The slaves of New York
Errol Louis, Columnist
NY Daily News
Jan 14, 2007
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/col/story/488601p-411400c.html
Albany needs to wake up and pass a law that will quash human traffickers and
protect the most vulnerable
Human slavery - not just crummy pay and lousy work conditions, but outright
forced servitude, including the kidnapping, buying and selling of people - is
going on in New York City, which is a major hub and destination in a monstrous,
global slave trade.
The modern resurgence of this ancient horror will continue for exactly as long
as cynical politicians and an apathetic public allow it.
Some estimates put the number of people in bondage worldwide at 12 million,
with as many as 17,500 people newly smuggled into the U.S. every year to be
forced, or sold, into brothels, sweatshops and domestic service. Many are women
and children, and you may be walking past them every day.
"New York is a major port of entry, transit and destination for human trafficking,"
says Taina Bien-Aime, the executive director of Equality Now, a Manhattan-based
international human rights group. "It's in our own backyard."
In 2005, my Daily News colleague Nicole Bode traveled to the slums of Tijuana,
Mexico, to trace one strand of the slavery network from the Southwest border
to the streets and brothels of New York.
"Pimps promise to smuggle the impressionable girls into the United States,
telling them they can get jobs as nannies, cooks and maids - making enough money
to support their families back home," Bode wrote. "These traffickers
charge the girls as much as $7,500 in illicit crossing fees - but once they
get to the United States, the girls are raped and forced into prostitution.
By the time the girls realize they have been kidnapped, it's too late for them
to escape."
A few months later, sexual servitude burst into the headlines again when a Korean
couple accused of running brothels in Queens allegedly bribed two undercover
cops.
That led to a federal investigation that netted dozens of arrests and freed
70 sex workers caught up in a multistate human trafficking network stretching
from Rhode Island to Virginia.
Much to its credit, the Bush administration has put modern slavery high on its
agenda, committing hundreds of millions of dollars and using the bully pulpit
of the White House to condemn the practice.
But New York remains one of several states with no law that specifically outlaws
trafficking.
That's a loophole that pimps and traffickers exploit: When a city brothel is
busted, for instance, traffickers often get charged with minor crimes like promoting
prostitution, which result in little or no prison time.
In many cases, women and children aren't directly threatened with rape or kidnapping,
which are serious crimes in New York.
Instead, traffickers threaten to harm the victims' family in faraway places
like Mexico, Korea or Albania - and the lack of a powerful, focused law lets
the criminals get away with it.
"The standard person does not literally have a gun to their head,"
says Bien-Aime.
Every Thursday - beginning last week - Equality Now and other concerned groups
and individuals gather on the steps of Manhattan Supreme Court at 60 Centre
St. at 12:30 p.m. Dubbed the "Albany Watch" campaign, the protesters
shine a light on the New York State Legislature, which has failed for two years
running to pass a meaningful law to curb human trafficking in New York.
Last year, for instance, 100 Assembly members voted for a strong anti-trafficking
bill - only to see the bill crippled at the last minute when trafficking was
defined as a Class D nonviolent felony that would almost never result in jail
time for offenders. The Senate passed an equally weak bill, and the two houses
never reconciled them - so nothing happened.
New York can, and must, do better. March 2 will mark the 200th anniversary of
the day Thomas Jefferson signed the law ending the Atlantic slave trade.
There would be no better time for New York's lawmakers to play catchup and take
serious steps to abolish this great evil.
Originally published on January 14, 2007
