… National Human Trafficking Awareness Day.
The day was recognized for the first time by the United States last year, by a resolution passed in 2007 and co-authored by now President-elect Barack Obama. Other authors/co-authors from both parties include Diane Feinstein (D-Cal.), John Cornyn (R-Tex.), and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.).
In the U.S., human trafficking criminals usually take advantage of American worker immigration laws.
People who are unfamiliar with the law are brought to the U.S. and conned by these criminals into virtual slavery.
Human trafficking victims are disproportionately Vietnamese. As a result, one of the most effective activist groups of the Vietnamese-American community is, in fact, an anti-trafficking group.
Check out VietACT‘s web site here. The County of Orange also has its own Human Trafficking Task Force, with web site here.
This report here by the New York Times’ Nicholas D. Kristof tells of little Vietnamese girls being kidnapped and sold into brothels in Cambodia where most die of AIDS by the late 20s. (Vietnamese translation here)
Elsewhere, there have been numerous reports of Vietnamese women being sold into slavery in countries all around the world, most notably Taiwan.
More recently, a Japanese labor union has accused Vietnamese embassy officials of trafficking Vietnamese people into the sweatshops of Japan.
In 2000, prompted by a huge human trafficking case involving Vietnamese women enslaved in sweatshops in American Samoa, the U.S. Department of Justice in an effort spearheaded by Assistant A.G. Viet Dinh (the same one who went on to be the main architect of the Patriot Act) created a new class of visas — the “T” visa — to help victims of human trafficking. Read more in this contemporaneous press release by the DOJ here.
Then-Attorney General John Ashcroft said that the T visa “gives victims of human trafficking refuge from the deplorable treatment they endure and sends a clear warning to traffickers that this barbaric action is a fundamental violation of human decency that will not be tolerated.”
For this year’s National Human Trafficking Awareness Day, U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez issued this statement and inserted it into the Congressional Records:
Madame Speaker,
I rise today to recognize the second annual National Human Trafficking Awareness Day on January 11, 2009. Human trafficking is a modern form of slavery, and the largest manifestation of slavery today. It continues to be a multi-dimensional threat that deprives people of their human rights and dignity.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, human trafficking is now the fastest-growing criminal industry in the world. About 80% of transnational victims are women, girls and up to 50% are minors. It is vital that the United States continue to expand our efforts to combat trafficking both within and beyond our own borders.
I am very proud that in my district, a number of agencies, including law enforcement, victims service providers, and community organizations have joined together to form the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force. I hope that more local communities will stand together to protect every person’s right to be free from forced marriage, prostitution, and labor.
Each of us has a responsibility to fight human trafficking and slavery. I urge my colleagues and all Americans to join me in recognizing National Human Trafficking Awareness Day, and working to stop human trafficking around the world.
