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Human Trafficking
Marisela GarciaWorkforce Professional Development Academy
Orlando, FLDecember 5, 2013
What is Human Trafficking?
• Form of modern-day slavery that involves the exploitation of persons for commercial sex or forced labor
• Often involves crossing an international border but does not require moving a victim
• Traffickers use force, fraud, or coercion to control their victims
Scope of the Problem
• Estimated 500,000 to 2 million people trafficked worldwide annually (70% of victims are female)
• Estimated 15,000 to 18,000 persons trafficked annually into the U.S.
• Approximately 27 million people held in slavery worldwide
Contributing Factors
• Pronounced international trends contribute to the rapid growth of trafficking:
• Increased ability by people to cross borders
• Increased poverty worldwide
• Result: Desperately poor people immigrate to seek work
Children are routinely enslaved in West Africa’s chocolate agribusiness
Asian women are increasingly trafficked in brothels around the world
South Asian domestic workers face slave-like conditions in the Middle East
Migrant farmworkers worldwide face harsh exploitation
It’s Here in the United States
It’s Here in Florida
• Florida ranks number three in the country for human trafficking cases (following New York and California)
• Florida has been the scene of both the largest U.S. sex trafficking and labor trafficking cases
A Lucrative Business
• Yields an estimated $31 billion in profits each year
• Unlike drugs and arms traffickers, human traffickers can continue to exploit their victims after initial point of sale
• Becoming a preferred business for criminal syndicates around the world
Difficult to Stop
• Trafficking is fueled by economically desperate victims and by market demands for cheap labor– Where there are labor-intensive industries, with little
governmental oversight, human trafficking will often exist
• Trafficking flourishes when end users can make money or save money through the exploitation of others
Activities For Which People Are Trafficked
• Prostitution• Exotic dancing• Agricultural work• Landscape work• Domestic work and
child care (“domestic servitude”)
• Factory work
• Commercial cleaning• Begging/street peddling• Restaurant work• Construction work• Carnival work• Hotel housekeeping• Criminal activities• Day labor
Traffickers Use Multiple Means to Control Their Victims
• Beatings, burnings, rapes, and starvation• Isolation• Psychological abuses• Drug or alcohol dependency• Document withholding• Debt bondage• Threats of deportation• Threats against the victim’s family or friends in his/her home
country
2011 Florida Strategic Plan
• Presented to Florida Legislature by FSU Center for the Advancement of Human Rights
• DEO and other state agencies involved
Key Findings
• Florida continues to have agricultural brothels where significant sex trafficking occurs
• But labor trafficking is even more prevalent than sex trafficking in Florida
• Key Florida Business Sectors for labor trafficking:1. The Agricultural Sector
2. The Tourism & Hospitality Sector
Florida Agricultural Brothels
Florida Agricultural Brothels
“The Work Station”
Tools of the Trade
Victim Belongings
Weapons
Agricultural Labor Trafficking in Florida
Florida Orange Groves: For Tourists
Florida Orange Groves: for Migrant Workers
2001 Ramos Case
• Field slavery operation near Lake Placid, FL • Migrant workers transported from Arizona and held
in debt bondage – 700+ male victims• Ramos brothers were former farmworkers • Victims held in substandard
housing and worked 10+ hours a day
• Four farm workers escape with help of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW)
The Complicity of Businesses
• Federal judge presiding over the Ramos case declared that responsibility for the crime clearly extended to the corporate level of the Florida agricultural industry
• But noted that current law requiring that prosecutors show actual knowledge on the part of criminal perpetrators limited him to sentencing only the subcontractors (the Ramos brothers)
2005 Evans Case
• Homeless African American men & women recruited from Florida shelters for exploitation on potato & cabbage farms near Palatka
• “Company Store” model used to drive up worker debts
• Workers were paid with alcohol & crack cocaine
2005 Evans Case
2005 Evans Case
Palatka Investigation
• Investigation begins with Environmental Protection Agency discovery of human feces in the St. John River
• Sub-contractor Ronald Evans prosecuted, though not the farm employers
• 30 year criminal sentence included drug trafficking, environmental violations, and sale of unlicensed cigarettes
2008 Navarette Case
2008 Navarette Case
• Navarette family recruits Mexican and Guatemalan pickers to work their tomato fields in Immokalee
• Navarettes create a debtor system by plying the men with beer and drugs, adding these costs to their room & board
• Workers required to perform 10 hour work days and slashed with knives or tied to posts if they refused
2008 Navarette Case
• Workers locked each night in a truck boxcar
2008 Navarette Case
• Cesar Navarette the recruiter and brother Giovanni the enforcer
• Six members of the Navarette family ultimately convicted of human trafficking, Social Security fraud, and harboring undocumented foreign nationals for private gain
• Also required to pay $240,000 in restitution to the victims
CIW Modern Slavery Museum
Bull’s Hit Ranch & Farm
• Hastings potato grower settles human trafficking lawsuit (October 25, 2012)
Bull’s Hit Ranch & Farm
• Bull’s-Hit Ranch & Farm accused of mistreating African-American homeless men (including military veterans)
• Claim that Farm’s sub-contractor Ronald Uzzle hired men from Jacksonville homeless shelters taking advantage of the workers’ drug dependence
• Workers then held in overcrowded camp, plied with drugs, and had their wages garnered by Uzzle
Bull’s Hit Ranch & Farm
• Victims awarded back pay• Owner of Bulls-hit Ranch Thomas R. Lee agrees to
pay workers directly in the future• Investigation reveals that Ranch had been sued on
exact same grounds in 2004
Lawsuit Against Ronald Uzzle Continues
Potential Indicators of Labor Trafficking
• Signs of Physical Control or Abuse• One person steps forward to try to talk to an
investigator or government official on behalf of an entire group
• Traffickers may limit victims’ contact with the public or with customers
Potential Indicators of Labor Trafficking
• Victims often live in the location where they work
• Victims may lack personal items or forms of identification
• H-2A workers not working where their visa stipulates
Potential Indicators of Labor Trafficking
• Victims may lack: Personal items/possessions Cell phones, calling cards, etc. Private space Financial records Transportation Knowledge about how to get around in a community
Labor Camp/Sweatshop Indicators
• Security intended to keep victims confined Barbed wire Bars or outside locks on windows & doors Self-contained camps Handlers, guards, and/or guard dogs
• Victims only allowed to shop at “company store”
Labor Camp/Sweatshop Indicators
Human Trafficking Hotline Numbers
• National Hotline (24/7)1-888-373-7888
• Florida Abuse Hotline1-800-96-ABUSE (1-800-962-2873)
• Florida Farmworker Helpline1-800-633-3572
For More Information
Marisela GarciaSenior Monitor Advocate
Bureau of One-Stop and Program SupportDepartment of Economic Opportunity
(850) [email protected]
