NEW YORK NURSE: October/November 2007
by Joely Johnson
Imagine you are a school principal in Belarus, an Eastern European country where many young people dream of living in America. You are approached by a successful-looking man and asked to point out the most attractive 11th grade girls in your school. You are told they will receive free English lessons and be invited to work high-paying jobs as models in the U.S. Would you do it?
The offer in this true story turned out to be a devious scam. The purported job recruiter was actually a human trafficker seeking unsuspecting young women to sell into modern-day slavery. Luckily, the school principal resisted the trap – but was unable to turn the trafficker in to authorities due to lack of prosecutable evidence. This is just one of the harrowing examples provided by Barbara Glickstein, public health nurse and broadcast journalist, during her Convention keynote speech.
Each year, up to 800,000 victims are trafficked across international borders, and between 14,500 and 17,500 of those victims are trafficked into the U.S. By far, the greatest numbers of victims are women and girls, and approximately 80% are forced to work in the sex trade. But men and boys are also targets, used for cheap or free labor. Victims can be found working or living in a variety of exploitive situations including massage parlors and strip clubs, as domestic servants (such as nannies), construction workers, or farm workers, and in restaurants, hotels, and nail salons.
The problem is closer to home than you might think. You may recall the 2004 headlines about Mariluz Zavala and her husband, Jose Ibanez, who were found guilty of smuggling 69 fellow Peruvian immigrants and enslaving them in Amityville, Brentwood, and Coram. Not long after that case broke, an anti-human slavery task force was formed on Long Island, one of only 42 such federally funded groups in the nation.
In 2000, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act made it a federal crime to engage in human trafficking. New York State’s legislation against modern-day slavery was passed just this year, but the law is one of the strongest in the country. Sex trafficking here now brings a penalty of 3-25 years in prison, and labor trafficking is punishable by 3-7 years.
Nurses and other healthcare providers may be the only hope that some victims of human trafficking will ever have. Victims of human trafficking, however, might not appear to be any different from other patients you care for. By looking more closely, you may notice patients who are inordinately fearful or submissive, who are accompanied by a very controlling person (perhaps the trafficker), who may not have any identification, and who may not be able to communicate due to a language barrier.
If you suspect someone is a victim of human trafficking, be discreet when trying to get them alone. If you need a translator, find a staff member who speaks the patient’s language. The following questions can help you determine if you are dealing with a victim: