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Community Corner

California Against Slavery Fights Trafficking of Minors

"Move to Stop Modern Day Slavery" at Aug. 28 walkathon at San Leandro Marina

California Against Slavery (CAS) is a Fremont-based organization that aims to stem human trafficking for sex and labor, especially among minors as young as 12 years old.

The organization will hold a “Move to Stop Modern Day Slavery” walkathon at San Leandro’s Marina Park on Aug. 28 to raise money and awareness about the growing problem.

“Human trafficking is a new term for a criminal business that profits from enslaving people for sexual servitude and forced labor,” says Daphne Phung, who founded CAS in 2009 after watching a television documentary about sex slaves in America.

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“I was appalled that our society’s laws don’t reflect the severity of the crime,” says Phung. “People don’t think human trafficking happens here but there are at least 100,000 American minors sold for sex every year with an average entry age between 12 and 14.”

Phung’s primary goal is to put an initiative on the 2012 California ballot that would toughen the current human trafficking laws.

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“The initiative calls for increasing prison sentences from the current three to eight years to up to life in prison and fines up to $1.5 million,” says Phung.

Convicted sex traffickers would also be required to register as sex offenders.

In addition, the initiative calls for mandatory training for law enforcement personnel.

“That’s very important in order to make these laws effective,” says Phung. “Currently, most of these minor girls are treated as criminals rather than victims.”

Lt. Jeff Tudor, who heads up the Criminal Investigations Department at the San Leandro Police Department (SLPD), says they haven’t had a lot of cases of human trafficking of young girls in San Leandro.

“You see more street-level prostitution going on in bigger cities such as Oakland and San Francisco,” says Tudor.

He says the SLPD is well aware of the trafficking of minors for sex and the need to treat girls as victims rather than criminals.

“They are indeed the victims,” says Tudor. “They are forced to do this. It’s important to treat them as victims and provide services to them, such as a safe house and counseling.”

Officers in his department take special training through the Alameda County District Attorney’s Human Exploitation and Trafficking (H.E.A.T.) Watch program.

“We are educating and engaging businesses and communities to keep their eyes and ears open and tell us what they see on the street every day,” says Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley.

 “Sadly, many victims of human trafficking are children. It’s important to recognize that these children are all of our children, and they can be rescued when someone opens their eyes, pays attention and takes action.”

Growing Problem

According to Phung, human trafficking is a fast-growing problem.  UNICEF’s web site states that as many as 1.2 million children worldwide are trafficked every year for cheap labor or sexual exploitation.

“It’s grown a lot in the last few years,” Phung says. “We’re even seeing rival gangs dropping their weapons and working together to sell girls.

“There’s less risk than selling drugs and so much money involved. You can sell a person over and over again, but you can only sell a drug once.”

According to Phung, statistics show that within 48 to 72 hours of running away from home, a girl will be approached by a pimp.

“The majority of the girls who run away are in foster care or the welfare system,” say Phung. “Many have a history of sexual abuse and want to be rescued from their own situation.”

She describes two types of pimps: The Romeo pimp who first offers the girl a romantic relationship, then starts demanding something in return; and the Gorilla pimp who drugs or kidnaps the girl or uses threats of violence against her or her family.

“The girls get pimped out with threats of violence or promises of a better life,” says Lt. Tudor. “A lot of the girls lack family support and suffer from low self-esteem, so they’ve nothing to fall back on.”

The girls become physically and emotionally dependent on the traffickers and are afraid to leave.

Phung says human trafficking flourishes in California because of weak laws.

“Federal laws against human trafficking are much tougher than California laws,” says Phung. “We want to match that through this ballot initiative.”

According to Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Sharmin Bock, who heads up the H.E.A.T. Watch program, “if this initiative is passed, we will have the toughest and best human trafficking law in the country, and California will be the last place on the planet that a trafficker would want to do business.”

Fun Walk at San Leandro Marina

CAS volunteer and Castro Valley resident Janice Young is organizing the two-mile “Move to Stop Modern Day Slavery” walkathon at San Leandro Marina Park on Sunday, Aug. 28.

“As well as the walk, we will have speakers from MISSSEY (Motivating, Inspiring, Supporting and Serving Sexually Exploited Youth), based in Oakland, and the Courage To Be You safe house,” Young said.

There will be refreshments, music, a raffle and information on human trafficking and services that are available to victims.

Registration begins at 1 p.m. and the walk at 2:15 p.m. The registration fee is $35 before Aug. 5 and $40 thereafter. Young suggests early registration as the walk is limited to 150 people. To register or for more information, visit www.CaliforniaAgainstSlavery.org.

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