FA R M L A B O R I N F O R M AT I O N B U L L E T I N
Voice of the Fields California
October 2017
FREE
Volume 27, Number 9
What is Labor Trafficking?
T
HE LATINO POPULATION is at a particularly high risk for labor trafficking. This type of human trafficking can happen in a number of different jobs including farmworkers, landscaper, housekeepers, janitors, construction workers, food service, and factory work. This trafficking occurs to foreign and American born individuals. In California 148 cases were received in 2016 by the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC) hotline. The Opening Doors Inc. website, states that in the United States, California, New York, Texas and Nevada are the top destination states for trafficking victims. In order to prevent and identify cases of labor trafficking it is important to know the definition and stories of other individuals who have been affected. Trafficking is defined as a form of modern-day slavery in which individuals are forced to perform labor or services using force, fraud, or coercion. Labor trafficking includes situations of debt bondage, forced labor, and involuntary child labor. Labor traffickers use violence, threats, lies, and other forms of coercion to force people to work and stay against their will in many industries. The first form of labor trafficking is known as debt bondage or repayment of a debt obtained by the victim (including transportation to the place of labor, living arrangements, etc.) when accepting an offer for labor from the trafficker/employer. The second is forced labor through the use of violence, intimidation factors, and threats
of being reported to immigration officers. Lastly is involuntary child labor which violates minimum age laws and forces children into human trafficking. The U.S. State Department estimates that there are as many as 800,000 human trafficking victims worldwide every year, and between 10,000-20,000 victims from Asia, Central and South America are estimated to end up in the U.S. The actual number could be considerably higher as these cases represent only the reported incidents. Trafficking is not limited to foreign nationals either, many U.S. Citizens also find themselves trapped in situations of forced labor. One such case of a U.S. Citizen being trafficked is of Shamere McKenzie, a college student in New York. She was a target of this type of trafficking because she struggled to pay her college tuition. Her sex trafficker lured her into a relationship by being charismatic and
promising to give her employment that would provide money quickly. He said it would involve private dances for clients, instead she was forced into two years of prostitution. The New York City area is one of the most affected areas of labor trafficking in the United States. However, that’s not the only place trafficking is widespread. This is also the case in California; Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego—all cities that have a large percentage of sex trafficking cases. Another case of modern labor trafficking is that of Flor Molina, who became a slave in the garment industry in Los Angeles. Flor was considered an easy target, she was vulnerable because she had just lost her sick child and struggled to pay the medical bills. She had planned to start her own business by sewing garments, in order to support her family after the loss of her child. She started taking classes to learn how to sew and help her with her business plans. The teacher of her class had been approached by a sex trafficker to help provide him with students that would be eager to come to the United States. Since there were no job opportunities in her town in Mexico, Flor took the opportunity to immigrate to the U.S. In the U.S. she worked in a factory that forced
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