hardboiled

running to end human slavery

by susan moua

At 6:30 AM on a cold Saturday morning, I headed for San Francisco to join fourteen others in the very first Bay Area Freedom Run/ Walk. The event, organized by the Students & Artists Fighting to End Human Slavery (SAFEHS), aimed to raise awareness of the human trafficking and slavery that occurs on our own familiar Bay Area streets.

On November 17th, fifteen Cal students and activists walked the six miles of Geary Street, from Embarcadero to 48th, an area along the Tenderloin district in downtown San Francisco. Geary Street was chosen as a reminder that behind its bustling daily traffic, this same street, like many others across the United States, at nightfall and during the wee hours of the morning, becomes witness to human trafficking and slavery.

SAFEHS, founded by Cal graduate student Annie Fukushima, through multimedia art, education and community coalitions aims to create a safe space to define what human slavery/human trafficking means to them and how we are all impacted by this “global phenomenon.” In particular, SAFEHS supports artists who use their vision to express perspectives on human slavery. Centering their activities in the Bay Area, SAFEHS launched the Bay Area Freedom Run/Walk this year, raising over a thousand dollars with just fifteen participants. All the money raised will be donated to the Polaris Project (www.polarisproject.org), an international organization against human slavery, founded by two Asian American students from Brown University. Fukushima believes the event was a success, “To make the Freedom Run/Walk even possible was a success…it’s about raising awareness” she said.

For many of us who walked instead of ran, we encountered supporters, passer-bys, and others who were simply confused.

Human trafficking statistics are often hard to gather since the most majority of it is conducted underground. The San Francisco Chronicle recently reported that six hundred to eight hundred thousand women and girls are trafficked internationally. San Francisco is one of the major ports used to sexually traffic these women.

What also stands out is that Asians make up about 47 percent of all sex trafficking victims, with the Philippines being the number one exporter of humans being trafficked and 50 percent of all trafficked being children. Asian women who fall victim are often trafficked and exploited by people from their own countries. They are lured in with false promises of good pay and jobs in wealthier nations but upon arrival find no such treatment. Their passports are often withheld, and then they are forced to work as sexual slaves in a completely unfamiliar environment under harsh conditions, with little chance of leaving. A study by the United Nations attributes 80 percent of prostitution to human trafficking activities.

In the U.S., the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Act of 2000 and its reauthorization in 2003 provide some protection and services for victims of human slavery, but with those convicted of such crimes spending only months in jail, it does little to hinder the ever growing $8 billion international industry.

No country is immune from human slavery and human trafficking. Human slavery has become a global issue that should be immediately dealt with. The awareness raised by organizations such as SAFEHS is a good start, particularly if they spur action.

Young runners, as young as fifteen were participants of the Freedom Run/Walk. Jamie Moua, a high school student from Fresno, came to San Francisco the weekend of the Freedom Run/Walk to support human rights for victims of human trafficking and slavery. “I’m only in high school but I want to be more involved with issues concerning human rights. I plan to go back to Fresno to inform my high school about the walk.” Like the other fifteen runners, Moua found the experience refreshing and inspiring, “It was a small movement but it was powerful.”