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| Susan Coppedge |
What is Human Trafficking?
Trafficking in persons is a serious crime and a grave
violation of human rights. Every year, thousands of men, women and children
fall into the hands of traffickers, in their own countries and abroad. Almost
every country in the world is affected by trafficking, whether as a country of
origin, transit or destination for victims. UNODC, as guardian of the United
Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) and the
Protocols thereto, assists States in their efforts to implement the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish
Trafficking in Persons (Trafficking in Persons Protocol)...
About Malaysia
Malaysia is a Southeast Asian country occupying the Malaysian Peninsula and part of the island of Borneo. It's known for its beaches, rainforests and mix of Malay, Chinese, Indian and European influences. The sprawling capital, Kuala Lumpur, is home to colonial buildings, busy shopping districts such as Bukit Bintang and skyscrapers including the iconic, 451m-tall Petronas Twin Towers...
About Malaysia
Malaysia is a Southeast Asian country occupying the Malaysian Peninsula and part of the island of Borneo. It's known for its beaches, rainforests and mix of Malay, Chinese, Indian and European influences. The sprawling capital, Kuala Lumpur, is home to colonial buildings, busy shopping districts such as Bukit Bintang and skyscrapers including the iconic, 451m-tall Petronas Twin Towers...
Dialing code: +60
Currency: Malaysian ringgit
Population: 31.70 million (2015)
Official language: Malaysian
Still on
Tier Two until we step it up
SundayStar/Sunday, 21 August 2016
Human Trafficking destabilies governments and
societies because it creates an economy outside of the legitimate economy.
Malaysia ranking in recent 2016 TIP report remained
unchanged in the Tier Two watchlist. Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat
Trafficking in Persons, Susan Coppedge says there is still a lot Malaysia can
do to increase its efforts to curb human trafficking in the country.
IN
her 15 years as Assistant United States Attorney in Georgia, Susan Coppedge
prosecuted more than 45 human traffickers in federal cases involving
transnational and domestic sex trafficking of adults and children, and labour
trafficking. The prosecutions assisted more than 90 victims of trafficking.
It seemed only fitting that she was appointed
Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons to lead the
US’ global engagement against human trafficking in 2015. Freeing victims,
preventing trafficking, and bringing traffickers to justice are the ultimate
goals of the US government’s anti-human trafficking policy and its annual
Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report.
“Coming on board the Department of State’s Office to
Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP office), the non-criminalisation
of victims was very important to me. I’ve talked about that with every
government I have travelled to meet with,” says Ambassador Coppedge who was in
Malaysia recently to speak to our government officials about increasing efforts
to combat human trafficking in the region.
She adds, labour trafficking is another issue she has been
working hard to highlight around the world as “it is sometimes harder to find
than sex trafficking cases and harder for law enforcement and judges to
understand.”
In the recent 2016 TIP Report – which looks at the
governmental efforts of 188 countries to confront and eliminate human
trafficking – Malaysia remained in the Tier Two Watchlist. In her interview
with Sunday Star, Ambassador Coppedge talks about
how Malaysia can increase its efforts to curb human trafficking in the country
while taking the victims’ experience into consideration. See Laura Bushney, Human Rights, and What are Human Rights?,
Q> Where does Malaysia stand
in terms of human trafficking?
A: In our Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report which was
released on June 30, Malaysia was adjudicated Tier 2 on the watchlist. This is
because of Malaysia’s relationship to the minimum standards, as specified by US
laws and the international standards from the Palermo Protocol. Under those
standards, we look at a variety of factors to see how countries around the
world are doing.
We evaluate the laws of 188 countries and see how they are
doing with respect to victim protection measures, prosecutions, convictions,
prevention efforts and protection efforts and across those standards, the
report (and the analyst who worked on the report along with individuals here at
the embassy at KL) evaluates all those factors. This year, Malaysia was judged
to be making significant efforts but not increasing efforts; and that places
them on the Tier 2 watchlist.
Q> What do you suggest we do
to increase efforts to curb human trafficking here?
The report for every country has recommendations where a
country can improve. The real problem is that they (trafficking victims) are
hidden from society; the trafficker intimidates, physically abuses and
psychologically coerces victims to not come forward to law enforcement. These
cases are very hard to work on. If you think about it, most victims of crime go
to the police to report what happened to them. Trafficking victims are just the
opposite – they are told not to speak to the police or they’ll be locked up or
deported. They are told not to speak to the police because they won’t be
believed anyway.
Sometimes they are threatened or their families are
threatened, so one of the things we do is to encourage law enforcement agencies
to look at trafficking crimes in a different way, to be very proactive and try
to understand the signs or indicators of trafficking to determine whether a
person is a potential trafficking victim.
The report talks about training law enforcement including
prosecutors and police, immigration officials, and about how the judges need to
be trained on the laws of every country. That is one of our key recommendations
and the goal of that training is to increase successful prosecutions and
convictions (of the traffickers).
Another part of the report looks at victim protection
measures. It is very important that trafficking victims are not criminalised or
penalised for crimes they may have committed as a result of being trafficked.
If you think about it, they don’t do this willingly – they may commit an
immigration violation or a prostitution violation but it is not of their own
volition, it is because someone is forcing them to do it. So it is very
important that victims have freedom of movement and not be locked up pending
trial or deportation. In fact, even if they come into the country illegally,
they shouldn’t be criminalised for that.
Q> Talking about entering
illegally, Malaysia has these “lorong tikus” –
tiny secluded places that boat operators use to bring in and take people out
illegally; how do you think we should handle this?
The report talks about Malaysia being a destination and
transit country because of its geographical location and economic success.
People want to come here to work or want to come here to move on to other
countries to work, and so certainly, if there are known places where people are
smuggled in or brought in illegally, then law enforcement needs to pursue those
areas as places where they may find trafficking victims.
Q> You were appointed in
2015. What has been accomplished since then?
Not only does my office handle the report, we also have
international programmes that we fund for countries that have the political
will but may not have the financial resources. So, all year round, we gather
information, share best practices, fund training for other NGOs who work with
victims... this is a year-round effort. When I came on board (the TIP office),
the non-criminalisation of victims was very important – I’ve talked about that
with every government I have travelled to meet with. I’ve talked about that at
home with the Attorney Generals of all 50 US states; this is a very important
point. I’ve also talked about labour trafficking because it is sometimes harder
to find than sex trafficking cases and harder for law enforcement and judges to
understand. So we’ve certainly been pushing the labour trafficking efforts
around the world as well. The report this year featured the theme of prevention
– which is one of the areas we looked at – and we talked about vulnerable
groups including economic and natural disaster migrants, such as victims of the
earthquake in Nepal and migrants from conflict areas. We hear about this all
over the world and those migrants are much more vulnerable to traffickers. They
are looking for jobs, and some may be stateless even. For all these reasons,
they fall prey to the lies that traffickers tell them, so that theme of
prevention was also highlighted during my first year.
Q>How do we prevent
traffickers from continuing their businesses?
We make it too costly for them to do business that way.
They are making money off people and we need to have price and consequence for
their deplorable behaviour. So what we do is we prosecute them and jail them
and we take away any financial benefits they may have gained from trafficking.
We bring in the public and let them know these crimes do exist and we need to
have the public be on the lookout and be aware of it as well.
Also a problem all over the world is domestic servitude,
which is bringing someone into your home and not paying them appropriately and
requiring them to work too many hours and abusing them. I prosecuted some of
those domestic servitude cases in the US and they are very challenging to find,
so we need the public to care about their fellow human beings and we need to
make this a public issue.
Q>What about human
trafficking’s connections with terrorism?
We certainly know terrorist groups are involved in
trafficking – to provide women and children to work for their military and also
to use in sexual servitude – so that is a big problem. Human trafficking does
destabilise governments and societies because it creates an economy outside of
the legitimate economy. It hurts all workers in a country; it also threatens
safety and security because there are people that aren’t following the law. So,
this is a very important area for government stability and economic security as
well.
Q>I understand you will be
meeting with our Home Minister/Deputy Prime Minister. What suggestions will you
be making to our government?
The same ones as in our report. Increasing convictions and
prosecutions, becoming more aware of labour trafficking, and allowing victims’
freedom of movement.
Q>How do you feel about the
stand on human trafficking in Malaysia?
I can’t have this job and be a pessimist. If I was a
pessimist, it would be too depressing. But because I believe we can make a
difference in individual lives, and that every case that is brought forward
will help a fellow human being, I’m very optimistic that countries care about
their citizens and the people in their country. I hope more can be done to
protect trafficking victims and prevent the crime from occurring.
Q> On a personal note, when
you were prosecuting sex offences etc, how do you sleep at night, knowing that
these people went through so much?
In every case I prosecuted, I was helping someone move on
with their life... helping someone regain their life... helping to detain the
criminal perpetrator... so that was very meaningful work to me. I used to say I
was working on the side of angels. I found it very rewarding and fulfilling.
And now getting to talk to governments about my experience – every country that
has trafficking has this same kind of growing pains in learning how to
investigate and prosecute cases successfully – so I can share our national best
practices. I feel like I am still making a positive difference for trafficking
victims.
Q> Which was more difficult
– this job or prosecuting?
This job is more difficult but that is because I’ve only
been at it a year. I imagine I would get better at it. As long as you’re on the
job, you tend to get better. The trafficking cases were very challenging to
bring to trial but after the first case, you understand how the traffickers
operate and how to present the victims’ stories. So, the more of those cases I
tried, the easier that job became; I’m hoping the more governments I talk to,
the easier this job will become.
Q> This job requires a lot
of travel and time away from home, so how do you juggle the job and your family
life?
You sound like a dad. I have two children at home and I am
very proud of them and very proud of the support I get from my husband. I don’t
think this is a job you can do without the support of your spouse, so I really
appreciate my family and I appreciate you asking about it because a lot of
women need to know that you could do jobs like this and still have a family and
children.
Q> Do they come with you on
your travels?
No, they don’t.
Q> Would you say we are at
our adolescent stage in dealing with human trafficking and smuggling?
Both the US law and the Palermo Protocol were passed in
2000; I believe Malaysia’s law was passed around 2007, and so it is a little
behind the international and US standard. But i think every country is still
learning best practices in this area because it is a new law and a new crime
and we are all struggling to handle it the best we can.
Q> And the US welcomes
Malaysia to study its best practices?
And also regional best practices, through other Asian
nations who are doing well in fighting trafficking. We do a lot of regional
meetings as well. There are certainly best practices in various countries that
we can learn from.
Q> How do you think we
should train our law enforcement, specifically the immigration department and
police who are the front-liners in the fight against human trafficking and
smuggling?
Training on trafficking involves looking at the
indicators. For labour and sexual trafficking, you look at whether people
withhold travel documents; look at whether they are free to go and whether they
keep a fair share of their earnings – all of these things are indicators. I
used to talk to American juries about freedom of movement, it is very important
that you are able to leave an exploitative work situation and if you are held
there by force, fraud, or coercion, then that is trafficking.
Q> We have these agencies
that provide maids and some hold their passports – are they trafficking?
A key recommendation of the report is that workers be
allowed to hold their travel documents because again, it’s just an indicator
that they may not be free to leave. If you remove that indicator, then you put
freedom back in the hands of workers. Enforcement needs to be very careful with
how we treat victims. They’re often facing trauma, sometimes physical or sexual
abuse, and fear for their families back in their home countries, so victims
need to be provided appropriate services, including medical services, and if
necessary, psychological services. We need to look out for their safety because
victims of trafficking are also often in a very fragile state.
Malaysia’s ranking in the recent 2016 TIP Report remained
unchanged in the Tier Two Watchlist. Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat
Trafficking in Persons Susan Coppedge says there is still a lot Malaysia can do
to increase its efforts to curb human trafficking in the country.
You Can Stop Sex Trafficking
An app allows you to help curb sex trafficking.
Exchange Initiative and Nix principal Molly Hackett says the public
needs to educate itself about sex trafficking. — TraffickCam
By Chester Chin
The Star/Saturday, 17 September 2016
THE next time you check into your hotel
room, you could very well help put an end to sex trafficking, using just your
smartphone. That’s the idea behind the TraffickCam mobile app.
Developed by Exchange Initiative and
researchers at Washington University, the app allows users to anonymously
upload photos of hotel rooms they stay in while travelling.
The Missouri-based Exchange Initiative was
created by Nix Conference & Meeting Management to empower individuals and
organisations with real resources to help end sex trafficking.
“The first time we were able to help law
enforcement identify a hotel where a trafficked child had been photographed,
we realised that our travel experience was valuable in the fight against sex
trafficking,” says Exchange Initiative and Nix principal Molly Hackett.
Nix Conference & Meeting Management -
which leads the charge among meeting planners worldwide to help end sex
trafficking in hotels - has been identified as a top member by the
internationally-recognised The Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children
from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism (The Code) for its work in integrating
child protection practices into their business. .
The Code is an industry-driven responsible
tourism initiative with a mission to provide awareness, tools and support to
the tourism industry in order to prevent the sexual exploitation of children.
Despicable trade
Sex trafficking is a form of modem day
slavery that forces children and adults to engage in commercial sex acts
against their will. Most victims are recruited when they are just 12 to 14
years old.
They are often coerced through drugs, violence,
debt bondage and intimidation. Data from Unicef reveals that at least 300,000
American children and 1.2 million children worldwide are trafficked for sex
each year.
The basis behind the TraffickCam stems from
a simple, albeit unsettling, trait of the despicable trade.
Traffickers regularly post photographs of
their victims in hotel rooms for “advertisements”.
With the TraffickCam initiative, a
database of hotel room images is created. From that, investigators are able to
search compare photos and determine locations.
Travellers, according to Hackett, are
required to take four photographs of their hotel room and upload them via the
app.
“The app uses image analysis tools to convert
the photos to a series of data points that can be matched up with data points
in photos of victims,” she offers in an email.
Features such as patterns in the
carpeting, furniture, room accessories and window views are matched against
traveller’s images to provide law enforcement with a list of potential hotels
where the photo may have been taken.
“We recommend taking two pictures of the
entire room from different locations, one picture of the bed from the foot of
the bed, and one picture of the bathroom from the doorway,” notes Hackett. It’s
also important that no person is in the photos.
While TraffickCam has been operating since
2015, the app - which is available on both iOS and Android platforms - was only
introduced in June this year.
“Our pivotal moment for developing the app
came when we couldn’t identify a motel room. We connected the vice squad with
our associates in the city, but it took three days to find the girl. That
seemed too long, given today’s technology,” Hackett muses.
The mobile initiative couldn’t have come
at a better time, says St Louis County Police Department Sergeant Adam
Kavanaugh in a news release.
“The app created by the Exchange
Initiative will give law enforcement yet another technological tool to reach
that goal in a quicker, more proficient manner when investigating cases
involving human trafficking and child exploitation,” says Kavanaugh, who is
also the St Louis County Multi- Jurisdictional Human Trafficking Task Force
supervisor.
To date, data from early testing collected
by Exchange Initiative shows that the app is 85% accurate in identifying the
correct hotel in the top 20 matches. More than 83,000 apps have been downloaded
since the launch late June.
Extending the reach
At this point in time, Exchange Initiative
is only working with law enforcement in the United States. However, the
organisation may expand TraffickCam’s reach in the future to work with law
enforcement around the globe.
To that end, the app supports submissions
around the globe and the database includes international hotels as well.
Meanwhile, Malaysian Association of Hotels
president Sam Cheah welcomes the initiative. However, he says proper regulations
must be placed by local authorities to ensure that TraffickCam’s operations run
smoothly.
“Of course, we should look at the
initiative through a broader perspective. Sex trafficking will ultimately mar
the industry. If we can curb the trade, it will do the legitimate hotel
industry a mountain of good,” he offers in a phone interview.
On its part, Hackett says Nix Conference
& Meeting Management addresses sex trafficking at every hotel where they do
business. Many hotels have signed The Code.
“Many photos in the database were obtained
from publicly available resources such as hotel websites,” Hackett adds.
The immediate challenge she says, boils
down to funding. That aside, Hackett believes they are on the right track with
the TraffickCam initiative.
“The response to the app and the issue of
human trafficking is already a huge success story! We are beta testing the law
enforcement portal and expect to make it more widely available by early next
year to help with identification and arrests,” she offers.
TraffickCam’s expansion in the future will
include expanding education, resources, as well as networking to fight sex
trafficking.
How can the public help? Hackett says:
“Educate yourself.”
ing at every hotel where they do business.
Many hotels have signed The Code.
“Many photos in the database were obtained
from publicly available resources such as hotel websites,” Hackett adds.
The immediate challenge she says, boils
down to funding. That aside, Hackett believes they are on the right track with
the TraffickCam initiative.
“The response to the app and the issue of
human trafficking is already a huge success story! We are beta testing the law
enforcement portal and expect to make it more widely available by early next
year to help with identification and arrests,” she offers.
TraffickCam’s expansion in the future will
include expanding education, resources, as well as networking to fight sex
trafficking.
How can the public help? Hackett says:
“Educate yourself.”
TraffickCam is available for free on App Store and Google Play Store.
The TraffickCam app
The TraffickCam app allows users to
anonymously upload photos of the hotel rooms they stay in.
Photos are uploaded into a database of
hotel room images to curb sex trafficking.
Sex trafficking is a form of modern day
slavery that forces children and adults to engage in commercial sex acts.
TraffickCam users are required to take
four photographs of their hotel room and upload via the app.
Features of
the rooms are matched against the database of images to aid investigations.
On social media
Used the TraffickCam app for the first
time this week! Super easy way to help fight sex trafficking.
It is not just girls that are victims of
sex trafficking. As many as 50% of New Yorks ≠trafficking victims are boys!
So easy 2 do! Send 4 pics of your hotel
room & you can help stop human trafficking w/TraffickCam app.
TraffickCam - We ALL can help rescue
victims! There is no excuse.
Fighting sex trafficking with photos,
what a good idea tttraffickcam
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