Law Commons^™

Holding On To Clarity: Reconciling The Federal Kidnapping Statute With The Trafficking Victims Protection Act, Benjamin Reese

Michigan Law Review

In recent decades, the international community has come to recognize human trafficking as a problem of epidemic proportions. Congress responded to this global crisis in 2000 by passing the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) and has since supplemented that comprehensive enactment. But, in light of the widespread use of psychological rather than physical coercion in trafficking cases, a long-standing split among federal courts regarding the scope of the federal kidnapping statute raises significant concerns about the United States’ efforts to combat traffickers. In particular, the broad interpretation adopted by several circuits threatens effective enforcement of statutes designed to prosecute traffickers, …

Slavery Then And Now: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade And Modern Day Human Trafficking: What Can We Learn From Our Past?, Stevie J. Swanson

Florida A & M University Law Review

Many have said that history repeats itself. Unfortunately, this is painfully true in the realm of modern day human trafficking. Human trafficking is a thirty-two billion-dollar-a-year industry, and at present, it is estimated that there are approximately twenty-seven million people enslaved worldwide. President Obama has stated that human trafficking is modern day slavery. Both sex trafficking and labor trafficking are forms of modern day slavery that are present throughout America and the world. In America, sex trafficking appears online, and at pseudo-massage parlors, truckstops, residential brothels, strip-clubs, hotels and motels, and on city streets. Labor trafficking in America includes domestic …

Human Trafficking And Labor Migration: The Dichotomous Law And Complex Realities Of Filipina Entertainers In South Korea And Suggestions For Integrated And Contextualized Legal Responses, Yoon J. Shin

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article examines the complex legal situation of Filipina "entertainers" in U.S. military camp towns in South Korea: the individuals located at the intersection of human trafficking and labor migration. The Article investigates how the dichotomous law fails to recognize these entertainers as either trafficking victims or as migrant workers. The law therefore denies proper legal rights and remedies for the serious rights violations they suffer in the destination state. This research demonstrates that these migrants have diverse needs, aspirations, and transnational experiences that embrace both victimhood and agency. It illuminates the fundamental problems of the current global anti-trafficking regime, …

The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center And Human Trafficking, Brooke Hathaway

Freedom Center Journal

The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is a hybrid: one part history musemn and one part non-governmental organization (NGO). An early internal report by the Freedom Center clarified that the focus of contemporary efforts should be on "Unfreedom." The report defined Unfreedom as the conditions subjecting an individual to constraints on her/his personal wellbeing, free action, and/or thought, imposed by an outside power, and enforced by the threat of physical harm (tacit or explicit). There are six root causes of Unfreedom: poverty, poor healthcare, lack of education, prejudice, oppression, and conflict. These root causes are the basis for four major …

Invisible: My Experiences With The Undocumented And Abused, Anna Paden Carson

VA Engage Journal

As a legal advocate at Tapestri, Inc. in Atlanta, Georgia this summer, I saw many of my immigrant and refugee clients consumed by fear, desperation, and insecurity, and I quickly realized that many of the women I helped only contacted Tapestri because they truly had nowhere else to turn. They were victims of domestic violence and usually living in America undocumented, making the seriousness of their situations that much more intense and pressing. These women were trapped and alone, and Tapestri’s role was to help them in any way we could.

This article explores what I learned throughout my eight-week …