The founding of California Against Slavery was inspired by a MSNBC documentary (” Sex Slaves in America“) about a human trafficking case in Detroit, Michigan. It illustrated how current laws do not hold traffickers accountable for the severity of the crime. The two men convicted of enslaving 16 women through threats and coercion, forcing them to work as strip club dancers, were only sentenced to 14 years and 7 years. When you do the math, the sentence of each trafficker does not even reflect one year per victim. The women, however, will spend the rest of their lives recovering from the horrors of being held in bondage for commercial and personal sexual exploitation.
We soon learned that California state laws are not effectively holding traffickers accountable, so we started California Against Slavery to strengthen state human trafficking laws.
Unlike crimes driven by psychiatric disorders, human trafficking is a criminal business driven by profits. It can be stopped if we cut the profits and increase the risk. Let’s make human trafficking the riskiest business in California.
– Daphne Phung, Executive Director and Founder of California Against Slavery
To defend the freedom of every child, woman and man by empowering the people of California to fulfill our obligation to stop human trafficking.
August 23rd is International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. Honor it by planning a trip to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, OH.
Children being sold for sex or “prostituted” need to be recognized and identified as victims of child abuse.
