Australia is a destination country for many people. With picturesque stretches of coast and idyllic outback scenery, there are many tourists who want to come to Australia to enjoy all that it has to offer. Unfortunately, Australia is also a destination for a different type of visitor – human trafficking victims. As Polaris Project’s only current Australian fellow, human trafficking in the Oceania region is of particular interest to me.

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The brochure is available in English, Korean, and Mandarin Chinese

The issue of illegal brothels posing as legitimate massage parlors is tied to Polaris Project’s first moments as an organization.  Our founders, Katherine Chon and Derek Ellerman, became passionate about the issue of human trafficking after learning about one of these brothels in Rhode Island, which operated a couple blocks from their college apartments.  Over the past nine years, our organization has focused on combating all forms of human trafficking, but we’ve always maintained an expertise and understanding of this particular network. [Read more →]

Sex trafficking thrives when landlords comply, turn a blind eye, or fail to monitor how their properties are being used.  This was the central message behind the DC Stop Modern Day Slavery group’s online petition on Change.org that launched on Friday March 4, 2011.  More than 300 community members have signed the petition, calling for Jerry Schaeffer, the property owner of the four-story building at 1215 Connecticut Ave., NW, to take action by closing down a brothel disguised as a legitimate massage parlor on the fourth floor. [Read more →]

Human trafficking is a horrific crime that takes a full person and degrades them into a thing to be sold.  True assistance, the type I have seen Polaris Provide provide to our clients over the years, is the type that works to reverse the effects of this horrible experience by treating individuals with the utmost respect and dignity.

We take our value of empowerment very seriously in every stage of our response while helping a person out of a human trafficking situation throughout our involvement in their recovery.  Though we assist hundreds of victims of human trafficking every year, you will notice that we don’t have a lot of photos of victims on our website.   Why is that? [Read more →]

“The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.“  These are the words of Steve Biko, anti-apartheid activist jailed under the so-called Terrorism Act in South Africa in 1977. For 24 days Biko was interrogated and beaten before recieving hospital treatment; he subsequently died later that year in the custody of the South African Police. [Read more →]

On January 13 Peter J. Nickles, the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, announced that his office successfully shut down a number of illegal brothels either based in residential homes or those posing as legitimate massage parlors. [Read more →]

Fifteen minutes of sexual intercourse for $30 dollars cash.

That’s the going rate for men seeking to buy commercial sex from one of the major sex trafficking networks that spans throughout the United States.  Women held in these brothels are bought by a different man every 15 minutes.  Four different men per hour, like clockwork.  Maybe upwards of 30 to 40 different men per day, for 12 hours, 7 days a week. [Read more →]

Two popular strip clubs in Providence, RI

I went up to Rhode Island a few days ago to visit some family friends.  Having heard a great deal in debates in the human trafficking field on the local sex industry in Rhode Island, and taken part in them, I made a point to talk to people about the situation there.   I wanted to confirm recent reports on how bad the enabling environment for sex trafficking had become.  What I found was indeed alarming. [Read more →]

When I was at Harvard College in the 1980s there was a bit of political correctness.  I recall in my House at Harvard, a 350-student residential college, there were cheeky songs sung by students at a holiday season dinner. [Read more →]

If you talk to people who are passionate about combating human trafficking, they will likely tell you they are “abolitionists,” and that this movement is working towards eradicating modern-day slavery.  If “abolition” is our ultimate goal then I think it is important for us to define what we mean.  What will it take to get us there? [Read more →]