In the United States, approximately ten thousand victims of human trafficking were reported in 2017. While this number may seem impressive at first glance, it is truly underwhelming when taking into consideration that there are approximately 403,000 people living in slave-like conditions in the United States annually. In analyzing the historical, socioeconomic, and political drivers of human trafficking within the states of Florida and Hawaii, one may find trends about each state and compare anti-trafficking efforts; thus, assessing why human trafficking victims are seldom found in the United States.
From its inception as a state to long after the civil war, Florida has a history of slavery. In 1850, Florida’s population was 87,445, from such, there were approximately 39,000 African American slaves. Post-Civil War, forced labor continued in the industrial sector with convict leasing and debt bondage; as those in power were largely white supremacists, Florida’s African American population was vastly targeted and abused. Forced labor continues within Florida’s rural counties in the present, witnessed in the agriculture sector as foreign-born peoples (mostly, Mexican immigrants) are coerced into labor trafficking. Although Florida acknowledges that it will make efforts to stunt labor trafficking, it is evident that the state’s focus is on sex trafficking; primarily, the sex trafficking of minors. Public campaigns against human trafficking are focused on the sex trafficking of minors; as well, resources dedicated to anti-trafficking efforts are almost entirely dedicated to assisting minors, as the funds go to organizations like Florida’s Department of Children and Families. Although it is essential to aid minors who are vulnerable to human trafficking, it is also necessary to dedicated money and further resources to aid Florida’s foreign-born population; of which, constitutes 19.9% of its population.
Constituting socio-economic drivers of human trafficking, ethnic minorities, people in poverty, and minors are particularly vulnerable. As of 2017, there are approximately 20.9 million people living in Florida, placing it as the third most populated state in the US. Of this population, approximately 21.9% are minors. Women in poverty and children are particularly vulnerable to human trafficking. A 2016 report released by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) and the Florida Women’s Funding Alliance found that 41.5% of single women with children within Florida were in poverty; thus, exasperating the chance of coercion by traffickers through such vulnerability. Florida has made vast efforts to combat child sex trafficking; particularly, children with an unstable home life, or without a home life altogether. In 2014, Florida was chosen for a study conducted by RTI International, which concluded that victims are likely to be poor and female, also more likely to have an unstable home environment—having been in foster care or group home care, or a runaway. To combat this trend nationally, the Strengthening Families Act of 2014 (Public Law 113-183) amended the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act. Florida’s efforts against human trafficking actually predate the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Families Act with procedures defined by the Department of Children and Families (DCF) and Florida’s Safe Harbor Act that was amended into state law in 2013. Florida’s Safe Harbor Act raised fines for soliciting prostitutes from $500 to $5,000; used such fines to create secure safe houses for sexually exploited children; provided children in these safe houses with an advocate that would accompany them to each and any meetings and court appearances; and created training funds to inform law enforcement officials about child sexual exploitation. This act was further expanded in 2016, requiring the identification of sexually exploited children, special training for staff that works with these children (such as case workers and investigators), provided minimum standards for foster homes working with these children, and also required special certification for the a home to be identified as a Safe Foster Home or Safe House. Florida’s efforts to combat the trafficking in children is reflected in its Shared Hope report card; of which, gave Florida an A ranking in 2017 (94 points out of 100). In comparison, Shared Hope only gave Hawaii a C rating (76.5 out of 100). This score is largely due to Hawaii’s exclusion of demand under sex trafficking law; Shared Hope stating that “buyers of sex with minors face penalties do not reflect the seriousness of the offense” and also “does not provide victims with a statutory avenue to specialized services or eliminate a minor’s criminal liability for prostitution.”
A major political driver of human trafficking within Florida include government corruption. From 2000 to 2010, Florida was ranked number one in the United States for the most federal public corruption convictions. Florida’s corruption also extends into the realm of human trafficking. In 2017, 277 individuals were arrested in Polk County in a sting operation targeting human trafficking; this number included several law enforcement officers. Police corruption in relation to drug crime also enables the proliferation of human trafficking in Florida, as the Polaris Project lists substance abuse as a major risk factor of human trafficking (with 466 accounts related to human trafficking in 2017). Furthermore, Florida’s police officials have been documented to have strong racial discrimination, of which enables human trafficking among Florida’s non-white population. Though Florida has made reported efforts to stunt police corruption, little change is seen reflected in the sheer number of corruption cases investigated by the US federal government within the state. Although Florida has made vast efforts to fight human trafficking (mostly minor sex trafficking), it must be questioned how effective these measures truly are when they are implemented by a corrupt power.
Per Nicholas Sensley, retired California Chief of Police and Strategy and Development Consultant for Humanity United, Hawaii is a source, destination, and transit location; in which, both immigrants and locals are victims of sex and labor trafficking. Analyzing Hawaii’s vast history of forced labor and sex trade, current socioeconomic concerns, and political issues reflect on current trafficking issues within the state.
The history of trafficking in Hawaii stems back to the relationship of natives with foreigners; typically, the white populations that would come into Hawaii. However, there was a semblance of slave culture within Hawaii beforehand with the maka’aniana (or common people), of whom were obligated to work for their chief six days each month without pay. Markedly, the arrival of Captain Cook, changed the labor situation in Hawaii, as chiefs began to exploit the common people for economic gain. Significantly, Cook and his crew would trade metal with the natives, exchanging iron nails for sex. Great demand later grew in Hawaii for sugar-cane and in whaling, and in 1850, when it became apparent that the native population would not be able to meet demands, contract labor was legalized with the Act for the Government of Masters and Servants; of which, bound minors to a “master” to learn a trade or work, and if the minor “willfully absents himself from service he may be apprehended, restored to his master, and bound to additional service for double the time of absence,” and if the minor refused to work “he may be committed to prison and confided at hard labor until he will consent to serve according to the contract.” A section was later incorporated into this act so it would apply to foreigners, so to meet the demand of plantations; approximately, from 1850 to 1897, one hundred and fifteen thousand laborers were imported into the Hawaiian islands under this act. The native Hawaiian population steadily began to decrease because of living conditions, and foreign populations were steadily brought in. These foreign populations began as mostly Chinese laborers, coming into Hawaii in the mid-1800s, then followed by a small population of Japanese in 1868; main Japanese immigration begins later in 1885.
Immigration of Asian populations continues throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with waves of Samoans, Filipinos, and Okinawans came into Hawaii after shortly after WWII; then, in the 1970s, large populations of Chinese immigrated from Taiwan and Hong Kong, along with Vietnamese, Hmong, Laotian, and Cambodian refugees. To this day, Hawaii has a large immigrant population. As of 2015, 17.7% of Hawaii’s population is made of immigrants: 46.1% of this population being from the Philippines, 8.5% from China, 7.9% from Japan, and 3.8% from Vietnam. This immigrant population is particularly vulnerable to exploitation by human traffickers, as: irregular or illegal migration status can be used as a form of coercion; poor language skills affect immigrants from understanding employment terms, as well as understanding of local rights; and immigrants may suffer from marginalization by the community. In Hawaii, immigrant farmers lured “with false promises by recruiters and domestic servants and laborers from other countries and [the] local community.” This was witnesses in 2010, when 400 forced laborers from Thailand were freed— the largest human trafficking case in United States history.
Another trend in Hawaii’s human trafficking is in the sex service as travelers come into Hawaii. Kathryn Xian, founder and head of the Pacific Alliance to Stop Slavery, explains the difficultly of assessing the number of victims:
“[…] by our estimates, the number of females trafficked for sex in Hawaii each year is most likely in the thousands. There are about 150 brothels on Oahu alone that we know about [not including those in private homes]. For each brothel, there are about three to fifteen girls, mostly from Asia and some youth victims. This doesn’t include the street prostitution and online scene.”
Despite Xian’s high estimate, very few victims or traffickers are identified. Through the 2017 National Human Trafficking Hotline Statistics, only 27 victims were identified and 10 traffickers. In comparison, Florida identified 877 victims and 462 traffickers in the same report. Hawaiian victims, Xian continues to state, are mostly from China, Japan, Korea, and Thailand; though, there are also victims from Russia and Eastern Europe. These victims often work in Honolulu—most working in either the area around Waikiki beach or Chinatown—before being shipped to major US cities. Within Hawaii, demand highly stems from people travelling into the state. Furthermore, the City and County of Honolulu, the Department of Prosecuting Attorney, and the Susannah Welsey Community Center were awarded $1.2 million from the Department of Justice to form a Human Trafficking Task Force that should be in effect by the end of 2018. $700,000 of the funds was granted to hire a deputy prosecutor coordinator, an administrative assistant, and an investigator; while, $500,000 was dedicated to provide counseling, shelter, and other services.
Considering political drivers of human trafficking in Hawaii, a particular concern is that of the military populace Xian states that both “adults and child victims of sex trafficking in Hawaii have told us that about half the men who subject them to prostitution by being a john are military.” The Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women further reiterate the concern of soldiers participating in the sex trade, especially during RIMPAC; the Commission states: “During RIMPAC, [buyers] get exacerbated because we have tens of thousands of young male soldiers from dozens of foreign militaries looking to have a good time, which can include buying women and girls for sex.” There is little Hawaii can do to combat this trend, but the state made sex trafficking a Class A felony in 2016.
In an analysis of historical, socio-economic, and political drivers of human trafficking in Florida and Hawaii, some trends are decipherable. First, Florida’s history of slavery within plantations is still reflected in its current labor trafficking situation; of which, displays that slavery never truly left Florida. While, Hawaii still tends to view threats, including human traffickers, as coming from an external source. Furthermore, in assessing socio-economic concerns, both Florida and Hawaii have high rates of foreign-born populace, though it is Hawaii who inertly focuses on human trafficking against these peoples; while, Florida’s anti-trafficking efforts in the past decade have been fixedly pointed towards stunting minor sex trafficking. In comparison to laws passed to limit minor sex trafficking, Florida has not made consequential efforts to aid foreign-born victims, nor minority ethnicities. Although runaway/homeless youth and involvement in the child welfare system both rank the Polaris Project’s top 5 risk factors for human trafficking with 421 and 340 cases consecutively, recent migration/relocation is the number one risk factor with 1,441 cases. There is much documentation for sex trafficking in both Florida and Hawaii; however, in noting the lack of reports of labor trafficking in both states, it is evident that neither state dedicates as much time or resources to labor trafficking in comparison to sex trafficking. As both Florida and Hawaii have a history of forced labor on plantations and large immigration rates, this problem should be addressed. Notably, labor trafficking in Hawaii gets little public attention, despite high rates of forced labor in the seafood industry. In regards to political drivers of human trafficking, Florida’s is more centered on the corruption of law enforcement officers; while Hawaii, of course, has its own corruption in the police department, its focus is on issues with the US navy and foreign navies. Both are worrisome and stunt anti-trafficking efforts. It is evident that both Florida and Hawaii need to make greater anti-human trafficking efforts; particularly, efforts need to be made to address labor trafficking.