Page 17 - First Coast Vol 4 No 3
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CRYSTAL FREED | Human Traf cking
Labor Traf cking: The Lawyer’s Citizen and
LPractitioner Lenses
abor tra cking is just as per- tion, hospitality, landscaping, domes-
nicious as sex tra cking. Fu- tic services and recreational activities. eled by greed and a large lack of  ose in the workforce operate
timate partner who wooed a young mother, during a TRO hearing rep- resented to the court that the victim was a prostitute. When the woman admitted to prostituting (having been pimped out by the same intimate partner who was in court), the judge granted custody of the victim’s child to that intimate partner/tra cker. In another case, a woman came from Ukraine to the United States, seeking to escape her husband’s violence. She was forced to work around the clock at a small grocery store and did not control a dime of what she earned. She was beaten when trying to escape.  e woman’s tra ckers threatened to kill her daughters if she ever tried to escape or disobey.
Other areas where labor tra cking might be hiding in plain sight include code enforcement violations, juvenile status o enses, delinquency, child abuse, and guardianship.
If you represent businesses, look at the entities’ employment practices and visa compliance. Also, audit all contracts and if a client has them, subcontractors. If you represent a municipality or public entity, coordi- nate with risk management to ensure labor tra cking is on their radar and encourage proper training. It was a properly trained female health de- partment o cial who noticed an un- usual stash of clothing, food and bed- ding that launched the Robert Kra  investigation.
According to the DOJ’s Human Tra cking Prosecution Unit, labor tra cking victims are forced to com- mit serial crimes where the forced crime is the “forced labor” – home healthcare, shopli ing, drug cultiva- tion, drug sales and pickpockets.
Labor tra cking touches us as con- sumers and as law-
yers. In our spheres
of in uence let
us do our part in combatting labor tra cking.
awareness, labor tra ckers operate with impunity. It concerns those in the counter-tra cking space, and it ought to be of concern to you. Our clients depend on us to ensure they are not unwitting participants.
OUR CIVIC RESPONSE
Take a moment to take this quiz https://interactive.pri.org/2017/fair- fashion-quiz and this assessment http://slaveryfootprint.org. Consider downloading the following apps – ILAB and Good on You.
ILAB, developed by the U.S. De- partment of Labor, tracks various items countries produce, along with food grown for U.S. consumption. Next time you go shopping for co ee, chocolate or clothing use ILAB to en- sure you are not purchasing products likely tainted by child or forced labor.
“Fast fashion” is another consider- ation. We consume 80 billion pieces of new clothing a year. Eleven mil- lion pounds of U.S. textile waste head to land lls. Purchasing consignment, vintage or second-hand clothing makes a huge impact. Not only is it gentler on the pocketbook, it also takes that purchase out of current exploitive labor practice. If you must buy new, then use the Good on You app to determine how brands fare when it comes to labor practices.
LABOR TRAFFICKING – A WORKING DEFINITION
 e International Labor Organiza- tion estimates there are 40.3 million victims of human tra cking globally, 81 percent are trapped in forced labor. Polaris, a leading entity in the  eld, strongly believes that labor tra cking is underreported due to lack of aware- ness and worker vulnerability. A er analyzing over 40,000 calls; however, they discovered the following Florida industries were implicated: agricul- ture, restaurants, health, construc-
along a continuum – at one end is an employer that complies with all laws and at the other end, is labor tra ck- ing. Let us sort out the workers in the middle.
•Accidental/non-willful violations as in inadvertent failure to pay overtime.
•Intentional violation of law as in re- fusal to pay workers’ compensation or misclassifying workers to avoid associated costs.
•Wage the .  is action by an em- ployer moves further along the continuum; and, while illegal, with- out more, does not constitute labor tra cking.
Labor tra cking occurs when an employer tricks or compels someone to provide labor through fraud, ma- nipulation, debt, violence or threats. Labor tra cking hinges on force, fraud or coercion with the goal of en- slavement. A labor tra cker breaks the human spirit to exert complete control over his/her victim.
 e psychology of control/coercion requires the counsellor at law to un- derstand trauma. In 1957, sociologist Albert Biderman developed a frame- work for understanding how inter- rogators could manipulate prisoners without the use of physical force.  at framework has been applied to the psychological coercion that occurs in human tra cking. For example, when someone is being tra cked for labor, apparent freedom to navigate the area inside a restaurant is not the same as actual freedom to walk out the door of the restaurant. When mental chains are involved, a false dichotomy exists between freedom and captivity.
Demystifying the Link Between La- bor Tra cking and Our Law Practice Human tra cking increasingly in-
tersects with domestic violence and intimate partner violence.
In one case, the attorney for an in-
AttorneyAtLawMagazine.com
Crystal Freed, an accomplished civil trial lawyer, graduated from the Georgetown University Law Center. In 2007 she started her own law practice, representing small businesses and startup enterprises. As the success of her  rm grew, so did her desire to catalyze an anti-human traf cking movement in northeast Florida. Crystal’s pro bono clients have included both adults and children traf cked for sex and labor in northeast Florida. She also serves as pro bono counsel in cases involving fair housing, contract and landlord/tenant. Crystal works closely with the law enforcement community in northeast Florida, providing both resources and training.
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