Council would criminalize human trafficking

For an estimated 20,000 victims of human trafficking each year, their passage to America is not one of refuge, adventure, or opportunity, but rather of servitude, and the City Council is considering a resolution to recognize trafficking and prosecute its promoters.
After hearing testimony recently from law enforcement officials and refuge groups, the Council considered a resolution - No. 504 - calling on the State to criminalize human trafficking and provide services and programs for its victims.
&#8220Our position is that legislation has to be comprehensive and really targeted to human trafficking,” said Juhu Thukral, the Director of the Sex Workers Project for the Urban Justice Center. &#8220It's very important that people not see this as an issue that is only about prostitution and sex work.”
Thukral, along with NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown, and others, testified about the extent of trafficking in the area.
New York City is considered a main point of entry for immigrants, including those brought to the country as trafficking victims. The majority of those who are trafficked into the country annually - a number that ranges from 14,500 to 20,000 and is overwhelmingly comprised of women and children - are forced to work in the sex trade industry, in sweatshops, on farms, in restaurants, and as nannies, Thukral said.
In her testimony before members of the New York State Assembly last year, Thukral described &#8220Carmen” and &#8220Victoria,” teenage immigrants from Mexico, who were brought to the country by a man who befriended them, then later raped them and forced the girls to work in a brothel.
Thukral said that in the case of &#8220Carmen” and &#8220Victoria,” for whom she eventually found federal assistance, the threat of violence was obvious to law enforcement officers who investigated the case, but in many other cases, more subtle coercion can be used to force trafficking victims to stay put.
&#8220[Traffickers] often don't have to come out and make that complete threat,” she said. &#8220It doesn't really take much to silence them with fear.”
Moreover, in the outer boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn, where many of the residents are immigrants, assistance groups are having a tough time reaching out.
&#8220It's the language but it's also the cultural issues,” Thukral said, explaining that some immigrants are fearful of the authorities.
According to the Department of Justice, 600,000 to 800,000 human beings are trafficked across international borders each year, but the number could be on the rise, Thukral said, since poverty in some other nations is increasing and the debate on immigration is on the forefront of the U.S.'s political battleground.
&#8220Even right now with the larger debate on immigration, you are not stopping the need to migrate,” Thukral said. &#8220People are going to be placed in even more dangerous situations in order to cross the border.”
Currently, 14 states in the country have human trafficking laws, but New York does not have any such legislation on the books. Last year, the State Senate and Assembly both introduced bills to create legislation banning human trafficking, but the bills never went for a vote.
Without a law in place, the Queens District Attorney's office cannot charge traffickers with much more than promoting prostitution - a charge that ranges from a maximum 25-year sentence to a year in jail and/or $1,000 fine in Queens.
&#8220Right now, there is no existing law that even defines something called trafficking,” said Jane Manning, Chair of the National Organization for Women's New York City Chapter.
Several members of the Council have expressed outright support for the resolution, but no vote on the resolution has been scheduled.