-old girl in the documentary was asked if she had any advice for the kids in her village, she offered a quick response: “They shouldn’t be so quick to believe what they’re told,” she said. “They could be forced into prostitution.”