Majority of prostitutes in Saipan\u2019s tourist district of Garapan had no plans to join the world\u2019s oldest profession, according to former U.S. Labor ombudsman Pamela Brown.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of prostitutes who are down in Garapan are not there willingly. They\u2019re there because they owe money to someone [and] their families are being threatened. We\u2019ve had many people attempt suicide because of threats to their families. Their family\u2019s homes have also been burned down in China [and] members of their families have been killed in China. So this is a serious, serious situation,\u201d she said as one of the speakers of the Rotary Club of Saipan\u2019s weekly meeting Tuesday at Hyatt Regency Saipan.<\/p>\n
Streetwalkers and other aliens\u2019 sad plight begin when they are unknowingly trafficked into the CNMI, she said.<\/p>\n
Brown specifically set up Pacific Ombudsman for Humanitarian Law, where she is president, to help victims of human trafficking not only in the CNMI but across the region as well.<\/p>\n
She said some of the current problems started just before the federal government took over immigration of the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had cases in 2009 right before the federal government took over local immigration. We had a huge onslaught of mainly Chinese but also Indian nationals who were told that if they were here when federal takeover happens, they would be automatically granted U.S. citizenship and could go to Guam and help with the military buildup.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown said many of them paid anywhere between $4,000 and $60,000 and majority didn\u2019t even know they were being trafficked. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey just find out that\u2019s something\u2019s wrong because when they get here it\u2019s not what they\u2019ve been told. They\u2019re told to get this and there\u2019s an extra fee for that. They keep paying, paying, paying to this organization that is well organized and had a common thread throughout India and China.\u201d<\/p>\n
And because of the debt they accumulate, they are forced to work in jobs or do things against their will.<\/p>\n
[B]Help from service providers[\/B]<\/p>\n
Brown said there exists a human trafficking intervention coalition in the Commonwealth and through this, they\u2019ve been able to reach out and help victims of human trafficking.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was one operation and we ended up working long and hard. Luckily we\u2019re blessed to have a shelter here in the CNMI, which not many of the island-nations [in the Pacific] do. Through Guma Esperanza and assistance by translators and volunteers from many other ethnicities on island like the Russians, the Nepalese, and the Thai we were able to after months and months and months of working with these victims to finally get the real story out of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown said they eventually found out that they were indeed trafficked into the CNMI.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were treating it as labor recruitment fraud or labor contract fraud. In reality they were getting here and being trafficked to prostitution, they were being taken to bars and forced to work without being paid, nothing was explained to them except for \u2018if you don\u2019t do what we tell you, we would take you to immigration and they will deport you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
[B]Recruiting Rotary[\/B]<\/p>\n
To this end, Brown joined U.S. Attorney Alicia Limtiaco in inviting the Rotary Club to join the coalition and help stop human trafficking in the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a human trafficking intervention coalition in the CNMI and we\u2019ve often discussed inviting Rotary to join us. We know you do this kind of good work and a public service organization. But the best way you can help us is just pay attention on what\u2019s going around you.\u201d<\/p>\n
She told Rotarians to keep their eyes peeled for telltale signs of human trafficking in their neighborhoods.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there\u2019s an apartment building next door that is jam-packed with Chinese who don\u2019t seem to be doing anything except for wandering around, let us know. Because most likely that\u2019s probably where they\u2019re holding them until they figure out what they can do to them. We\u2019re just trying to get the word out to every community throughout the Pacific\u2014Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Majority of prostitutes in Saipan\u2019s tourist district of Garapan had no plans to join the world\u2019s oldest profession, according to former U.S. Labor ombudsman Pamela Brown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-175640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175640\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}