By Sabrina Stratford | Guest Columnist
There are more than 49.6 million people in modern slavery today. What does that look like in Colorado?
Human trafficking is the exploitation of another person involving force, fraud, or coercion for labor or sex. Human trafficking is a crime against a person, not a border. Anyone can become a victim, no matter a person’s background or identity, but the more vulnerable a person is the more likely they are to become a victim.
At risk individuals include those living on the streets or homeless, individuals with addictions, sex workers, the LGBTQIA+ community, runaways and immigrants. At risk people are trafficked more frequently than safe and stable community members.
Sex trafficking Involves the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act. Labor trafficking is the same, but instead of a sex act, specifically, it involves involuntary servitude, slavery or debt bondage. Human trafficking is occurring in all 50 states and it’s happening across Colorado in both rural and urban areas. It’s taking place in food service and hospitality, construction, agriculture, the commercial sex industry, temporary worker and visa programs, in debt bondage scenarios to pay off smugglers, in involuntarily servitude and forced marriages, and in family homes.
Two common scenarios to entice people into trafficking are “The Romeo” & “The C.E.O.”
Social media personality, Andrew Tate, has been detained in Romania for allegedly trafficking women by luring them into a romantic relationship, showering them with gifts and attention, and ultimately exploiting them online. This is a common scenario and often begins with an online romance.
Similarly, predators will pose as a recruiter or business owner and promise an income or a safe future. The victim may cross a nation’s border with a paid smuggler or become indebted because of the “C.E.O.’s” investment in their future. Once the victim is beholden to their captor their effort to pay off the debt is endless.
Trafficking is a crime against a person, not a border.
The box-office smash, Sound of Freedom, shines the light on sex trafficking in Columbia. The atrocities are real but we don’t leave the theater understanding how these same crimes can be committed in our own neighborhoods without kidnapping kids and shipping them around in the back of a box truck. Highways are not a root cause of trafficking. According to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, up to 84% of human trafficking victims are trafficked by someone they know, including intimate partners, family members and friends.
Last year the FBI and state agencies recovered 27 sex trafficking victims in Colorado during a cross-country campaign. In just two days, they recovered 27 sex trafficking victims in the state – eight juveniles and 19 adult victims. FBI Denver Special Agent in Charge, Mark Michalek, stressed the cases weren’t just abductions on the street.
“This isn’t a kidnap off the streets scenario that you might see in a movie,” Michalek said. “We see sex traffickers identifying vulnerable minors and exploiting them through different methods of psychological or physical control.”
The campaign results uncovered a disturbing trend among sex traffickers. Many of them use addiction, substance abuse and mental health to lure juvenile victims and many of them were from dysfunctional homes. The traffickers would often offer these children drugs in exchange for sex. Then they would hold onto the victims and offer them to other individuals for sexual acts. Human trafficking is a $150 billion (per year) enterprise second only to drug trafficking.
The investigation included illicit massage parlors, street level trafficking, and residential brothels. While poverty contributed to victim vulnerability, traffickers operated in many neighborhoods affecting various income levels including higher socioeconomic backgrounds. The need to control and exploit others is not limited to any specific gender or income level. It affects both adults and minors. Trafficking not only occurs in underground markets but in legitimate businesses such as restaurants, hotels and farms.
While we can’t regulate morality we can advocate for victims and influence lawmakers. Keep your eyes on a bill that would fortify the fight. Traumatized victims are often not ready or not safe enough to pursue civil remedies or participate in a criminal prosecution against their trafficker. SB24-035 proposes to extend the statute of limitations for adult victims of sex or labor trafficking. Currently, an adult victim has three years to pursue a criminal case and come forward following one’s experience around human trafficking. Colorado Senate Concurrent Resolution 24-001 proposes an amendment to the Colorado Constitution to empower victims of childhood sexual abuse by creating a pathway to bring civil claims at any time, regardless of when the abuse occurred. If passed by the Legislature, voters would ultimately decide if the amendment should be adopted in the November election.
SB24-035 also proposes to classify Colorado’s human trafficking laws as “crimes of violence,” which would require mandatory sentences for those convicted of human trafficking. This is a nuanced bill as survivor advocates and public defenders are expressing concerns as to whether victims of human trafficking could also be subjected to these extra penalties, especially if they were forced to commit crimes during their trafficking experience.
You can stay current on the latest human trafficking news across Colorado by visiting the Colorado Human Trafficking Council website. You may also become a volunteer advocate for the Colorado Human Trafficking Hotline.
If we educate ourselves and fight the vulnerabilities that contribute to human trafficking, we can protect ourselves, our families, and our communities!
Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but even so we support the constitutional right of the author to express those opinions.