San Jose Massage Parlors: Fremont group takes on human trafficking
If passed, the measure would increase sentences for human trafficking, improve victims’ restitution rights and mandate human trafficking training for police officers.
Trafficking people, often to work without pay at factories, private homes or brothels, is the world’s fastest growing criminal industry, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The State Department estimates that between 600,000 and 800,000 victims are trafficked across international borders every year.
In the United States, victims, most of whom don’t speak English, are smuggled primarily from Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe.
According to the Justice Department,
90 percent of trafficking victims are women and two-thirds are younger than 25.
California, with its major ports and large population, is a hub for both international and domestic traffickers, Phung said. Sex slaves often are forced into massage parlors, underground brothels, or even mobile vans, whose whereabouts are advertised online.
See the full article from “The Argus”