August 5, 2011 – The Union
Human Trafficking in Our Own Backyard
A global abolitionist movement is stirring. Local county police are leading the way with the help of citizens who are stepping out to take a part in ending modern day slavery.
Look it up. Human trafficking, i.e. modern day slavery (more than in any other time of human history), is everywhere and growing rapidly. Why?
Truckee Police Chief Nicholas Sensley, an international expert on the subject over the past decade, gave our community the facts in an excellent Town Hall meeting Wednesday night, co-sponsored by the United Nations Association Golden Empire Chapter’s UNA: Focus on Women and Gather the Women.
The venue, Sierra Center for Spiritual Living, was filled to overflowing by interested activists from Auburn to Tahoe who had heard about it through The Union, KVMR, KNCO, flyers, and word of mouth.
We’re all aware that there is a problem overseas, especially in Thailand, the Philippines, Dominican Republic, Nepal, and other poorer nations where children or parents are told things like they’ll be given work that will help the family.
In nations like India, where arranged child marriages are still common, new laws are developing. The United Nations is leading the way in information and outreach, and many NGOs are providing new places of shelter.
So why is slavery growing? There are many reasons, and easy access to pornography and prostitution in isolated private settings is only one.
An estimated 300,000 children go missing in the U.S. every year, and 100,000 of them end up being sold like commodities. Most are pre-pubescent.
Statistics on boys are not adequate because of the shame forced on them by society if they speak up. We do know that 80 percent are female and 70 percent of those are trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation.
Pimps lure children, usually runaways, with sweet talk and food/shelter, keep them with threats of abuse to themselves or their loved ones, ply them with drugs, and sell their services or the actual person.
Public complicity and ignorance allow slavery to proliferate.
About 20,000 immigrants are entering our country annually enslaved in some form or other be it the sex industry, marriage, or some form of labor (domestic, factory, restaurant, agriculture, construction and even public begging).
I’ve heard of one case where a young girl was sold 30 times in one day. The average age of these children is 13, but many are much younger.
They may operate in an environment that seems free to physically escape, but, for a variety of reasons, their minds are “caged” in the belief that they cannot escape.
Victims are often seen as criminals and feel there is no escape. If there is no local shelter for them, the best that can be provided is juvenile hall. These are our children or their friends. What can we do to stop this?
We need everyone in Nevada County to take a multi-disciplinary approach from education for prevention and reporting to providing safe houses.
Men can take leadership by stopping “locker room” talk and speaking up so others do the same. Unhealthy rationalization needs to stop, and we can all become involved in creating change in some way.
Think about it. The next person to be enslaved may be your child or grandchild, or your child’s friend. How far away did Jaycee Dugard and Philip Garrido live from us? Could more have been done sooner? Garrido’s neighbors did report their suspicions.
There is heartbreak in inhumanity.
Shera Banbury is a UNA-GEC Board Member and facilitator of UNA: Focus on Women.