Thecla Miller received a phone call for help. She was informed on the call that a girl had been trafficked from the Mainland into Honolulu for the purpose of the sex trade. The police department had limited ability to help due to the lack of a state Human Trafficking statue, especially if the victims are a US citizen, or domestically trafficked person. Though meager in number themselves, international victims are protected more often, which falls into a federal jurisdiction.
The Honolulu Police Department (HPD) contacted Thecla, the Director of Social Justice and co-founder of The Pacific Alliance to Stop Slavery (www.traffickjamming.org) at her church because under the state laws the girl had to be charged with prostitution. HPD asked Thecla if she was able to assist the girl in contacting trusted friends back on the mainland, and finally get her home safe.
According to the Department of Justice there are 200,000 U.S. born citizen children trapped in the sex trade within the borders of the United States. This number is significantly higher for adults trapped in the sex trade. Because of legal loopholes or stereotypes, persons trafficked are not often considered victims of human trafficking, but rather persecuted themselves as prostitutes.
This past weekend, I met with hundreds of student volunteers at a two day conference dedicated to the issue of human trafficking at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Most attendees had worked internationally to assist victims in human trafficking and sex trade, some had even assisted within our own state. A who’s who panel of individuals were there as key note speakers: Annie Dieselberg, CEO and Founder of NightLight Bangkok, an organization dedicated to providing skilled labor for women rescued from slave trade in Thailand; Bill Forbes, the Senior Advisor for Child Protection and Children in Crisis for World Vision International; and Kathy Xian, Executive Director of Girl Fest Hawaii. Together they shared how human trafficking has infiltrated the streets of Hawaii and consequently the rest of the US.
Conference attendees were shocked at the realities of life on the streets of Honolulu. Though prostitution is illegal in Hawaii, the state legislature has deemed it necessary to identify areas of Waikiki and Honolulu as “Prostitution Free Zones” – something that should be a moot point in a state that doesn’t legally endorse prostitution. However, because Hawaii is a gateway and port of entry for those trafficking in persons, not to mention an ideal tourist hot spot for tourism, sex trade has become a lucrative venture in this state. According to the UN, the total market value of illicit human trafficking is estimated to be in excess of $32 billion annually. Additionally they have found that 25% of all sex trade revenue is from US citizens. Here in Hawaii, areas where the sex trade flourishes, neighboring legitimate businesses suffer by existing in close proximity to the johns and managers of strip clubs and massage parlours.
I spoke with Kathy Xian about the Honolulu Police Department not commenting when I requested an interview about human trafficking and sex trade within Hawaii. She answered, “Learning about the complexities of human trafficking is a relatively new phenomenon in states like Hawaii. It makes sense that the HPD might not know enough themselves to make a truly informed statement because of the fact that they have for so long seen these trafficking victims as criminals and not victims. I feel that that mindset is indeed changing and with community support, we will be able to work with HPD and the state legislature to focus in and prosecute the true problems of Human Trafficking: the pimps and the johns. This can only happen with the passage of state legislation to create a new statute of Human Trafficking.”
I asked her about sex tourism, “Luckily, “she answered, “Hawaii was the first state in the US to adopt a state law illegalizing sex tourism and mail-order brides. In fact, many states have followed suit and used our law as a model to create similar laws of their own. It however does not mean that these crimes do not continue.”
Finally, I asked about education. “Unfortunately,” she answered, “we have a gap in our services to children. SOS [Sisters Offering Support] closed due to lack of funding last year, and has left a giant hole in education of our youth. They were instrumental in teaching kids how to identify a predator and what to do if they felt they knew someone in sex trade.”
Thecla Miller is finding out more and more that churches have to step in where the law is powerless to do so. “We are the one of what needs to be many sources of help that police can turn to when a person falls through the cracks of the system. Until legislation is passed, a lot more victims are unfairly prosecuted while their pimps are getting off with a hand slap. Nothing is more pressing than getting these victims recognized and protected.”
See the video at http://think.mtv.com/044FDFFFF00989DFC00170099392A/