FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEWS RELEASE
January 12, 2012
For More Information, contact:
Luther Strange
Joy Patterson (334) 242-7491
Alabama Attorney General
Suzanne Webb (334) 242-7351
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AG STRANGE, U.S. ATTORNEY BECK JOIN FOR GREATER
AWARENESS AND HELP TO VICTIMS OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING
(MONTGOMERY)–Attorney General Luther Strange and U.S. Attorney George
L. Beck, Jr., joined with members of the Human Trafficking Coalition for the Middle
District of Alabama at a news conference today to highlight January as National Slavery
and Human Trafficking Prevention Month.
“We stand together to shine the light of public awareness, bringing the tools of
law enforcement and community services to expose an ugly crime and to help its
victims,” said Attorney General Strange. “The great tragedy is while human trafficking
is a pervasive and fast-growing crime, it is often undetected. Victims may go
unrecognized and not even realize that what is being done to them is illegal or that they
can ever escape. Victims are isolated from those who might help them, and trapped in a
terrifying web of violence, intimidation and control. With the coordinated effort of
those here today and many others, we are working to break that web and to free its
victims.”
U.S. Attorney Beck stated, “Many victims hide in fright in our own backyard in
nightmare conditions and forced prostitution. I want to thank law enforcement in the
Middle District, and especially the Human Trafficking Coalition, for their devotion to
finding and freeing victims of human trafficking. Make no mistake, human trafficking
is enslaving our fellow Americans, many of whom are children of broken homes or
runaways, targeted to serve in the commercial sex trade. This office will prosecute
traffickers and protect victims. I encourage everyone to visit DOJ’s website at
www.ovc.ncjrs.gov or the HHS website at www.acf.hhs.gov/trafficking to learn more
about human trafficking. Let’s work together to fight and prevent this evil criminal
conduct.”
Attorney General Strange warned potential offenders that first-degree human
trafficking is a Class A felony punishable by 10 years to life imprisonment, and that
second-degree human trafficking is a class B felony, punishable by two to 20 years
imprisonment. It also is a crime to obstruct or attempt to interfere or prevent
enforcement of Alabama’s human trafficking law, Act 2010-705. Alabama’s law was
recently used in successful prosecutions by the Montgomery County District Attorney’s
Office.
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Attorney General Strange thanked Representative Jack Williams of Birmingham
for his sponsorship of the bill that became Alabama’s human trafficking law.
Representative Williams stated that, “The Human Trafficking Act of 2010 helped to
make Alabama a safer place for its most vulnerable and a harsher place for those who
peddle human misery.” Related legislation is being introduced in the upcoming session
by Senator Dick Brewbaker. Senate bill 50 would promote awareness and facilitate
assistance to trafficking victims by requiring that the national hotline number be
displayed in certain establishments and published on certain internet sites.
State law provides for prosecution of human trafficking in the forms of forced
labor or sexual servitude through coercion or deception. Minors are not legally able to
consent to being used for sexual servitude, and the offender’s supposed ignorance of
the victim’s age is not a defense.
Federal law provides for prosecution of human trafficking in essentially the same
two forms, labor trafficking or sex trafficking. Both forms of trafficking require proof of
force, fraud, or coercion. Federal law, however, does not require the presence of force,
fraud, or coercion where a minor child is being trafficked. The penalties under federal
law also differ somewhat. Labor trafficking is punishable by no more than 20 years
imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and restitution. The term of imprisonment can increase
under limited circumstances. Sex trafficking of a minor is punishable by no less than 10
years to life imprisonment, a fine, and mandatory restitution. If the victim of sex
trafficking is an adult or a minor who was subjected to force, fraud, or coercion, the
offense is punishable by no less than 15 years imprisonment to life, a fine, and
mandatory imprisonment.
Human trafficking is recognized as “a modern-day form of slavery” and “is tied
with the illegal arms industry as the second largest criminal industry in the world
today,” according to a fact sheet distributed the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services. The information from HHS estimates that approximately 600,000 to 800,000
victims annually are trafficked across international borders worldwide, and that victims
are generally trafficked into the U.S. from Asia, Central and South America, and Eastern
Europe. The situations of many victims are complicated by an inability to speak
English that isolates them further from those who might recognize and help them.
Trafficking involves not only victims who are forced to work in prostitution and
engage in other kinds of sex trade, but also can include victims in situations such as
domestic servitude, sweatshop factories or migrant agricultural work. HHS notes ways
in which traffickers use force, fraud and coercion to control and exploit their victims.
Forceful violence may include beatings and rape, and intensive deprivation of
nourishment and sleep may also be used to break down the resistance of victims. Fraud
may involve false or misleading offers of employment, with victims then forced into
prostitution. It may lead to debt bondage, with the victim forced to pay exorbitant fees
for travel, food and housing, being kept isolated and in horrendous living
circumstances with a growing debt that is impossible for them to ever pay. Coercion is Page 3 of 3
the use of intimidation, restraint, and threats of serious harm to victims or their families
or loved ones. Traffickers often take and withhold travel papers and documentation, to
maintain control and make escape more difficult.
The Human Trafficking Coalition cites its mission as “To Find and Free” victims.
The coalition began its work in late 2009, initiated and organized by Assistant U.S.
Attorney Monica Stump of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of
Alabama. The coalition draws together representatives of law enforcement, government
agencies and social service providers to promote awareness and recognition of victims
and to find and provide resources to help them. This includes activities such as
networking with education and health care professionals about how to identify and
build relationships of trust so that victims may be rescued.
Human Trafficking has been a particular concern of the National Association of
Attorneys General, selected by NAAG President and Washington Attorney General Rob
McKenna last year as for an initiative entitled “Pillars of Hope: Attorneys General Unite
Against Human Trafficking. In August of 2011, Attorney General Strange joined 44
other Attorneys General in a letter calling on Backpage.com to remove sex trade
advertising and to demonstrate policies and actions taken to prevent the use of its
advertising to promote or facilitate human trafficking. A similar effort by 42 Attorneys
General in 2008 ultimately led to Craigslist removing its section for “erotic services.”
Attorney General Strange and U.S. Attorney Beck urged citizens to be alert and
to report any concerns or suspicions to the National Human Trafficking Resource
Center by calling its toll-free hotline, 1-888-373-7888.
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