Human Trafficking

This is a qualitative study utilizing a novel video-elicitation method to consult trafficked youth themselves for their perspectives on how to screen for trafficking in the ED. 4 minutes. 2020

Ever wondered what it’s like to get caught red-handed at the border? Fraudulent visas. Narcotics mules. Stolen art. Human trafficking. Illegal citrus. It’s all part of a day’s work at JFK airport in New York. Forbidden Cargo brings you an inside look at the operations of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents at the busiest international airport in America. Nearly half a million flights carry over 45 million passengers, one million tons of cargo, and 100,000 tons of mail to and from JFK each year. Everyone and everything has a story. Each person and parcel is a potential threat. How do CBP and HSI separate the good from the bad? Whether the contraband is a kilo of cocaine disguised as flour, a fake visa presented at immigration, counterfeit erectile dysfunction medication, or potentially disease-carrying birds transported in a suitcase, this program follows CBP and HSI as they arrest, refuse entry to, seize, or repatriate the offending people, documents, and goods. A National Geographic Production. (48 minutes) 2013

From prostitution to slave labor, human trafficking knows no moral or geographical boundaries. This CNBC program examines an underground global industry in which hopelessness and greed create a sinister, sometimes lethal combination. Viewers see firsthand the human impact of the commercial sex trade in Tijuana, Mexico, where girls younger than 18 are often coerced into working as prostitutes. As the program shows, the modern slave labor trade is also a real problem in the U.S., involving not only the sex industry but also agriculture, manufacturing, and hospitality. Meanwhile, cocoa production is drawing increasing fire from human rights experts, with nearly half of the world’s cocoa crops coming from Africa’s Ivory Coast—an area with a long history of child slavery. 44 minutes. 2012

The plight of child sex slaves has been well publicized, but seldom do outsiders have the opportunity to see inside their miserable world. Recently, however, an undercover film crew did get inside. The crew gained rare access to Diana and Lina, two teenage prostitutes at a brothel in the island city of Batam in Indonesia. Focusing on the girls’ plight and the mission to save them, they filmed every event leading to the girls’ rescue. It’s a confronting and harrowing exposé of young children lured into a life of prostitution. After being examined at the hospital, the girls are returned to their village. There is concern about their future, however. As Lina points out, “We’re damaged goods now.” Contains explicit language. (39 minutes) 2012