Carissa Phelps said her teenage experiences have made her committed to fighting to end human trafficking.
“I was kidnapped at the age of 12, lured in by other prostitutes and given to a pimp. And when I called my mom for help, she wouldn’t listen because I’d run away from home,” Phelps said, recalling her childhood in Fresno.
Phelps, now pursuing a joint professional degree in law and business at UCLA, said this story is far too common in the United States.
“It’s happening in every city across the U.S. Girls are being transferred across state lines. They’re listed on Craigslist and LA Weekly. There’s little help for girls because we’re unwilling to talk about them ““ and I think that’s unacceptable,” she said.
Phelps, alongside other students, plans to take part in the Slavery Still Exists campaign today, which is aimed at revealing ways in which human trafficking enslaves men and women abroad, nationally and in Los Angeles.
Participants in the campaign, which is hosted by the UCLA chapter of Polaris Project, will circulate petitions, distribute information and hold an art display in the Northern Lights coffeeshop. Twenty-five other student groups are also set to participate in order to show that human trafficking affects a diverse range of people.
Polaris Project is a grassroots organization that provides research and information to citizens on ways they can combat human trafficking.
“A lot of times these issues seem overwhelming. We can show the community that their activism does make a difference,” said Shirley Yu, a fourth-year political science student and coordinator of the UCLA chapter of Polaris Project.
According to Yu, the labor-trafficking industry makes $41 billion a year. It is the third-largest criminal industry in the world and the fastest-growing, but because so much goes unreported, it is suspected to have become the second largest.
Organizers said the events would show that trafficking is not a foreign issue, but a major problem in the United States.
According to CIA estimates, between 14,500 and 17,500 internationals are trafficked into the U.S. each year.
But in the U.S., experts say, the most likely victims of trafficking are American citizens.
“It’s U.S. women and children, men and boys who have been forced into sex ““ these are runaways, homeless kids, kids from shelters,” Karen Chan, coordinator of Polaris Project’s L.A. office, said.
Additionally, Yu said exploitation is not restricted to women.
“Men are trafficked too, especially in sweatshops. Anyone can be exploited ““ one way is to take away documents, take away passports. When you’re in a foreign country and you don’t know your rights, you can be vulnerable.”
Organizers said the forced-labor trade is particularly important to Los Angeles.
“L.A. is known internationally as a really big hub for trafficking. We have a lot of clients who, whether they were found on the East or the West Coast or in between, they had at some point been in L.A.,” Chan said.
This year, the campaign plans to focus on how students’ lives, and the purchases they make, can influence human trafficking, Yu said.
“Consumer pressure is a big part of it. If the consumers care then I think the companies will change their practices. Consumers play a part in the decisions that they make,” Yu said.
Organizers said they would reveal ways in which corporations exploit workers, and how citizens can try to change business practices.
“We’re targeting Disney because of their labor practices in many countries, but particularly China. A little while ago, people petitioned them about labor practices in Turkey, and they changed their practices,” Yu said.
But Chan said the main goal of the campaign was to make students realize slavery is a reality in the United States.
“You hear trafficking and it immediately evokes something far away, but it really is happening in our own backyard,” she said.