Chris Knight is a member of SI Moreton North Inc (Australia) and  Friendship Link Co-ordinator for the SI South West Pacific Federation. In this week’s blog, she writes about her involvement in promoting a new book on human trafficking and includes an interview she conducted with author Stephanie Hepburn.

On 28 June 2013, independent journalist Stephanie Hepburn launched her new book Human Trafficking Around the World Hidden In Plain Sight in the USA. It has been very interesting for me to get involved in the launch, since Stephanie sent me an email a few weeks ago.

In my own small way through my various SI Club, Region, and Federation positions, I have been a long time advocate for the elimination of human trafficking. I do not consider myself an expert on the issue, however  I have written about it for Soroptimist publications and facilitated several public screenings and forums. My aim is to promote understanding that the issue is global and that human trafficking is broader than sexual servitude and includes forced labour and organ harvesting.

Outside my Soroptimist roles, I have worked closely over the years with two Australian film companies – The Picture Tank who produced The Jammed and Fair Trade Films Australia who produced Trafficked The Reckoning. These films have helped raise awareness of the issues of human trafficking in Australia through the stories of two young Thai women who were trafficked here back in 1995: Noi who died in the Villawood Detention Centre and Ning who became the first victim of crime of human trafficking to receive compensation. She was only 13 when forced to work in a brothel in Sydney for 10 days before being deported back to Thailand. It was through these contacts that Stephanie got in touch with me.   

I am blessed to have been given the opportunity to show that we can do something to turn the tide and reveal to the rest of the world what is happening in our own backyards and the dedicated number of individuals and organisations trying to do something about it.

Human Trafficking Around the World Hidden In Plain Sight is available via Amazon and it would be amazing if we could contact bookstores in our countries to encourage them to order in copies, ask local libraries to get a copy and purchase copies to donate, especially to law enforcers and politicians. My own Club SI Moreton North Inc. will be incorporating the distribution of this book as part of our lead up activities to the Walk the Talk Campaign later this year.

Please keep up the great work that you are already doing to eliminate human trafficking and end violence against women and continue to encourage others.

On the eve of her book launch, I interviewed Stephanie about her book. This will give you a real feel for the motivation of this young inspiring and dynamic woman who is making a difference.

Q: Stephanie, can you tell me what inspired you to write this book?

A:  I moved from New York City to New Orleans in February 2006, not long after Hurricane Katrina. The devastation in New Orleans was still palpable and rescue boats sat along the curbside of city streets – a still-life image of the panic the boats were witness to. Soon after moving here I drove over to City Park in Mid-City and it was packed with tent cities where there lived laborers, workers that existed in the same sub-human conditions of makeshift favelas in Rio de Janeiro or the barrios outside of Bogotá.

Just like any place in any country that experiences a natural disaster, the infrastructure in New Orleans was disrupted, the population was in flux and law enforcement personnel were overextended. In order to rebuild the city there was a sudden demand for low-wage labor, which created an ideal scenario for labor exploitation and human trafficking. Further compounding the scenario is that the United States government temporarily suspended numerous protections for workers that affected wages, safety and health. Also, the government temporarily suspended immigration-enforcement requirements. These temporary suspensions compounded the situation and allowed illicit contractors to move in, and bring in and exploit workers unnoticed.

 This is actually where the latter part of the book title (Hidden in Plain Sight) came from: the workers were exploited out in the open, but they were hidden in plain sight because no one was paying attention to the exploitation. I first began to research the human trafficking cases in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region and after seeing the common patterns I added the entire U.S. and 23 other nations.

 Q: How long did it take you to write?

A: I wrote the book, which took more than 6 years to research and write, to attract a broad audience and be accessible to anyone – whether an academic, expert in the field or a layperson who happens to be curious about the topic. I wanted to bring about improved awareness and understanding of all forms of human trafficking – including sex trafficking, forced labor and organ trafficking. When most people think of human trafficking they think of sex trafficking. They aren’t incorrect but that certainly isn’t the entire picture. In fact, the International Labour Organization estimates that 68 percent of the 20.9 million victims of human trafficking are forced labor victim, while 22 percent are victims of forced sexual exploitation. The remaining victims are in state-imposed forms of forced labor. To me, all of these victims are forced labor victims and it doesn’t serve any positive purpose to differentiate — it simply results in disparate laws and treatment. 

 I also wanted to tell the stories of victims and strike a balance between humanizing the experience and giving essential statistical data. Many of the books that I have read on human trafficking tend to go in one direction or the other. I aimed to achieve both. To me, the statistics are necessary for giving as close to an accurate image as possible of the extent of human trafficking, while the stories are the glue and heart of the book. They prohibit reader detachment and give a clear image of what victims experience from beginning to end.

 Q: What do you hope will be the long term benefits ?

 A: My hope – through the book – is to attract a vast and diverse audience of readers so that it can bring awareness on the topic to people of all industries. It is important that society does not compartmentalize human trafficking as only relevant to certain domains and industries. For instance, if a reader is a shop owner, I hope that the book will get him/her to further examine the origins of his/her goods. Was anyone possibly exploited or trafficked at any step in the process, starting from the cloth or other materials that were used in the end product? Learning about human trafficking may make the storeowner more attracted to carrying Free Trade or locally made products that are – in their making – designed to be exploitation-free.

 If the reader of the book is involved in building development, I hope that the book gets him/her to examine whether his/her workers, including those hired by a subcontractor, face exploitation. We often hear about green construction, but what about expanding the concept of this environmentally friendly construction to include exploitation-free construction? After all, isn’t that better for the environment that we all live in?

 Q: What else needs to be done?

 A: It would be excellent if some of the readers of the book are grade school teachers and those in the medical community who could be among the first to identify cases of human trafficking if they were aware, knew the signs, and had adequate training.

 Awareness is the key to positive change and my hope is that Human Trafficking Around the World: Hidden in Plain Sight helps to spread awareness to a large and varied audience that can spark discussion, training, and a demand for changes within a multitude of industries.

 Human Trafficking Around the World Hidden In Plain Sight by Stephanie Hepburn. ISBN 978-0-231-16144-2. For more information visit http://stephanie-hepburn.com or https://www.facebook.com/HumanTraffickingAroundTheWorld

 How do you explain Human Trafficking to a 13 year-old?

A 13 year-old who attended the book launch at Blue Mango Hair Salon  asked "What is human trafficking?". I explained that is when people, especially women and girls, are exploited for sexual slavery, forced labour and organ harvesting around the world. I told her that Soroptimist members work at a local and global level on projects that keep women and girls safe from violence and sexual abuse, provide education and training so they can get good jobs and that we also advocate for changes to legislation to protect them and their families and work together with others to ensure that those that abuse them are prosecuted. She gave a nod of understanding and then explained that several girls at her school have had abortions and have very poor self esteem and engage in unprotected sex.

Images: top – Chris Knight, bottom – girls attending the book launch.