LSU The Reveille
Linnie Leavines
Columnist
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Share this article Published: Monday, March 9, 2009
Updated: Monday, March 9, 2009
“We thought slavery ended in the 19th century. We couldn’t be more wrong. Slavery still exists.”
Such is the slogan of the new group on campus, Tigers Against Trafficking, an organization dedicated to fighting modern-day slavery.
Natalie LaBorde, an LSU grad student and founder of the group, was inspired to create the organization after attending a trafficking awareness event in Sydney, Australia, then travelling on a research trip to Cambodia, Greece, Holland and the UK.
While visiting Phnom Pen, Cambodia, LaBorde met several victims of human trafficking, including a 12-year-old mother authorities found working in a brothel.
“When I met her, she was carrying the baby on her hip, as if he was her sibling,” LaBorde said. “I saw many things I would almost rather forget exist.”
Upon her return to the University to complete law school, LaBorde founded Tigers Against Trafficking to combat the horrors she found overseas and in the U.S.
Such activism is vital — especially considering the American public is fond of turning a blind eye to the trade, whether from willful ignorance or a desire to exploit the victims of the system.
In the world of trafficking, the U.S. is primarily a transit and destination country and occasionally a source. The majority of trafficked sex workers in the U.S. are natives of varied demographics.
The public is largely ignorant because they have believed the greatest myth of human trafficking — that it does not exist.
“People don’t understand the magnitude of the trafficking industry and how their daily economic transactions contribute to it,” LaBorde said. “The modern slave trade is a business fueled by demand. We contribute to demand by turning a blind eye to pornography, sex tourism, and forced prostitution or by purchasing products from companies who use slave labor. Consequently, to some degree we are all part of the problem or part of the solution.”
The U.S. tends to be victim-centered when considering trafficking related legislation. The federal government has implemented legislation to counteract human trafficking, including the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005, which enforces stricter penalties for those guilty of trafficking and provides financial aid to victims.
“Prosecution with the new stiffer penalties will make this a higher-risk endeavor and will reduce its profitability,” LaBorde said.
This is admirable but only effective to a limited degree. Legislation is only useful if a trafficking ring is found and brought to justice. As long as rings remain unexposed, however, the system obviously cannot execute the law.
Therefore, additional pre-emptive measures must be taken not just by the government, but by Americans.
As citizens, we have three choices: actively support trafficking by soliciting sex workers, passively contribute to it by remaining ignorant or determinedly fight it by campaigning for awareness.
In many ways, civilians are often better equipped for exposing trafficking rings than the authorities are, as a trafficker cannot tell if a civilian is a patron or a vigilante until it’s too late.
Given the number of victims range from 10,000 to 30,000 in the U.S. alone, according to the Task Force for Human Trafficking, the chances of knowing a victim or someone who solicits them is much greater for an average civilian than it is for a member of law enforcement. For this reason, human trafficking awareness is an effective preventive measure.
For the U.S., this type of counterattack is vital, as the U.S. has done much concerning legislation but little concerning prevention.
Trafficking has latched on to the underbelly of our economy and culture, and as long as we do business without discretion and remain passively ignorant, we inadvertently promote human slavery.
Linnie Leavines
Columnist
Print this article
Share this article Published: Monday, March 9, 2009
Updated: Monday, March 9, 2009
“We thought slavery ended in the 19th century. We couldn’t be more wrong. Slavery still exists.”
Such is the slogan of the new group on campus, Tigers Against Trafficking, an organization dedicated to fighting modern-day slavery.
Natalie LaBorde, an LSU grad student and founder of the group, was inspired to create the organization after attending a trafficking awareness event in Sydney, Australia, then travelling on a research trip to Cambodia, Greece, Holland and the UK.
While visiting Phnom Pen, Cambodia, LaBorde met several victims of human trafficking, including a 12-year-old mother authorities found working in a brothel.
“When I met her, she was carrying the baby on her hip, as if he was her sibling,” LaBorde said. “I saw many things I would almost rather forget exist.”
Upon her return to the University to complete law school, LaBorde founded Tigers Against Trafficking to combat the horrors she found overseas and in the U.S.
Such activism is vital — especially considering the American public is fond of turning a blind eye to the trade, whether from willful ignorance or a desire to exploit the victims of the system.
In the world of trafficking, the U.S. is primarily a transit and destination country and occasionally a source. The majority of trafficked sex workers in the U.S. are natives of varied demographics.
The public is largely ignorant because they have believed the greatest myth of human trafficking — that it does not exist.
“People don’t understand the magnitude of the trafficking industry and how their daily economic transactions contribute to it,” LaBorde said. “The modern slave trade is a business fueled by demand. We contribute to demand by turning a blind eye to pornography, sex tourism, and forced prostitution or by purchasing products from companies who use slave labor. Consequently, to some degree we are all part of the problem or part of the solution.”
The U.S. tends to be victim-centered when considering trafficking related legislation. The federal government has implemented legislation to counteract human trafficking, including the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005, which enforces stricter penalties for those guilty of trafficking and provides financial aid to victims.
“Prosecution with the new stiffer penalties will make this a higher-risk endeavor and will reduce its profitability,” LaBorde said.
This is admirable but only effective to a limited degree. Legislation is only useful if a trafficking ring is found and brought to justice. As long as rings remain unexposed, however, the system obviously cannot execute the law.
Therefore, additional pre-emptive measures must be taken not just by the government, but by Americans.
As citizens, we have three choices: actively support trafficking by soliciting sex workers, passively contribute to it by remaining ignorant or determinedly fight it by campaigning for awareness.
In many ways, civilians are often better equipped for exposing trafficking rings than the authorities are, as a trafficker cannot tell if a civilian is a patron or a vigilante until it’s too late.
Given the number of victims range from 10,000 to 30,000 in the U.S. alone, according to the Task Force for Human Trafficking, the chances of knowing a victim or someone who solicits them is much greater for an average civilian than it is for a member of law enforcement. For this reason, human trafficking awareness is an effective preventive measure.
For the U.S., this type of counterattack is vital, as the U.S. has done much concerning legislation but little concerning prevention.
Trafficking has latched on to the underbelly of our economy and culture, and as long as we do business without discretion and remain passively ignorant, we inadvertently promote human slavery.
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