The slave down the block

Editor’s note: This is the first of a three-part series on human trafficking scheduled to appear in The CS&T.

By Father William Ayres

The Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln took effect January 1, 1863, freeing all those held as slaves in this country.

Although we know there were difficult days before the end of the American Civil War, and that racism in its many evil forms continues to exist even in our day, we tend to think that slavery truly ended at the end of that war.

But the grim reality is that true slavery exists —right now — in our country and region, and, perhaps, even on our block.

Hard to believe? Surely.

But that is the truth.

The federal government is currently working with many organizations, including Catholic Social Services, to identify and help the victims of slavery, and to prosecute those who enslave them.

The United Nations defines human trafficking as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability, or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of [one] person [who has] control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.”

The number of victims in this human traffic are generally estimated at between 600,000 and 800,000 persons annually, although some estimates are much higher.

As many as 17,500 new slaves are brought to United States each year. They are forced to work in sweatshops or brothels; they are used in pornography, or they wind up as domestic help.

Many people are lured into this situation in their homelands by the promise of a better life in the United States. They are told that a bright future awaits them here.

When they arrive, their documents are generally confiscated and their job is a far cry from what they were led to expect. Then they’re told they owe a huge debt for their transport and that they have to pay exaggerated amounts for lodging, food, and personal necessities. One victim was being charged $20 for a nail file.

My first personal experience with victims of trafficking was in 1994, when I was studying at Mount Angel Seminary in Western Oregon.
One day, the Benedictine nuns who ran a local shelter for migrant workers called and asked if some of us could come to help with men who were being brought to the shelter.

Some government agency — I don’t remember which — had raided a Christmas tree farm where 30 men, mostly Mexicans, lived in horrendous conditions. They worked the farm during the day and were locked in a basement the rest of the time, with one blanket for two or three men.

If you’ve been to Portland or other areas west of the Cascade Mountains, you know it is damp and chilly six to nine months a year. It’s easy to imagine how miserable that basement was.

The exploitation takes many forms. The UN says it includes “at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.”

It’s not something that we think about often, or even notice it.

The government’s ad campaign about this issue uses as its slogan “Look Beneath the Surface.” Things aren’t always what they seem, and horrifying crimes are committed where we least expect them — even right before our eyes.

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 helped to provide some assistance and rights to victims, but government officials admit they have great trouble identifying true victims.

Of the 17,500 new victims are brought into the country per year, U.S. officials say only about 500 have been formally identified in three-and-a-half fiscal years.

Prosecuting human traffickers and aiding their victims remain a great challenge. Catholic Charities throughout the country, including our office here in Philadelphia, have benefited from some grants that help serve victims when they are found. The biggest challenge is that often the victims don’t even realize they’re being victimized — they assume that their plight is “just the way things are.”

And, questions about slavery are not the sort of questions that are easily asked.

But the crime is real, and the victims of modern-day slavery are suffering in our midst.

Narcotics trafficking is still the most profitable crime in world — but human trafficking is tied with arms smuggling as the second most profitable. And it’s gaining.

For more information on human trafficking, see the Department of Health and Human Services website, www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking.
Father Ayres is Director of the Office for Pastoral Care for Migrants and Refugees of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.