Category Archives: Transhuman News

December 29, 2014|9:47 am

National Human Trafficking Prevention Month marked in January 2015.

A Christian organization that runs a restorative shelter program in the U.S. for women recovering from domestic human trafficking has pointed out ahead of National Human Trafficking Prevention month in January that anyone can be pulled into sex trafficking its shelter has girls with master's degrees, and those that come from affluent families. The Samaritan Women organization urges churches to offer hands-on engagement and respond not with judgment, but with compassion toward victims.

The Samaritan Womenis one if the organizations that appears in the newly released documentary "In Plain Sight," which seeks to raise awareness for National Human Trafficking Prevention month in January.

Jeanne Allert, the group's founder and executive director, told The Christian Post in a phone interview that people often have misconceptions about people who fall into human trafficking, and argued that it can happen to anybody.

"We have girls in our program that have master's degrees; that came from affluent families. We tend to make these stereotypes, as if this can happen to only one type of person to somebody from a drug-addicted household, who was promiscuous. And it's really not true it's quite pervasive. Perhaps the most common denominator that we see [is that] 94 percent of women who come into our program are victims of child sexual assault. And that can happen in any home," Allert told CP.

Based in Maryland, The Samaritan Women began work in 2007 raising awareness for domestic issues on human trafficking, and spent its first three years educating people and helping them understand that the issue is a local problem.

Several anti-trafficking groups put the number of human slaves on a global scale to over 30 million, while the U.S. Department of State has estimatedthere are between 14,500-17,500 people trafficked annually in America. Allert said that it's difficult to get accurate numbers in the U.S., however, because the State Department, FBI, Department of Justice and Homeland Security all have different statistics.

Groups such as The Samaritan Women have been working hard to provide the victims restorative programs that benefit them physically, mentally, and spiritually, however.

Allert's organization focused on the mid-Atlantic area, which along with the Baltimore-Washington airport is one of the hubs for sex trafficking in the country. In 2011, the group launched its restoration home, which is a Christian long-term shelter for victims of human trafficking in the U.S.

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Human Trafficking Prevention Month: Christian Organization Says Sex Slavery Can Happen to Anyone; Some Girls Hold ...

When Newark Police and federal agents carried out a sting at a South College Avenue motel earlier this month, they arrested seven men who allegedly thought they were meeting a prostitute.

However, the officers conducting the operation at the Rodeway Inn had their sights on a bigger target: human traffickers.

Such joint local and federal operations are a common tactic of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations division as it seeks to crack down on human trafficking. Though the agency is better known for its immigration enforcement, ICEs HSI division is also responsible for investigating child pornography, sex trafficking and other similar offenses.

Human sex trafficking is defined as prostitution induced by force, fraud or coercion. The victims sometimes children often make arrangements to be brought to the United States only to find themselves forced into prostitution. Other times, it involves young Americans from troubled backgrounds.

Its akin to modern-day slavery, said William Walker, assistant special agent in charge of HSI in Philadelphia.

The Dec. 18 sting in Newark was in response to recent complaints about prostitution at the Rodeway Inn, said Lt. Mark A. Farrall, a spokesman for the Newark Police Department.

After posting ads online, undercover officers used phone calls and text messages to communicate with 22 men, seven of whom showed up at the motel and were charged with patronizing a prostitute. Those charged include John Jarrell, 57; Bernard Racey, 44; Robert Fletcher, 22; Suprapto Bonari, 48; Jonathan Caine, 28; Aaron M. Johnson, 38; and James L. Poston, 45. Police withheld the defendants hometowns for unspecified reasons.

An HSI agent accompanied Newark Police during the sting and helped conduct interviews of the suspects, looking for red flag indicators of human trafficking. Similar operations have occurred in cities across the country, Walker said.

The basic idea, authorities said, is to lean on the accused to open up about any past involvement with prostitutes in an effort to get information that could lead to human trafficking rings.

We interview them and see if they can turn us on to any human trafficking victims theyve encountered in the past, Walker said.

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Prostitution sting nets 7 arrests, but real focus is on human trafficking