Human Trafficking Concerns Addressed As Super Bowl Approaches

Sarah DeMond/Staff Writer

 

Foreign policy experts and concerned students gathered in the Graham Center Ballrooms for a lecture about human trafficking for part of the State of the World lecture series on Jan. 9 and 10. 

The last lecture of Thursday centered on human trafficking, a 150 billion dollar industry that not only is rampant globally but also affects Miami’s local communities. 

The lecture series also focused on global and local issues like immigration and democracy. 

The conversation was led by human trafficking experts Cindy McCain, the Chair of the Board of Trustees of the McCain Institute, and chairperson on the Institute’s Human trafficking Advisory Council, as well as Nicole Bibbins Sedaca, the Chair for the Global Politics and Security Concentration in Georgetown University’s Master of Science in Foreign Service program. 

Essential questions were posed about what exactly human trafficking is, and how to “look with better eyes” as McCain said, in order to identify it in our own communities. 

“Human Trafficking, you know, it was described just now something I generally thought of as sex trafficking. And that’s true. But human trafficking is much more…” said McCain.  “There are all kinds of traffic. The bottom line is they’re denying people their basic human rights. It’s happening in your neighborhood. It’s happening in my neighborhood, it’s something that you see every day.” 

McCain’s urges for first responders and court officials, such as judges and lawyers to participate in awareness education in order to be able to more effectively identify trafficking hotspots. 

This education is increasingly imperative as the Super Bowl, hosted at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium approaches. 

“We see that these mega sporting events are really a magnet,” said Sedaca. 

 McCain also pushed in 2014 for local efforts to combat the inevitable spike in trafficking activity, when the Super Bowl was hosted in her home state, Arizona. 

This involved changing legislation vernacular regarding child victims of human sex trafficking, no longer referring to them as ‘prostitutes’ as well as insisting preventative efforts from the hotel and tourism industry. 

“I have to say, the only people that didn’t participate in this was the NFL. Gee, I’m shocked, right? And they said, ‘Well, we don’t have a problem with [human trafficking], that doesn’t happen to us.’ And the morning after this Super Bowl two of their players had been arrested for soliciting underage girls.” McCain said. 

After the panelists took questions from the audience, the conversation began to focus on corporate responsibility, as many businesses, often utilize slave labor, many of which are transported locally down the Miami River. These businesses also often exploit children in sweatshops, one of the most popular among these being Nike. 

“The NBA keeps making shoes named after famous guys. I mean, this is a never-ending cycle. It’s a problem until you and I and the rest of us say, you know what, we’re not going to buy the shoe, I don’t care if it’s named after God, we’re not going to buy them because they’re made with slave labor.” McCain said. 

McCain acknowledged the discrepancy within the legislation, as well as the essential act of voting. However, she urges the community members to focus their activities on not supporting these corrupt corporations, and exclusively supporting fair trade products, or goods that are not manufactured using human exploitation. 

“If you are sourcing clothing that perhaps comes from India, and it’s being manufactured improperly, you can do something about that. You don’t have to buy it,” said McCain. “That’s a simple measure on this, but it’s also your voice that can talk to your friends and your neighbors about what’s right and what and how this affects the human being.”

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