How Human Trafficking Works

That's right, Yeah, long supple doublety coat tails of Adam Curry. I'm happy to be on them. Sure, he's great, man, I'm not making fun of him at all. Well, don't make it sound like I am. You're not one of those guys who just says something like uncool to be ironic and have it be cool. No, And I'm glad you brought that up because I posted a Kenny g song on our Facebook page and I wasn't trying to be ironic. I wasn't trying to be cool. It's a

good song. Yeah, it's as simple as that. Like when you go see Dolly Parton, It's not to be ironic. It's because you like Dolly Parton exactly. All right, thank you, I just want to clear that up. The same goes for Ronnie Millsap by the way, he's class act um one of mine and Nami's friends. Adam was like, who's that cat that you listen to? He was always wearing the sunglasses his country, and Umi was like, Ronnie Millsap. He's like, yeah, I was like, he's blind man, that's

why he's always wearing the sunglasses. Adam, Adam, Adam, Adam, Yeah, who was engaged. Congratulations Yes, congratulations to Adam and Serena. So human trafficking work. Yeah, we might as well have gotten the light stuff out of the way because this will be another joke free podcast. This is a I don't know about joke free. We don't pull off joke free very well, but we um, this is heavy. It's one of our heavier ones. Is up there with like homelessness,

uh and um and off requested. Yeah, this one's been asked for a lot. We're finally doing it. Um. And Human trafficking is not to be confused with the movie about raves from the nineties called Human Traffic has absolutely nothing to do with one another. Human trafficking is basically another term for modern slavery. Uh. And apparently I want to bust out a an unquantified stat that's my forte Yes, they're supposedly more slaves in the world right now than

there ever have been. That is true. I looked that up just to be sure, and I did not get a number, but they said there are more. Well, I think they said more than twelve million, is what the u N says. The State Department said, uh in two thousand and ten and their reported human trafficking they cited something like seventeen twelve point three towel point three. So the the U S and the u N and I guess are using the same number. Looks like it. Um, that's a lot of slaves and sad very sad um.

So let's okay. We I think everybody has a pretty good understanding of how um West Africa became the slave capital of the world and from about what the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, I think into the twentieth century. They commonly cite it because I think some of Southern Europe was still using slaves after the US issue the Emancipation Proclamation. And but you know here in the U s it's like, oh, well that must have ended slavery everywhere because it was issued by the US. UM. Not so.

But we understand West African slavery. You know, it's been studied, we we've we've discussed it before. UM. Modern slavery takes a it's just as insidious, but it takes different kinds of forms. Right, It's not just you know, being captured and then transported to work on a farm or a plantation, although that it still happens, right, And it doesn't necessarily mean even being transported across any sort of a border. Uh. A lot of US human slaves or human trafficked people's

are Americans? Do you want to paint a story? A story? And the intro I thought this was pretty good illustration. Yeah, this was written by Molly, our old friend from Sminty who was gone on to uh, I hope greener pastors. So Molly wrote this and it's a good one, and she just she gives a little story here at the beginning on how this might work. Eastern European country, a woman might see a billboard that says, ay, come to Paris, to New York City to work as a waitress. She

doesn't make much money, she doesn't have a lot going on. Yeah, exactly, let me go promises of something richer in another land. So she calls this number. She's told hey for just like three grand, which we may even front you. You can pay it back when you get here. We'll bring you over and you can get this great job and and started a new fantastic life. Once she gets here, however, Uh, she's not taken to a restaurant, but she may be

taken to like a brothel. Let's say, a lot of times women and young girls are it's sex trafficking as opposed to labor trafficking. Yes, we should point out. Actually, the FBI says, I think the majority of girls and women are from Central America and Asia, and most boys and men are forcing to labor, but an increasing number of boys and men are working in the commercial sex industry. Oh yeah, Molly kind of made it sound like I think she used the pronouns she almost exclusively when she

talked about sex trafficking. But there are plenty of men and boys in that too. So anyway she comes over, she's forced to work in a brothel as a prostitute or in the in porn or some other kind of sex industry, and basically is either blackmailed or coerced or beaten or drugged or all of the above, never is paid back or I'm sorry, she's never she's never working

off the money, right, Basically, she's just there forever. And also even if she is working off the money, she may also be charged room and board in the brothel, which is probably about the biggest insult you could ever lay on somebody. Hey, we kidnapped you unfortune to prostitution, and we're charging you for this room that we're making you perform sex taxing, and the prices just go up and up on the room and board, so you're really not paying down your your loan right to get over here,

and we have your passport, so good luck getting back anywhere, right. Um. She may also be funneled, I guess into um labor trafficking. There's two kinds of of human trafficking. There's sex trafficking and labor trafficking. And obviously, sex trafficking gets the most headlines because you know, the idea of sex slaves is

just mind boggling. Labor trafficking is far more prevalent though, Um, it's somebody who you know entered the same situation may end up in a restaurant in Parison, New York, but as like a lion cook who's not really getting paid. Apparently the restaurant industry is rife with human trafficking as well. Atlanta is Did you know that? No, I didn't. Atlanta is one of the most major hubs in the United States were human trafficking. Did you get an idea of why? Uh?

I don't know why, but I know that Grady Hospital here in town has UH recently stepped up efforts to recognize UH victims when they come in as patients, because one of the biggest issues, Molly points out, is is recognizing them even though they're in plain view. Like, we have probably come into contact with somebody at some point in Atlanta, whether it was you know, the bus boy or the you know, the quote unquote migrant worker you see working on a farm. Are you trying to tell

me that you're being trafficked right now? Blink once if Jerry has a gun to my head, right and we'll get into the problems of why this isn't just an obvious problem. Um, but let's talk a little more about the two different types of trafficking. You talked about sex trafficking, which can be very lucrative. Um for the trafficker. The traffic key where the trafficked is not making any money whatsoever, is being fed whatever. Is a slave the trafficker. Uh.

Molly used the UM use Bulgaria as an example. In Bulgaria, the average annual salaries about twenty dollars us UM in a year. That same year, Uh, a sex slave can make about three thousand, five hundred for a trafficker. Yeah. Um. Also, if you're diverted over to labor trafficking, you may end up, like we said, in a restaurant a mine. Agriculture is

a big one matter of fact. Um, there's this group called sweat Free dot org, and a lot of the like anti sweat shop groups, pro union groups, and UM anti human trafficking groups all kind of form this ven diagram in the middle that has to do with sweat labor, forced labor and UM there's this group called sweat Free dot org. And if you ever want to shop with somebody that you a company that you know doesn't use sweat labor, so you can't possibly be using by buying

a product that is made up with forced labor. You can um look up their shopping guide. But they also released a hall of Shame every year, and their two thou ten hall of Shame shamed um ll Bean, Jim Boree and Haynes for using use back cotton and uh apparently the Usbeki is stand government mandates that children as young as seven have to be forced to harvest the cotton in the fall rather than go to school. And a lot of these kids are like shuffled off to

remote areas away from their homes. That's human trafficking, that's govern mandated. You know what really shocked me is that sometimes these people are sold two wealthy individuals. Yeah this one was awful who actually just used them as as house housemaids and housekeepers and cooks. I was just quote unquote respectable people. That's probably where sex trafficking and labor

trafficking like collide. You know, yeah, I'm sure depending on the house you end up in, but yes, I'm sure did you see taking the lead obviously and that I'm sure that happens. But in that movie, it was very high end uh operation going on. It was but where the girl ended up was like a mind camp or something like that. Remember like the place like there was just ropes with like sheets hanging over that made this one room into smaller rooms or whatever. But Liam Neeson

had a very particular set of skills. Luckily he's able to rescue his daughter. When did he become an action hero? UHW? What was the first one? Was it the Clone War one? Um? But I agree like all the suddenly a Neeson well dark man. Many years ago he was a but that that didn't like launch him into action movie guy. But now yeah he's a he's an a one butt kicker at this point. Good for him. Yeah, I like that movie actually taken. Yeah it was. This was good, pretty enjoyable.

It was just I couldn't get past the fact that we were watching Liam Needson do this stuff. Give me, Daniel Craig, I can I can believe him? All right, let's get back to it, shall we? Uh we'd we'd. And obviously, if you're a sex slave, aside from just the trauma of being forced to perform sex acts like a dozen times a day on strangers, uh, they're obviously

at risk for STDs violence from their johns or pimps. Uh, pregnancy, forced abortions, sterilization, for sterilization, all like a host of awful things which all add up to immense emotional trauma. And if you are in a labor slave, you are basically facing probably the worst um labor conditions that the person can come up with. Your they're not protected at all because you're not going to stand up and say anything. And why, Chuck, why would somebody endure this kind of

life quietly? Because that's a big there's a big discussion about how many slaves, how many traffic people there are in the world, Um, because we really don't know, and a lot of people think that they're hiding in plain sight. Why well, because they could be drugged Like a lot of times in the in the sex industry, I read cases in like Oregon, in Seattle where they were they

would get them addicted to crack cocaine. Remember in the Homelessness podcast we talked about that Florida labor camp that had a little company store that crack and like these these homeless people were in living lives of basically a ventured servitude. Right. Uh, blackmail might be another one, like hey, look we've got these pictures of you. Now we're gonna send them to your family, and that particularly insidious forcing of a woman into prostitution, taking pictures and then using

those pictures to blackmailer. Yeah, and Molly points out a lot of times they may be from a country where I mean, it's never like that's a great thing for your family, But they may be from a country where it's, you know, all of a sudden, the family is you know, outcasts from their village and like great shame is brought upon their family name and they don't want that. Or like we said, they may not have if they had

travel documents to begin with, they snatch those. They may not speak the language, so what are you gonna do? Plus also you've got the threat of violence almost always um or actual violence. Uh so, Yeah, there's three three terms that basically um legal definitions almost always used to describe human trafficking and how it's carried out. It's forced fraud and coercion and forces the like you said, ugs,

the use of drugs. Well maybe they're kidnapped out right, right, sleep deprivation, food deprivation, physical abuse, rape, um and then even having guards guard you. Um, I guess that that intimidates, but it also implies the threat of violence as well, So let's force. There's um coercion. Yeah, we kind of already covered fraud, which was getting someone here under false pretense, right, but I think probably a lot um one of the ways you talked about the billboard, right, and the girl

calls herself. There's also a lot of human traffickers that will go to poor families and be like, hey, you love your kid, right, we can get your kid over to America where they're going to get an education. And there's like this, there's people over there that like sponsored kids and like, your kid can go live with them families really nice. Your kid will be educated, come back and take care of you in your older years. Don't you want your kids to do that? We'll take them

for free. Right. The family doesn't realize that that once they find out that this was all fraudulent, they already agreed to letting their their the person take their kid. They don't realize that under any law, it's that's invalid immediately because it was that agreement was reached under fraud or deception. Well, and they're probably not any where where

they can legitimately get in touch with them anyway. I doubt if they do that then give them like the real address while they'd be staying exactly so that basically the kid is not technically kidnapped, but virtually kidnapped. Yeah, um, And yeah coercion was also blackmail. Um Yeah, I get the idea too that a lot of this these threats are empty threats, but the traffic e doesn't understand that, Like I doubt a lot of times I doubt if they would take the time to send their family a

photo and their village back home. It's just an threat that that you know, they don't know that they're not gonna follow through on it, right, or they might politro on it. Um. Because of all of these things though, coercion, physical abuse, drugs, shame, guilt, like all this stuff comes together, like you said, to form some like serious emotional and psychological problems for the person who's been kidnapped enforcing into

this life and is held in this life. They got like no power, right, and they were probably not very empowered to begin with, or they wouldn't have been coercion in that kind of situation. Right. Well, that's that's a big debate that's going on It's like, how can you ever eradicate human trafficking if you don't first eradicate poverty. Poverty that's so, I mean, that's a big question too,

which will probably never happen. But so you have these people, you have just people who are um not in a great state, and when we encounter them, normals, people who are not being enslaved encounter them, we might just look right past a lot of really obvious signs because number when they're keeping their mouth shut, which is probably the biggest problem of all um. But number two, we may also see them a victim as a criminal because they're

involved in criminal acts. It wouldn't really dawn on us to think, well, wait a minute, Rember, they're being forced into these criminal acts. Well, and Molly's examples were great, Like you see the teenage girl in the street that's obviously, you know, a prostitute, and you may turn your nose up and say, I mean, you know, look at that girl, she's trouble. Or look at that migrant worker in the field of you know, I bet he's an illegal, shouldn't

even be in this country working. You might be looking at victims instead of criminals, um, and not just society at large, but apparently law enforcement is not very well trained to recognize um, the human traffic. That is true. I went to the FBI site and they said, that's one of the biggest things that they're working on is educating local law enforcement officers, like when they bust a prostitution ring, don't just throw them all in jail, like,

investigate it on a case by case basis. Right. So you've got victims who are too scared to talk, you have um society that as society, and law enforcement that immediately deems some criminals. So you have this idea that there's a really big problem out there, but no real idea of exactly how big it is. Right. So here's where the numbers kind of come in. Like we said, the U S and the U N say that there's about twelve point three million adults and children worldwide, right

and around the world. Yeah, but the problem is is that in two thousand nine, there were only um like forty three hundred, forty and sixty six successful trafficking prosecution prosecutions. Yeah. I went to the FBI site and they have they started the Human Smuggling Trafficking Center and two thousand four. Yeah, and they were touting. I'm not saying they're not doing

a good job, but they were touting, get touting. In two thousand four, they had eighty six investigations going on, and they doubled that by two thousand nine to a hundred and sixty seven. That's a hundred and sixty seven investigations. If you've got what they say about like fifteen thousand in the U. S. Alone, well, that's another number that's hotly contested. So apparently Congress heard that there was fifty thousand slaves that were brought into the US every year

and apparently that came from CIA estimates. Um, that really kind of got the charge going against human trafficking, Like that number is just incredible, right, especially just coming into the U. S. Alone. So that guy at everybody on board, including George W. Bush Um got some some laws enacted. There's the UM oh which one is it, chuck, The one we passed in two thousand um the Trafficking Victim Protection Act. And then that same year the UN past

the Palermo Protocols. So that was like a big moment for human trafficking, right, um or I should say combating human trafficking UM. And then the numbers were downgraded in two thousand four to something like UM fourteen thousand, five hundred and seven to seventeen thousand, five hundred and then people think even those numbers are high. Right. Then a New York Times magazine writer named Peter Landerman Landisman, he wrote an article called UM, I Think the sex Slaves

next Door for the Girl's next Door. I can't remember which what it was called, but UM. In his article, it just created this huge firestorm. It was like one of those twelve page long articles and like he was doing a lot of really good investigative journalism. There was this interview with this one girl who had been sold for from Mexico at like age four, UM, and I've been living as a sex slave ever since. And like UM.

People started digging into the article and we're like, wait a minute, this sounds a lot like you know, urban legend. Some of like the details about you know, how people are coming from Mexico into the US or kind of spotty, like if they're going by boat, there's really no good place to land in the US. UM. There is a lot of problems with it. And he even said ten thousand so he had the lowest number so far, and

even that has been torn apart. And part of the problem that was raised by Peter Landisman's UM article and its reception is that if you conflate inflate the numbers the figures too much and then it's shown that you're off big time, then it comes across a hysterical and alarmist. But if the numbers are too low, then you risk not being able to generate enough interest to really do something about the people who are in slave right. And it's hard to pinpoint at period because if they knew,

then they would be doing something about it. Only twenty seven states and that's the latest number I have. Uh, it maybe more, but I saw twenty seven states have anti trafficking legislation. Is that it Yeah, that's crazy. So I mean the rest it's technically legal or surely there's laws that you're breaking. Yeah, I don't think it's legal,

but it's not just trafficking specific legislation. Yeah, So we're kind of it seems like we're at a period where we realized that there's a real problem, but we don't know how big it is and we don't know what to do about it. Yet one guy, Nicholas Kristoff. You read New York Times, So kristof smart guy. He did something in two thousand four that was pretty amazing. Yeah,

he decided to purchase the freedom of to Cambodian prostitutes. Yeah, he went to Cambodian did it, which is very controversial because, as Molly points out, it still perpetuates the idea that you can buy and sell a human life, even though he was doing it for the good, still sort of playing ball in a way, And a lot of people say it didn't do a lot of good anyway, because these people aren't prepared for the quote unquote real world. So one of them did kind of escape that life,

and the other went right back to it. Yeah. Um, the one that he paid more for two three dollars. Um, she went back to it, and she was very reluctant to come out in the first place. Um, she kind of dragged her feet. And even her owner, I guess, the madam that ran them brothel and literally owned this woman, Um, was like, you should really take this man's offer and leave right now because this is never gonna happen again. She went back. Wow, because she was institutionalized as the

way to put it. She didn't know if her village would accept her. Um, she didn't know if her family would take her back. She's very shamed, and this is the life that she was used to. It's like red in uh yeah, or Brooks. Yeah, Brooks was institutionalized. Yeah, he's the one who hung himself right, and Red thought he was until he found all that money. Yeah, and he's likes had to go buy some milkshakes. So yeah, he paid two hundred three dollars and a hundred and

fifty dollars for those two women. But yeah, and I mean it makes sense, like pay money to free somebody, then yeah, you're putting a value on that, and you're saying, yes, what you're doing is legitimate to some degree. Well maybe if nothing else. This move was got a lot of attention because he did this. But the question is this, like but that Peter Landisman article was all about how you know there's there's all these sex slaves in the US, but almost all of the action that he describes takes

place in Mexico. Nicholas Kristof to free sex slaves, he didn't go into New Jersey or Portland's. He went to Cambodia. So the question is how big is this in the US and elsewhere? Is it a big problem in the US. We have no idea, but there's UM we're starting to kind of shape how to take this on thanks to two groups like UM Anti Slavery International and Free the Slaves Right, Yes, and the Polaris Project, who is another big one. UM. The State Department says they have what's

called a three P approach prevention, prosecution, and protection. Uh. Prosecution is a big one because until they start really hanging these dudes up by their toes as an example, then they're not going to be dissuaded so much from trying to traffic these girls and boys and men and women. So you got to prosecute these people, let it be known,

plastered all over the newspapers to kind of dissuade folks. UM. Protecting the victims is a problem, especially when there you know, like a cop just looks at them and sees a hooker rather than you know, a victim. Yeah, exactly. UM. So, like you said, I guess the FBI is figuring out how to train local law enforcement to recognize signs UM. And there are some pretty easy signs if you can, I guess, gain the trust of of somebody's suspect as

being trafficked. UM. There's just a few questions that you can ask and if you can get honest answers out of them and you're like, oh, you are a modern slave. Well that's the tough part is getting the answers, but asking them where they work, maybe what they're getting paid, who they live with, are they free to come and go as they please? UM? How what did you say? How much they get paid? Where they sleep? What kind of sleeping conditions are? What they ate last or the

day before is another good one. There's a great questions. And then if you come up with some UM suspicions, there's actually groups that you can call. There's the National Human Trafficking Resource Center UM that has a hotline that's open twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. UM. That's one eight A D eight three seven three seven eight eight eight and UM. They start to get the ball rolling, and apparently the State Department, especially under Hillary Clinton,

has really taken the ball and run with it. UM to combat human trafficking and the US issues UM travel visas T visas to people who are who are found to be trafficked. So they're saying, hey, we won't even deport you. Yeah, you're not gonna arrested them. Or if you are arrested and we find out you you've been trafficked here like we're gonna you'll be okay after that. Well, the d o J has a hotline to UM four to eight s one and Polaris Project dot org is

a great place to visit. And you mentioned them in the UM how the Underground Railroad worked. Yeah. Remember they're named after the north Star that that UM the free escaped slaves used to follow. Benjamin Skinner, an author, wrote a book called a Crime So Manstras Monstrous in two thousand eight, and he said educate yourself. So hopefully we're helping a little bit right there. Secondly, UM, right, your congressman, your local elected official, be the guy that stands up

at the town hall. Yeah and says, yeah, I get what you're saying about the electromagnetic pulse, but what do you want to do about human trafficking right exactly? Or you know, find out if you're one of the seven states or one of the what's twenty three states that does not have legislation on the books and get in touch with your congressman, who probably won't be in office by the time the next election rolls around. Yeah, wait

till after November. Get in touch with your new congressman and say, hey, why don't we have legislation on the books. This is ridiculous. Uh. And so educating yourself figuring out what I guess, harassing your local politicians then um supporting advocacy groups like sweat free dot org, Free the Slaves, Anti Slavery International, that's right, Yeah, that's what you can do. Yeah, or just keep your eye out. Don't be so judgmental when you when you see, uh, that person who you

might think is a nefarious criminal. You never know. Yeah, And I'm sure there's people out there who are going to be like, well, I mean, if we make a big deal of this, then everybody's gonna say I'm I'm a slave when they're really a criminal. I think that's unlikely. I think so too. And if you start doing something about human trafficking or you already are, we want to know about it. So I'll call out again if you'll remind me, Chuck, because sometimes I forget, but for for

listener mail call out. How about we say, let us know what you're doing to fight human trafficking? Okay, yeah, or if you were one of the people that requested this over the years, and then you probably had a good reason to let's hear it, okay, aside from the fact that it's a good cause. Uh So, if you want to learn more about human trafficking and read of very good article by Molly Edmonds, you can type in human trafficking t R A F F I, C K I n G in the search bar how stuff works

dot com and that will bring this article up. And I said how stuff works? No, I said search bar and that brings up listener. Now, Josh, I'm gonna call this, uh Josh's choice. You picked this one out because I didn't have a computer all day. I did my research on my iPhone. So thank you Apple for allowing me to do my job. Do you shill? Hey? Did you see me over there? I had to get at least like an iPhone cover case or something. I don't need it.

All right. This is about earthworms from Susan in Northern Minnesota. I just listen to your podcast on earthworms. I must say I was disappointed that you minimize the damage that earthworms are doing to our northern forest. We did point out damage, but I guess she didn't think we did a good enough job, right, Yeah, I was that's I actually didn't mean to pick this one out. It was between this and the dental in fact, but we'll go

with this. I'm volunteering for the University of Minnesota go Gophers on monitoring the super I'm sorry, Superior National Forests and have come across large sections of the forests that are heavily damaged due to the worms. The forest duff that you mentioned as several other uses other than the host seedlings, that also acts as mulch, which keeps earth cooler,

holds in moisture, and decomposes and creates soil. Yeah, when she mentioned that, it reminded me that drying the soil out is a big problem because of the eating duff. Eating of the leaf litter, not drinking duff, because that's great. Yeah. I've seen the roots of the large trees exposed, which is called girdling. Uh. This stresses the trees and puts them in jeopardy, but it's also really pretty. A person can view large sections of the forest that are completely

bare as there is no vegetation at all. The worms can move about three miles per year, which leaves a large path of destruction. Today, there's no successful method to rectify or reclaim those areas of our forests. I am from northern Minnesota, which is a large tourist area. Three miles per year is way way longer farther than I've run across in any other resource. I think about it, that glacier, that ice sheet that killed all those worms

right and basically drove him south. They've had ten thousand and twenty thousand years to make their way up. If they can move three miles a year, they'd be all over the place that we wouldn't be seeing this invasive species problem right now. That way they kids, Well, maybe the Minnesota worms are lightning path. Yea, they have a little jump in their giddy up. She finalizes this email Josh by saying the slow destruction of her forest is putting her whole economy at risk. That is Susan C.

From Minnesota. So sorry if we uh minimized it, we didn't certainly didn't mean to. I didn't think we did, but apparently we didn't. Like really really yeah, Like we didn't dissect a live earthworm during the podcast to show it. We didn't show its friends what would happen to it? Well, thank you Susan C for that one, um, And thank you to the other guy whose email I was going to choose but printed the wrong one. Yeah. I think

he had a fellow toothless guy. Yeah. These want to give you props for coming out, coming out and taking the tooth out of ny. If you don't know what we're talking about, you have to see this. We have a video podcast now too, um that you can subscribe to indeed, UM, and we do like we have one of the things that we do is a little game show where we teach one another something in sixty seconds.

And Chuck taught me about dental implants and showed me his toothless grim showed the world, which is Yeah, it's pretty awesome. So if you if you want to see that, you should type in stuff you should know dental implant uh into your favorite search engine or in the search bar how stuff works dot com to bring up that video. Um, And if you want to tweet to us, you can at s y s K podcast. If you want to

join us on Facebook. Go to Facebook dot com slash stuff You should know and remember, we want your emails on human trafficking. You can send those two stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, is it how stuff works dot com. To learn more about the podcast, click on the podcast icon in the upper right corner of our homepage. The how Stuff Works iPhone app has arrived. Download it today on iTunes. Brought to you by the reinvented two

thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you