FBI, US Attorney aggressive vs human trafficking cases in NMI

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Attorney’s Office are treating the human trafficking problem in the CNMI very aggressively.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric O’Malley said fighting human trafficking is one of the top priorities of the U.S. Attorney General and President Bush himself.

O’Malley said Bush had directed the Department of Justice to make human trafficking and counter-terrorism among the top concerns they should focus on.

The prosecutor was among the presenters during yesterday’s kickoff of the three-day 6th annual Micronesian Police Executives Association conference at the World Resort Hotel’s Taga Hall.

In an interview with Saipan Tribune, O’Malley encouraged human trafficking victims to come forward and seek help.

“We want to let them know the [U.S] government is here to help them—not hurt, not deport, not throw them in jail. If they are true victims of trafficking, meaning they are being forced against their will to do what they don’t want to do, we’re here to help,” O’Malley said.

He said part of his discussion was the difficulty of detection in modern human trafficking.

The prosecutor said it is hard to tell the difference between those who are being treated poorly and those who are doing it because they want to.

“My feeling is [it is difficult] because there are so many nonresident workers here, nonresident workers that come from typical source countries like China, the Philippines. The vast majority of them are garment industry workers who tend to be females, not always well educated and are unaccompanied,” he said.

Statistically, O’Malley said, that puts the CNMI at a higher risk than most normal jurisdictions in the U.S. mainland.

“Whether or not it is proportionally more of a problem, I think it would defy statistics to say that it is not more of a problem. But for actual numbers, it is hard to say,” he said.

For law enforcers, O’Malley said, their treatment of the problem has to be comprehensive. That means that, from very first point of contact, the victims need to be taken care of, reassured and provided with basic services.

“Otherwise, at the end of the day, when it comes actually putting them on the witness stand and having them testify against the people that trafficked them, they need to be strong, and they need to trust you, they need to trust the government. And if you don’t have that, you’re not going to win your case,” O’Malley said.