TRADE: the movie

AZ State NOW and Phoenix/Scottsdale NOW co-sponsored a screening of the film Trade ~ When Human Trafficking Hits Home, at the Fillmore Commons on Saturday, September 24, 2011.

This intense and shocking film exposed the audience to the sophisticated deception and violent kidnapping of women and children from various parts of the world into the states for sale into the sex trade. 

According to the Trafficked Victim Protection Act, “severe forms of trafficking in persons” is defined as: (1) Sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, coercion or in which the person included to perform such an act is under 18, (2) The recruitment, transportation, harboring, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or service, through the use of force, fraud or coercion, for the purpose of subjecting that person to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.

Following the movie, Katie Resendiz from ALERT (Arizona League to End Regional Trafficking) answered questions from the audience on the status of trafficking in Arizona, how to identify victims in our communities, and the essential services provided by ALERT to help victims of trafficking. 

NOW provided a prepared letter to sign and send to our AZ elected representative urging the passage of legislation designed to protect child victims of commercial sexual exploitation.  From the letter: Under existing federal law, the commercial sexual exploitation of a child is human trafficking carrying severe penalties, but in Arizona, these children are being arrested and prosecuted for prostitution.  Arizona needs to stop treating exploited children like criminals and provide them with services and safe houses – not jail cells!  Thanks to Dianne Post for composing this letter.  For a copy of this letter to mail to your representatives, click here (PDF).

If you know of or suspect someone is a victim of trafficking, call: Toll Free: 1-888.60.ALERT or go to www.traffickingaz.org.