Greetings! For the past few months we have been focusing on sex trafficking as the topic of our newsletters. This month I would like to address international labor trafficking and how victims are trafficked.  According to the 2010 report Trafficking In Persons: U.S. Policy and Issues for Congress, roughly 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year. While trafficking comes in many forms, for this newsletter we will specifically focus on labor trafficking.  One of the resources listed at the end of this newsletter is this short video.  I highly recommend watching it as it brings excellent insight into this subject and the people that are affected.

Labor Trafficking appears in many forms such as:

• Small Business Workers (Nail Salon, Hair Salon, Dry Cleaners)
• Restaurant/Buffet Workers
• Construction workers
• Agriculture/Farm Workers
• Domestic Servants (Nannies, Housekeepers)

How Does A Person Become A Trafficking Victim?

International trafficking is very lucrative and traffickers can afford to put time and energy into luring their trafficking victims.  Many victims are lured from poverty stricken nations into Europe or the United States. For the purpose of this letter, Asia and the United States are my primary examples, however this type of trafficking is happening all over the world.

Global Recruitment

Recruitment and fraud of this kind happen all the time in poverty stricken nations.  Openings are advertised in these countries for “prosperous” jobs in the  United States or other nations.  Recruiters advertise through local newspapers or direct mail.  Sometimes they rent a storefront to operate out of, making themselves appear legitimate and credible, and then pack up and move to another town after 1-2 weeks – never to be seen again.

Traffickers hold community presentations advertising jobs that appear to pay workers thousands of dollars, which they can send back to their families.  Their targets are told that the jobs are legal, their documentation will be legal, working conditions are good and they can quit and move back home whenever they want.  Housing and food is provided. All applicants must do is pay a certain amount of money – to offset the initial transportation costs – which they can earn back within several months of working.  Any money earned after that will be pure profit to send to their families.  They can have the American Dream!  What these applicants don’t know is that these are all lies.

Debt Peonage

Once an applicant has decided that he or she would like to take the advertised job and has been approved by the recruiter, all he or she needs to do is to provide the transport fee to the recruiter.  In 2012 the average cost to be transported to America from Asia was $10,000 - $20,000 US Dollars.  The applicant would take out a loan from the bank in this amount.  Unfortunately, banks and loan sharks often work together in these situations.  When the applicant arrives for work in the U.S., they will then start sending payments to the bank/loan shark to pay off their debt.  But upon arriving to the U.S., applicants are stripped of all their papers and documentation.  Many are told that they are actually illegal immigrants (when they were promised legal entry into the country) and that they will be sent to jail or deported if they talk to the police.  It is at this time that they are informed what their true job, pay, and working conditions will be.

Working Conditions

Working conditions are brutal.  Who would choose to work 16 hour days in the hot sun, with little breaks, picking oranges for a few dollars per day?  Or working 14 hour days at a restaurant, never being allowed to talk to others or to leave the premises?  Jobs are varied and can include working as a cook or waiter in a restaurant, working at a small business such as a nail or hair salon, or even sex slavery (working at a “massage parlor”).  The key in these situations is:

• Jobs often include a specific skill set, where workers can be relatively isolated.
• Workers documentation and ID are kept from them.
• Workers are not allowed basic freedom – leaving their workplace, talking to others. • Workers are denied basic rights (normal work breaks, minimal food, sleep on floor, etc.)
• Workers are often abused and neglected; many are sexually abused.

Workers must continue working, in order to pay off their debt.  If a payment is missed, their family back home may be threatened.  If a worker complains about their working conditions, they risk being fired.  To be fired means no income, in which a workers family can be hurt or their home property being taken away.  The workers and their families are left with little recourse.

Why Not Deportation?

One might ask – Why not go to the police, risk deportation or simply run away?  There are several answers to this:

• Where Do You Go? – Many times victims have only traveled 10 – 15 kilometers from their village in their entire life.  If they were to escape, how would they get home?  How would they pay for a plane ticket to travel 2,000 miles home?  The only people they know with the power, knowledge and resources to do that are  their traffickers.
• The Threat of Jail – Jail is a real and fearful threat to most immigrants.   Immigrants coming to America from third world nations often have a different idea of “jail” than we do in America.  Jail in America is dangerous and while no one wants to go there, food, clothing and shelter are provided.  In developing countries jail is “hell on earth”.  Jails there are often run for the financial benefit of the jailer.  If a family member or friend does not come and pay your debt, the jail keeper has little to no motivation to keep you alive, let alone make sure you are safe or fed.  Traffickers remind their victims of this, and use lying and brainwashing to keep their victims obedient.
• Deportation – If a trafficking victim turns to the police and is deported, he or she can return home. The problem is the debt they still owe to the bank/loan shark.  Even if they are no longer working in unsafe and abusive working conditions, their loan shark back home is working – and will still require the $10,000 - $20,000 US Dollar payment for the original loan.  How do they repay that money?

This month pray for labor trafficking victims:

• Prevention – Pray for wisdom for potential victims, that they would not fall for the schemes of traffickers and recruiters.
• Prevention – Pray for provision for families, for food, water and basic needs to be met.
• Pray for the freedom of victims currently trapped in labor trafficking.  Pray for wisdom, safety, and the safety of their families.
• Proclaim the true life, purpose and destiny of trafficking victims.  They have been bought and paid for – by JESUS.
• Pray for traffickers and recruiters to have an encounter with Jesus Christ and change their ways.
• Pray for the rescue work of Anti-Trafficking organizations.  Many are very active in rescuing labor trafficking victims and prosecuting traffickers.  Pray for the rescuers, prosecutors, and their families.
• Pray for justice.  Pray for righteousness to rule in the nations.

U.S. National Hotline

If you live in the U.S. and see something suspicious you can call the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline. 1-888-3737-888 Your phone call may be the tipping point for an investigation.

Standing in the gap with you,

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Anti-Trafficking Specialist
Aglow International

Suggested Resources For This Month

This YouTube video puts faces and voices to the above information. It is about 7 minutes long.

Book - The Road of Lost Innocence: The True Story of a Cambodian Heroine by Somaly Mam.  This book gives an eye opening look into sex slavery in Cambodia.

Upcoming Newsletter Focus

Next month we will take a more in depth look at International Sex Trafficking.