Part of one article I recently read as I try to keep up on this a bit, especially with the uptick in children being trafficked across our Southern borders.
Digging into US crimes of human trafficking and forced labor
By Xin Shiyan Published: Aug 18, 2021
Who is still selling slaves? Who is the perpetrator of forced labor? Evidence of forced labor and human trafficking in the US is all too clear. Still, the US is playing the "human rights card" in the international arena. It is in fact playing the trick of a thief crying "stop thief!"
First, the slave trade and forced labor have never gone away in the US.
Numerous facts have proven that "modern slavery" is nowadays still pervasive in the US., Gross violations of human rights such as human trafficking and forced labor continue to emerge one after another.
Statistics show that as many as 100,000 people are trafficked into the US from abroad for forced labor every year. Most of them are from nearly 40 countries and regions such as India, Mexico, Vietnam, Africa and Central and South America. They are sold to sweatshops in the US working as coolies, not protected by any labor or employment laws and regulations. Research by the University of Pennsylvania found that there are at least 500,000 people in the US currently living in the conditions of modern slavery.
Moreover, it's estimated that between 15,000 to 50,000 women and children are forced into sexual slavery in the US every year, while a report by the University of Pennsylvania estimated the figure between 100,000 and 300,000 and one study from the Department of Health and Human Services put it between 240,000 and 325,000.
The surveys and statistics all show that the slave trade has never left the US, and that forced labor is still deeply entrenched in the US. It is a modern form of slavery that exists throughout the US.
Second, human trafficking and forced labor are rampant in the US.
In the past five years, all 50 states in the US and the District of Columbia have reported cases of forced labor and human trafficking. Up to 100,000 people are trafficked into the US for forced labor annually and half of them are sold to sweatshops or enslaved in households. In 2019 alone, the FBI reported 1,883 cases of human trafficking, over 500 more than 2018.
The serious problem of child labor is the darkness under the light of the "beacon of human rights." According to the statistics of some US industry associations, there are approximately 500,000 child farm workers in the US. Many of these children start work as young as age 8, working 72 hours a week.
Worse, the US prison system is even more like a shelter of forced labor. The US has the world's largest prison system, with 2.3 million people currently incarcerated. According to the Black Agenda Report, people in US prisons have no legal protection and no right to refuse the use of their labor.
According to the Los Angeles Times, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, inmates in a women's prison in Chino, California, were forced to produce masks for up to 12 hours a day for just 8 cents to $1 an hour at the risk of infection. Ironically, they churned out masks by the thousands but were forbidden from wearing them."
From another:
"Trafficking occurs in both legal and illicit industries, including in commercial sex, hospitality, traveling sales crews, agriculture, janitorial services, construction, restaurants, care for persons with disabilities, salon services, massage parlors, fairs and carnivals, peddling and begging, drug smuggling and distribution, and childcare and domestic work," said the 2018 Trafficking in Persons Report.
How serious is human trafficking in the United States? In the past five years, cases of forced labor and human trafficking have been reported in all 50 states and Washington D.C. Up to 100,000 people are trafficked into the United States for forced labor annually and half of them are sold to sweatshops or enslaved in households. According to the
National Human Trafficking Hotline, the number of reported cases increased significantly from more than 3,200 in 2012 to more than 8,500 in 2017.
Women and children account for a significant proportion of human trafficking cases in the US, and many of them are victims of sex trafficking. According to a 2020 report by DeliverFund, a US counter-human trafficking intelligence organization, it is estimated that between 15,000 to 50,000 women and children are forced into sexual slavery in the US every year.
This is from Newsweek:
10 Missing Children Found in Ohio's Largest Sex Sting, 161 People Arrested
"I shake my head and can't believe those stories," state Attorney General David Yost said. "It happens everywhere."
www.newsweek.com
Also:
2021 Trafficking in Persons Report
www.state.gov
Lots of 1:1's on that unit. 1:1 (one to one) meaning a staff is closely watching the patient and is in arms reach at all times to prevent them from acting out. Sometimes even 2:1's ordered.
