Tom Reade|Peace Corps

"One giant leap, needs two steps back"

Currently serving as a volunteer in the Republic of Moldova

The opinions expressed on this site do not reflect any position of my employer, the U.S. Government, or the Peace Corps.

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Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor

 

Trafficking in Persons… That was the subject of a small briefing I went to today in Chisinau. Besides being interesting it also brought up a whole lot of guilt… while working for the AG’s Office, I served on a small committee setup by the International Rescue Committee named ALERT or Arizona League to End Regional Trafficking. In it, we tried to open up lines of communication between the NGOs ( IRC and Streetlight ), the Police ( FBI and Phoenix PD ), the faith community ( several churches active in the trafficking war ) and the Prosecutors ( AGO and County Attorney ). The guilt comes from some cases we discussed of trafficked young women from Eastern Europe…. the problem with all trafficked women is that they are usually enter our orbit via a prostitution arrest or some faith based organizations find them on the street and try to get them to quit and come into the safe houses and leave the life. 99% of them do not. They’d rather work the street in a life of slavery than go back to whatever broken home they are from. Before SB 1070, we would never even consider turning them over to ICE for deportation despite the fact that they were either A. Illegal or B. violating their VISA by being a prostitute. In fact, we ruled the very notion out in the first 5 minutes of discussion because from our American Point of View, WHY would we subject these people to go back “over there” when they could somehow stay here in America and live the sweet life of freedom and wealth.  What I learned today is that there are a lot of resources here. We should have sent them back home. They can get help and we were wrong. Thus, the sharp pain in my gut right now ….  The Police think and thought they were doing the right thing but we were blinded by our perceptions and ignorance…. UGH!!!

Trafficking in Persons… That was the subject of a small briefing I went to today in Chisinau. Besides being interesting it also brought up a whole lot of guilt… while working for the AG’s Office, I served on a small committee setup by the International Rescue Committee named ALERT or Arizona League to End Regional Trafficking. In it, we tried to open up lines of communication between the NGOs ( IRC and Streetlight ), the Police ( FBI and Phoenix PD ), the faith community ( several churches active in the trafficking war ) and the Prosecutors ( AGO and County Attorney ).

The guilt comes from some cases we discussed of trafficked young women from Eastern Europe…. the problem with all trafficked women is that they are usually enter our orbit via a prostitution arrest or some faith based organizations find them on the street and try to get them to quit and come into the safe houses and leave the life. 99% of them do not. They’d rather work the street in a life of slavery than go back to whatever broken home they are from. Before SB 1070, we would never even consider turning them over to ICE for deportation despite the fact that they were either A. Illegal or B. violating their VISA by being a prostitute. In fact, we ruled the very notion out in the first 5 minutes of discussion because from our American Point of View, WHY would we subject these people to go back “over there” when they could somehow stay here in America and live the sweet life of freedom and wealth. 

What I learned today is that there are a lot of resources here. We should have sent them back home. They can get help and we were wrong. Thus, the sharp pain in my gut right now ….  The Police think and thought they were doing the right thing but we were blinded by our perceptions and ignorance…. UGH!!!