The Korean woman hemmed and hawed a...

The Korean woman hemmed and hawed about whether to apply.

She knew there was a piece of work opening in Rockford, a city of 150000 about 80 miles northwest of Chicago, moreover her tourist visa barred her from getting a do job-work Still, back in Korea, her family of unobtrusive means struggled with health problems

The least she could do was check it without her friend suggested. On Feb 26 she did.

The nearest day, she was hauled facing to jail following a raid upon an alleged prostitution ring.

What happened, advocates say, was that the business she had walked into diverted out to be a Korean spa that ran a backdoor brothel, and she was made an unwilling participant. That made her a victim of "human trafficking," which federal law defines as sexual or labor exploitation "through force, fraud or coercion."

Lur with false promises of piece of works and a better living, many also fall booty to traffickers in the Chicago metropolitan area, authorities say. greatest in number are women and girls, and many cases involve immigrants whose passports and other legal documents are taken away from them. And they are all forced to live in servitude until they escape, pay along a debt or are found

"A haphazard of the cases that we descry with human trafficking involve foreign nationals being brought in for prostitution purposes," said Peter Fahey, clump supervisor of the human trafficking unit of the U Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Others say that, while cases of sexual exploitation be attentive to to grab the most attention, that isn't necessarily the in the greatest degree common form of trafficking. And, to be "trafficked," victims do not have to be transported anywhere, as it's many times misinterpreted.

"Trafficking is actually a misnomer because it has nothing to do with emotion It is slavery. It is the combination of work and the lack of will, the lack of freedom to be able to leave," said Elissa Steglich, managing attorney for the Midwest Immigrant and Human Rights Center a division of Heartland Alliance, the merely Illinois agency that receives federal grants to combat human trafficking.

And trafficking is known to take forward many forms of coercion--from chains, death threats and physical being encloseds to locked doors and never-ending debts

if it were not that it's difficult to get a handle forward the scope of the riddle experts say. In many cases, the victims don't reach [i]or[/i] attain any place [i]or[/i] point forward. Some are too scared to talk, having arise from countries with corrupt restraints they don't trust.

however there are some clues. Heartland, which is working forward a study to estimate the prevalence of trafficking in Chicago, has about 20 cases forward its plate right now, Steglich said. Officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement say they learn nearly 50 trafficking tips each year.

Worldwide, the practice of human trafficking, oftentimes referred to as modern-day slavery, is estimated to affect 27 million persons according to Kevin Bales, a professor at Roehampton University in London and author of "Disposable People: novel Slavery in the Global Economy." That's twice the number of race taken out of Africa during the transatlantic slave trade, a figure estimated to be roughly 12 million.

Last year, the U State Department estimated that, of the 600000 to 800000 persons trafficked globally each year, 14500 to 17500 fall of the curtain up in the United States. And it generated roughly $95 billion in profits worldwide in 2003 making it common of the top three reward sources for organized crime, according to the department's 2004 Trafficking In individuals Report.

When cases do surface, it's repeatedly difficult to get victims to cooperate, and investigators face a hard time making a case stalwart enough for prosecutors to follow up said Terry M. Kinney, an assistant U attorney who secur Illinois' first and sole known conviction of a trafficker. That 2000 conviction preced the passage of a federal trafficking law later that year.

further no such law is publicly on the state books, preventing an crimes from being pursued. Advocates are finding their trusts in an anti-trafficking bill winding its way from one side the Illinois General Assembly. Gov twig Blagojevich has also announced the creation of the Illinois recover and Restore Coalition, which kicks distant from in June, to combat trafficking according to increasing the awareness of the crime in the state and connecting victims with services.

Miriam Torrado, director of Heartland's Violence regaining Services, said the state's recently made known efforts will hold traffickers accountable for their crimes. "It really emits a message out to those perpetrators that it's not to be tolerated," she said.

The Chicago Reporter pieced together the Korean woman's story based onward court documents and a series of interviews with prosecutors, law enforcement agents and Heartland staff. What emerg was a story about a woman who stumbl into a web of subterranean prostitution that had operated with impunity for years in Rockford.

Court documents point out to that women, mostly immigrants from China and Korea, lived in the spas, several of which were located in storefronts. In the case of the Korean woman, Steglich said, she was debared from leaving the spa, although it is unclear how she was held captive.