EDITION # 10
MARCH 21,
2007
News from Washington DC
By Holly Burkhalter
Vice President for Government Relations International
Justice Mission (IJM)
On February 7, 2007 the President named Mark Lagon, currently the Deputy Assistant Secretary in the International Organizations Affairs Bureau at the State Department, to head the State Department Trafficking in Persons (TIP) office. The TIP office has been the locus of energetic monitoring and advocacy by the U.S. Government on issues of slavery, labor trafficking, child labor, and forced commercial sexual exploitation of adults and children. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has received Mr. Lagon's papers, but has not yet set a date for his confirmation hearing at the time of this writing.
Under the leadership of former Congressional Representative John Miller, the TIP office gained a reputation for candor and vigor on the issue, which has benefited victims of trafficking and slavery around the world. As IJM Senior Vice President Sharon Cohn says, "The months running up to the publication of the annual Trafficking in Persons report are the best time to be a victim. We see a surge of anti-trafficking activity in this time period that reflects the seriousness of Ambassador Miller's effort."
Some in the foreign policy establishment disapproved of Miller¹s public criticism of allied governments, preferring a more diplomatic approach to the issue. Even friends of the anti-trafficking and anti-slavery cause have pointed to the need for ownership of the issue by State Department officials not affiliated with the TIP office. Tension over public versus private diplomacy has undermined the effectiveness of U.S. policy on trafficking.
Fortunately, Mr. Lagon is no stranger to competing demands, strong personalities and tough issues, both at the State Department and (previously) when he worked for Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, Jesse Helms. Human rights activists, including me, have found him to be courteous, open-minded, and a bridge-builder between liberals and conservatives and Republicans and Democrats. His deft touch with controversial issues and his experience negotiating with other players inside the Foreign Service are, to my mind, just the qualities that we need a leader at this time in the development of the slavery issue and the TIP office.
Sharon Cohn and I met with Mr. Lagon in December when we learned that he was short-listed for the job yet before he was named to the post. In our conversation, he named as one of his top priorities the goal of embedding the anti-trafficking, anti-slavery agenda in US Embassies abroad and State Department regional bureaus at home. Achieving that extremely worthy goal while at the same time retaining the independence he needs to call slavery-tolerating governments to task - even if it complicates our government's relations with them -- will take all of Mark Lagon's considerable intelligence and powers of persuasion.
Make Your Voice Heard...See this week's Action Alert in this edition of The Underground
WHAT'S HAPPENING RIGHT NOW...
Abolitionist of the Week: Anna Rodriguez and the Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking
Florida abolitionists to build four shelters for trafficking victims
Victims of human trafficking will soon have a safe place to stay in Southwest Florida.
Anna Rodriguez, founder and CEO of The Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking, announced this week that her group received a commitment for a donation of more than $1 million from an anonymous donor. The money will go to build four shelters across the state to house victims of trafficking. The first shelter will be built in Southwest Florida, where the coalition is based.
The
shelters will start with 50 beds with hopes to expand to 100, Rodriguez
said. They will house victims in an emergency shelter and then provide
transitional housing, where they will also learn English and have access
to
other services.
Southwest Florida residents have become more aware of human trafficking in recent years, especially after a high-profile case of a young Guatemalan girl in Cape Coral being kept as a sex slave. That incident and the story of how Anna Rodriguez became an abolitionist are told in David Batstone's book, Not for Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade and How We Can Fight It. A free download of the first chapter of Not for Sale is now available.
Action Alert: Make Your Voice Heard in Washington DC
Senate
Foreign Relations Committee hearings on Mr. Lagon's nomination is one
of the few occasions that Senators have to convey their concern about
the
international crime of trafficking and support for US Government initiatives
to confront it.
The following Senators are Members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: Joe Biden, (Chairman, D-Delaware); Richard Lugar (Ranking Member, R-Indiana); Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut); Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska); John Kerry (D-Massachusetts); Norm Coleman (R-Minnesota); Russell Feingold (D-Wisconsin); Bob Corker (R-Tennessee); Barbara Boxer (D-California); John Sununu (R-New Hampshire); Bill Nelson (D-Florida); George Voinovich (R-Ohio); Barack Obama (D-Illinois); Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska); Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey); Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina); Ben Cardin (D-Maryland); Johnny Isakson (R-Georgia); Robert Casey, Jr. (D-Pennsylvania); David Vitter (R-Louisiana); and Jim Webb (D-Virginia.)
If your Senator is among these Committee members, please write and urge him or her to meet with Mr. Lagon before his hearing, which is customary for members of the Committee, and to attend Mr. Lagon's nomination hearings. Moreover, Senators not on the Committee may also attend any hearing they would like. Write both senators from your state and urge them to join Senate Foreign Relations Committee members to discuss the international scourge of slavery and trafficking, and to talk with the Mr. Lagon about ways the Congress can help him confront it.
The Monitor: Modern Slavery in the Garment Industry
A
Firsthand, Behind-the-Scenes Report on What Happened in American Samoa
to
300 Women Enslaved by Kil Soo Lee and the Vietnamese Government, and the
People Who Helped Bring Them Justice
By Malia Zimmerman
Journalist, Hawaii Reporter
In January 2001, I got calls from two people I'd never met asking me to go to American Samoa to help expose in the media the story of 300 young women who were enslaved by Korean garment factory owner, Kil Soo Lee.
I was a single mom of a 5-year-old boy, freelancing for local and national news media and launching Hawaii Reporter -- all of which kept me busy. The thought of traveling to a place I was unfamiliar under conditions that would probably be hostile, and trying to communicate with young women who did not speak any English, just didn't seem practical. Besides, wasn't there a journalist in American Samoa who could write the story? And what about the government in American Samoa -- or the U.S. federal government -- if the conditions were really that bad, wouldn't agents from one of these government bodies step in to rescue them?
Read the entire riveting story:
Breaking News: BBC Reports that British Women Being Sold Abroad
Peter
Green is the project director of Barnabus, a Christian outreach which
works with people involved in the sex trade in Manchester, dubbed "the
sauna
capital of Europe."
Although the charity finds it difficult to access the city's massage parlours, volunteers have seen a sharp rise in the number of women from eastern Europe working the streets in the last 12 months.
"I believe it (sex trafficking) is widespread," Mr Green told the BBC.
"But I also believe we are not aware this is a two way issue, that young women are being taken out of our country and sold abroad because they owe money to the massage parlours."
Campaign
News: Batstone to Speak at Australian National Parliament
David
Batstone embarks this week on a ten-day campaign tour of Australia
sponsored by World Vision Australia and a coalition of universities,
churches and other faith-based organizations. While in Australia, Batstone
will speak at the National Parliament in Canberra and at the state of
Victoria Parliament. Here is his schedule:
March 24-26 Sydney
March 27-28 Canberra
March 29-31 Melbourne
To find out about locations and times in Australia, email Martin Thomas