SPOTLIGHT CASE Human Trafficking Awareness Thread

Kimster said:

Sadly, while we as a society have failed to adequately register the importance of family on our children, those who prey on young people understand it all too well. According to a study conducted through the University of Pennsylvania, 75% of known child prostitutes work for pimps, who are adept at creating a pseudo-family environment by promising money, love and affection to children coming from dysfunctional homes who are seeking care and nourishment. These sexual predators then strip these children of whatever money they make and severely abuse them in order to establish a relationship of dependency.

So where does this leave the thousands of young people forced to sell themselves for sex every day just to survive to see the next day?

There are few cut-and-dried solutions. We can continue to throw money at the government -- with its task forces, sting operations and initiatives -- and comfort ourselves that something is being done. We can continue to give money to our churches and synagogues in the hopes that they will do something, perhaps by focusing on the inner cities and offering counseling and assistance to these cast-off children. We can even contact our representatives and insist that they get tough on crime by showing "no leniency" to sexual predators.

However, until each of us gets serious about this crisis, until we all start doing our part to target the underlying societal causes -- poverty, drug abuse and dysfunctional family units -- the gains will continue to be minimal. And tragically, it will be the children who pay the price for our neglect. <snipped>

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-w-whitehead/children-of-the-night-chi_b_115348.html

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Kimster said:

Let's be sure we are ready for the chat with Marc Klaas tomorrow!!! He's been working on creating public awareness to this issue for quite awhile and I'm anticipating that his information will be invaluable.

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Tricia said:

Marc Klaas is going to be here on Tuesday for a live Chat. KlaasKids is a group that is front and center in the battle of human trafficking.

Tuesday 7:00 PM Pacific 10: PM Eastern.

Here are the instructions for the chat.

Chat open for discussion all day, every day! - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community

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Jersey*Girl said:

I wanted to start this thread b/c of the increasing debate between the U.S. & Cuba. There are no other developing industries in Cuba and prostitution has increased so much that it has become a major source of supplemental income for many Cubans. My question is this - If we lift sanctions against Cuba, if we allow for tourism to and from Cuba, will that increase the sex trade industry? It seems as though human trafficking is increasing, which Cuba doesn't recognize publicly, and it scares me when I realize exactly how "cheap" it would be to get what pedos & other sex rats want in Cuba - from what I'm finding it's $3 for yumyum - sick. If we lift sanctions, is there anything we can do to help Cuba crack down on these perverts, or will we make their prostitution industry more populous knowing that Americans lead the world now in sex crimes? Is there anything we can do in anticipation of this, in order to help prevent an increase in trafficking?

Please refer to this link, which is from June of 2008. I haven't found a more recent update yet, but I've been following this development for about 3 years now - it gets worse every year:
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/publisher,USDOS,,CUB,484f9a0f2d,0.html

The following is a snippet from this article, as supplied by The UN Refugee Agency:
Cuba is principally a source country for women and children trafficked within the country for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation. Some families push child victims to prostitute themselves as a means of increasing family income. Cuban children and adults also may be exploited for forced labor. The full scope of trafficking within Cuba is difficult to gauge due to the closed nature of the government and sparse non-governmental or independent reporting. However, by all accounts, the country is a destination for sex tourism, including child sex tourism, which is a problem in many areas of the country. Cuba's thriving sex trade caters to numerous European, Canadian, and Latin American tourists every year. State-run hotel workers, travel employees, cab drivers, and police steer tourists to prostituted women and children and facilitate their commercial sexual exploitation, sometimes extorting money or pay-offs from victims. Limited sex trafficking of Cuban women to Mexico, The Bahamas, and Western Europe has been reported. Some Cuban nationals willingly migrate to the United States, but are subsequently exploited for forced labor by their smugglers. Cuba also is a transit point for the smuggling of migrants from China, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Lebanon, and other nations to the United States and Canada. Some of these migrants may be trafficking victims, who are subject to forced labor, sexual exploitation, and abuse.

The Government of Cuba does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so. Exact information about trafficking in Cuba is difficult to obtain because the government does not publicly release information, and U.S. attempts to engage officials are viewed as politically motivated. Nonetheless, the Government of Cuba does not appear to have made tangible efforts to prosecute offenders, protect victims, or prevent human trafficking activity during the reporting period.

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Jersey*Girl said:

Thank you, SWAG! I am on the fence with regards to sanctions being lifted...reason being is that I feel so bad for the Cuban people. I do think that if sanctions are to be lifted, it should only be done so under certain terms...which is what Castro & his brother will NEVER agree to. I knew several latinos while living in Florida, and one of my most favorite places to visit was South Miami...and in Little Cuba the food is so good that nothing can begin to compare to it...but the crime is incredible. There's so much $$$ in Miami, and alot of it is due to money laundering. Living in Florida and going to college, I encountered some pretty crazy people...which I guess could have come from anywhere...except they were mostly beautiful. Why is it human nature not to second guess people that are nice and good looking, but to second guess people with straggley hair and no-name clothes? Why? Anyway, I can't tell you how many people KNEW about the prostitution even way back then - in Cuba! Living in Cuba is like living in certain parts of Mexico. In America, you might make $2k-$6K per month...there you might only bring home $10 per week (or even month). Women can prostitute and bring home $100 per week in Cuba, therefore being able to provide food & necessities for their families while working less hours! A bj that might cost $20-$30 in NYC only costs $3 in Cuba! This is what worries me, b/c Cuba is ALOT closer than some of these Asian nations that take a blind eye to such indiscretions. Since Cuba is so very close to America, and Puerto Rico is just a hop-skip-&-jump from Cuba, then I'm thinking that sanctions being lifted will only fuel this crime. I know for a fact that many illegals coming from Cuba is what put alot of Miami Americans out of business. Anything in construction gets done alot cheaper if you hire them. Laying asphalt anywhere in the U.S. costs at the minimum $10 per hour, but a Cuban or Mexican (illegal) will do it for half, even though it's under minimum wage! Same goes for drug smuggling. It's such a shame that the Intracoastal Highway / Waterway has become part of the drug runners' path! Makes me sick with all the beautiful marine life in there. I feel so bad for the Cuban people, though. I am just unsure as to the correct avenue to take here. There truly is no industry there, nothing that up and coming...only the rise of prostitution & child labor, plus the growth of various raw packaged drugs...which in turn are flown or floated into the U.S. to be dried, cut, separated, and sold. All for profit, which comes right back to money laundering. We all know Miami is the capital of money laundering, Argentina & Brazil coming in right behind. Makes me a bit scared.

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PorcineGranny said:

Patience, I guess this is a situation where the squeaky wheel gets the grease. We obviously are not aware of this grave situation even though we live among its vilest inhabitants. I think it was Pittsburgirl who said she didn't believe in the Death Penalty but in this case, she felt it was appropriate. ( Shaniya case) I want to state right here, that the death penalty should be used liberally on all those that seek to harm or abuse our children. There should be no second chance, no parole, no probation, no need for those electronic devices that alert others to their whereabouts. The penalty for this crime and every crime against a child in the USA where a child is harmed or killed should be death. There has to be enough fear to abolish even the thought of child abuse.

Alas , we know its not going to happen. These are the times we are living in. Guard your children and pray for their safety and at every opportunity voice your opinion in a voting booth.

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passionflower said:

Thanks Kimster for starting this thread.
I had NO IDEA til Shaniya's case just how bad this is!
Instead of our politicians worrying about other crap,
let's get them started on this issue!
This human trafficing is getting worse than drugs!
We need each town to have petitions for politicians to address this 'secret' in USA!!!

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Jersey*Girl said:

Exactly. It's not as if these perps are defective machinery that can be repaired or have certain parts replaced...plus the injustice done to their victims far outweighs even a death sentence. I'm certain that these victims have to live with the knowledge of what they endured for the rest of their lives, that is if they're "lucky" enough to live through it without being murdered...whereas the offender gets the dp or lwop if the victim was murdered...or some measley sentence where they're back on the streets in mere years if the victim actually lives through their ordeal. Where the heck's the justice in that?What the heck good is a sex offender registry if it can't control the perps? It's great that it informs us innocent people so we can make educated decisions and spread awareness, but seriously, unless they're all on monitoring devices it does nothing for us or our kids. There needs to be stricter guidelines and cut out the gray area that certain states convict guys that are 18 having sex with a 15 y/o that lied about her age...those same states that allow 16 y/o's to marry.

Neighbors hardly speak up anymore. Gone are the days of small town America when every neighborhood had their own Gladys Kravitz. Everybody's too busy with double income families and trying to get their piece of the pie to keep up with the Jones' that trafficking & prostitution has taken a backseat in their knowledge bases. People are getting numb to feeling for strangers and making a difference. This crap has been around forever...just gotten prominently worse when we went to war. I wish the media could focus on this subject and report on it the way they glamorize Brangelina, or the way they report on court cases that have been dead for ages. This is a problem in the here and now and should be addressed right away as it's seriously out of hand, has grown to HUGE proportions involving several international countries, and is probably the wealthiest industry out there. If Obama doesn't recognize this soon and do his share in making a difference with regards to Human Trafficking and child prostitution, people will look at him the same way they did Bush - like he turned a blind eye to it all. That's fine and dandy if they're supporting work behind the scenes with Interpol, the CIA, etc, but if that's the case they should put their money where their mouth is imo. People that enslave & rape other people should be tried & convicted and be punished to corporal punishment in a public avenue - especially if their victim was an innocent child.

:furious: :furious: :furious: :furious: :furious:

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songline said:

Thank you for this thread. I read about 15 posts and got sick.
I really mean I GOT SICK.
Aware that it exists it is still very hard to read this stuff.
I need a brake I will be back this is thread is so important for raising awareness.

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