Shades of Gray in Trafficking, But It's Still Slavery
Published August 09, 2009 @ 11:02PM PT
From time to time, my office represents victims of trafficking in their immigration matters. In the U.S., the T Visa is available to victims of trafficking who meet certain conditions. The government estimates that 14,500 to 17,500 people are trafficked to the U.S. annually.
Amanda Kloer covers this issue daily at change.org's Human Trafficking blog. She is very good--I encourage readers of this blog to check out Amanda's blog when you get the chance. Here is a basic primer on the topic.
Recently she wrote about the common misconception that trafficking victims must have been coerced at every step of the process or they have not been trafficked.
It's also important to note that many women who are trafficked knowingly and willingly enter prostitution. While the most publicized stories are about women who thought they would be waitresses or nannies, some take a job in the Netherlands or Germany in what they expect will be legal, safe prostitution on their own terms. Even after making that choice, women can be trafficked one their freedom is removed or their labor stolen and exploited. A woman who took a job as a prostitute and one who took a job as a waitress are equally trafficked once they loose their ability to leave or control their situation. The women from Eastern Europe thought they were taking a number of different kids of jobs, jobs that all turned into slavery.
It is simply not always the case that trafficking victims are always coerced, and this misconception frequently leads to further punishment of trafficked individuals by the governments that are supposedly committed to protecting them.
[Image: humantraffickingproject.blogspot.com]
Share this Post
Facebook
Twitter
Digg
StumbleUpon
Delicious
EmailRelated Posts
-
LGBT Rights Are Immigrant Rights
-
'Mrs. Goundo's Daughter' Explores FGM Asylum Case
-
Five Questions with R Jay Pearson
Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the ideas covered in the posts. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; that contain ad hominem attacks; or that are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion.
Author
-
David is an attorney in Philadelphia, PA, where he helps immigrants to the U.S. navigate the complex immigration legal system. Views he expresses at change.org are his alone and don't represent the views or opinions of his employer, Nationalities Service Center. The information contained on this site is intended for educational and advocacy purposes only.
