• About
  • Events
  • Community Calendar
  • Advertise
  • Subscriptions
  • Foundation
  • Contact
  • Seattle Chinese Post

Northwest Asian Weekly

  • Community
    • Names in the News
    • Local
    • Business
    • Pictorials
    • Obituaries
  • Nation
  • World
  • Arts & Entertainment
  • Columns
    • On the Shelf
    • At the Movies
    • A-POP!
    • Publisher Ng’s blog
    • The Layup Drill
    • Travel
    • Wayne’s Worlds
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Commentary
    • Publisher Ng’s blog
    • Letters to the Editor
  • Astrology
  • Classifieds
  • Community Calendar
You are here: Home / Opinion / Editorials / EDITORIAL: Trafficking demands attention on May Day

EDITORIAL: Trafficking demands attention on May Day

May 3, 2012 By Northwest Asian Weekly

Our recent International Workers’ Day was not without incident. And no, we’re not talking about the broken windows and rioting. We’re talking about an event that was overshadowed by those disturbances. On May 1, Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles and other anti-human trafficking advocates spoke at a press conference held in Olympia to highlight 12 recently enacted anti-trafficking laws.

Local anti-trafficking advocates, Emma Catague, field director of API Chaya, Dr. Sutapa Basu, co-chair of UW’s Task Force on Human Trafficking, and Velma Veloria, former state representative, started the anti-trafficking movement here in Washington. The murder of three Filipino women — Suzanna Blackwell, a mail-order bride, and her two friends — in 1995 by Blackwell’s husband launched a discussion about domestic violence, and also about mail-order brides. At Catague’s insistence, the three women worked to push for HB 1175, a law that makes human trafficking a crime.

Washington became the first state in the nation to make human trafficking a crime. Twelve new bills were signed into law with the combined efforts of advocates and many Democrat and Republican senators and state representatives. The bills address more specific issues in human trafficking, like the sexual abuse of minors and the seizure and forfeiture of property.

It is great to see that members of our community took action to extend protection to more individuals and to bring this issue to national attention. However, more changes can be made, starting with our perception of the issue. Human trafficking, more than the oft-perceived stereotype of foreign prostitutes and mail-order brides, also includes forced labor and conditions resembling slavery. Vulnerable citizens in our country — from those working as maids, farmers, factory workers, and in many other industries — are trafficked every day, forced to work in violating conditions that do not include a paycheck, much less a union. If we continue to discuss labor rights only in the context of how it affects a certain class of the workforce, we fail to address the whole issue.

We should continue to include human trafficking in the discussion when fighting for labor rights. Growing up, we’re often told that if we work hard, we’ll get to where we want to be. We now see that that is often not the case. Labor rights is an issue that affects every citizen, even those without jobs. Many have come out to speak against the riots and vandalism that occurred on May 1, but the press conference in Olympia shows that more good happened than bad that day. There are ways to ensure that progress continues on this issue in the days to follow.  (end)

Share:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Editorials Tagged With: 2012, Emma Catague, Filipino, HB, International Workers Day, Sutapa Basu, Suzanna Blackwell, Task Force, UW, Velma Veloria, Vol 31 No 19 | May 5 - May 11, attention

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube


Find us on Issuu!

Subscribe to our e-news

© 2022 NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
412 MAYNARD AVE. S., SEATTLE, WA 98104
206-223-5559 | INFO@NWASIANWEEKLY.COM
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.