On June 14, the House International Relations Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights, and International Operations heard testimony on sex trafficking, with a special focus on prostitution during the 2006 World Cup. The first in the series of hearings on World Cup brothels was held on May 4 (see The Source, 5/5/06).
Before the hearing, a committee briefing was held with UN Goodwill Ambassador for the Abolition of Slavery and Human Trafficking Julia Ormond. Noting that some trafficking victims are girls as young as five, Ms. Ormond stated that abuse, including sexual abuse, goes “hand in hand with being trafficked.” Because of HIV/AIDS, she said, clients seek young girls who are promised to be virgins; the girls are raped, then sewn up and sold again as virgins. Ms. Ormond cited the lack of education and economic opportunity as major factors in global trafficking. She emphasized that solutions are best found in culturally appropriate answers, offering the example of India, which has a dowry system that often leads to family debt. Rather than opposing this, she said, it is preferable to find alternative loan systems that will be culturally acceptable to the local population. When asked for a successful nongovernmental organization to highlight, Ms. Ormond praised Hagar for its holistic approach, which includes education, skills training, and support for victims’ families.
Subcommittee Chair Christopher Smith (R-NJ) opened the hearing with an overview of global trafficking, stating that 80 percent of the estimated 600,000 to 800,000 persons trafficked across international borders each year are women and girls, many of whom are “bought, sold, abused, and raped.” He commended the State Department for the recently released 2006 Trafficking in Persons Report, but said he was disappointed that India was placed on the Tier 2 Watch List since millions of Indians toil as forced labor. Rep. Smith argued that the Watch List is “not a place to hide our friends who fail to make real improvements.” He also denounced the German government’s policy of legalized prostitution as “flagrant state complicity in promoting sex trafficking” during the current World Cup. Rep. Smith urged his colleagues to support the resolution he introduced last week (H. Res. 860), which calls on the German government to act immediately to combat sex trafficking associated with the 2006 World Cup.
Ambassador John R. Miller, director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking In Persons at the State Department, stated that this year’s Trafficking in Persons Report “demonstrates that every country in the world, including the United States of America, has a human trafficking problem.” Asserting that there are “rays of hope,” Ambassador Miller said that worldwide trafficking-related convictions exceeded 4,750 in 2005, an increase of 63 percent in two years. Also, 41 additional countries passed anti-trafficking legislation in 2005. Since last year, he noted, eight of the 2005 Tier 3 countries have moved up and sixteen of the 2005 Tier 2 Watch List countries moved to Tier 2. Regarding India, Ambassador Miller acknowledged that forced labor there “is a huge problem.” He explained that prevailing attitudes towards the lowest caste often prevent businesses from being prosecuted. Ambassador Miller defended India’s Tier 2 Watch List ranking, stating that India has taken some positive steps on internal trafficking. Concerning World Cup brothels and trafficking, he said that he discussed this with the German ambassador, and he noted that the German government has added additional hotlines and increased police training.
Speaking on behalf of the International Justice Mission, Vice President of Interventions Sharon Cohn addressed the issue of forced labor slavery. Ms. Cohn emphasized that forced labor based on debt is usually illegal and “the loan itself is almost always a sham, a simple device to lure potential victims into the trap.” Most importantly, she said, forced labor slavery relies on intimidation or force. Contrasting slavery today with past abolition movements, Ms. Cohen stated, “A massive overhaul of legislation as an expression of public will is not needed. The public has already expressed itself in the form of laws. What is needed is for us all to simply recognize that millions of slaves exist, to identify the slaves and to hold governments accountable to release them and to prosecute the perpetrators.” Asserting that slavery can be eliminated, she gave the example of the Sri Lankan government, which prevented an increase in trafficking after the 2004 tsunami through a “credible and effective” child protection response.
Two Russian women, Masha Gnezdilova and Irina Veselykh, told their stories of being trafficked into Germany to work as prostitutes. Ms. Gnezdilova explained that she went to Germany in 1997 after having accepted work there as a housekeeper. Upon her arrival in Hamburg, her passport was taken away by a young Russian woman, and she was forced to work in a bar as a prostitute. Ms. Gnezdilova was told that there was no point in resisting since she would be beaten and the traffickers “had their own people in the police.” After being sold to pimps on several occasions and detained by police after raids, Ms. Gnezdilova managed to return to Russia, where she was aided by the Angel Coalition. Ms. Gnezdilova asked, “Is the German government really not aware of what is happening in their country? Or are they happy to profit from our suffering?”
Irina Veselykh detailed her experience of finding work in Germany through an agency in Russia, being forced to work in Germany and the Netherlands as a prostitute, and returning to Russia with assistance from the Angel Coalition. In Germany, she said, pimps beat her and boasted “that all the pimps are working under the protection of the police.” Ms. Veselykh was shown photographs of dead trafficking victims who had tried to contact the police, and she also was threatened that her children in Russia would be killed if she tried to escape. After being transferred to a bar in the Netherlands, Ms. Veselykh eluded the Russian mafia and contacted the police. She was then detained, however, for using a false passport the traffickers had given her. Finally, with the help of her daughter, she was released. “I did not commit any crime in those countries and I was put in prison for absolutely nothing. The people who involved me in that situation are still free and continue to traffic women under government cover,” she stated.
National Labor Committee Director Charles Kernaghan highlighted trafficking in Jordan, a country that has a free trade agreement with the U.S. He stated, “There are an estimated 300,000 foreign guest workers employed in Jordan as domestics, in construction and agriculture, and in factories producing goods for duty-free export to the United States. Many of these guest workers are victims of human trafficking and are being held under conditions of involuntary servitude.” Mr. Kernaghan cited an example of Bangladeshi workers who work in a factory producing clothes for Wal-Mart. He said that they “were stripped of their passports and forced to work 16 to 20 hours a day, seven days a week,” adding, “There are also credible of reports of sexual abuse, including the rape of a sixteen year-old girl.” Mr. Kernaghan noted that the Jordanian government has indicated it will implement steps to rectify this situation. “Jordan is now at a crossroads, and hopefully will emerge as a model of fair labor standards, the rule of law and respect for human, women’s and workers’ rights. Under the U.S.-Jordan Free Trade Agreement, we must demand nothing less,” he stated.
