Human Trafficking and Sweatshops

USA Today has an article on the elusive nature of human trafficking in the US. A small part of the problem:

Trafficking is a stubborn problem and a staggering one worldwide, affecting an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 victims a year. Federal officials say 14,500 to 17,500 of them are trafficked to the United States, where the myriad forms of modern-day slavery present an elusive target for those trying to eradicate it.

Victims have come from at least 50 countries in almost every part of the world, and are trafficked to virtually every state — to clandestine factories, restaurants, massage parlors, even private homes where women and girls are kept in servitude.

“Human trafficking is so hidden you don’t know who you’re fighting — the victims are so scared, they’re not going to tell you what’s happening to them,” said Given Kachepa, a former victim of a scam which exploited Zambian orphans touring the United States in a boys’ choir.

Aligned against the traffickers is an array of federal, state and local government agencies, teamed up with an odd coalition of private groups that include Christian conservatives and left-of-center immigrant-rights advocates. The result is perhaps the most far-reaching anti-trafficking campaign of any nation, yet some victim-support groups question its effectiveness.

They contend that federal criteria offering assistance to victims only if they help prosecute their traffickers deters some people from seeking help. Others say the government has placed too much emphasis on sex trafficking and too little on workplace abuses at sweatshops and farms.

Some of these issues are illustrated in the excellent Lifetime mini-series Human Trafficking that was on last week and the week before that. The series dealt specifically with sex trafficking, although as the article makes clear the problem is much broader than that. In particulat, advocates urge policy-makers not to view the trafficking phenomenon in a vacuum, but rather as part of broader socio-economic conditions, such as the contunued existance of sweatshops.

Among the groups campaigning against slave labor is the Florida-based Coalition of Immokalee Workers. One of its leaders, Laura Germino, said the government could undermine trafficking by cracking down on all types of abusive workplace practices.

“You can’t view trafficking in a vacuum,” Germino said. “If you bring an end to sweatshops, you would curb trafficking.”