What being a flight attendant taught me about human trafficking

Mashable ^ | Jan 12, 2016 | Heather Poole

[free_life]

A few years ago, on board a flight from Los Angeles to New York, a group of young girls wore nothing but jeans and T-shirts - in the middle of winter. They didn't speak English, and they didn't speak to each other the entire flight. I remember thinking it was odd, but I didn't know what to do about it.

My mother, a retired flight attendant, once had a man on board a flight traveling with a teenage girl. They didn't look like they were related, and they weren't friendly with each other either.

"When I asked the girl what she'd like to drink, he answered for her," my mother said. "I thought that was weird since they weren't speaking to each other. If I'd known more about human trafficking, I might have engaged them in conversation to feel the situation out, but at that time we didn't know anything about it."

Back then human trafficking never crossed our minds. But that has changed.

A few years ago, my airline started training us on spotting telltale signs of human trafficking on the plane. Can the passenger speak for themselves, or is someone with them controlling what they say? Does the passenger avoid eye contact? Do they appear fearful, anxious, tense, depressed, nervous, submissive? Are they dressed inappropriately, or do they have few possessions - even on a long flight? Can the passenger move independently, or are they accompanied by someone seemingly controlling their every movement?

My colleagues and I have learned this because of an American Airlines flight attendant named Sandra Fiorini. She testified before Congress about what she'd seen on one of her flights, and how she hadn't known what to do about it.

[free_life]

When she saw an 18 year old boy on a six hour flight carrying a newborn with its umbilical cord still attached with a single bottle of milk and two diapers in his coat pocket, she had tried to report it, but she couldn't find anyone to help. That's when she realized something needed to be done.

Fiorini joined forces with Deborah Sigmund, founder of a nonprofit organization that fights child exploitation and human trafficking, to educate airline employees and create a human trafficking hotline. Airlines employees are the first line of defense for protecting the countless children who are trafficked on major flights each day.

The State Department estimates 2 million women and children are victims of human trafficking every year. There are more slaves today than any other time in human history: Human trafficking is one of the fastest growing crimes in the world, second only to drug trafficking. And while drugs can be sold once, a person can be sold several times a day. It's a business that brings in an estimated $150 billion every year.

[ClearCase_guy]

The race hustlers in the US don’t sell people — they sell guilt.

As this post demonstrates, there are bigger problems in the world.

[cloudmountain]

Human trafficing starts in the other countries whose officials turn a blind eye to the crimes. They are, no doubt, PART OF IT and may be financially benefitting from it as well.

Also, somewhere there is the mother who has had "help" from those close to her so she could sell her baby. Young women aren't ALWAYS the helpless victims. Some go willingly into the fray for whatever horrible reason. Satan's work, all of it.

[PGR88]

Yes, but these are Obama’s new Americans. Who gave them visas in the first place?

[free_life]

Average entry age of prostitution in US is 12 years old.

[antidisestablishment]

Human trafficking ends with the customer, and many of those exist here. I know Tampa is one of the primary transit points for slavery in the US. Strip clubs and shady bars are full of young boys and girls.

Americans should band together to run these business out of the country, but they would rather endlessly debate about legalizing drugs and prostitution, despite the proven fact that these are not victimless crimes.

[BenLurkin]

Can the passenger speak for themselves, or is someone with them controlling what they say? Does the passenger avoid eye contact? Do they appear fearful, anxious, tense, depressed, nervous, submissive?

Could be she's just another Muslim travelling with a male family member.

[Jemian]

Could be she's just another Muslim travelling with a male family member.

Um, not much difference.

[kearnyirish2]

I’ve been through a fast-food drive-thru where young Hispanic children are milling about (in the work area); they are much too young to work, and I guess the “replacement Americans” just bring the anchor babies with them as a sort of daycare. Deep fryers, hordes of strangers passing through - what could go wrong?

[cloudmountain]

Human trafficking ends with the customer, and many of those exist here. I know Tampa is one of the primary transit points for slavery in the US. Strip clubs and shady bars are full of young boys and girls.
Every culture in human history had slavery. WE were, I believe, the first Western country to make it illegal and immoral.

Americans should band together to run these business out of the country, but they would rather endlessly debate about legalizing drugs and prostitution, despite the proven fact that these are not victimless crimes.

Americans WANT the cheap labor as nannies, housekeepers, gardeners. They WANT...and too many DON'T care what the cost is.
Women WANT to work; they want babies; they DON'T want to cook, clean, do diapers and stay home to take care of their babies in those first CRUCIAL years.
Then they are SHOCKED when baby calls the nanny "mama," when the children give "real mom" a ton of sass and backtalk, claiming she DOESN'T care (which she doesn't), are appalled when hubby cheats, knowing that he ISN'T number one anymore and DO NOT understand WHY o why, at 40 years of age she is alone and unhappy.

It ain't rocket science.