Women’s Hour
THE WOMEN’S HOUR with Patricia Law Sat Noon, Sun 6pm, Wed 5pm
HUMAN TRAFFICKING LOCALLY AND GLOBALLY
DR. MARISA UGARTE
Dr. Ugarte is the Executive Directfor of the Bilateral Safety Coalition (BSCC)
Marisa’s Story
In 1997 a case manager named Marisa Ugarte was working at a program for runaway teens when she came across a young girl who had been prostituted. Soon Marisa, realized through her work that the young girl, like many of the women and children who walked the streets selling their bodies, were not voluntarily “on the job,” but were victims of traffickers and pimps. The women, children, and men were being commercially exploited.
The traffickers and pimps were predators and they were victimizing the vulnerable in order to commodity their bodies and turn a profit. Unlike, drugs that were only good for one hit, labor, or sex with a victim, could be sold and re-sold an infinite number of times to maximize the profit margin.
As Marisa explored the seedy under world of trafficking she linked up with grass-roots organizations in San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico where she learned that trafficking was not a problem limited to specific boundaries or the perimeter of one country but was as all about the movement of persons from one place to another.
Persons where being transported like cattle and against their will. Much like the trafficking and movement of drugs, human trafficking is controlled by international cartels and is a form of organized crime. Similarly, as Americans have high per capita earnings and access to extensive resources and disposable income, the United States is a destination country for many victims. Sadly, trafficking is often seen a problem of the “other” and the demand for illicit sex and cheap labor in the United States is over looked.
So as Marisa continued investigating, she came across rape camps among the reeds and canyons of San Diego, forced labor in the pruned and pristine agricultural fields, and children turned out in Tijuana’s infamous Zona Norte. She knew something must be done and envisioned a “safety corridor.” Then, through a UNICEF conference on human trafficking, Marisa was introduced to coalition building and the advantages of strategically pulling resources to create a continuum of services for victims.
Thus, 1997 was a landmark year. This was the year the coalition was founded and constituted as a 501(c)3 and began to coordinate services and advocate for victims. Today the coalition encompasses over 150 government and non-governmental agencies in the United States and Latin America who are dedicated to combating trafficking and empowering victims so that they may return to families, friends, and daily life.
As for Marisa, she is now executive director of BSCC and continues to be at the forefront of the fight against trafficking by helping other organizations and coalitions grow and build programs to help victims in both the United States and Latin America.
ABOUT THE BILATERAL SAFETY COALITION (BSCC)
Bilateral Safety Coalition (BSCC) has been a pioneer in the fight against human trafficking for the past 19 years and has a strong programmatic footprint in the San Diego County-Tijuana region. BSCC is a non-profit organization—comprised of a network of over 120 government and non-profit agencies in the United States and Latin America (making BSCC a bi-national organization)—that works bilaterally to combat human trafficking along the U.S.-Mexican border region.
Established as a volunteer coalition in 1997, BSCC was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) in 2002. BSCC coordinates access to services through its member organizations, provides training and technical assistance to other organizations and agencies, and works to increase awareness of labor, sex trafficking, and the commercial sexual exploitation of children.
BSCC and the coalition is continuously on top of new trafficking trends (i.e., red flags) and responds to the evolving these trends by strengthening their community partnerships to augment services, actively adapting to the increased needs of clients.
During the past nine years, BSCC has assessed over 10,000 human trafficking victim referrals in San Diego County and provided comprehensive wraparound services (2005-2021) to over 2,500 human trafficking survivors. Of the domestic survivors identified from 2008-2014, 117 were sex trafficking survivors (including five minors).
Since 2005, the 91 international survivors served by BSCC include ten men, 65 women, five juvenile males, and six juvenile females. These individuals took part in BSCC’s unique transitioning model called “Victim to Survivor to Thriver” that ensures positive social and community reintegration for survivors.