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< Go back to Immigration Daily [Congressional Record: July 27, 2000 (Senate)]
[Page S7788-S7789]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:cr27jy00-116]
TRAFFICKING VICTIMS PROTECTION ACT OF 2000
Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I recognize my colleague from Minnesota
today, for legislation that he and I have been working on together has
passed this body. It previously passed the House, and now will go to
conference. It is The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. It is
a bill--one of the first perhaps in the world--to address the growing
ugly practice of sex trafficking where people are traded into human
bondage--again, into the sex and prostitution business around the
world. It is an ugly practice that is growing. More organized crime is
getting into it. It is one of the darker sides of globalization that is
taking place in the world.
It is estimated that the size of this business is $7 billion
annually, only surpassed by that of the illegal arms trade on an
illegal basis. If those numbers aren't stark enough, the numbers of the
individuals involved is stark enough.
Our intelligence community estimates that up to 700,000 women and
children--primarily young girls--are trafficked, generally from poorer
countries to richer countries each year, and sold into bondage; raped,
held against their will, locked up, and food withheld from them until
they submit to this sex trade. That is taking place in our world in the
year 2000. Our intelligence community estimates that 50,000 are
trafficked into the United States into this ugly traffic.
I had a personal experience with this earlier this year. In January,
I traveled to Nepal and met with a number of girls who had been
trafficked and then returned. They had been tricked to leave their
villages. Many of them were told at the ages of 11, 12, or 13: Come
with us. We are going to get you a job as a housekeeper, or making
rugs, or some other thing in Bombay, India, that will be much better
than what you are doing now.
Their families don't have the wherewithal to pay their livelihood.
Their families are poor as can be. They are not able to feed them, and
the families say: Go ahead.
They then take them across the border. They take their papers from
them. They force them into brothels in Bombay or Calcutta or somewhere
else and force them into this trade.
Some of these girls make their way back at the age of 16 or 17 years
of age. Two-thirds of them now carry AIDS and/or tuberculosis. Most of
them come home to die.
It is one of the ugliest, darkest things I have seen around the
world.
The Senate took the step today to start to deal with this practice
that is occurring around the world, and that is occurring in the United
States.
My colleague, Senator Wellstone, and I worked this legislation
together to be able to get it moved through this body.
I am so thankful to him and other people who have worked greatly on
this legislation to get it passed.
I particularly want to recognize, on my staff, Sharon Payt, who has
leaned in for a long time to be able to get this done.
This is the new, modern form of slavery.
Trafficking victims are the new enslaved of the world. Until lately,
they have had no advocates, no defenders, no avenues of escape, except
death, to release them from the hellish types of circumstances and
conditions they have been trafficked into. This is changing rapidly--a
new movement of awareness is forming to wrench freedom for the victims
and combat trafficking networks. This growing movement runs from
`right' to `left,' from Chuck Colson to Gloria Steinem, and from Sam
Brownback to Paul Wellstone. Our legislation, which passed today, is
part of that movement, providing numerous protections and tools to
empower these brutalized people toward re-capturing their dignity and
obtaining justice, and getting their lives back.
Trafficking has risen dramatically in the last 10 to 15 years with
experts speculating that it could exceed the drug trade in revenues in
the next few decades. It is coldly observed that drugs are sold once,
while a woman or child can be sold 20 and even 30 times a day. This
dramatic increase is attributed also to the popularizing of the sex
industry worldwide, including the increase of child pornography, and
sex tours in Eastern Asia. As the world's dark appetite for these
practices grows, so do the number of victims in this evil manifestation
of global trade.
The victims are usually transported across international borders so
as to `shake' local authorities, leaving them defenseless in a foreign
country, virtually held hostage in a strange land. Perpetrating further
vulnerability, often they are ``traded'' routinely among brothels in
different cities. This deliberate ploy robs them of assistance from
family, friends, and authorities.
The favorite age for girls in some countries is around 13 years of
age. I have a 14-year-old daughter and it almost makes me cry to think
of somebody being taken out of the home at that age and submitted and
subjected and forced into this type of situation. Thirteen is the
favorite age. There is a demand particularly for virgins because of the
fear of AIDS. Now, imagine, your daughter, your sister, your
granddaughter in that hellish condition.
International trafficking routes are very specific and include the
Eastern European states, particularly Russia and the Ukraine, into
Central Europe and Israel. Other routes include girls sold or abducted
from Nepal to India--the Nepalese girls are prized because they are
beautiful, illiterate, extremely poor with no defenders, and compliant,
making it easy to keep them in bondage. In Eastern Asia, most abductees
are simple tribal girls from isolated mountain regions who are forced
into sexual service, primarily in Thailand and Malaysia. These are only
a few of the countless but repeatedly traveled routes.
One of two methods, fraud or force, is used to obtain victims. Force
is often used in the cities wherein, for example, the victim is
physically abducted and held against her will, sometimes in chains, and
usually brutalized through repeated rape and beatings. Regarding
fraudulent procurement, typically the ``buyer'' promises the parents
that he is taking their daughter away to become a nanny or domestic
servant, giving the parents a few hundred dollars as a ``down payment''
for the future money she will earn for the family. Then the girl is
transported across international borders, deposited in a brothel and
forced into the trade until she is no longer useful having contracted
AIDS. She is held against her will under the rationale that she must
``work off'' her debt which was paid to the parents, which usually
takes several years, if she remains alive that long.
A Washington Post article, Sex Trade Enslaves East Europeans, dated
July 25th, vividly captures the suffering of one Eastern Europe woman
who was trafficked through Albania to Italy: ``As Irina recounts the
next part of her story, she picks and scratches at the skin on her
face, arms and legs, as if looking for an escape . . . she says the
women were raped by a succession of Albanian men who stopped by at all
hours, in what seemed part of a carefully organized campaign of
psychological conditioning for a life of prostitution.'' This insidious
activity must be challenged, and our legislation would do exactly that.
That is what this body has passed today.
This legislation establishes, for the first time, a bright line
between the victim and perpetrator. Presently, most existing laws
internationally fail to distinguish between victims of sexual
trafficking and their perpetrators. Sadly and ironically, victims are
punished more harshly than the traffickers, because of their illegal
immigration status and lack of documents (which the traffickers have
confiscated to control the victim).
In contrast, our legislation punishes the perpetrators and provides
an advocacy forum to promote international awareness, as well as
providing the following:
Criminal punishment for persons convicted of operating as traffickers
in the U.S.
Creates a new immigration status termed a ``T'' visa for trafficking
victims found in the U.S., to promote aggressive prosecution of
traffickers.
Directs USAID, as well as domestic government agencies to fund
programs
[[Page S7789]]
for victim assistance and awareness to help stop this practice, both
overseas and domestically.
Establishes an annual reporting mechanism to identify trafficking
offenders, both individual and country-specific.
Advances rule of law programs to promote combating of international
sex trafficking.
Authorizes grants for law enforcement agencies to investigate and
prosecute international trafficking, and assist in drafting and
implementation of new legislation.
In closing, there is a unique generosity in the American people, who
are defined by their vigilance for justice. As we challenge this
dehumanizing practice, an inspired movement is growing in America and
worldwide. Sparking this awareness are courageous groups which deserve
acknowledgment, including the International Justice Mission with Gary
Haugen, and the Protection Project with Dr. Laura Lederer, among
several others. Both Senator Wellstone and I hope this legislation is
the beginning of the end for this modern-day slavery known as
trafficking.
Mr. President, we had five major health organizations come together
and identify the violence in our entertainment that is harming our
children. The organizations include the American Medical Association,
American Psychological Association, American Academy of Child and
Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Academy of Family Physicians, and
the American Academy of Pediatricians.
I turn the floor back over to my colleague from Minnesota. Today, his
interest has culminated in this legislation passing this body. This is
the most significant human rights legislation we have passed this
Congress, if not for several years. This is going to save lives. It
will start identifying this pernicious, ugly, dark practice around the
world for what it is. We are going to start saving people's lives as a
result of it.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sessions). The Senator from Minnesota.
Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, the Senate tonight passed the
Trafficking in Victims Protection Act of 2000. Similar legislation
passed the House. The conference committee is committed to this
legislation. I don't think there is any question but that the Congress
is going to pass this bill. This was a huge step forward.
I thank Senator Brownback who for 3\1/2\ years, at least, has been
working on this. It started with my wife Sheila, who brought this to my
attention. I remember meeting with women from Ukraine--which is where
my father was born--describing what had happened to them.
Senator Brownback is absolutely right. This is one of the brutal
aspects of this new global economy. It supplements drug trafficking,
except quite often it is more profitable, believe it or not, because
the women--girls--are recycled over and over again. We are talking
about close to 1 million women and girls, the trafficking of these
women and girls for purposes of forced prostitution or forced labor.
We are talking about the trafficking of some 50,000 women, girls, to
our country. Two miles away, in Bethesda, there was a massage parlor
with a group of girls from Ukraine. The country is in economic
disarray. They thought this was an opportunity. They came to our
country. Their passports were taken away. They were isolated. Senator
Brownback talked about the isolation. They were beaten up. They were
raped. They were forced into prostitution. In our country, in the year
2000, this goes on in the world, and in the United States of America.
This legislation would never pass without the leadership of Senator
Brownback and the leadership of Sharon Payt. I thank Wes Carrington,
who is on the floor with me, and Jill Hickson, two fellows who have
been gifts from Heaven, and Charlotte Moore, who has been working on
this, and my wife Sheila.
I could talk for hours about this, but I will emphasize a couple of
key aspects. First, prevention, a focus on doing the public information
work in these countries and work with the consulates so these girls
have some understanding of what their rights are, so they are warned
about the dangers of this when the recruiters are out there to try to
prevent this from happening in the first place; and an emphasis on how
you can get economic development from microenterprise to opportunities
for women. Part of the problem is the way in which women are so
devalued in too many nations. Also, the grinding poverty.
Second, protection. The bitter, bitter, bitter irony, colleagues, is
that quite often the victims are the ones who are punished, and these
mobsters and criminals who are involved in the trafficking of these
women and girls with this blatant exploitation get away with literally
murder.
One of the problems is that these girls and women can't step forward
because then they will be deported. So we have an extension of
temporary visas for up to 3 years for the women, girls, and a final
decision is made as to whether or not they can stay in the country.
In addition, there is some help for them. We have in Minnesota the
Center for the Treatment of Torture Victims. It is a holy place. It is
a spiritual place. Most of these women and men come from Africa. They
have been through a living hell. We read about child soldiers. We read
about what is happening. It takes a long time for people to be able to
rebuild their lives when they have been through this, when they have
been tortured.
There are 120 governments today in the world that are engaged in this
systematic use of torture today; the same thing for these women and
girls. Imagine what it is like for them. There is help for them.
Finally, prosecution, and taking this seriously, treating it as a
crime so, for example, if you are trafficking a young girl under the
age of 14 and forcing her into prostitution, you face a life sentence
in prison.
And finally, not automatic sanctions but a listing of those
governments which are involved in the trafficking, which have turned
their gaze away and refused to do anything about it. With it being up
to a President, be he Democrat or Republican or she a Democrat or
Republican, in the future, as to whether or not there is an action to
be taken.
It is a good piece of legislation. I think Senator Brownback is
right. I think it is the human rights legislation to pass the Congress.
It will pass. Mr. Koh, Assistant Secretary of Human Rights at the State
Department, has been great. The administration has been supportive. We
have had a lot of support from Democrats and Republicans here, and I
really feel good about it.
I said to Senator Brownback, I think Senator Bennett can appreciate
this because I think he is like this--the first part I don't want to
say is his view--but there are some days where I just cannot decide
whether or not I have really been able to help anybody. You try, but
you just sometimes get so frustrated. I think this piece of legislation
we passed will help a lot of people. I really do, I say to Senator
Brownback. I think it is a good model for other governments, other
countries. I am not being grandiose here. I think we can get this out
to a lot of fellow legislators in other nations and other NGOs. I know
there is a lot of interest.
I rise to speak about this bill, to tell my colleague from Kansas,
Senator Brownback, I appreciated working with him, and to say to the
Senate--all the Senators; after all, this passed by unanimous consent--
thank you, thank you for your support.
____________________
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