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Tuesday, 23 August 2016

Susan Coppedge

Susan Coppedge
What is Human Trafficking?
Trafficking in persons is a serious crime and a grave violation of human rights. Every year, thousands of men, women and children fall into the hands of traffickers, in their own countries and abroad. Almost every country in the world is affected by trafficking, whether as a country of origin, transit or destination for victims. UNODC, as guardian of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) and the Protocols thereto, assists States in their efforts to implement the  Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons (Trafficking in Persons Protocol)...

About Malaysia
Malaysia is a Southeast Asian country occupying the Malaysian Peninsula and part of the island of Borneo. It's known for its beaches, rainforests and mix of Malay, Chinese, Indian and European influences. The sprawling capital, Kuala Lumpur, is home to colonial buildings, busy shopping districts such as Bukit Bintang and skyscrapers including the iconic, 451m-tall Petronas Twin Towers...
CurrencyMalaysian ringgit
Population31.70 million (2015) 
Official languageMalaysian

Still on Tier Two until we step it up
SundayStar/Sunday, 21 August 2016
Human Trafficking destabilies governments and societies because it creates an economy outside of the legitimate economy.
Malaysia ranking in recent 2016 TIP report remained unchanged in the Tier Two watchlist. Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Susan Coppedge says there is still a lot Malaysia can do to increase its efforts to curb human trafficking in the country.
IN her 15 years as Assistant United States Attorney in Georgia, Susan Coppedge prosecuted more than 45 human traffickers in federal cases involving transnational and domestic sex trafficking of adults and children, and labour trafficking. The prosecutions assisted more than 90 victims of trafficking.
It seemed only fitting that she was appointed Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons to lead the US’ global engagement against human trafficking in 2015. Freeing victims, preventing trafficking, and bringing traffickers to justice are the ultimate goals of the US government’s anti-human trafficking policy and its annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report.
“Coming on board the Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP office), the non-criminalisation of victims was very important to me. I’ve talked about that with every government I have travelled to meet with,” says Ambassador Coppedge who was in Malaysia recently to speak to our government officials about increasing efforts to combat human trafficking in the region.
She adds, labour trafficking is another issue she has been working hard to highlight around the world as “it is sometimes harder to find than sex trafficking cases and harder for law enforcement and judges to understand.” 
In the recent 2016 TIP Report – which looks at the governmental efforts of 188 countries to confront and eliminate human trafficking – Malaysia remained in the Tier Two Watchlist. In her interview with Sunday Star, Ambassador Coppedge talks about how Malaysia can increase its efforts to curb human trafficking in the country while taking the victims’ experience into consideration. See Laura BushneyHuman Rights, and What are Human Rights? 
Q> Where does Malaysia stand in terms of human trafficking?
A: In our Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report which was released on June 30, Malaysia was adjudicated Tier 2 on the watchlist. This is because of Malaysia’s relationship to the minimum standards, as specified by US laws and the international standards from the Palermo Protocol. Under those standards, we look at a variety of factors to see how countries around the world are doing.
We evaluate the laws of 188 countries and see how they are doing with respect to victim protection measures, prosecutions, convictions, prevention efforts and protection efforts and across those standards, the report (and the analyst who worked on the report along with individuals here at the embassy at KL) evaluates all those factors. This year, Malaysia was judged to be making significant efforts but not increasing efforts; and that places them on the Tier 2 watchlist.
Q> What do you suggest we do to increase efforts to curb human trafficking here?
The report for every country has recommendations where a country can improve. The real problem is that they (trafficking victims) are hidden from society; the trafficker intimidates, physically abuses and psychologically coerces victims to not come forward to law enforcement. These cases are very hard to work on. If you think about it, most victims of crime go to the police to report what happened to them. Trafficking victims are just the opposite – they are told not to speak to the police or they’ll be locked up or deported. They are told not to speak to the police because they won’t be believed anyway.
Sometimes they are threatened or their families are threatened, so one of the things we do is to encourage law enforcement agencies to look at trafficking crimes in a different way, to be very proactive and try to understand the signs or indicators of trafficking to determine whether a person is a potential trafficking victim.
The report talks about training law enforcement including prosecutors and police, immigration officials, and about how the judges need to be trained on the laws of every country. That is one of our key recommendations and the goal of that training is to increase successful prosecutions and convictions (of the traffickers).
Another part of the report looks at victim protection measures. It is very important that trafficking victims are not criminalised or penalised for crimes they may have committed as a result of being trafficked. If you think about it, they don’t do this willingly – they may commit an immigration violation or a prostitution violation but it is not of their own volition, it is because someone is forcing them to do it. So it is very important that victims have freedom of movement and not be locked up pending trial or deportation. In fact, even if they come into the country illegally, they shouldn’t be criminalised for that.
Q> Talking about entering illegally, Malaysia has these “lorong tikus” – tiny secluded places that boat operators use to bring in and take people out illegally; how do you think we should handle this?
The report talks about Malaysia being a destination and transit country because of its geographical location and economic success. People want to come here to work or want to come here to move on to other countries to work, and so certainly, if there are known places where people are smuggled in or brought in illegally, then law enforcement needs to pursue those areas as places where they may find trafficking victims.
Q> You were appointed in 2015. What has been accomplished since then?
Not only does my office handle the report, we also have international programmes that we fund for countries that have the political will but may not have the financial resources. So, all year round, we gather information, share best practices, fund training for other NGOs who work with victims... this is a year-round effort. When I came on board (the TIP office), the non-criminalisation of victims was very important – I’ve talked about that with every government I have travelled to meet with. I’ve talked about that at home with the Attorney Generals of all 50 US states; this is a very important point. I’ve also talked about labour trafficking because it is sometimes harder to find than sex trafficking cases and harder for law enforcement and judges to understand. So we’ve certainly been pushing the labour trafficking efforts around the world as well. The report this year featured the theme of prevention – which is one of the areas we looked at – and we talked about vulnerable groups including economic and natural disaster migrants, such as victims of the earthquake in Nepal and migrants from conflict areas. We hear about this all over the world and those migrants are much more vulnerable to traffickers. They are looking for jobs, and some may be stateless even. For all these reasons, they fall prey to the lies that traffickers tell them, so that theme of prevention was also highlighted during my first year.
Q>How do we prevent traffickers from continuing their businesses?
We make it too costly for them to do business that way. They are making money off people and we need to have price and consequence for their deplorable behaviour. So what we do is we prosecute them and jail them and we take away any financial benefits they may have gained from trafficking. We bring in the public and let them know these crimes do exist and we need to have the public be on the lookout and be aware of it as well.
Also a problem all over the world is domestic servitude, which is bringing someone into your home and not paying them appropriately and requiring them to work too many hours and abusing them. I prosecuted some of those domestic servitude cases in the US and they are very challenging to find, so we need the public to care about their fellow human beings and we need to make this a public issue.
Q>What about human trafficking’s connections with terrorism?
We certainly know terrorist groups are involved in trafficking – to provide women and children to work for their military and also to use in sexual servitude – so that is a big problem. Human trafficking does destabilise governments and societies because it creates an economy outside of the legitimate economy. It hurts all workers in a country; it also threatens safety and security because there are people that aren’t following the law. So, this is a very important area for government stability and economic security as well.
Q>I understand you will be meeting with our Home Minister/Deputy Prime Minister. What suggestions will you be making to our government?
The same ones as in our report. Increasing convictions and prosecutions, becoming more aware of labour trafficking, and allowing victims’ freedom of movement.
Q>How do you feel about the stand on human trafficking in Malaysia?
I can’t have this job and be a pessimist. If I was a pessimist, it would be too depressing. But because I believe we can make a difference in individual lives, and that every case that is brought forward will help a fellow human being, I’m very optimistic that countries care about their citizens and the people in their country. I hope more can be done to protect trafficking victims and prevent the crime from occurring.
Q> On a personal note, when you were prosecuting sex offences etc, how do you sleep at night, knowing that these people went through so much?
In every case I prosecuted, I was helping someone move on with their life... helping someone regain their life... helping to detain the criminal perpetrator... so that was very meaningful work to me. I used to say I was working on the side of angels. I found it very rewarding and fulfilling. And now getting to talk to governments about my experience – every country that has trafficking has this same kind of growing pains in learning how to investigate and prosecute cases successfully – so I can share our national best practices. I feel like I am still making a positive difference for trafficking victims.
Q> Which was more difficult – this job or prosecuting?
This job is more difficult but that is because I’ve only been at it a year. I imagine I would get better at it. As long as you’re on the job, you tend to get better. The trafficking cases were very challenging to bring to trial but after the first case, you understand how the traffickers operate and how to present the victims’ stories. So, the more of those cases I tried, the easier that job became; I’m hoping the more governments I talk to, the easier this job will become.
Q> This job requires a lot of travel and time away from home, so how do you juggle the job and your family life?
You sound like a dad. I have two children at home and I am very proud of them and very proud of the support I get from my husband. I don’t think this is a job you can do without the support of your spouse, so I really appreciate my family and I appreciate you asking about it because a lot of women need to know that you could do jobs like this and still have a family and children.
Q> Do they come with you on your ­travels?
No, they don’t.
Q> Would you say we are at our adolescent stage in dealing with human trafficking and smuggling?
Both the US law and the Palermo Protocol were passed in 2000; I believe Malaysia’s law was passed around 2007, and so it is a little behind the international and US standard. But i think every country is still learning best practices in this area because it is a new law and a new crime and we are all struggling to handle it the best we can.
Q> And the US welcomes Malaysia to study its best practices?
And also regional best practices, through other Asian nations who are doing well in fighting trafficking. We do a lot of regional meetings as well. There are certainly best practices in various countries that we can learn from.
Q> How do you think we should train our law enforcement, specifically the immigration department and police who are the front-liners in the fight against human trafficking and smuggling?
Training on trafficking involves looking at the indicators. For labour and sexual trafficking, you look at whether people withhold travel documents; look at whether they are free to go and whether they keep a fair share of their earnings – all of these things are indicators. I used to talk to American juries about freedom of movement, it is very important that you are able to leave an exploitative work situation and if you are held there by force, fraud, or coercion, then that is trafficking.
Q> We have these agencies that provide maids and some hold their passports – are they trafficking?
A key recommendation of the report is that workers be allowed to hold their travel documents because again, it’s just an indicator that they may not be free to leave. If you remove that indicator, then you put freedom back in the hands of workers. Enforcement needs to be very careful with how we treat victims. They’re often facing trauma, sometimes physical or sexual abuse, and fear for their families back in their home countries, so victims need to be provided appropriate services, including medical services, and if necessary, psychological services. We need to look out for their safety because victims of trafficking are also often in a very fragile state.
Malaysia’s ranking in the recent 2016 TIP Report remained unchanged in the Tier Two Watchlist. Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons Susan Coppedge says there is still a lot Malaysia can do to increase its efforts to curb human trafficking in the country.

You Can Stop Sex Trafficking
An app allows you to help curb sex trafficking.
Exchange Initiative and Nix principal Molly Hackett says the public needs to educate itself about sex trafficking. — TraffickCam
By Chester Chin
The Star/Saturday, 17 September 2016
THE next time you check into your hotel room, you could very well help put an end to sex trafficking, using just your smart­phone. That’s the idea behind the TraffickCam mobile app.
Developed by Exchange Initiative and researchers at Washington University, the app allows users to anonymously upload photos of hotel rooms they stay in while travelling.
The Missouri-based Exchange Initiative was created by Nix Conference & Meeting Management to empower individuals and organisations with real resources to help end sex trafficking.
“The first time we were able to help law enforcement identify a hotel where a traf­ficked child had been photographed, we realised that our travel experience was valu­able in the fight against sex trafficking,” says Exchange Initiative and Nix principal Molly Hackett.
Nix Conference & Meeting Management - which leads the charge among meeting planners worldwide to help end sex traffick­ing in hotels - has been identified as a top member by the internationally-recognised The Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism (The Code) for its work in inte­grating child protection practices into their business. .
The Code is an industry-driven responsi­ble tourism initiative with a mission to pro­vide awareness, tools and support to the tourism industry in order to prevent the sexual exploitation of children.
Despicable trade
Sex trafficking is a form of modem day slavery that forces children and adults to engage in commercial sex acts against their will. Most victims are recruited when they are just 12 to 14 years old.
They are often coerced through drugs, vio­lence, debt bondage and intimidation. Data from Unicef reveals that at least 300,000 American children and 1.2 million children worldwide are trafficked for sex each year.
The basis behind the TraffickCam stems from a simple, albeit unsettling, trait of the despicable trade.
Traffickers regularly post photographs of their victims in hotel rooms for “advertise­ments”.
With the TraffickCam initiative, a database of hotel room images is created. From that, investigators are able to search compare photos and determine locations.
Travellers, according to Hackett, are required to take four photographs of their hotel room and upload them via the app.
“The app uses image analysis tools to con­vert the photos to a series of data points that can be matched up with data points in pho­tos of victims,” she offers in an email.
Features such as patterns in the carpeting, furniture, room accessories and window views are matched against traveller’s images to provide law enforcement with a list of potential hotels where the photo may have been taken.
“We recommend taking two pictures of the entire room from different locations, one picture of the bed from the foot of the bed, and one picture of the bathroom from the doorway,” notes Hackett. It’s also important that no person is in the photos.
 While TraffickCam has been operating since 2015, the app - which is available on both iOS and Android platforms - was only introduced in June this year.
“Our pivotal moment for developing the app came when we couldn’t identify a motel room. We connected the vice squad with our associates in the city, but it took three days to find the girl. That seemed too long, given today’s technology,” Hackett muses.
The mobile initiative couldn’t have come at a better time, says St Louis County Police Department Sergeant Adam Kavanaugh in a news release.
“The app created by the Exchange Initiative will give law enforcement yet another technological tool to reach that goal in a quicker, more proficient manner when investigating cases involving human traffick­ing and child exploitation,” says Kavanaugh, who is also the St Louis County Multi- Jurisdictional Human Trafficking Task Force supervisor.
To date, data from early testing collected by Exchange Initiative shows that the app is 85% accurate in identifying the correct hotel in the top 20 matches. More than 83,000 apps have been downloaded since the launch late June.
Extending the reach
At this point in time, Exchange Initiative is only working with law enforcement in the United States. However, the organisation may expand TraffickCam’s reach in the future to work with law enforcement around the globe.
To that end, the app supports submissions around the globe and the database includes international hotels as well.
Meanwhile, Malaysian Association of Hotels president Sam Cheah welcomes the initiative. However, he says proper regula­tions must be placed by local authorities to ensure that TraffickCam’s operations run smoothly.
“Of course, we should look at the initiative through a broader perspective. Sex traffick­ing will ultimately mar the industry. If we can curb the trade, it will do the legitimate hotel industry a mountain of good,” he offers in a phone interview.
On its part, Hackett says Nix Conference & Meeting Management addresses sex trafficking at every hotel where they do business. Many hotels have signed The Code.
“Many photos in the database were obtained from publicly available resources such as hotel websites,” Hackett adds.
The immediate challenge she says, boils down to funding. That aside, Hackett believes they are on the right track with the TraffickCam initiative.
“The response to the app and the issue of human trafficking is already a huge success story! We are beta testing the law enforce­ment portal and expect to make it more widely available by early next year to help with identification and arrests,” she offers.
TraffickCam’s expansion in the future will include expanding education, resources, as well as networking to fight sex trafficking.
How can the public help? Hackett says: “Educate yourself.”
ing at every hotel where they do business. Many hotels have signed The Code.
“Many photos in the database were obtained from publicly available resources such as hotel websites,” Hackett adds.
The immediate challenge she says, boils down to funding. That aside, Hackett believes they are on the right track with the TraffickCam initiative.
“The response to the app and the issue of human trafficking is already a huge success story! We are beta testing the law enforce­ment portal and expect to make it more widely available by early next year to help with identification and arrests,” she offers.
TraffickCam’s expansion in the future will include expanding education, resources, as well as networking to fight sex trafficking.
How can the public help? Hackett says: “Educate yourself.”
TraffickCam is available for free on App Store and Google Play Store.

The TraffickCam app
The TraffickCam app allows users to anonymously upload photos of the hotel rooms they stay in.
Photos are uploaded into a data­base of hotel room images to curb sex trafficking.
Sex trafficking is a form of modern day slavery that forces children and adults to engage in commercial sex acts.
TraffickCam users are required to take four photographs of their hotel room and upload via the app.
Features of the rooms are matched against the database of images to aid investigations.

On social media
Used the TraffickCam app for the first time this week! Super easy way to help fight sex trafficking.
It is not just girls that are victims of sex trafficking. As many as 50% of New Yorks ≠trafficking victims are boys!
So easy 2 do! Send 4 pics of your hotel room & you can help stop human trafficking w/TraffickCam app.
TraffickCam - We ALL can help rescue victims! There is no excuse.
Fighting sex trafficking with pho­tos, what a good idea tttraffickcam

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