Human Trafficking Around the World Read Online Free PDF Page A

Warner, Hilton, Westin, AT&T, and Marriott earn tens of millions of dollars a year in distribution (CBS News, 2004; University of Nevada, 2004). The considerable profits earned by large U.S. corporations come at a cost, as the lack of regulation results in the illegal use of underage and trafficked persons.
    A common feature of all forms of human trafficking is the use of exorbitant fees, such as those for transportation and housing, which places victims in a position of debt bondage and makes them vulnerable to a multitude of additional abuses. This phenomenon is clearly illustrated in a case of women and girls trafficked from Mexico to Florida with the promise of housekeeper and waitress jobs. Upon arrival in the United States, the traffickers raped the women and girls, confiscated their travel documents, and forced them to prostitute. Guards prevented them from leaving the brothels, and if the victims tried to escape they faced severe physical punishment as well as threats of deportation. The women allegedly earned $3 per trick but never received the money. Instead, the traffickers told the women the earnings would go toward the $2,000-per-person transportation fee. To put some perspective on the situation, in order to pay off her debt, each woman would need to have sex with around 667 men. The traffickers also charged the women for room and board and other miscellaneous fees (OAS/PAHO, 2001). The use of fees to create debt bondage is also apparent in an Atlanta case in which Asian women and girls between the ages of 13 and 25 were trafficked to the United States and forced to prostitute until they paid off debts of between $30,000 and $40,000 per person. Conditions in the bordellos resembled those in a prison, with guards, barbed-wire fences, and dogs (Richard, 2000, p. 21).
    The lawlessness and high demand for cheap labor that tends to accompany the aftermath of natural disasters can create an atmosphere ripe for human trafficking. Trafficking in New Orleans and other areas devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita began shortly after the storms. To date, at least nine large cases of exploitation in the Gulf Coast region have been documented that may be classifiable as forced labor. The cases involve more than 3,728 alleged victims from Bolivia, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, India, Mexico, Panama, Peru, the Philippines, and Thailand.
    One such example is that of Thai nationals trafficked to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The victims were forced to work and live in hurricane-damaged buildings riddled with mold and debris without electricity or running water. Some of the victims were eventually discovered inside the Capri Hotel in November 2005 (Andert, 2007, p. 27). Conditions in their living quarters were so squalid that they were forced to cook with contaminated water (Asanok et al., 2007). “They did not have enough food,” said attorney Lori J. Johnson of Legal Aid of North Carolina, Farmworker Unit. “At the end, they had to build traps to capture pigeons to eat.” 4 The victims’ civil complaint states that North Carolina human resource company Million Express Manpower, Inc., used a locally based Thai agent to recruit victims in Bangkok. The victims were promised legal visas and three years of employment at $8.24 per hour. Each paid over $11,000 in fees simply to secure employment (Asanok et al., 2007). In order to pay the employment fee, says Johnson, victims were steered toward lenders who were in league with the traffickers. “To secure the loan, victims had to put up their land and that of family members. Keep in mind that rice farmers in northeast Thailand typically make less than $500 a year. Essentially, there is no way that the workers could pay back the loans on their typical salary in Thailand.” Once the victims were sufficiently in debt, Million Express Manpower was safely in the power position—one that it eagerly highlighted to potential employers. “Via word of mouth,