NYC: City Council + Prominent Citizens Push for Anti-Trafficking Laws

NY City Councilmember, John C. Lui
is working for anti-trafficking laws

QUEENS, NEW YORK -- A Queens man, Do Hyup Bae, pleaded guilty on Friday, January 12 to attempting to recruit a Korean woman whom he believed to be a minor to work as a prostitute, the Justice Department announced.

Bae’s brothels, which operated under the cover of legitimate business typically employed between two and eight prostitutes, the majority of whom were Korean nationals. He faces a maximum sentence of up to 40 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and restitution payments for human trafficking charges.

This case is one of many in what City Councilmember John Liu and many other prominent New Yorkers have come to think of as the modern day slave trade.

In response to complaints Liu’s office has received about illegal brothels and sweatshops operating in Flushing and other areas of Queens, he has joined with New York feminist Gloria Steinem and the New York State Anti-Trafficking Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, a group of leading New York-based organizations, to call on the state legislature to pass laws outlawing human trafficking.

The Advisory Council, chaired by Gloria Steinem, includes Mario Cuomo, Meryl Streep, Linda Fairstein, Eve Ensler, Karenna Gore Schiff, and Deputy Mayor Carol Robles among its members.

On January 11, Liu, Steinem and others launched “Albany Watch,” a series of weekly rallies, to be held every Thursday, intended to mobilize public pressure from across the state calling for the swift passage of a strong anti-trafficking laws.

At present, New York is not one of the 20 states that ban human trafficking, even though the City is one of the most important gateways to America for legal and illegal immigrants...

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT QueensCourier.com