Labor Trafficking
of State, Human Smuggling
“Jocelyn”
& Trafficking Center, 2006; Watts & Zimmerman, 2002).
Jocelyn, an adult woman from Southeast Asia with four children, was seeking work in the United
Displacement from home
States to better support her family. She came to the United States on an H-2B visa, having been
and community results in the
promised a 40-hour work week at minimum wage in hotel housekeeping. She and her workmates
weakening or loss of protective
instead were forced to work more than 100 hours each week in a hotel and café in a western town
social support, thereby increas-
of fewer than 500 people. Their documents and earnings were confiscated, and threats of violence
ing an individual’s vulnerability
Risk Factors for the
and legal action were used to control them. Jocelyn’s traffickers were the married couple who
to trafficking (Heyzer, 2002).
Trafficking of Women
owned the franchise to the chain motel in which Jocelyn was enslaved.
and Girls
(From the Human Trafficking Law Project database, 2013, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Law School. Copyright 2014 by the Regents of the University of Michigan. Adapted with permission.)
In research based on surveys of service providers and trafficking-related newspa-
guys would be interested in [me]” (Reid, 2011, p. 149). Reid found
per articles in the United States, researchers at the University of
that childhood maltreatment predicted running away, substance
California, Berkeley, found that foreign-born persons represented
use, and sexual denigration but that sexual denigration was the
80% of victims in 131 identified cases (Free the Slaves & Human
strongest predictor of childhood sexual exploitation.
Rights Center, 2004). Analysis of data from 389 confirmed human
Research also identified fetal alcohol exposure as a factor that increases a child’s vulnerability to commercial sex exploitation (Boland & Durwyn, 1999; Hunt, 2006; Olson, Burgess, & Streissguth, 1992; Streissguth, 2005). Because of high rates of fetal alcohol syndrome in American Indian, Alaska Native, and Canadian Aboriginal communities, children in these populations may be at increased risk for CSEC (Hunt, 2006; Kingsley & Mark, 2000; Pierce, 2009; Vancouver/Richmond Health Board, 1999).
trafficking cases from 2008 to 2010 (D. Banks & Kyckelhahn, 2011) showed that one third of all victims were foreign born, and 53 of the 63 confirmed victims of labor trafficking were foreign born (one was a U.S. citizen or national; the citizenship of nine victims was unknown). Of labor-trafficking victims, 67% were undocumented, but 28% had legal authorization to work in the United States (D. Banks & Kyckelhahn, 2011). In one recent case, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted Global Horizons, Inc., a labor recruiting company, for trafficking more than 400 migrant
Although the vulnerability to trafficking of individuals with
Thai workers for forced labor in 13 states. The company deported
physical or cognitive disabilities or developmental delays has
recruits who did not cooperate with its demands (Polaris Project,
not been formally studied, they may be at elevated risk for
2012; U.S. Department of Justice, 2010b).
sexual abuse and exploitation (Tang & Lee, 1999; Tharinger et al., 1990), suggesting they are at elevated risk for trafficking. with disabilities or developmental delays for both labor and sex
Conclusion
trafficking (McGraw, 2009; U.S. Attorney’s Office, 2009, 2012,
A host of factors at multiple levels contribute to risk for human
2013; U.S. v. Adriana Paoletti-Lemus, 1998).
trafficking. Conditions that permit or condone exploitive labor
Several cases of trafficking involve victimization of persons
and sexual exploitation, tolerate or fail to regulate unscrupuIMMIGRANT OR REFUGEE STATUS
lous business practices, and maintain status inequalities and
Immigrants, refugees, asylees, and internally displaced persons
marginalization all contribute to the phenomenon. Factors that
(people displaced within their own nation by economic status, polit-
undermine an individual’s capabilities for self-protection or that
ical upheaval, natural disasters, or armed conflict) are susceptible
disrupt her connection to social and familial protection increase
to human trafficking because of social isolation, language barriers,
her vulnerability. Therapeutic response to survivors of trafficking
and lack of a reliable source of protection (Free the Slaves & Human
requires sensitivity to the unique constellation of factors that
Rights Center, 2004; Gajic-Veljanoski & Stewart, 2007; Hodge,
contributed to that survivor’s victimization. Primary prevention
2008; Human Rights Watch, 2001, 2012; Kara, 2010; Sturdevant &
of future victimization requires addressing the persistent social,
Stoltzfus, 1992; U.S. Department of State, 2011b; U.S. Department
economic, and political factors that place populations at risk.
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