Human Trafficking Focus of New Eastern Iowa Campaign

Iowa’s two U.S. Attorneys kicked off a new effort this afternoon that is aimed at raising public awareness of human trafficking in several eastern Iowa communities.

“Human trafficking — the use of force, fraud or coercion to compel the labor or services of another person — is a terrible crime,” said Matt M. Dumermuth, U.S. Attorney for the northern district of Iowa. “The criminals prey on some of the most vulnerable members of our society. They often target children and foreign nationals, including illegal immigrants, who think they have no place to turn for help.”

Dummermuth stood with Matt G. Whitaker, U.S. Attorney for the southern district of Iowa, to announce a plan that will impact Johnson, Linn, Black Hawk and Dubuque counties. Initially, posters and brochures will be distributed through the counties in an effort to bring more public attention to the crime. A Web site has also been launched that includes information about human trafficking, resources for victims, contact information for victim service providers and a link for reporting suspected human trafficking cases.

“Although slavery was outlawed in the United States more than 140 years ago, a modern-day form of it still takes place in our country,” said Whitaker. “We need to make sure we do all we can to help reach out to those who are victims of this crime.”

Human Trafficking Cases in Iowa:

• In June of 1999, Igor Voyitenko, a Russian national, was charged with bringing four Russian immigrants to the Quad Cities to work in his contract cleaning business and live in an inadequate apartment. The work was to be done in exchange for their passage to the United States. The case was handled by immigration authorities who deported the four workers back to Russia. Voyitenko was also later deported.
• More recently, Demont Bowie of Wellman kidnapped a 13-year-old girl from Minneapolis. The girl was forced to work in an eastern Iowa prostitution ring run by Bowie’s father. The case was prosecuted as a kidnapping.
• The Iowa Council for International Understanding reports that a Chinese national was brought to Ames by a relative under false promises of work. While in Ames, the young woman was forced to work in a restaurant and abused by physically and sexually. Once her situation was discovered, she fought to remain in the country legally.

Representatives of the Northern Iowa Human Trafficking Response Team (HTRT) and its group of eastern Iowa partners were also available at the afternoon press conference. The HTRT was created last year to deal with human trafficking crimes and consists of representatives from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Internal Revenue Service. Goals of the team are to develop plans for responding to the crime of human trafficking, develop an outreach campaign and provide training to both team members and victim-service partners.

Members of the eastern Iowa partner group are representatives from the Black Hawk County Attorney’s Office, Cedar Valley Friends of the Family in Waverly, Dubuque Community Y – Domestic Violence Program, HACAP of Iowa City, the Johnson County Attorney’s Office, Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault, St. Luke’s Child Protection Center in Cedar Rapids, Seeds of Hope in Waterloo and Waypoint in Cedar Rapids. The partners are the agencies dedicated to helping provide services to victims of human trafficking and community awareness of such crimes.

Human trafficking was not monitored in the United States until 1994. It wasn’t until June 2006 that Gov. Tom Vilsack signed a law that made Iowa the 14th state to outlaw human trafficking. Today, it is estimated that the crime affects roughly 20,000 people, bringing them into the United States either against their will or under false pretenses. Roughly 1 million individuals are estimated to be trafficked globally — over 70 percent of them female. The U.S. Department of State reports that human trafficking is one of the most profitable criminal activities in the U.S., third only to drug and arms trafficking. An estimated $9.5 billion is generated in annual revenue from all trafficking activities, with at least $4 billion attributed to the worldwide brothel industry.