Title:
Human Trafficking a Problem in Major Cities Across
US
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Technology Report.
See text below
Text:
Each year since two thousand one, the American State
Department has published a Trafficking in Persons
Report. It measures efforts by countries to fight
human trafficking. This year's report adds the
United States for the first time. The Federal Bureau
of Investigation says people are being trafficked
into major cities nationwide. Tim Whittman at the
FBI is an expert on the problem. He says about
twenty percent of the cases involve victims from
Mexico -- the largest number of any foreign
country.Bradley Myles is with the Polaris Project,
an organization that fights trafficking. He calls it
"a very serious problem in the United States." He
says some of the victims are forced to work in homes
of the wealthy and at restaurants. Activists say
some cases of modern slavery involve forced labor in
agriculture. But more than eighty percent of
suspected incidents involve the sex trade. That was
the finding of a study by the Human Smuggling and
Trafficking Center, established by Congress. The
Polaris Project operates a telephone hotline that
receives calls from around the country -- from
states such as Texas, California, New York and
Florida. Bradley Myles says one of the top five
cities where calls come from is Washington. Victims
in the nation's capital include women from South
Korea, China and Latin America. Some victims are
American citizens.Deborah Sigmund started a group
called Innocents at Risk. She says most of the
victims of human trafficking come from economically
troubled countries. She said: "They want to think
that they can come to America and have a great job,
so it's very easy to fool them."Tim Whittman says
the smugglers often threaten their victims and make
it difficult for them to pay their debts. The threat
may be against their family back in their home
country. But there are other ways to pressure
victims to stay. He said: "A common threat is 'If
you leave, I'm going to report you to immigration
and you'll be arrested. You'll be kept in prison for
a long time.'"But there is help. Victims of human
trafficking can sometimes get a special visa. It
permits them to stay in the United States for up to
four years. During that time, they can request to
stay permanently. But with threats, a language
barrier and fear of the legal system, victims are
often unwilling or unable to seek help.And that's
the VOA Special English Development Report.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
