Human Trafficking info for U.S. and Oklahoma

This is my blog from the Human Trafficking Conference that took place this summer May 4, 5, 2010... More info on Human Trafficking around the world to come....

Well, it took me a little while to get my mind wrapped around everything we learned at the Human Trafficking Conference here in Oklahoma City.  Mark Elam and the OATH coalition did a wonderful job on organizing the conference and presenting us with the information we need. The conference brought in amazing survivors, veteran trafficking advocates and great educators on this crisis that is happening around the world. The three survivors I heard were all American women with gruesome but very different stories. Two grew up in good homes.

It also took some time to process the horrific experiences that people are subject to every day that honestly left me feeling a bit overwhelmed. After  a day and a half of intense education and watching three different amazingly brave women tell their testimonies of survival, I know that God has brought me across this injustice and that I have chosen not to look away.

I can give you a few statistics and a little information on what we as the community can do but I urge you to educate  yourself on this issue. I know a lot of us like to think if we had been in Germany during World War II we would have  helped rescue people from the concentration camps, or if we were alive a couple hundred years ago we would have been adamant about stopping the legal slave trade in our country, but the fact is we are alive today. Today we are living at a time when there are more slaves on the planet than ever. There are 30 million people around the world trapped in human trafficking, the majority of them children, and history will judge us. What did we do? Are we those people who decided it wasn’t our business and did nothing, or are we those people who stood up and didn’t let it happen on our watch. Here’s just a few statistics on Human Trafficking in the U.S. that are pretty shocking.

Definition of a trafficked person: loss of freedom to another’s control by force, fraud or coercion for commercial exploitation. 

Trafficked people could be foreign nationals who were willingly or unwillingly smuggled here, or Domestic, U.S. born citizens who are often women and children.   Most were preyed upon as part of a vulnerable group: runaways, low-income, children of abusive parents or drug addicted parents or single parent homes.  Some are vulnerable to predators simply because they feel neglected. Some children are being targeted online from seemingly good homes. All American children are at risk.

• 17-50 thousand brought here each year
• Unknown how many taken from here
• 90% of trafficking victims are female
• 300,000 children sexually exploited annually
• Child reported missing every 20 sec. / 4300 per day / 2 million year / plus an estimated 500,000 not reported.
• USA #1 destination for child sex trafficking  

Oklahoma Statistics

• 2002 India workers lured to Tulsa and forced labor (Pickle manufacturing)
• 2004 FBI sting operation recovered 16 children as young as 13 who were being prostituted in truck stops – from OKC. 
• 2009 FBI “Innocence Lost” program recovered minors trafficked from Okla.
• Oklahoma cities rated in top 10 cities for Internet searches of porn

How to get involved:

• Educate yourself  www.OATHcoalition.org. Awareness / Action / Prevention
• Partner with Anti Trafficking Organizations to provide services (see websites below)
• Organize a H.T. Training for your company staff, church or neighborhood
• Develop a protocol assessment procedure to identify possible victims and offer treatment.
• Create a community coalition of law enforcement, service providers, business leaders and faith community leaders

Organizations dedicated to stopping Human Trafficking

Oklahoma Trafficking Safeline:           (800) 522-Safe (7233) (if you thinks someone is being trafficked)

National Trafficking Hotline:                 888-3737-888 (if you think someone is being trafficked)

http://oathcoalition.org/

http://www.allthingsnewcampaign.org/home

http://www.thea21campaign.org/

http://www.ijm.org

http://www.crisisaid.org/

http://www.veronicasvoice.org

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has. – Margaret Mead