Judith Leiberman serves as the event coordinator for TRIAD, a group committed to disseminating "The Right Information And Direction" to the local community. The organization convenes monthly at Emeritus at Allentown, 1545 Greenleaf Street. The April 9 meeting featured Pamela Pillsbury, advocate for victims of human trafficking.

Pillsbury has a strong background in social service. For 20 years, she worked at Turning Point of the Lehigh Valley, Inc. A long time advocate for victims of domestic violence, in 2004 she trained with the Bureau of Justice Assistance in the area of human trafficking. Pillsbury currently serves as the co-director of the Pennsylvania Regional Center for Public Safety Innovation.

While training with the Bureau of Justice Assistance, she recognized the parallels between domestic violence and human trafficking. Her presentation brings these similarities into focus and stresses the need to "identify victims" because "that's the way you make change." Furthermore, Pillsbury hopes to raise public awareness that those being exploited are prey, not criminals. Human trafficking is defined by the use of force, fraud or coercion to manipulate individuals into labor or prostitution. The average age of a trafficking victim is 12 to 13.

When Pillsbury first entered the struggle against human trafficking, few states recognized the practice as criminal. All 50 states have since adopted legislation pertaining to the apprehension and punishment of human traffickers.

Pennsylvania Anti-trafficking bill SB 1227, designed to strengthen the state's current anti-trafficking law, is currently in committee. Pillsbury contributed to the development of this legislation.

However, no law is effective if a crime remains unidentified.

Pillsbury encourages everyone to learn the warning signs and to ask "the right questions." Signals an individual may be controlled by traffickers include the constant presence of a dominating person, failure to speak on one's own behalf, lack of control of personal time and resources, living and working at the same site, extensive indebtedness to one's employer, physical injuries and extreme submissiveness. Traffickers often coach their victims how to respond to questioning. Several workers for the same boss telling the same story are cause for suspicion.

Pillsbury peppers her presentation with anecdotal cases which underscore the severity of the problem.

Recently, a Ukrainian trafficking ring coerced immigrants to perform excessive unpaid labor in the U.S. Concurrently, they extorted money from the members of the workers' families who had remained in Europe. She also said that 95 percent of young women who become prostitutes do so through the use of force, fraud or coercion. And the problem is growing.

Traffickers view others as commodities. The practice is extremely lucrative because, unlike illegal drugs and arms, human beings turn a profit multiple times.

Another ploy traffickers use is to lure women from their home countries to serve as housekeepers and nannies. Lacking language skills and totally dependent on her "sponsors," the imported employee may be enslaved within the family home.

As previously stated, a critical step toward identifying a trafficking victim is to ask the right questions. Determining if a person is free to leave a job, feels threatened and/or lacks the freedom to socialize may clarify the situation. A possible victim should be questioned only when the controlling figure is absent, and the conversation must be held in strictest confidence.

The next step is to call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center at 888-3737-888, report suspicious activity to the FBI or contact Immigration Customs Enforcement.

Pillsbury has become a leader in the battle against human trafficking and her cause is gaining momentum. One and a half years ago, Valley Against Sex Trafficking was founded to provide aid to trafficking victims. Furthermore, seven anti-trafficking coalitions are now active throughout eastern Pennsylvania.

Pillsbury freely donates her time, energy and talent to assist strangers suffering a hideous fate. She admonishes everyone to "look beneath the surface" and to take steps to end human trafficking.