On November 21, the Office of the New Jersey Attorney General and CarePoint Health Foundation hosted \u201cAn Introduction to Human Trafficking: A Hudson County Human Trafficking Awareness Seminar\u201d in The Duncan Family Sky Room at Â鶹ÊÓƵ\u2019s University. The program helped to raise awareness regarding the increase of human trafficking in New Jersey due to the upcoming Super Bowl.<\/p>\n
As the Garden State prepares to host the largest annual sporting event in the country \u2013 Super Bowl XLVIII, which will be held at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford \u2013 law enforcement officials are already seeing an increase in forced prostitution, which often accompanies major sporting events. New Jersey is already a prime location for domestic and international human trafficking because of its central location in the New York metropolitan area. Yet with the Super Bowl expected to bring an influx of thousands of people into the State, human trafficking is expected to rise because of tourist demand for workers in the sex trade.<\/p>\n
According to the Rutherford Institute, during the 2009 Super Bowl in Tampa, the Florida Commission Again Human Trafficking estimated that \u201ctens of thousands of women and minors\u201d were sexually trafficked into the Miami area. Some women as young as 14 were advertised as \u201cSuper Bowl Specials.\u201d At Super Bowl XLV in Arlington, Texas, Attorney General Greg Abbot refereed to the event as \u201cthe single largest human trafficking incident in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a Jesuit institution committed to social justice and respect for human rights, the subject matter being discussed today is important to review and dissect,\u201d said University President Eugene J. Cornacchia, Ph.D. \u201cA number of our academic departments host programs on raising the awareness of human trafficking every year as we are dedicated to delivering a student-centered, values-based, and socially responsible educational experience that forms \u2018men and women with and for others.\u2019 Each one of us here has a public responsibility to act upon urgent social problems \u2013 locally, nationally and worldwide.\u201d<\/p>\n
Opening remarks were given by Anthony L. Romano \u201977, chairman of the Board of Chosen Freeholders; Meika Roberson, Ph.D., assistant chief medical officer and chair for the Department of Emergency Medicine at CarePoint Health Hoboken University Medical Center; and Assistant Attorney General Tracy M. Thompson, human trafficking program director of New Jersey.<\/p>\n
As a government leader, Romano said that New Jersey politicians are very concerned with human trafficking. He also assured those in attendance that bills and laws were currently being put into place to severely punish those charged with a human trafficking violation. \u201cHuman trafficking is the preying of adults on young, damaged souls,\u201d he said. \u201cThese traffickers are taking advantage of innocent lives. What can be worse than that?\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Roberson relayed tales of the voiceless victims of the human sex trafficking industry, such as that of former sex worker Chelsea. \u201cDuring the Super Bowl, Chelsea was expected to sleep with 40 to 50 men a day,\u201d she said. \u201cIf she didn\u2019t meet her quota, she was beaten.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the event, there was also a survivor presentation by Barbara Amaya, who, when she ran away from home at 12-years-old, fell prey to the streets and became victim to a human trafficker. According to Amaya, she was \u201csold like a piece of furniture\u201d to yet another human trafficker, who brought her to New York. In addition to being forced into the sex trade, Amaya also became heavily addicted to heroin. Although arrested multiple times, Amaya was never rescued from her trafficker as she had become programmed to obey him at any cost.<\/p>\n
Amaya often attended a clinic in New York for her health care needs, and a counselor at the facility soon took a special interest in her. It was with this counselor\u2019s help that Amaya was finally able to flee from her trafficker and from life on the streets.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I escaped, I really didn\u2019t seek any psychological help,\u201d Amaya said. \u201cI pushed all that pain way down and didn\u2019t tell anyone about what happened to me. I just tried to rebuild my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
And rebuild she did. Amaya married and had children. Everything a \u201cnormal\u201d person would have in life \u2013 or so she thought. Events or particular moments in time would trigger Amaya\u2019s past memories in the human trafficking trade. But even during those episodes, she still did not understand what had happened to her.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust a little over a year and a half ago, I was sitting in my living room and watching a news segment about the human trafficking of young girls in my neighborhood,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen I watched it, something happened to me. I could finally put a name to what I had been through.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since then, Amaya has become an advocate against human trafficking and regularly speaks at events to raise awareness of the crime.<\/p>\n
In addition to the discussions, presentations were given by New Jersey Human Trafficking Coordinator Kathy Friess and Sergeant Noelle Holl of the Human Trafficking Unit on \u201cHuman Trafficking in New Jersey,\u201d as well as a report on \u201cNew Jersey\u2019s Anti-Trafficking Strategy and Super Bowl XLVIII,\u201d presented by Assistant Attorney General Thompson.<\/p>\n
The presentations were followed by a question and answer panel discussion, led by facilitators of the lectures, as well as Kevin Callahan, J.D. ’69, a professor of criminal justice at Â鶹ÊÓƵ’s University and former Superior Court judge. Questions were asked concerning the difference between human trafficking and prostitution, the Hudson County penalties for human trafficking, and warning signs exhibited by human trafficking victims.<\/p>\n