Human trafficking: modern-day slavery

PITTSBURGH When Moon Township, Pa., police got a call from staff at Americas Best Value Inn last month, reporting an argument among shady guests, they swooped in and separated a 17-year-old girl from the group of five.

With her help, they found two of the others listed as prostitutes on an Internet site.

Theyd seen human trafficking before, as a flow of out-of-state and foreign women drove 241 prostitution arrests since 2008. This looked like another example.

Now Ivory Williams, 34, from Huron, S.D.; April Holloway, 24, from Columbus, Ohio; Sarrha Herman, 22, from East Point, Mich.; and Harley Fournier, 20, from Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., all face charges of promoting prostitution, conspiracy and possession of instruments of crime. The girl, who had been away from her family for a year but was never reported as missing, has been returned to her grandmother in Detroit.

Chief Leo McCarthy of the Moon police said he hoped the FBI would take the case and consider a human trafficking charge something almost unheard of in this regions courts until last year.

I think there is a perception that human trafficking is something that happens in large, urban centers or on the coast, said Elizabeth Miller, chief of adolescent medicine at Childrens Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, and associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

But she often sees girls and women with mental health issues, like post-traumatic stress disorder, along with those who need treatment for physical issues like sexually transmitted diseases, malnutrition and other health consequences of trafficking. This is really uncomfortable stuff, to think that there are young people in our community where adults who should be taking care of them are exploiting them using them sexually.

Theres a reason human trafficking is now considered to be the second-most-lucrative criminal enterprise, behind drugs. Its estimated to be a $32 billion worldwide industry, with more than 12 million victims.

You can sell drugs, you can sell guns (once). You can sell a human being more than once, FBI special agent Kelly Kochamba told some two dozen members of the YWCA Greater Pittsburghs Center for Race & Gender Equity last month.

Legally, human trafficking is compelling a person by force, fraud or deception into forced labor, domestic servitude or sexual commerce, or enlisting a minor in the sex trade.

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Human trafficking: modern-day slavery