One of the issues that we've been focusing on at work is the issue of human trafficking. I had heard of trafficking before, but I thought it was something that goes on in Thailand or Cambodia. I never thought it happened in the U.S. much less in Louisiana.
Human Trafficking is the kidnapping and exploitation of humans. Basically, what happens is there is a girl in Mexico who is swept off her feet by some guy from the U.S. He convinces her to come to the states in order to marry her and rescue her from the poverty in Mexico. She accepts because that's the dream of many people from 3rd World Countries- to go to the North and have enough food to survive and provide for her family back in Mexico. However, once she crosses the border with her fiance, he disappears leaving her confused and clueless not knowing what to do nor speaking the language. Someone eventually shows up and tells her that her fiance is in jail, and she has to pay them a certain amount of money to bail him out. Not having any money, she is forced to do what many women do when they see no other option- prostitution. She gives all of the money to the man who says he will bail her fiance out of jail, but the amount keeps getting higher, and when she decides she wants to leave, she is blackmailed into staying by threats from both her fiance and the men that they will return to her village in Mexico and kill her and her family if she leaves.
That's just one common scenario of human trafficking. Trafficking also involves men too who are blackmailed into working for nothing while all of their money goes to their kidnappers or blackmailers.
Recently, a trafficking ring was discovered in New Orleans involving over 300 people, but the police were not aware of this issue, and the traffickers managed to move their people before any arrests and discoveries were made. The place where I work has recently received a grant to address the issue of trafficking. We have shelter for people who have been trafficked, and we are working in cooperation with other organizations in New Orleans to uncover trafficking rings and help those who are being trafficked.
So my question is, why haven't we heard about this? I'm guessing the reason is that it's just such a new issue, that there's just not enough information out there for newsmakers to give to the people. Once a real trafficking operation is uncovered, hopefully, it will be in the papers.
4 comments:
I remember seeing specials on Dateline on this. I also get a lot of magazines in the mail. About once a year or so, one of them will have a story about a woman who has been trafficked. I have heard that a lot of these people also end up as maids or working at hotels. I have even heard of cases where the person who hires say, a Mexican, who has legally come here to work, takes the foreigner's documentation and uses that to control them. Have you seen any cases of that?
I haven't seen anything yet, but I'm not officially working yet. This was just one part of the training, but I'm hoping to learn more about this as time progresses. It's a very new issue that we're dealing with and our trafficking program is also very new. We've only had one woman so far be rescued, and I don't know her story.
I bet this will be some very exciting work. These women will appreciate your Spanish skills. Is the organization faith based?
No, it's not. Which offers some interesting dynamics.
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