SECTION: CAPITOL HILL HEARING TESTIMONY

LENGTH: 3284 words

COMMITTEE: HOUSE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

HEADLINE: HUMAN TRAFFICKING

TESTIMONY-BY: LINDA SMITH, FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF

AFFILIATION: SHARED HOPE INTERNATIONAL

BODY:
Statement of Linda Smith Founder and Executive Director of Shared Hope International

Before the House International Relations Committee

June 19, 2002

Thank you Chairman Hyde and Ranking Member Lantos for holding this hearing on the subject of Human Trafficking. This is a human rights tragedy that affects millions of people around the world and knows no ideological barriers. Trafficking takes place in democratic and undemocratic countries. It takes place in rich and poor countries. It takes place in countries that respect the rule of law and countries that don't. There are very few countries in the world that are not, in some way, affected by the issue of trafficking in children, including our own, and I commend the Chairman for providing a forum for groups like mine, Shared Hope International, to share what we have seen in countries where we are working, what we are doing to help end the trafficking trade and restore its innocent victims and what we see as necessary steps the United States government should be taking to combat this problem. Since leaving Congress is 1999, I have dedicated my life to helping victims of human trafficking - primarily women and children who have been trafficked for sexual purposes. This is not an issue that I expected to take up when I left Congress, but in my last months as a Member I had the opportunity to visit several brothels on the infamous Falkland Road in Bombay. What I saw there changed my life. I talked with dozens of women and children who were trapped in a degrading and humiliating lifestyle, which they did not choose and could not escape. Most were mere children when they were trafficked into sexual slavery. I returned with my heart broken for these girls and decided to do what I could to help.

In 1999, I founded Shared Hope International and have since worked to establish 19 homes in three countries - India, Nepal and Jamaica - that serve as places of refuge and restoration for victims of trafficking. Most of the individuals we serve were sold by their parents or stolen by traffickers and moved into brothels as children. Shared Hope partners with other organizations such as Teen Challenge International to establish and run our shelters, which have the capacity to serve 300 women and children at a time.

Our goal is to help these women and children receive basic education and job skills, build their self-esteem and recognize their dignity as human beings. When they come to us they are broken and hopeless. They have been physically and psychologically abused. Most have spent years living in a dingy brothel stall where they have been forced to service many clients a day. Almost all our victims are in need of basic medical care to treat the sexually transmitted diseases they were given by their clients or to heal the scars from the years of beatings they endured.

Many victims were children when they entered the brothel.

I would like to share the stories of some of the women who have come to us for help:

Gina's story: Gina* was the first girl to find refuge in one of our safe houses in India three years ago when Shared Hope first began helping girls like her.

She was only 9 years old when her father sold her to a procurer. She came from a very poor family who apparently believed they could not afford to raise a girl. She was told that she was going on a trip to a very special place, that she would have new clothes, and that she would be working for a nice family who lived in a big house.

The reality turned out much, much different.

Gina should have been playing with dolls. Instead, this little girl was sold by her father and became a "doll" in a Bombay Brothel. At first she refused to do what the brothel owner told her she must do for clients. But, after several days of being kept in total darkness, given regular beatings with a belt, and nearly starved to death, Gina finally surrendered. She worked in that brothel for seven years. She serviced hundreds of clients. She saw many of the girls in the brothel become sick with "Bombay disease." She saw them turned out into the streets to die.

These are her words.

"In those first days, I often cried myself to sleep, wishing I was back in my village, homesick for my mother.

I hated life in the brothel, hated what I saw, hated what I did. I hated what happened to the other girls -- especially the sick ones.

But the tears grew less and less, and I became accustomed to my new life.

I dreamed of buying my freedom and going home to Nepal, but I knew there was little hope of that. By my sixteenth birthday, I had forgotten what hope was."

She eventually had a little girl of her own that she tucked in a box under her bed.

Gina's life changed when she met the director of one of our homes in India who told her that she could be free. She sent her little girl to live in a Teen Challenge children's home and we were soon able to help secure Gina's freedom. She is now learning a trade, learning how to live again and feeling hope for the first time in a very long time. (Gina's complete story attached.)

Ganga's story: Ganga was imprisoned in a locked room for over 10 years after being drugged and moved 1,000 miles to a brothel as a young girl. She thinks she was about 8 when she was taken from her family, but doesn't know for sure. She doesn't fully understand what happened to her. Like most low caste girls from Nepal, she had no education or understanding of where she came from or where she was.

A few months ago, she finally had a chance to escape thanks to the help of a policeman who saw her through a window. He broke the lock on the door and told her to run fast. One of our workers saw her and took her to one of our safe houses. It is clear by her testimony that the police knew she was in bondage, but to our knowledge none of the brothel owners or operators have been arrested or prosecuted. It was almost as if he was afraid, too. He ran off.

When I first met Ganga, she just sat huddled in a corner rarely uttering a sound. For several months this frail battered girl was tended by the consistent love and care of the other women in the safe house.

My second visit with her was different. When she started talking she didn't even seem to stop for a breath as she repeated over and over her thanks. She first wanted to thank me for giving her freedom and a new home with a family that loves her. Her voice was filled with emotion when she expressed her thankfulness for her schooling. Until recent times it had been illegal to educate girls and it still is rare. She went on to say though that she was especially thankful because she could now read. (Ganga's complete story attached.)

Shoba and Mannisha's story: Shoba's parents sold her when she was a little girl, maybe to have the money to feed their other children but we don't really know why. By age 13, Shoba was a seasoned prostitute and had a baby of her own. Shoba remembered her life as a child, playing in the countryside, carefree. That's the life she wanted for her child, Mannisha.

But Shoba was trapped. Baby Mannisha had to sleep under the cot where Shoba was forced to service the brothel patrons. When the little girl was big enough to toddle about the room, Shoba saw the way these horrible men eyed her baby. In India, many believe that having sex with a virgin will cure AIDS, so the younger the prostitute, the more valuable she is to the brothel.

Shoba knew Mannisha was in great danger growing up in the brothel but there was little her mother could do to protect her. Shoba was terrified her daughter would be forced into prostitution, too.

When a Teen Challenge team came to the brothel to play with the children and tell their mothers there was a way out of this horrible life, Shoba eagerly listened. When she was told there was a place she could send her daughter where 8 year-old Mannisha would be safe and protected, she asked if the team could take her precious daughter right away.

Today, Mannisha lives in our safe house and attends a private school. For the first time in her life, her playground isn't a filthy brothel and her bed isn't the dirty floor under a cot.

Shoba was too frightened of her "owners" at the brothel to try to escape with Mannisha. Though she is only 21 years old, she is also very sick from the years of abuse and exploitation. We hope someday we will be able help her find the strength and courage she needs to join her little girl at our safe house. (Shoba and Mannisha's complete story attached.)

Though each women found in the brothel has a different story, they have similar characteristics. Many were children when they were forced into this lifestyle. Most are from poor families. Most are uneducated. Most were sold unwittingly by a family member or family friend, lured out of their village by a promise of a good job in another city, or lured into false marriages and then abandoned without means of support. Most find themselves far away from home (often in another country) and report being drugged while in transit. Many ended up in the brothel when they were girls (some were being used as young as 8 or 9 though many don't know their exact age since they easily lose track of dates and times when holed up in a brothel lifestyle.) Most victims were beaten when they refused to cooperate with the brothel owners. Most report being forced to eat, sleep and work in a single room in a brothel never seeing the sunlight or being allowed outside.

Most victims report feeling lifeless, numb, rejected, alone, suicidal and hopeless while trapped in prostitution.

These women and children need help. They need the help of their own government, which, sadly, consistently turns a blind eye to their fate. They need the help of the international community to bring attention to their plight. Most importantly, they need the help of caring men and women who are willing to love them and help them obtain the skills necessary to get a job, earn an honest living and protect themselves from future exploitation.

Congress and Administration Action

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000 was a very important step forward in the fight against human trafficking. If enforced rigorously it will force a change in behavior. Congress did the right thing by passing the legislation and President Clinton did the right thing by signing it.

I have been very encouraged by the actions the Bush administration has taken so far on this issue. In light of the tremendous pressure put on all levels of the new Administration after the events of September 11, 2001, the problem of trafficking could have dropped off the radar screen. But it hasn't. President Bush has kept his commitment to make trafficking - a modern form of slavery -- a top foreign policy and human rights priority.

I commend Secretary of State Colin Powell and Undersecretary for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky for pulling together a team at the Trafficking in Persons Office and delivering the country report in a timely manner. An inter-agency working group of senior level officials has been meeting regularly illustrating a real commitment from those at the top of key agencies to make this issue a priority. I have been impressed by the enthusiastic and capable people I have met working this issue at the Departments of Justice, State, and Health and Human Services.

It is also worth noting and applauding the aggressive approach being taken at the Justice Department under the leadership of Attorney General Ashcroft to arrest and prosecute traffickers and to increase community awareness on the issue. We are improving efforts to combat the problem within our borders and that is a very positive sign.

I am also honored and encouraged to be part of a coalition of private organizations charged by Congress with hosting an International summit on human trafficking next year in conjunction with the State Department. The War Against Human Trafficking Summit, tentatively scheduled for March 2003 in Washington DC, will convene government leaders, policy makers, legislators, advocates, service providers, police and prosecutorial officials, members of the business community and other concerned citizens around the issue of trafficking of women and children for purposes of commercial sexual exploitation. The goals of this international conference are to galvanize, educate and empower individuals in their efforts to develop strategies for the prevention of trafficking, the prosecution of perpetrators and the restoration of victims of trafficking. The overarching goal is to equip an international cohort of committed individuals to put an end to this egregious form of human slavery.

There have been positive steps forward, but more must and can be done.

The TVPA will not be an effective tool for change unless we tell the truth about what is really going on in countries where we know trafficking and forced prostitution are a problem. We cannot soft pedal our message to governments which have shown little or no interest in addressing the root causes of trafficking in their country. Doing so only ensures that millions of women and children will continue to be exploited, deprived of their human rights and stripped of their ability to be productive individuals.

In the three countries where Shared Hope is working, we have seen no significant evidence of positive or effective government action to curb the trafficking problem. There have been very few prosecutions of traffickers in India and Nepal. There has been very little work done to change what we see as continued tolerance for children being used and abused. There has been very little done to inform and educate women about the dangers of trafficking or to provide legal safeguards for women. There has been no distinguishable change in protection for the victims. There has been little increase in the risk of coming to justice for the trafficker.

Recommendations:

I encourage the Administration and Congress to take the following actions:

1) The United States must keep a spot light on countries like Nepal and India. India has no incentive to change if they see Tier 2 as a passing grade. They must be encouraged to see this as a "D"- (a barely passing grade) with the understanding that if they don't increase the arrests and prosecutions of traffickers they will not get a passing grade in 2003.

We do not come to the same conclusion that there are 'significant efforts' to eliminate trafficking in the countries of Nepal and India. Significant efforts mean significant change for the victims and traffickers. We believe the only measure of progress is what effect actions have on getting between the traffickers and their victims.

The evaluations in the Trafficking in Persons report need to be based on arrests and prosecutions of those who would prey on the vulnerable from all social and economic levels. To give a good rating to a country based on its law and its commitment to do better is simply not enough. We must see a vigorous enforcement of the law including bringing the wealthy and powerful to justice. It is well known in both Nepal and India that those involved in using and selling children are frequently those in law enforcement, the privileged, and the high caste. There are currently situations where charges have been brought that are many years old and there is no expectation that there will ever be a trial. Countries like India that do not significantly increase arrests and prosecutions of traffickers should be put on notice.

2) The annual Trafficking in Persons report must place a greater emphasis on the protection of vulnerable children like Mannisha who are in great danger of being victimized. Countries that have not shown significant evidence that they are executing strategies to protect children from traffickers, and prosecuting those who are involved in trafficking children, should not be given a good rating or progress report, in the future.

3) I encourage the administration to consider countries with legalized or tolerated prostitution as having laws that are insufficient efforts to eliminate trafficking. Studies now show that where there is a strong adult sex industry, the commercial sexual exploitation of children and sex slavery increases. Our observations confirm this as we see that that where there is tolerated prostitution it provides cover for the traffickers to exploit the most vulnerable in the population, especially children. Criminalizing prostitution should not be limited to child prostitution but should include adult prostitution as well.

4) The U.S. government should enhance aid to victims service programs in countries where trafficking is a major problem to help ensure that more victims are rescued and restored and provide additional aid and technical assistance to governments who need help learning how to prosecute traffickers.

5) Every country should be rated. The Trafficking in Persons report currently documents severe forms of trafficking of women and children in 89 countries. We urge the Department of State to collect information regarding other countries for the 2003 report, so that no country will be exempt from sanctions only on the basis of insufficient information.

6) Prosecutions of American citizens, including military personnel, who use victims of sex slavery should be vigorous if America is to be taken seriously. The recent revelations of American service personnel frequenting brothels where they know the women are there in slavery conditions is appalling and demands an immediate response by our President and the military.

Conclusion:

Human trafficking is a crime in which a person's most basic boundary, their own skin, is violated against their will. Shared Hope International is engaged in the crucial work of saving and transforming the victims of this heinous crime. We are saving the lives of these precious women and children by negotiating for their freedom and transforming them by restoring them to health and providing the vocational and life-skills training they need to become self-sufficient.

In our mission to rescue human trafficking victims, provide a safe refuge for them, and restore them to healthy and self- sufficient individuals, we also are working to prevent this crime through public awareness efforts. Cooperation of local and national governments is crucial to our prevention efforts. Unfortunately, we have found that there are governments who ignore this problem and some who even perpetuate it. It is essential for the United States government to hold these countries accountable for their actions and violations of the standards put forth in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. I strongly encourage you to push for the recommendations that I have outlined for you today, as I believe that a more aggressive approach needs to be taken in evaluating each country's progress towards preventing and eliminating the trafficking of human beings.

We live in a world where girls as young as eight years old are traded, bartered or sold like cattle to be used up in dingy brothels, and where Gina's story is all too familiar to hundreds of thousands of women and children. In this world, we who are free must stand for the thousands still held in slavery. We cannot stand idly by while more women and children are robbed of their innocence, freedom, and human dignity.

Thank you Chairman Hyde and Ranking Member Lantos on behalf of the women and children I serve. They are so often without a voice, and I am proud to speak on their behalf so that their voices and their stories might be heard.



LOAD-DATE: June 20, 2002