12 Charged in National Trafficking Ring

by Amanda Kloer · 2009-05-27 18:43:00 UTC
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In Kansas city this week, twelve individuals were charged with human trafficking as part of a national conspiracy, which allegedly stretched from California to Florida to New Jersey.  The trafficking ring was massive, with hundreds of victims being exploited in hotels, construction sites, and other businesses, mostly in Missouri.

According to the reports, eight of the twelve defendants are Uzbek and the others are Moldovan.  They falsified the documents of migrants who wanted to come to the U.S. to work, and then exploited their labor for incredibly low pay once they were here.

One interesting mention in a couple of the reports on this story is that three companies have also been implicated, including Giant Labor Solutions; Crystal Management, Inc., headquartered in Mission, Kan.; and Five Star Cleaning, headquartered in Overland Park, Kan.  This detail is important to note because while the individual traffickers are certainly at fault in this situation, the companies who use trafficked workers are often neglectful and sometimes complicit.  I am glad to see these companies being held accountable for their actions as well.

Amanda Kloer is a Change.org Editor and has been a full-time abolitionist in several capacities for seven years. Follow her on Twitter @endhumantraffic
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