DE FILM: ABOLITIONISTS TO BE AIRED MAY 7
BCAT members are invited to attend a screening of the film documentary, "Abolitionists," at 7 pm Saturday, May 7, at 1390 Red Lion Road in Bear, Delaware. The 80-minute documentary includes undercover investigations into the world of human trafficking in various U.S. states. The film is sponsored by Zoe Ministries. To Register:
www.eventbrite.com
HUMAN TRAFFICKING IS TOPIC OF RECENT LOCAL FORUM
"Modern-day human slavery" is thriving in Bucks County, according to representatives from law enforcement and social service agencies that confront the issue on a daily basis. They spoke at a May 3 forum at Trinity Episcopal Church in Solebury. Karen Kutzner, a representative of the Well, a Bucks County-based recovery program, told forum attendees most of the victims she sees are prostitutes who are addicted to drugs. Many of them suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD), and many are trapped in their situation because their pimps supply them with heroin in order to keep them from leaving. Courtney Fyock, with A Woman's Place, urged forum attendees to contact their elected state representatives to push for the passage of a bill, which is currently held up in the Pennsylvania senate, that would provide protections for victims of human trafficking, notably minors. The Well, BCAT, A Woman's Place, and the Bucks County District Attorney's office all participated in the discussion with about 60 attendees.
PHILLY PIMP OF MINORS SENT TO PRISON
A man who forced two runaway Philadelphia girls into the sex trade is now serving 7 ½ to 15 years in state prison. The man, 23-year-old Anthony Brooks, pleaded guilty in April to prostitution-related felonies, including human trafficking. The two girls, 15 and 17, had escaped a protective placement home in Philadelphia before being taken and sold by Brooks as many as six to 10 times per day in order to fulfill a monetary "quota" he had set for them. Brooks transported them to motels in Philadelphia and Bucks County to be molested by the men for money, then confiscated all of their earnings. Before sentencing Brooks, Bucks County Senior Judge John J. Rufe found him to be a sexually violent predator. He will be publicly registered in a sex offender database for the rest of his life.
APRIL BCAT MEETING FEATURES LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT
 St. Adam Schwartz, supervisor of the Special Investigations Unit for Bensalem Township police, was the featured speaker at the April 13 BCAT meeting. Schwartz spoke with the group on the prevalence of human trafficking activity that generates from social media. Much of the trafficking of victims through prostitution is advertised and arranged through sites such as Backpage, on which victims are advertised and meetings are arranged. Schwartz and BCAT team members talked about the critical role volunteers can play in helping trafficking victims by establishing and building a presence at well-known motels and other sites at which prostitution takes place.
AP WINS PULITZER PRIZE FOR 'SEAFOOD FROM SLAVES' INVESTIGATION
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| Thai and Burmese fishing boat workers sit behind bars inside a cell at the compound of a fishing company in Benjina, Indonesia. (AP Photo: Dita Alangkara) |
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The Associated Press won the Pulitzer Price April 18 for Public Service based on its international investigation of the fishing industry in Southeast Asia that freed more than 2,000 slaves and traced the seafood they caught to supermarkets and pet food providers across the U.S. The reporting, by four reporters, also led to the arrests of a dozen people, the seizure of ships worth millions of dollars and the introduction of legislation in the U.S. Congress to create greater transparency from food suppliers, according to an AP media release.
The reporters risked their lives to investigate the story, as they were chased and threatened by seafood company employees and hid from gunmen hired by the fish "mafia" in Indonesia. They tracked and logged the names of ships loaded with tainted seafood, tracked trucks carrying the seafood to cold storage and processing factories and, using customs records and business databases, traced the cargo to U.S. distributors. Before they published the story, the AP approached the International Organization for Migration to rescue the men on the Indonesian island of Benjina who were quoted for the story.
The work of the reporters is the subject of a new book published by the AP titled, "Fishermen Slaves: Human Trafficking and the Seafood We Eat."
MOST HOMELESS YOUTHS TOLD TO LEAVE BY PARENT OR CAREGIVER, STUDY SHOWS
More than half of homeless youth become homeless for the first time because they are asked to leave home by a parent or caregiver, and more than half say they have tried to stay at a shelter but it was full, according to a study published April 12 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families (ACF). The first-of-its-kind study, which was conducted by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, focused on 873 youth ages 14-21 in 11 cities, said the ACF web site. As part of the study, about 25 percent of youth said they had traded sex with someone for money, 27 percent traded sex for a place to sleep, 18 percent traded sex for food, 12 percent traded sex for protection, and 11 percent traded sex for drugs. Also, 10 percent of the study participants said they had been asked by a "romantic partner" to have sex with someone else in exchange for money.
BCAT MEETINGS
Don't miss the July 13 BCAT meeting, to begin at 5 p.m. at the Doylestown Mennonite Church, 590 N. Broad St., Doylestown. Our speakers are from the Nationalities Service Center and will present to the Bucks County Coalition on identifying labor trafficking victims and legal remedies for foreign national victims of trafficking.
Upcoming Meetings
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BCAT meetings are scheduled for July 13, and October 12.
Time: 5:00pm
Place: Doylestown Mennonite Church, 590 N. Broad St., Doylestown, PA
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