Human trafficking becomes a local issue

By Mara Stine

The Gresham Outlook, Mar 19, 2010, Updated Mar 19, 2010

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The term human trafficking used to conjure up images of young impoverished girls in Southeast Asia for Diane McKeel. Now she sees it as an issue affecting young women and girls right here in East Multnomah County.

“It’s an issue in all of our schools, in all of our neighborhoods,” said McKeel, who represents Gresham and East County on the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners. “I used to think, ‘Oh that happens in foreign countries.’ But it’s happening in our shopping malls. It’s amazing.”

As defined by federal law, human trafficking victims are subjected to force, fraud or coercion for the purposes of forced labor or sexual exploitation.

Some victims are immigrants, forced to sell drugs to pay off passage into the country. But increasingly, police are arresting prostitutes, only to find that the young teens or adults in custody are victims of human trafficking.

Portland second worst in nation

As part of a national effort to identify pimps and child prostitutes, Portland yielded the second highest number of arrests and victims in a 30-city sting conducted by FBI agents and local police in February 2009.

Seven girls and six pimps were taken into custody at four sites across the Portland-metro area. Another 14 adult female prostitutes were arrested, as were three clients, or “johns.”

And that was only during an eight-hour period. Other cities netted fewer pimps, victims and clients across a 24-hour period.

“What they have been subjected to is slavery, pure and simple,” said U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., as part of his testimony on Feb. 26, before a federal Senate Judiciary subcommittee on human rights.

At the international level, girls are subjected to forced marriages and immigrants work as unpaid labor. But in the United States, children tend to be sexually exploited by pimps or other adults.

And Oregon — and Portland in particular — are increasingly becoming hubs for child sex trafficking. Interstate 5, which bisects the state, is partly to blame, making it easy for pimps to traffic victims up and down the corridor, McKeel said.

As a result, McKeel is spearheading the county’s fight against human trafficking and is working to open a shelter for sexual-trafficking victims.

She also has joined forces with state lawmakers to pass local legislation designed to help victims.

Legislation passed, proposed

During last month’s emergency session, state legislators unanimously passed a human trafficking bill inspired by McKeel’s efforts.

The bill allows the Polaris Project, a Washington, D.C.,-based nonprofit organization fighting human trafficking, to include stickers with its national hotline number in the Oregon Liquor Control Commission’s yearly mailings to 11,000 bars, restaurants, grocers and liquor stores statewide.

Stickers are to be posted in prominent places — windows, bathrooms and the like — where human trafficking victims are most likely to see them.

Wyden also has introduced a bill aimed at protecting victims, prosecuting their pimps and providing more law enforcement against trafficking.

His legislation would fund shelters for human trafficking victims, complete with counseling, legal aid, education, job training and daily needs, such as food and clothing.

If approved, funding would go to areas with the most need, including Oregon. Each pilot program would receive $2.5 million to be used for shelters, in addition to investigations and training for police agencies and social service providers working with victims.