CONTACT: JENNY STANGER
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
213-473-1611
JANUARY 10, 2000

LOS ANGELES - Today, the Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking (CAST) welcomed the sentencing of Supawan Veerapol, 53, of Woodland Hills to eight years in federal prison. Last August, Veerapol was convicted of involuntary servitude, one of eleven charges against her on behalf of four women who worked in her home and restaurant under slave-like conditions. The women worked for Veerapol up to eighteen hours a day for almost no pay for six years. In addition, they were denied medical and dental care, had their mail censored and families threatened if they tried to escape. CAST members have provided a broad range of services and human rights advocacy to the women throughout their two-year trial process as federal witnesses.

Since escaping from Veerapol's home two years ago, the women have faced enormous challenges in rebuilding their lives. Because the government does not have a program for witnesses who are trafficked persons they have been relying on CAST's member organizations for all of their most basic needs: housing, food, clothing and translation. They have only recently been granted temporary legal status and work permits in order to earn an income to support themselves. Tonglim Khampiranon, 42, describes what her life has been like since she escaped. "I have felt hopeless and helpless, like my life had no meaning. My psychological well-being has been destroyed and I am just beginning to put my life back together. Supawan [Veerapol] took so much away from me. Now that justice has been served, I can finally move on."

The workers represent a tiny fraction of persons trafficked to the United States every year for the purpose of forced labor and slavery-like practices. Since 1998, CAST has assisted women and girls trafficked to the United States from Southeast Asia, Latin America and the former Soviet republics. "It may be difficult for people to believe that slavery still exists in America," says Hae Jung Cho, Project Director of CAST, "but the cases we are dealing with are only the tip of the iceberg." The United Nations reports that 4 million people a year are traded against their will to work in one or another form of servitude. It is difficult to pinpoint what percentage of these are brought to Los Angeles. Trafficked persons work in garment factories, restaurants, massage parlors and in the case of Veerapol, as domestic workers in private homes. "It is in these sectors of unregulated, informal labor that we see conditions of extreme exploitation, debt bondage, violence and abuse," Cho continues. "This is slavery in its contemporary form and an egregious violation of human rights."

CAST's work is timely as the U.S. government and its agencies are beginning to address the phenomenon of trafficking and slavery in the United States. The outcome of the Veerapol case coincides with current efforts to enact national legislation that includes assistance for victims trafficked to the Unites States. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 1999 (H.R. 3244), sponsored by Representatives Chris Smith and Sam Gejdenson could be signed into law this year with $94 million of funding appropriated for 2000 and 2001. Even though the bill is weak in some areas (e.g. legal status and amount appropriated for victim assistance) overall, its passage would be a critical step in implementing strategies to combat trafficking while providing protection to victims (see www.trafficked-women.org for a link to the bill status, summary and text).

The formation of CAST was initiated by a group of organizations and activists in the aftermath of the El Monte sweatshop case. El Monte was a model for collaboration between community organizations and government agencies that resulted in the successful prosecution of traffickers and justice for the exploited workers. CAST continues to work with the U.S. Attorney's Office, Immigration and Naturalization Service, Department of Justice's Office of Victims of Crime and local law enforcement on a regular basis. Coalition members currently include: Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team, Asian Pacific Health Care Venture, Chinatown Service Center, Little Tokyo Service Center, Korean American Family Service Center, Korean Health, Education, Information and Referral, Pacific Asian Languages for Health and the Thai Community Development Center.