rockymountainnews.com

Number of Colorado human trafficking cases rises
By Fernando Quintero, Rocky Mountain News
August 17, 2005

Immigrant agricultural workers as well as women and children forced into prostitution are among the growing number of human trafficking victims in Colorado, according to state legal aid representatives.

Joined by the consuls general of Mexico, Peru and Guatemala, attorneys with Colorado Legal Services gave a presentation Tuesday at the Denver offices of the Mexican consulate to bring attention to what they characterized as a "form of modern-day slavery."

While forced prostitution is the most commonly known form of human trafficking, victims may be in other forced-labor situations as migrant farm workers, domestic servants (nannies or maids), janitors, and workers in restaurants, fisheries, sweatshops and hotels.

Many in these occupations are immigrant workers from Latin America. Illegal immigrants and those with limited or no knowledge of English are most vulnerable to exploitation, said Patricia Medige, a Colorado Legal Services attorney.

"The most common threat is deportation, although traffickers may use other means such as force, fraud or coercion," said attorney Kimi Jackson.

Although no state figures were available regarding the number of victims, Medige said her office had seen a significant increase in human trafficking cases over the past few years.

"This is an intolerable, ugly side to immigrant exploitation that we can better address as one united Latino community," said Mexico's consul general Juan Marcos Gutierrez Gonzalez.