DOMESTIC minor sex trafficking in the commonwealth is not happening yet, but “CNMI is right in front of it,” says Shared Hope International founder Linda Smith in an interview with Variety on Saturday.
“It is happening, and the situation could grow full blown overnight if it is not addressed properly,” Smith said.
She said the CNMI needs to train the police enforcers and other first responders to be able to respond to the problems of domestic minor sex trafficking in the island.
According to Smith, law enforcers and other service providers need an in-depth understanding of the issue of sex trafficking because they are the persons who comes into contact with the trafficked minor.
“In the different areas where we have conducted studies, the children who are the victims are being jailed and treated as criminals. We never heard of the customers or service buyers being arrested for sex trafficking,” Smith said.
One of the first things they look at is how the justice system works.
The identification and tracking of victims and traffickers or pimps is also very important.
“If you don’t see the symptoms, you won’t ask the next questions, and the problem is getting far from being addressed,” Smith said.
Awareness is the first step, she added.
The community should know that children can be “sold,” she said.
“If the task force created to address this problem takes the report seriously and trains the police enforcement and first responders, the CNMI may be spared from what is happening in some cities like Jamaica which is deeply in trouble with sex tourism and sex tours using local girls,” she said.
Melissa Snow, project director of Shared Hope International, said the growing use of the illegal drug “ice” and other narcotics in the CNMI will cause an increased risk of abuse of children.
Like what is happening in the U.S., she added, there may be addicted parents in the CNMI who are trading their children for drugs.
“What happens is that the parents will give their children to the drug dealers to be sexually used in exchange for drugs,” she said.
She noted sham marriages in the CNMI where local families give their child to a foreigner in exchange for money and other gifts.
“The child and the foreigner enter into a sham marriage and the foreigner uses the child sexually whenever he’s here,” Snow said.
Trafficking occurs in two ways — one is when the family trades the child for money, shelter, drugs or other favors; and the second is when the trafficker deceives a child and basically puts her to work in a sex den, Snow said.
Garapan has established commercial sex industry on island, she added.
She said when the local immigration system is federalized next year, many foreign workers may have to go home.
“When that happens, the likelihood that business owners may turn to local girls to work in the sex industry is high,” Snow said.
Shared Hope International aims to rescue women and children in the sex trade and give them an opportunity to restore their lives.
The CNMI is one of the 10 U.S. areas where Shared Hope conducts studies on domestic minor sex trafficking.
The other areas are Clearwater, Florida; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Independence, Michigan; Las Vegas, Nevada; Buffalo, New York,; Salt Lake City, Utah; Fort Worth, San Antonio and Dallas in Texas.
