‘Human Trafficking Will Become One of the Top Three Crimes Against Native Women’ - ICTMN.com
Earlier this month, the Montana Native Women’s Coalition (MNWC) facilitated the first-ever conference within the state’s Indian country on human trafficking—specifically addressing the selling of Native women for sexual exploitation. Human trafficking (forced labor and sexual slavery) is a multi-billion-dollar, international criminal industry, and there’s plenty of it going on under our noses, according to Toni Plummer-Alvernaz, MNWC’s executive director.
“I think over the next few years, human trafficking will become one of the top three crimes against Native women,” predicted Plummer-Alvernaz, an Assiniboine, who has worked with Native domestic and sexual violence victims for the last 23 years. “We are seeing just the tip of the iceberg.”
In general, accurate statistics on human trafficking victims are difficult to nail down because many women are shamed into not reporting it, said Plummer-Alvernaz. “But I can tell you that in Northeastern Montana, we have definitely seen an increase in Native women who have been trafficked—an increase of 12 to 15 percent in the last year in our program base, which covers 20,000 square miles.” She said victims generally range in age from 15 years old into their early 20s. And the coalition has even had reports of women being trafficked who were in their 50s.
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According to the Montana Department of Justice, here are some warning signs of potential human trafficking situations:
-Living with an employer
-Poor living conditions
-Multiple people in cramped space
-Inability to speak to individual alone
-Answers appear to be scripted and rehearsed
-Employer is holding identity documents
-Signs of physical abuse
-Submissive or fearful
-Unpaid or paid very little
-Under 18 and in prostitution
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Also See the Montana Native Women’s Coalition