Complete Your CE Test Online - Click Here The report also includes labor trafficking, which can be found in the following activities and places: ● ● Factory work in sweatshops. ● ● Agricultural work. ● ● Restaurant and other food industry work. ● ● Hotel work. ● ● Begging or selling trinkets. ● ● Landscaping and garden labor. ● ● Agriculture farm work. ● ● Casino servers. ● ● Magazine peddlers. (Logan, 2009) Many foreign trafficking victims today are under international law and are not citizens of any country, although the Universal Declaration of Human Rights notes that everyone has a right to a nationality. An estimated 12 million people around the world today are legally without a country, therefore stateless and lacking legal standing in any nation. This may lead them to smugglers and traffickers who promise to help them escape discrimination or government persecution. These individuals become victims on multiple levels as the problems of statelessness, refugee issues, and trafficking overlap. (U.S. Department of State, 2009). These international trafficking victims may be charged with smuggling because the person is knowingly and willingly attempting to enter the country illegally, which is a crime against the state. Human trafficking versus smuggling The U.S. Department of Homeland Security defines human trafficking as: ● ● Sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age. ● ● The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision or obtaining of a person for labor or services through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjugation to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage or slavery. Trafficking is exploitation-based, and one or both of the conditions above may be found in human trafficking. Human smuggling is defined as: ● ● The importation of people into the United States involving deliberate evasion of immigration laws. This includes bringing illegal aliens into the U.S. as well as the unlawful transportation and harboring of aliens already in the United States. Smuggling is transportation-based, and smuggling and trafficking are not interchangeable terms. The person being smuggled is generally cooperating, and there is no actual or implied coercion. Smuggling always crosses an international border and involves illegal entry. Once individuals are smuggled into a country, they are free to leave, though they may later indeed become trafficking victims. Human trafficking across the United States Around the world there are identified countries that are known to be ripe for recruiting potential victims and countries that serve as destinations for individuals seeking to purchase victims. Some countries serve as destinations and originate recruitment (Farr, 2004). The United States is a destination country for sex and labor trafficking victims. Individuals born in the United States who become victims of human trafficking may be recruited from origination cities or states and shipped to other destinations, cities and states where they are forced to work or provide sex services. There are identified destination states for international victims of labor and sex trafficking. Many factors account for the high numbers of foreign-born trafficking victims: ● ● The ability for victims to be moved easily in and out of the state. ● ● The growing number of legal and illegal immigrant populations to recruit victims. ● ● The number of markets open to foreign-born persons. ● ● Lack of consistency among state laws to restrict human trafficking. ● ● Lack of awareness, training, and preparation for first responders. ● ● The demand for particular services that may be provided by trafficking victims. ● ● Individual characteristics or circumstances that lead to victimization. International trafficking into the north and Midwest states often occurs along the Canadian border, and the proximity to the border allows traffickers to move victims through Michigan to various markets throughout the Midwest (Davis, 2006). Toronto’s International Airport has been identified as an arrival destination for victims who are trafficked into Canada and moved throughout the United States (Estes &Weiner, 2005). Foreign-born populations continue to increase, and from 1990 through 2000, these populations increased 30.7 percent. By 2007, foreign-born population increased another 23.6 percent (Migration Policy Institute, 2008). This growth in minority and immigration populations makes it easier to conceal victims of international trafficking within a state (Urbina et al., 2008). Businesses throughout the U.S. employ migrant labor in poorly regulated industries seeking cheap labor such as textile sweatshops, agriculture, restaurants, construction and domestic crews (Davis, 2006). For example, currently there are at least 130 agricultural businesses in some states listed in the nation’s top 10 highest rates of human trafficking (Lucio, 2009). There are many businesses that appear legitimate but are actually fronts for human trafficking in the sex trade. For example, when Asian brothels are identified by law enforcement, they are simply replaced by similar businesses, such as spas, clinics, nail and massage parlors, after the owner is arrested and the business shut down (Wilson & Dalton, 2007). Law enforcement reports show these businesses often have two to nine workers from ages 36 to 57, and victims often come from Thailand and South Korea. They are transported around the country to states such as Texas, New Jersey, California, Georgia, Ohio, Kentucky, and Virginia (Wilson and Dalton, 2007). Law enforcement data shows highly organized networks operate much like illegal drug organizations. Spas in particular are crime organizations that recruit women from other states and countries then force them into prostitution. These Asian spa organizations can move people rapidly from location to location, yet operate as small “mom and pop” businesses that blend into the community. The types of state laws, sanctions and enforcement also determine where human trafficking organizations locate. The 45 states that carry serious charges against traffickers are known by the organizations that are aware of the laws and consequences of trafficking in certain states. In the Midwest, women are trafficked around the region as well as to the East and West Coast, from Minneapolis to Tampa, Memphis, New York, Chicago, Seattle, Denver, St. Louis and Las Vegas. Law enforcement officials in this region report that large numbers of U.S. women are domestically trafficked to other states, because Minnesota laws are stricter than in those states, and the sex businesses have moved to more permissive regions. Sex trafficking of minors According to a University of Toledo study in 2007, 77 percent of youths involved in prostitution continue to be exploited as adults. These adults also experienced many physical, psychological and social problems from living and working on the street. The problems are compounded if children and young adults are under the control of a trafficker. Victims suffer poor emotional and mental health, substance abuse, acute violence, chronic trauma, HIV and other diseases related to unprotected sex. Page 20 Massage.EliteCME.com