Slave Next Door (55 page)

can be directed toward helping trafficking victims in America, and—with

the right incentive and direction—it can be done on a massive scale.5

Spreading the Word

Now that you’re familiar with the issue of human trafficking in today’s

America, don’t keep it to yourself. You can help educate people in your

community about how to identify slavery and trafficking, particularly

those who are most likely to come into contact with victims: law

enforcement officials, medical workers, restaurant inspectors, transit

workers, service station employees, and others who regularly interact

with the public. If you go to MeetUp.com, you will find antislavery and

antitrafficking MeetUp groups in several cities around the country. This

is a great way to meet other people who are working to end slavery in

America. Below are some other ways to get the word out and to join

with others who want to end slavery in America.

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W R I T E Y O U R C O N G R E S S M A N

It’s no secret that our politicians tend not to move on an issue without

pressure from their constituency; that’s us. Write or e-mail your local,

state, and federal government representatives. Don’t assume they are

familiar with the issue; tell them what you think they should know, and

encourage them to act. We will shortly list a number of actions you can

suggest they take.

J O I N O R C R E AT E A M E D I A C A M PA I G N

Many antitrafficking groups carry on Internet awareness campaigns.

MoveOn.org did an impressive job of it, and they started with just a

person and a message. They need people like you to take part, share

information, and bring other people into the discussion. The investment

can be minimal, and the number of potential recipients is vast and grow-

ing. Look at YouTube! And while you’re at it, write an OpEd column or

a letter to the editor of your favorite newspaper or magazine.

J O I N O R C R E AT E A N E I G H B O R H O O D W AT C H

O R I N T E R E S T G R O U P

For this, you will want to involve local service providers, law enforce-

ment, teachers, librarians, parents, faith leaders, and government offi-

cials. You should meet regularly, stay up to date on all trafficking-related

issues and developments, and create strategies for monitoring possible

trafficking activity within the community. If there are already

Neighborhood Watch groups in your community, make sure that human

trafficking is included in what members are watching for.

S P O N S O R P R O G R A M S

You can arrange with local men’s and women’s clubs, PTA groups, high

schools, colleges, faith leaders, and community centers to sponsor

speakers who are professionals in the antitrafficking field and to screen

relevant DVDs. The thirty-minute film
Dreams Die Hard
is a powerful

introduction to slavery in America and is available from Free the Slaves.

It can be shown free and can be previewed on the Internet (YouTube

style) and purchased at www.freetheslaves.net.

S H A R E W H AT Y O U ’ V E L E A R N E D

Make certain that resource materials, including this book and the

Slavery Still Exists
pamphlet, are available at municipal, school, and col-

lege libraries, bookstores, senior citizen and community centers, police

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departments, and places of worship. Include your name as a community

member willing to discuss and support efforts to stop human trafficking.

Improving Government Per formance

Nearly a decade ago, the government declared war against human traf-

ficking. Dedicated professionals in a number of agencies have applied

their skills to uncovering cases, prosecuting traffickers, and providing

services to victims. And as with any new cause—and any political

agenda—there is tremendous need for growth. Experience has shown,

in the words of a high-ranking official at the Department of Justice, that

there is simply “not enough—of everything: time, money, resources.”6

And while progress has been made, at times money has been wasted and

focus lost. Here, then, are some suggestions, made in the interest of

keeping the government on track, as well as pointing out specific areas

that could benefit from serious attention.

E L I M I N AT E S L AV E L A B O R F R O M G O V E R N M E N T

C O N T R A C T S

Contracts awarded by the U.S. government have fueled human traffick-

ing in the building of the new U.S. Embassy in Iraq and on military

bases here at home. Despite warnings from Congress, there are con-

cerns that the practice may be continuing. The federal government must

back up its zero-tolerance policy on the use of forced labor in its works

and monitor and debar any contractors who directly or through sub-

contractors use tax dollars to enable human trafficking. It should make

those contracts transparent. We have to keep our own house clean if the

fight against slavery is to succeed.

P U T F A I R N E S S I N T H E V I S A P R O G R A M

There are blatant inequalities in the award of visas for workers entering

the United States. For example, a nineteen-year-old French or British

girl coming here as an au pair receives a J-1 visa and with it monitoring,

orientation programs, a guaranteed salary, and money for education—all

the care and attention that we would hope for if our own children were

traveling as workers abroad. Meanwhile, a nineteen-year-old Cameroonian

girl coming to the United States for the same job receives a B-1 visa and

a quick visual inspection at the airport. There is no record made of her

address in the United States, no monitoring, no guaranteed salary,

nothing to prevent her from becoming enslaved. This imbalance must

be corrected.

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P R O T E C T A N D R E S P E C T O U R G U E S T W O R K E R S

At various times, America requires outside labor, and the Guest Worker

Program helps to meet that need. But it fails miserably in caring for

these guests in our country. While the program provides for the sup-

port and protection of our guest workers, in case after case these pro-

visions are not enforced. As a result, a system designed to import free

labor at a fair wage is delivering men and women into slavery, with

little or no government supervision to prevent it. This program must

be monitored and its rules enforced. The program requires more labor

inspectors, tighter employer screening, and a provision that allows

workers the freedom to seek new employers should they be dissatisfied

or mistreated.

G I V E L A B O R R I G H T S T O O U R F A R M W O R K E R S

A N D D O M E S T I C S

When it was passed in the 1930s, the National Labor Relations Act

brought fair working conditions to millions of workers in America.

Largely because of pressure from southern congressmen, two cate-

gories were excluded—farmworkers and domestics. Sadly, these two

groups of workers are still denied the rights enjoyed by all other work-

ers. The provisions and protections of the NLRA should be immedi-

ately extended to cover these workers; otherwise, as recent history has

shown, they will continue to be more susceptible to enslavement than

other workers in America.

A D D R E S S T H E I S S U E O F S L AV E - M A D E G O O D S

America has an excellent law that provides for the seizure of suspicious,

or “hot,” goods, but only if they were made within the United States.

This means that if the Customs Service doesn’t catch slave-made goods

at the border there is no second chance. The “hot goods” seizure law

should be immediately extended to encompass all slave-made goods,

regardless of the place of origin, so that they can be stopped and confis-

cated before they reach our homes.

The Cocoa Protocol, described in chapter 6, has shown that an

industry working together with human rights groups, consumer groups,

and labor unions can remove slavery from the products we buy. This

model needs to be fostered and extended to other American industries

whose products are tainted with slavery: sugar, cotton and clothing, fish

and shrimp, iron and steel (in such goods as cars and car parts, plumb-

ing fixtures, furniture), wood (everything from houses to fine cellos),

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electronics, handwoven rugs, and many others. Government can

encourage businesses and the antislavery movement in this process so

that stakeholders come together to clean up supply chains.

T O T H E V I C T I M S S H O U L D G O T H E P R O F I T S

Slavery is the theft of labor; it’s usually a crime about profit. Yet the

assets seized from convicted traffickers go into law enforcement’s

budget, not into helping the slaves rebuild their lives. Imagine for a

moment that a burglar takes your television and is later arrested, and

the
police
get to keep or sell your TV. Absurd and unfair though that

might sound, the current slavery law, the Trafficking Victims Protection

Act (TVPA), does just that. It is right that police have the authority to

seize the assets of slaveholders, but these assets represent what was

stolen from the slaves and should be returned to them, in the form of

either services or straightforward restitution.

P R O V I D E B E T T E R V I C T I M S E R V I C E S

Beyond locating victims of slavery, the government has a responsibility

to provide better care and services for them once they’re free. A number

of areas need immediate attention. As the system is now structured,

each survivor is allowed the same amount of time and services, regard-

less of the nature and period of enslavement. This policy is both unreal-

istic and severely limited in its effectiveness. It is the government’s

responsibility to ensure that no one is trafficked into slavery within our

borders; therefore, when a victim of slavery is found, the government

must be prepared to give that person whatever services are needed—

and all the time required—for recovery and readjustment. Each survivor

of human trafficking is entitled to physical and mental health services,

housing, language training, and legal and employment counseling. It

will mean additional funding across the board, but considering how low

the existing budget is, it would be money well spent. Anything less is

dereliction.

Another practice that needs immediate replacement is the per capita

system. As you read in chapter 9, it provides piecemeal funding only as

each victim is found, thereby placing undue responsibility and danger

on the NGOs. This system was wrongheaded from the start and has

proven to be a lopsided failure. Bona fide victim service providers with

long-standing records have had funding cut so severely that many are

struggling to remain open, as pressure is put on them to find their own

victims—a job that is better left to local and state law enforcement. And

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allocating funding on the basis of religious or political agendas is a sure

way to deny victims access to some of the best nonprofit organizations

in the country.

Q U A N T I F Y T H E R E S U LT S

Since the passage of the TVPA, the government has been handing out

money—under one program or another—with little accountability.

Among NGOs and government agencies alike, the consensus is, there

is too much we simply don’t know. One sure way to determine the suc-

cess or failure of the current war on human trafficking is through an

independent, structured program of monitoring and regular evalua-

tion. This means that we need to require that contracts be awarded

transparently and competitively, consistent with current law. It is also

important that antitrafficking efforts encompass reintegration efforts,

place further emphasis on individual care plans for each survivor, and

provide realistic and properly resourced programs for local follow up

and monitoring of survivors. Performance goals must provide suffi-

cient flexibility to ensure this. In addition, as recommended by the

U.S. Government Accountability Office report, performance indica-

tors should measure the extent of local community engagement in pre-

venting trafficking, since the lack of community involvement where

antitrafficking programs are targeted will likely undermine the success

of such programs.

T R A I N P O L I C E T O F I N D V I C T I M S

If the government’s numbers can be believed, only a small fraction of

human trafficking cases are being uncovered. And although the number

of prosecutions has increased over the past few years, these prosecu-