Thread: Human trafficking becoming epidemic in Florida, authorities

Human trafficking becoming epidemic in Florida, authorities say

By Michael LaForgia Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Updated: 11:40 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 28, 2010

Posted: 11:04 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 28, 2010


Florida is emerging as a major hub for human trafficking in the United States, authorities say.

Unlike smuggling, the hot-button issue now propelling a nationwide immigration debate, trafficking occurs when immigrants are raped, beaten or otherwise forced into labor or the sex trade.

The crime is approaching epidemic proportions in Florida, authorities and nonprofit groups say.

"I can't tell you what a major problem it is in this state," said Tony Attanasio, a retired U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent who created a human trafficking course for law enforcement. "It's just an unbelievable problem."

One statistic placed the number of people trafficked into the U.S. each year at between 14,500 and 17,500, but no exact figure exists .

Numbers of people trafficked into states are even harder to come by, as federally mandated programs have yet to keep tabs.

"We know that human trafficking is a hidden crime," said Luz Nagle, a professor at Stetson University who specializes in human trafficking issues. "We have many industries in Florida. We have the agricultural industry, we have the sex industry, we have the hotel industry, we have the restaurants, because we have tourism."

Authorities here often treat trafficking victims as criminals rather than witnesses and rarely use a state statute covering human trafficking, observers say. As a result, traffickers are arrested less frequently than they could be.

Often, it's difficult even to identify victims, who vanish because they're ashamed or afraid of immigration charges.

In the case of two Honduran sisters forced into sex slavery at county nightclubs, FBI agents learned of the crime only after an anonymous phone call to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hot line.

There's no way of knowing how many people even now are being similarly exploited in Palm Beach County.

www.palmbeachpost.com

The Russians are into the sex industry part of it. I have personally witnessed it at the doctor's office. The pimp if you want to call him that was telling the woman she had to use a certain product to make her hair fuller as men like women with thicker hair. There were 2 women and when the pimp walked out they talked on their cellphone to friends. When they saw the pimp coming back through the window you could see fear in their eyes and they hung up mid conversation. What they didn't know is my daughter and I both speak and understand Russian. We figured that they worked for an escort service due to what the pimp was saying and the fact that they had cellphones to be able to communicate with customers.
Then you have women who do that willingly knowing when they get caught they can get their greencard using the story they were victims of human trafficking and that they cannot go back home due to fear of being killed and the embarassment on both the women and their family.

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