Harms to Society
(from the 2004 Trafficking in Persons Report produced by the U.S. Department of State)

Victims of human trafficking pay a horrible price. Physical and psychological harm, including disease and stunted growth, often has permanent effects, ostracizing trafficking victims from their families and communities. Trafficking victims often miss critical opportunities for social, moral, and spiritual development. In many cases the exploitation of trafficking victims is progressive: a child trafficked into one form of labor may be further abused in another. In Nepal, girls recruited to work in carpet factories, hotels, and restaurants have been forced later into the sex industry in India. In the Philippines, and in many other countries, children who initially migrate or are recruited for the hotel and tourism industry, often end up trapped in brothels. A brutal reality of the modern-day slave trade is that its victims are all too often bought and sold many times over.

Victims forced into sex slavery are often subdued with drugs and suffer extreme violence. Victims trafficked for sexual exploitation suffer physical and emotional damage from premature sexual activity, forced substance abuse, and exposure to sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS. Some victims suffer permanent damage to their reproductive organs. Moreover, the victim is typically trafficked to a location where he or she cannot speak or understand the language, compounding the psychological damage from isolation and domination. Ironically, the human capacity to endure unspeakable hardship and deprivation leads many trapped victims to continue to work, hoping for eventual freedom.

Trafficking in Persons Is a Human Rights Violation

Fundamentally, trafficking in persons violates the universal human right to life, liberty, and freedom from slavery in all its forms. Trafficking of children undermines the basic need of a child to grow up in a protective environment and the right to be free from sexual abuse and exploitation.

Trafficking Promotes Social Breakdown

The loss of family and community support networks renders the trafficking victim vulnerable to the traffickers demands and threats, and contributes in several ways to the breakdown of social structures. Trafficking weakens parental authority, undermines extended family ties, and prevents the nurturing and moral development of children. Trafficking interrupts the passage of knowledge and cultural values from parent to child and from generation to generation, weakening a core pillar of society. The profits from trafficking often allow the practice to take root in a particular community, which is then repeatedly exploited as a ready source of victims. The fear of becoming a trafficking victim can lead vulnerable groups such as children and young women to go into hiding, with adverse effects on their schooling or family structure. The loss of education reduces victims future economic opportunities and increases their vulnerability to being trafficked in the future. Victims who are able to return to their communities often find themselves stigmatized and ostracized, and require continuing social services. They are more likely to become involved in substance abuse and criminal activity.

Trafficking Fuels Organized Crime

 The profits from human trafficking fuel other criminal activities. According to the UN, human trafficking is the third largest criminal enterprise worldwide, generating an estimated 9.5 billion USD in annual revenue according to the U.S. intelligence community. It is also one of the most lucrative criminal enterprises, and is closely connected with money laundering, drug trafficking, document forgery, and human smuggling. There have also been documented ties to terrorism. Where organized crime flourishes, governments and the rule of law are weakened.

Trafficking Deprives Countries of Human Capital

 Trafficking has a negative impact on labor markets, contributing to an irretrievable loss of human resources. Some effects of trafficking include depressed wages, fewer individuals left to care for an increasing number of elderly persons, and an undereducated generation. These effects further lead to the loss of future productivity and earning power. Forcing children to work 10 to 18 hours per day at an early age denies them access to education and reinforces the cycle of poverty and illiteracy that stunts national development.

Trafficking Undermines Public Health

 Victims of trafficking often endure brutal conditions that result in physical, sexual and psychological trauma. Sexually transmitted infections, pelvic inflammatory disease, and HIV/AIDS are often the result of forced prostitution. Anxiety, insomnia, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder are common psychological manifestations among trafficked victims. Unsanitary and crowded living conditions, coupled with poor nutrition, foster a host of adverse health conditions such as scabies, tuberculosis, and other communicable diseases. Children suffer growth and development problems and develop complex psychological and neurological consequences from deprivation and trauma.
The most egregious abuses are often borne by children, who are more easily controlled and forced into domestic service, armed conflict, and other hazardous forms of work. Children may be subjected to progressive exploitation, i.e., resold several times and subjected to an array of physical, sexual and mental abuse. This abuse complicates their psychological and physical rehabilitation and jeopardizes their reintegration.

Trafficking Subverts Government Authority

 Many governments struggle to exercise full control over their national territory, particularly where corruption is prevalent. Armed conflicts, natural disasters, and political or ethnic struggles often create large populations of internally displaced persons. Human trafficking operations further undermine government efforts to exert its authority, threatening the security of vulnerable populations. Many governments are unable to protect women and children who are kidnapped from their homes and schools or from refugee camps. Moreover, the bribes paid by traffickers impede a government’s ability to battle corruption among law enforcement, immigration, and judicial officials.

Trafficking Imposes Enormous Economic Costs.

 There are tremendous economic benefits to be gained from eliminating trafficking. The International Labor Organization (ILO) recently completed a study on the costs and benefits of eliminating the worst forms of child labor which by definition include child trafficking. The ILO concluded the economic gains from eliminating the worst forms of child labor are substantial (tens of billions of dollars annually) because of the added productive capacity a future generation of workers would gain from increased education and improved public health. The human and social consequences of trafficking often mirror those of the worst forms of child labor.

Sample Cases
Sex Trafficking

^1.        Noi came from a community in rural Thailand. At 15, seeking to escape rape and sexual abuse in her foster family, she found a foreign labor agent in Bangkok who advertised well-paid waitress jobs in Japan. She flew to Japan and later learned that she had entered Japan on a tourist visa under a false identity. On her arrival in Japan, she was taken to a karaoke bar where the owner raped her, subjected her to a blood test and then bought her. “I felt like a piece of flesh being inspected,” she recounted. The brothel madam told Noi that she had to pay off a large debt for her travel expenses. She was warned that girls who tried to escape were brought back by the Japanese mafia, severely beaten, and their debts doubled. The only way to pay off the debt was to see as many clients as quickly as possible. Some clients beat the girls with sticks, belts and chains until they bled. If the victims returned crying, they were beaten by the madam and told that they must have provoked the client. The prostitutes routinely used drugs before sex so that we didn't feel so much pain. Most clients refused to use condoms. The victims were given pills to avoid pregnancy and pregnancies were terminated with home abortions. Victims who managed to pay off their debt and work independently were often arrested by the police before being deported. Noi finally managed to escape with the help of a Japanese NGO.

2.     Katya, with a two year old and a failing marriage in the Czech Republic, followed      the advice of a “friend” that she could make good money as a waitress in the Netherlands. A Czech trafficker drove her along with four other young women to Amsterdam where, joined by a Dutch trafficker, Katya was taken to a brothel. After saying “I will not do this,” she was told, “Yes you will if you want your daughter back in the Czech Republic to live.” After years of threats and forced prostitution Katya was rescued by a friendly cab driver. Katya is now working at a hospital and studying for a degree in social work.

United Statesv. Martinez-Uresti (Texas)

Through Operation Dead End, the San Antonio U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office investigated and the local U.S. Attorneys Office prosecuted a situation in which the defendant Martinez-Uresti executed employment contracts with minor females and their parents, falsely representing that the minor females would work for one year in a restaurant to repay their $1,500 smuggling fee. Once the girls reached the United States, they were held against their will and forced to engage in prostitution to repay the smuggling fee. On October 10, 2003, defendant Maricela Martinez-Uresti pled guilty to sex trafficking of children and human smuggling violations, and was sentenced to 108 months in prison. The co-defendant, Violeta Juanita de Hoyos-Hernandez, pled guilty to human smuggling violations and was sentenced to seven months in prison.

Nasreen was a Tajik girl who worked in Moscow. Her boss asked her to become his mistress, promising money, housing,a car, and a better life. Nasreen agreed to this arrangement. One day, a houseguest offered Nasreen the opportunity to work in Turkey. Nasreens boss pressured her to accept the offer. Nasreen was tricked, and trafficked to Israel for forced prostitution. With the help of a sympathetic journalist, Nasreen was able to escape and return home.

Bopha lived in a rural Cambodian village and married at 17. Her husband immediately took her to a hotel in another village and left her. Bopha discovered the hotel was a brothel and tried to escape, but she was forcibly detained and told she must pay off the price the hotel owner had paid for her. Bophas debt kept increasing due to charges for her food, clothing, and other necessities. Bopha could not leave. Ravaged by HIV/AIDS, she was thrown out on the street and finally found her way to an NGO shelter in Phnom Penh. She has been there for two years receiving treatment; it is not known how much longer Bopha will live.

Labor Trafficking

Tina, a teenager from a rural Indonesian village, incurred hundreds of dollars in debt for four months of domestic service training and board at an Indonesian migrant labor center. From there Tina, like many other Indonesian girls, was transported to Malaysia, believing she would work as a maid for a Malaysian couple. Forced to work up to 15 hours a day in a family business where she slept on the floor, Tina was told her salary would be withheld until she finished her two-year contract. After many instances of physical abuse, she sought refuge at a victims’ shelter of a Malaysian NGO. Tina has filed a complaint with the police against her employer and has been given an extension of her immigration visa in order to pursue her case in Malaysia.

United Statesv. Bradley and O?Dell (New Hampshire)

In a case prosecuted by the Civil Rights Division and the local U.S. Attorneys Office, two U.S. citizens were convicted on eighteen counts of forced labor and wire fraud for their treatment of Jamaican citizens brought to New Hampshire to work in their tree cutting business. The shed in the photograph at right is where the victims slept at night. Bradley and O’Dell were convicted of conspiracy to commit forced labor, forced labor, trafficking for the purpose of forced labor, and illegally confiscating passports for forcing two of these men to work. The convictions were the culmination of a seventeen-month investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Diplomatic Security Service and the Litchfield Police Department and represent the second convictions at trial of violations of the TVPA’s forced labor statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1589.

DISTINCTION BETWEEN HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND

HUMAN SMUGGLING

INTRODUCTION
**Because these are complex crimes, it is not always readily apparent when a "human smuggling" case crosses into the realm of a "human trafficking" crime. Understanding the basic principals outlined in this fact sheet will assist the reader in identifying the subtle differences between each of these crimes.
As in any other area involving complex crimes, it is important to gather and examine as many relevant facts as possible, compare the fact pattern against relevant statutes, and when necessary, seek expert legal advice in making determinations.
BACKGROUND

Trafficking in persons and human smuggling are some of the fastest growing areas of international criminal activity, according to the United Nations.  It often involves a number of different crimes, spanning several countries, and involving an increasing number of victims.  Trafficking in persons (TIP) can be compared to a modern day form of slavery.  It involves the exploitation of people through force, coercion, threat, and deception and includes human rights abuses such as debt bondage, deprivation of liberty, and lack of control over freedom and labor.  Trafficking can be for purposes of sexual exploitation or labor exploitation.
According to U.S. Government estimates, 800,000 to 900,000 victims are trafficked globally each year and 17,500 to 18,500 are trafficked into the United States.  Women and children comprise the largest group of victims.  Trafficking victims are often physically and emotionally abused.  Although TIP is often an international crime that involves the crossing of borders, it is important to note that TIP victims can be trafficked within their own countries and communities. Traffickers can move victims between locations within the same country and often sell them to other trafficking organizations.
While there are significant differences between TIP and human smuggling, the underlying issues that give rise to these illegal activities are often similar.  Generally, extreme poverty, lack of economic opportunities, civil unrest, and political uncertainty, are factors that all contribute to an environment that encourages human smuggling and trafficking in persons.
Although there are similarities in the conditions that give rise to TIP and human smuggling, there are distinct differences in the expectations and treatment of persons being smuggled and the victims of human trafficking.  Additionally, there are significant statutory differences between TIP and human smuggling.
Human Smuggling
Human smuggling is the facilitation, transportation, attempted transportation or illegal entry of a person(s) across an international border, in violation of one or more countries laws, either clandestinely or through deception, such as the use of fraudulent documents.  Often, human smuggling is conducted in order to obtain a financial or other material benefit for the smuggler, although financial gain or material benefit are not necessarily elements of the crime.  For instance, sometimes people engage in smuggling to reunite their families.  Human smuggling is generally with the consent of the person(s) being smuggled, who often pay large sums of money and once in the country of their final destination will generally be left to their own devices.
The vast majority of people who are assisted in illegally entering the United States are smuggled, rather than trafficked.
It is also possible that a person being smuggled may at any point become a trafficking victim.
The Immigration and Nationalization Act, Section 274(a)(1), (2), provides for criminal penalties under Title 8, United States Code, Section 1324, for acts or attempts to bring unauthorized aliens to or into the United States, transport them within the U.S., harbor unlawful aliens, encourage entry of illegal aliens, or conspire to commit these violations, knowingly or in reckless disregard of illegal status.

Trafficking in Persons

On October 28, 2000, Congress passed the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 (VTVPA). The VTVPA is a comprehensive statute that addresses the recurring and significant problem of the illegal trafficking of persons for the purpose of committing commercial sex acts, or to subject them to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.  It also is designed to increase the protection available to victims of trafficking and other types of violent crimes.  It is an attempt to address these issues on a national and international level, and affects many government and non-government agencies and organizations.
Unlike smuggling, which is often a criminal commercial transaction between two willing parties who go their separate ways once their business is complete, trafficking specifically targets the trafficked person as an object of criminal exploitation.  The purpose from the beginning of the trafficking enterprise is to profit from the exploitation of the victim.  It follows that fraud, force or coercion all play a major role in trafficking.
It may be difficult to make a determination between a smuggling and trafficking case in the initial phase.  Trafficking often includes an element of smuggling, specifically, the illegal crossing of a border.  In some cases the victim may believe they are being smuggled, but are really being trafficked, as they are unaware of their fate.  For example, there have been cases where women trafficked for sexual exploitation may have knowingly agreed to work in the sex industry and believed that they would have decent conditions and be paid a decent wage.  What they did not realize is that the traffickers would take most or all of their income, keep them in bondage and subject them to physical force or sexual violence.  Or, the victims may have believed they were being smuggled into the United States where they would be given a job as a nanny or model, later realizing that the so-called smugglers deceived them and that they would be forced to work in the sex industry.
Conversely, persons being smuggled willingly enter into "contracts" with the smugglers to work off a smuggling debt.  They may live in squalid conditions, but when the debt is paid, they are free to leave.  Thus, it is often necessary to look at a person’s final circumstances to determine if the person is willingly complicit in a smuggling endeavor, or the victim of traffickers.
According to The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, severe forms of trafficking in persons always includes the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for one of the three following purposes:
1.     Labor or services, through the use of force, fraud or coercion, AND resulting in involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery; OR
2.     Commercial sex act, through the use of force, fraud or coercion; OR
3.     If the person is under 18 years of age, any commercial sex act, whether or not force, fraud or coercion is involved.
Human trafficking does not require the crossing of an international border – it does not even require the transportation of victims from one locale to another.  Victims of severe forms of trafficking are not all illegal aliens; they may, in fact, be U.S. citizens, legal residents, or visitors.  Victims do not have to be women or children – they may also be adult males.
While trafficking victims are often found in sweatshops, domestic work, restaurant work, agricultural labor, prostitution and sex entertainment, they may be found anywhere in the U.S. doing almost anything profitable to their handlers.  Victims may not even recognize that they have been victimized, or may be forced into protecting their exploiters, so self-proclamation of their status is not required.
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 also provides tools to combat trafficking in persons both worldwide and domestically.  The Act recognizes the need to protect the victims while gaining their cooperation by providing a safe haven.  Section 107(c)(3) reads: "Authority to Permit Continued Presence in the United States.--Federal law enforcement officials may permit an alien individual's continued presence in the United States, if after an assessment, it is determined that such individual is a victim of a severe form of trafficking and a potential witness to such trafficking, in order to effectuate prosecution of those responsible, and such officials in investigating and prosecuting traffickers shall protect the safety of trafficking victims, including taking measures to protect trafficked persons and their family members from intimidation, threats of reprisals, and reprisals from traffickers and their associates."
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND SMUGGLING

In some cases it may be difficult to quickly ascertain whether a case is one of human smuggling or trafficking.  As will be illustrated in the scenarios below, the distinction between smuggling and trafficking are often very subtle, but key components that will always distinguish trafficking from smuggling are the elements of fraud, force, or coercion.  However, under U.S. law, if the person is under 18 and induced to perform a commercial sex act, then it is considered trafficking, regardless of whether or not fraud, force, or coercion is involved.
CASE EXAMPLES AND SCENARIOS

• Sonia was invited to come to the United States by family friends and told that she could work for them as a housekeeper, and they would pay her $100.00 a week.  Sonia was provided with fraudulent documents and departed for the United States with her new employer.  She knew that this was illegal, but she needed the money, and was willing to take the risk.

Was Sonia smuggled or trafficked?
Sonia was smuggled into the United States.  She left willingly with full knowledge that she was entering the United States illegally.
Upon arriving in the United States, Sonia was kept in isolation, she was given a place to sleep in the basement and told not to speak to anyone or she would be turned over to the Immigration Service.  Sonia was never paid for her work and felt that she had no one to turn to for help.
Was Sonia smuggled or trafficked?  At this point Sonia was restricted from leaving the house, threatened with deportation if she attempted to talk to anyone, and forced into involuntary servitude.  Sonia is a victim of trafficking.

• A recruiting agency in India was looking for welders to work at a company in the United States for $10.00 an hour.  The agency charged each perspective worker a non-refundable $2,500.00 application fee.  Enroute to the United States the workers were given contracts to sign.  The contracts obligated the workers to work for the next six months for less than $3.00 per hour.  They were told to sign the contracts or they would be sent back home.  The workers felt that they could not back out because they had invested all their savings, and were already on their way to the United States.  Once they arrived, they were confined to the factory grounds and the owner of the company kept their passports.

Were the workers smuggled or trafficked?   The workers were victims of severe forms of trafficking in persons.
The workers were transported for the purposes of labor through the use of fraud and coercion, which resulted in the workers being subjected to involuntary servitude.  Confiscation of the workers' passports by the employer also caused the workers to believe that they were forced to stay with the company.

• Local law enforcement authorities executed a search warrant at a brothel and arrested three 17-year-old girls for prostitution.  The Department of Family Services notified Immigration and Customs Enforcement concerning the illegal immigration status of the three juveniles.  Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents interviewed the three juveniles and learned that they were smuggled into the United States.

Were the girls smuggled or trafficked?  The girls were trafficked into the United States.  All three girls were juveniles and were performing commercial sex acts.  Since the girls were under 18 years of age, they would be considered victims of severe forms of trafficking, regardless of whether or not they have consented to participate or paid to be brought illegally into the U.S.

• A husband and wife in the United States convince their relatives in India to allow their daughters to travel to the United States to receive an education.  The husband and wife are the aunt and uncle to the girls, and have promised the girls' parents that they would provide housing and support for the girls. In order for the girls to receive a student visa, their aunt and uncle enrolled the girls in school.  The girls are granted student visas and allowed to enter the U.S. to receive an education.

Once the girls arrive in the U.S. their aunt and uncle immediately tell them that they won’t be attending school.  The aunt and uncle never intended to have the girls attend school and only enrolled them for the purpose of fraudulently obtaining the entry visas.  At this point, the girls have unwittingly been smuggled into the U.S. through the use of visa fraud.
During the next several weeks the girls are locked in a basement and continually told that if they try to leave they would be arrested for their involvement in the visa fraud.  Eventually their uncle takes the girls to local motels where they are made to clean rooms and provide janitorial services. The girls are never paid for their work, all their identification has been taken away, and they are continually reminded that they could be arrested for their involvement in visa fraud.  Because the girls are being held against their will through coercion and intimidation and are being forced to work for no pay, they are now victims of trafficking.