With the Super Bowl just days away, federal officials are working with airlines, Amtrak, and other transportation providers to help identify and rescue victims of human trafficking who are brought to major sporting events to be exploited for sex or forced labor.
With the Super Bowl just days away, federal officials are working with airlines, Amtrak, and other transportation providers to help identify and rescue victims of human trafficking who are brought to major sporting events to be exploited for sex or forced labor.
The Super Bowl has become known to law enforcement officials as the biggest human-trafficking event of the year in the United States, experts told members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Monday.
"It's modern-day slavery," said Ambassador-at-Large Luis CdeBaca of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons at the U.S. Department of State.
Human traffickers see major sporting events such as the Super Bowl as lucrative opportunities to bring in adults and children who have been forced into prostitution or are made to clean hotel rooms or work in restaurants without pay. The victims are both Americans and foreign citizens, who are often lured to the United States by traffickers promising them good-paying jobs that do not exist.
"Whether it be the Olympics, the World Cup, or the Super Bowl, any high-profile event that brings a large influx of visitors to a new locale can also create circumstances conducive to human trafficking and sexual exploitation," said Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Royce recently introduced a bill to combat international human trafficking by increasing penalties on traffickers and requiring overseas labor recruiters to provide detailed employment information to workers so that they are not fooled by false promises of job opportunities in the United States.
Victims of human trafficking often go unrecognized by law-abiding people who may be traveling on planes, trains or buses with them without realizing what's going on, experts testified. To increase awareness of the problem, the Department of Homeland Security is working with other federal agencies, foreign governments, local law enforcement officials, non-profit groups and transportation companies .
Flight attendants and other transportation workers are being trained to look for signs that someone is a victim, said Maria Odom, chairwoman of the Homeland Security Department's Blue Campaign, which was created in 2010 to combat human trafficking. Among the warning signs, Odom testified, are adults who don't have control of their own travel documents, travelers who seem to have no idea of where they are going, children who are traveling with adults who aren't their parents, and travelers who let others speak for them and don't get up by themselves to move around a plane or train.
A training session for flight attendants is scheduled for Feb. 10 in Phoenix in advance of next year's Super Bowl there, said Nancy Rivard, president and founder of Airline Ambassadors International, an independent charity of the airline industry. More than 120 flight attendants from a variety of airlines are scheduled to attend, she said.
Flight attendants can gather information without being obvious about it because they are taught to interact with passengers in a friendly, non-threatening manner, Rivard said.
"We teach flight attendants to be alert for indicators, but never to try and rescue a victim or display unusual concern or alarm," she said. "If they are uncomfortable with a situation, they are to report it to the cockpit with seat numbers of passengers involved. Pilots are to call Station Operation Command at the arrival airport, who are to call the DHS Tip Line to alert law enforcement for proper assessment."
Travelers also can help, Royce said. He said anyone who notices anything suspicious should call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center at 1-888-373-7888.
"The biggest impact of today's hearing may be in empowering our fellow citizens to recognize and report these crimes," the congressman said.
But more needs to be done to educate potential victims, said Holly Smith, a victims' advocate who was herself a victim of human trafficking when she was 14.
In 1992, Smith was approached at her local South New Jersey mall by a man who asked for her phone number, talked to her on the phone for about two weeks, and convinced her to run away with him. He promised that he would introduce her to famous rock bands and make her into a songwriter.
"Within hours of running away, though, I was forced into prostitution on the streets and in the casino hotels and motels of Atlantic City, New Jersey," Smith testified. "Thirty-six hours later, I was arrested by police and treated like a criminal."
Smith went on to graduate from college and become a writer and an advocate against the sexual exploitation of children. She said the Department of Education needs to create programs to educate students about the dangers of human trafficking.
"After I had presented my story in 2013 to the very middle school from which I graduated in 1992, a girl raised her hand and asked me: 'Why am I just now hearing about this?' " Smith said. "I pose this question to the committee: Why had a 14-year-old girl in a group of at-risk youth never heard of child sex trafficking?"
CdeBaca said he believes the public education campaigns focused on the Super Bowl and other sporting events will help awaken the general public to the problem and reduce trafficking as a result.
"The knowledge ... doesn't expire when the Super Bowl clock ticks down to zero," the ambassador said. "Once people understand modern slavery — the way it touches their lives and communities, how to spot it and who to call if they do — that knowledge doesn't go away, just as trafficking does not go away when the stadium lights are dimmed."
